Tag Archives: article

Prayer

How to pray effectively like Jesus

glen001-sm By Glen R. Jackman

“And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke 2:47 ESV)

Let the Word of God fill your heart While Jesus walked on earth, He both knew the scriptures well, and He treasured the Word of God in His heart. In the temptation in the wilderness and on every opportunity that presented itself until His death on the cross, He met every situation that arose against Him with the Word of God that filled His heart.

“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11 ESV)

a844

Pray over the promises of God’s Word In Jesus’s prayer life, He taught us two things: first, God’s Word supplies us with material for prayer right in the Bible, encouraging us to expect every solution to come from God’s direction and intervention. Second, it is only by prayer that we can live such a life so that every Word of God can be utilized for overcoming obstacles, temptation, antagonistic situations, and know God’s purpose for our lives day by day and fulfill the Spirit’s influence over our life to glorify God, while serving Jesus Christ.

“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (2 Peter 1:4 NASB)

How can we come to the place where the Word and prayer may each have its undivided right of guidance over us? There is only one answer: our lives must be entirely transformed to live by the same methods that Jesus did — dependency on the Word of God as we pray over the scriptures.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 ESV)

Our schedule must include time for Bible study We must assess our priorities, and assign actual time to learn how to read, study and bring the power of the Word of God into our life. By faith, we read a verse and pray over its application to our life, and our close family’s lives.

We must, by faith in what God will do in us, appropriate the heavenly life of Christ just as He related directly to the Father to find out God’s will for everything He did as He lived here on earth. We can and must have the certain expectation that the Spirit, who filled Jesus with the Word and prayer, and guided Him daily, will also accomplish that work in us.

“You search the Scriptures…it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39 ESV)

Let us understand that God the Holy Spirit is essentially the Spirit of the Word and the Spirit of prayer; He is also the Spirit of the Lord Jesus who is in us to make us truly partakers of His life. If we firmly believe this and set our hearts upon it, then there will come a change in our use of God’s Word and believing prayer such as we could not have thought possible.

Why not begin by asking the Father in prayer “Lord Jesus, by your Holy Spirit, live Your life through me. Fill me with your Word and with prayer. Make me a partaker of Your life — transformed into your likeness as the scripture reads: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 ESV)

Authority of the Bible, Compared Religions, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Uncategorized

Does anyone own the Truth?

glen001-sm By Glen R. Jackman

You may have pondered the thought, asking, “Does anyone own the truth”, and concluded, “no one owns the truth”. Let’s look at this together.

Pilate before Jesus was crucified asked Him, “What is truth”?Jesus had claimed that He not only had the truth, He owned the truth and was actually the embodiment of Truth. During His ministry on earth, embedded in His teaching was the fact that He was the Son of God, the creator of the universe, of man, and thus the master creator of the languages of mathematics, physics, DNA, speech, of every intertwined law we’ve heard of and researched as scientists.

Hence, His ownership of all truths and laws of creation makes Him, both creator and sustainer of every law, including the law of Love – the sustainer of relationships. He combined and centered the statement proclaiming that He was the Truth, with the “Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6 NIV). He is the way to Life, and the truth of why we have our being and can function standing free on the earth, with a thinking mind and conscience. The way is via the map of His intertwining physical laws and the ways of the mind and the heart of love which lead to Life – a fuller joy filled Life, more abundantly lived with confidence. (see John 10:10).

Jesus knows you personally from birth. Moreover, Jesus as the Son of God with the Father know us intimately. Have a look at a few points Jesus articulated on how He knows every one of His people on earth. He came to reveal the love of His heavenly Father to us. Speaking of little children that He was blessing He said, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10 NASB) Children have angles watching over them as military guards on behalf of the Father and the Son.

GP (10)

Jesus knew every disciple before He selected them. When He saw Nathanael coming towards Him, He said, “there is an Israelite without any deceit in Him”. “Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” (John 1:48 ESV)

Jesus like His Father in heaven knows us even prior to our birth. Jesus created this earth as noted by the apostle Paul, whom Jesus chose to articulate His mission on earth. He said: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Col. 1: 15-17 ESV)

The entire bible speaks of God’s intimacy with mankind. King David noted God’s creative powers attributed to His birth: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” (Ps. 139: 13 ESV) He also admitted that God personally knew him, that God is not some abstract unknown being or force or many gods who play handball with our minds [Montaigne], but one who is intimate with His people: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!” and further that He knows every action and thought of our being: “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways”. (Ps. 139: 1-3 ESV)

Jesus knows the time of a man’s death. When Jesus was summoned by Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, he knew that Lazarus would ultimately live: “Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill”. But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:2-4 ESV) In a short while, Lazarus died though Jesus brought him back to life which glorified God.

Jesus knows who have the faith to follow His truth and way. Jesus is actually aware of who will accept the teaching of His death and resurrection as an act which He achieved on behalf of sinful man to redeem him legally from eternal death – in other words, Jesus died in your place as a substitutionary ransom for your life. He died so that you would go to heaven ultimately to be with Him. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 NIV) because “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned”. (Rom. 5:12 NLT)

Jesus does not forget his own children. My mother loved this text and held on to it until the day that she died: “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3 NIV)

The Gospel simply means the Good News to mankind. The Gospel only asks that by faith you accept this and in so doing you accept that Jesus is your creator and sustainer in Life and after your death He will give you eternal life. Knowing the mind of man, and what is in man’s motives and thoughts towards Him, he calls those whose heart will hear the calling via the Spirit: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the ways of his Son” and, “those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30)

By accepting Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the sustainer of your life – of all Life, we are forgiven and the legal term is justified, made right with God by your faith in Jesus. Not a bad deal, I would say if you trust Him by faith as I do and as my mother did. If you have a struggle with faith, pray to Jesus to show you the way to believe. Say “Lord, help my unbelief”.

He is still calling men and women to Himself. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28)

The Final Judgment

Christ versus the Dark Side of Globalization

Human nature will prevail against man’s humanistic drive

Nations seem to be working hard to use the element of surprise in international relations in a competitive manner. What is going on during  ongoing extensive globalization? Divergence trumps convergence of unity. Just watching the power plays of Russia versus the USA, ISIS terrorization of Christians and non-conforming Arabs, Iran versus Israel and China claiming islands in the South China Sea.

Divisional fragmentation, rather than tolerance of differences, is creating a world of fracturing capital, power and ideas. The weaponization of everything: Globalization’s dark side. Reuters

Jesus told of a coming time before His Second Advent when there will be anguish, perplexity of nations, terror, and the world becoming apprehensive of their future: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:25-28 NIV)

227

The infrastructure of the societal enabler of globalization — finance, technology, energy, law, education, science, trade and travel — have all been turned into weapons in a new form of warfare in this so-called humanitarian ideal — the global village. These forces are being morphed into divisive weapons against the unification of peoples. Collectively mankind has gone crazy.

The minds of fallen mankind are as Jeremiah put it “deceitful” beyond comprehension, while trying to join their many cultures, religions, political contingencies, ideologies whilst jockeying for power with intrigue. The inner deceits of mankind ramped up to a political, nationalistic, politically dogmatic pitch, now to the highest frenzy where motives are masked and hidden, where transparency of brotherhood cannot prevail. Globalization is the foundation of a collective humanity which is in fact, delusional: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer. 17:9 NIV)

Here is the proof that we’re in trouble:
1. Technology has brought cyber-hacking warfare. Personal data of roughly 22.1 million government employees, as well as their families and friends, has been exposed in the USA as well as top corporate secrets, and financial theft is rampant, from use of your credit card, your desktop computer or mobile phone.
2. Finance has been infiltrated by thieves through global payment systems, stock market brokerage trading houses using rapid flash trading, and national manipulation of currencies for ascendancy in commerce.
3. The Internet has been weaponized for a) marketing the wealthiest companies who pay Google for rankings, while the smaller businesses get pushed down the pike and metaphorically kicked off the village streets, b) pornography is now being offered freely Googled into the computers, served up to unprotected children and adolescents at an unprecedented rate. Surveys indicate that “14% of 9- to 16-year-olds had seen porn during the previous year…and that survey also predated smartphones and iPads, which have made porn much easier to access, with the explosive increase in free material”.  The Economist | Pornography (1)
4. Religion has been mobilized by political church leaders espousing how to fix the world behind a historic facade of political global power that began pre-Reformation after Christ and the apostles, with little mention of the salvation of souls or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to unify men in love.
5. Trade and has rigged through trade agreements that make it easy to source cheap labour and products globally while jobs are killed off by the millions at home.
6. Law has been weaponized through the empowerment of top justices to remake the laws of the land, who bow to the proud claims of group minority rights such as same-sex marriage.
7. Energy has been weaponized through pipeline alliances and the use of oil production as strategic tools such as fracking, and atrocities such as corporations being given huge tax breaks and free land where they have been ripping huge holes in Northern Alberta’s oil sands and polluting the environment for years.
8. Mining has been plundered by wealthy corporations, who came, saw, and conquered virgin lands — corporations rape natural resources, deforesting huge acreages, then leave gaping polluted craters worldwide such as surrounding the Sudbury, Ontario nickel mining region.
9. Regurgitated media without a moral compass abounds. Social communication and networking has been bastardized, with a barrage of dumbed-down superficial quotes and media in FaceBook to the degree you cannot find your children on FB without scrolling 3 yards down, while tempted to “like” what annoys the intellectual mind, to businesses networking vicariously online using LinkedIn — a game of social roulette — rather than just picking up the phone.
10. Privacy has been destroyed, as government airplanes (in the USA as revealed by Edward Snowden) hover over cities monitoring mobile chats and texts by creating government cell towers in transit, while the largest mobile companies offer up all communication paths for security’s sake —  Big Brother is — watching —  listening.

The scriptures indicate that two-thirds of the world will not repent prior to the Lord’s return in the clouds with power and great glory: “By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed….” whereas “the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues… did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts”. (Rev. 9:18, 20 ESV) The evils noted are, murder, sorceries (witchcraft, tarot cards, fortune telling, mediums etc.) and sexual immorality (pornography, adultery, rape, homosexuality, lesbianism), and theft (on a global scale).

It also depicts a time when commerce will be blocked by a Big Brother force of evil control over world markets: “no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name”. (Rev. 3:17 NIV)

The velocity and impact of weaponizing today’s tools of global integration create an age of unprecedented interdependence with anyone anytime. It makes the oppressed youth rise up as they did in the Arab Spring, and assists collaborations with “entitled” refugees, most of whom are young men. We see an asymmetry of power. Strengths are becoming weaknesses and weaknesses strengths. For example, dependency on the Internet allows rogue cyberattacks. Wealthy and powerful institutions of immense power now can be brought low by rogue hackers thousands of miles away.

The vulnerability of everyone’s retirement assets everywhere may be at risk. Not only are fewer pension funds for retirement except in the fields of health care, education, and government. Stock exchanges can be distorted by trading glitches and sudden unexplained activity spikes. Investors can no longer have full confidence in the sources or uses of their capital. When elite global brokerages use trading software compete with the individual day trader via the sophisticated algorithms of flash trading a critical foundation of trade and commerce is rendered impotent.

Tomorrow, climate, space, genomics and pharmacy may be weaponized against us. The weaponization of everything: Globalization’s dark side. Reuters

Think of globalization as the new Trojan horse for the greatest enemies of peace that Satan is deploying.

On the religious side of globalization

Many are far more interested in enlarging their business horizons or securing personal wealth, than spreading the gospel which is a command of Jesus Christ for Christians.

Islam is on a rapid march as they take hold of globalization for the purpose of worldwide mass indoctrination. It is estimated that due to Islam’s population rising while other adults have fewer children, they will be the major population demographic in the world. Most of the world does not know about the only way to salvation as informed by the apostles: “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 NLT)

 

New Covenant

The New Covenant: Claiming God’s promises

glen001-sm by Glen R. Jackman

In the book of Hebrews, we see that Jesus Christ is our mediator before the Father  — our go-to representative. It is important that we see that when He died on the cross He instituted the New Covenant as the Word of God makes it clear. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:24)

Further, we see the connection in the book of Hebrews:

“But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6 NIV).

Here we see that the New Covenant instituted on the cross by Christ is superior to the previous Old Covenant given to the Jews which they understood as “salvation by works”. The New Covenant is based on Christ’s dying for our sins on the cross in our place – dying the death which was ours to bear – which offers forgiveness of our sins for all who accept His sacrifice.

Some might say, “Hmm, I’m not that bad. Buddy is worse than me. I do good things. God isn’t going to judge anyone!” Yet the Bibles states that “death has passed unto all men” (Romans 5:12 NIV) and makes it clear that “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 ESV)

By putting our faith in Him and claiming the promises of God such as “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21 NIV), we are forgiven. The Jews thought they could be and do everything the law required of them, on their own steam, yet failed because they did not have a new heart. They were not born again of the Holy Spirit.

Looking at the establishment of these “better promises” we can locate the promised blessedness of the New Covenant that is offered to us. The new covenant was mentioned in Ezekiel: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:25-27 ESV)

Our Father in Heaven is a father over His kingdom of all who follow Him by accepting His Son, Jesus Christ as Lord. He desires that we live in harmony within His family, and respect each other based on love and justice – right living. Such principles lead to a happy and fulfilled life.

shutterstock_15990961

The apostle Paul wrote similar recognition of the importance of the New Covenant work of the Holy Spirit within our minds: “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4 ESV) “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14 ESV) Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5 ESV)

The Lord’s work is accomplished by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The New Covenant promised a cleansing of our impure way of living, which is accomplished by receiving a new heart and mind that appreciates God’s laws which are based on love. The promise is offered and God always accomplishes His promises. Yet he makes it clear that we must collaborate with him and claim the promises as our own as we ask him to achieve them. He said “I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it” and “This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them” (verse 36-37) In this context, God also made promises to restore Israel in their land and bless them in many physical ways, not just spiritually. In keeping with this, Jesus taught that we need not worry about our physical needs such as food or clothing or shelter if we seek God first: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33) And the Bible teaches that seeking God, means praying to Him: “I sought the Lord. I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night” (Psalm 77:2)

The fulfillment of the great promises of the New Covenant depends on prayer. In answer to the prayer of Jeremiah, God had said: “I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me…” (Jeremiah 32:40). And to Ezekiel He had spoken: “I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command” (Ezekiel 36:27).

Often in our unbelief we do not expect these promises to be truly fulfilled. We do not have the faith in the mighty power of God that He is waiting to make His promise true in our individual experience. God has said that without such faith our experience will only be partial and limited. However, He has graciously showed us the way in which such faith can be found. It is as we call out to him in prayer!

“Ask me and I will tell you some remarkable secrets about what is going to happen here” (Jeremiah 33:3).

When individual men and women prayerfully turn to God with their whole hearts the Lord is pleased to fulfill His promises to renew the heart and mind by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. We need to pray that the power of the Holy Spirit may be deeply known and that our faith may be strengthened to claim and to expect His power to overcome sin in our lives.

New Covenant

New Covenant: Mindfulness led by the the Holy Spirit

By  glen001-sm Glen Jackman

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules”. (Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV)

The above passage in Ezekiel is often compared to Jeremiah’s “new covenant” text “…this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33 ESV)

God’s intent of the New Covenant prophesied was to magnify His glory

In context, the fundamental reason given for God’s acting on Israel’s behalf was to uphold the sanctity, greatness, and glory of His name and reputation: “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name” (verse 22)

shutterstock_61205419

The next verse indicates that the outcome of giving men and women a new heart and placing His Spirit within them, was that others would recognize that we are indeed children of God the father: “And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes” (verse 23)

To vindicate the holiness of God’s great name means to “hallow his great name” as Jesus taught (see Matthew 6:9) and is contrasted to “profaning his name” which many do, simply by ignoring Him — by treating God as if He does not exist, never worshipping Him nor speaking of Him, and so treating Him as not holy.

Jesus taught that His sacrifice on the cross would usher in the New Covenant. Just prior to the the Lord facing His arrest, and movements leading up to His crucifixion, during the last Passover meal with the disciples, “He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood”. (Luke 22:2 NASB) Here we see an echo of Jeremiah’s prophecy that a new covenant was coming unlike the one given to the fathers of Israel: “the covenant that I will make…after those days” (Jeremiah 31: 33)

Our response to Christ’s death on the cross is to respectfully obey

We see that the cross has affected the hearts of millions of people in all countries for many generations. The influence of the love of Jesus was to engage the affection of our hearts with our minds, to accept His work of redemption on the cross, accept and follow Him, and allow the laws of God to be written on our hearts.

The Father, whose name (which is Yahweh as told to Moses) was to be vindicated after the new covenant would be introduced (see v 36:22). God was certainly vindicated in the death of Christ when he shows both His holiness and justice in punishing sins, and His mercy in saving the sinner (see Romans 3:23–26).

Jesus’ words in John 3:5 resonate with Ezekiel’s text, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules”. (Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV)

Jesus said “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”. Note the mention of “I will put my Spirit within you” in verse 36:27 of Ezekiel’s prophecy referring to inward, spiritual cleansing. “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules”. The cause of our desire to obey is the indwelling Holy Spirit of God who calls the Spirit “my Spirit”, the same Spirit Jesus said you must have to be born again!

Further study indicates that inner cleansing of the heart and mind from sins is accomplished in Christ (see Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:23–28). God’s initiative moves from external in the old covenant to internal with the gift of a new heart and new spirit in the new covenant (Ezekiel 36:26–27; see 11:19; cf. 18:31). This indicated that any outer purification via the old Jewish rituals will be no use without the inner disposition to live rightly before God (36:27). Comparing the old covenant, the writer of Hebrews noted: “According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9 ESV)

The connection of “water” (v. 25) and “Spirit” (v. 27) lies behind the words of Christ spoken to Nicodemus in John 3:5. “I will put my Spirit within you” predicts an effective inward work of God in the “new covenant.”

The promise of the Holy Spirit in Ezekiel 36:27 was fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–21) and in the giving of the Spirit to those who believe in Christ:

“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:9 NASB)

Jesus made a great emphasis on the inner work of the Holy Spirit as He taught His disciples. He taught them that it was to their advantage that He go away. This is because while Jesus was on earth he could be in only one place at a time, but the Holy Spirit would carry on Jesus’ ministry over the entire world at all times. In addition, in God’s sovereign plan for the unfolding of history, when introducing the New Covenant, it was only to become operative when the Holy Spirit would come in new covenant power and fullness when Jesus returned to heaven (see John 7:39; 14:16–17; 15:26).

Jesus told the disciples that the Spirit would guide them, as He discloses Himself to them. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:13–15 NASB)

The Spirit’s ministry of guiding Jesus’ followers into all the truth was a promise especially directed toward His 11 disciples, and was fulfilled in the subsequent work of these disciples in personally writing or overseeing the writing of the books of the New Testament. A broader application to all believers is noted as the Holy Spirit does lead and guide all believers (see Rom. 8:14; Gal. 5:18).

The apostles agree with Ezekiel and Jesus on the New Covenant

Referring to Ezekiel 31:32, the New testament writer of Hebrews indicates that the new covenant is not a continuation of, or side-bar add-on to the old covenant but puts an absolute end to it: “not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.” (Hebrews 8:9 ESV) And those who would entwine the old and the new covenant obviously need to study this carefully. Look for these truths clearly stated, 1) Christ mediates an entirely new covenant that is better; 2) it is enacted on better promises; 3) God found fault with the first covenant given to the Jews due to their disobedience; 4) there was coming a day in the future – not during Ezekiel’s lifetime, when God promised to establish His new covenant; and 4) it will not resemble the old covenant made at Mount Sinai with Moses on behalf of the Jews after the Exodus.

“But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. (Hebrews 8:6-9 ESV)

As in Jeremiah, God again outlines His new covenant in Ezekiel: “And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.” In contrast with the old covenant in which there was no power to keep God’s law, the new covenant promises a divine power which enables us to keep His laws. Obeying God’s law is now possible because He has cleansed our hearts from sin and, by His Spirit, has given us new hearts.

This is exactly what Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15 ESV). It’s also what Jesus again stated through John in the book of Revelation: “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.” (Revelation 14:12 ESV)

And the apostle Paul wrote similar recognition of the importance of the New Covenant work of the Holy Spirit within our minds: “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:4 ESV) “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:14 ESV)

Let us pray, “Heavenly Father, You have made Your great promises dependent on my faith. May Your cleansing work in my heart make it possible for me to obey Your spiritual laws by the power of your indwelling Holy Spirit, which reflect your love to mankind”.

Let’s accept the truth of the new covenant as the Word of God makes if clear.

“But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6 NIV).

New Covenant

The New covenant in Jeremiah

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,…and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31;31,33 ESV)

shutterstock_71921521

When God made the first covenant with Israel at Sinai, he said, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;” (Exodus:19:5 ESV)

But Israel did not have the power to obey. Because the entire human race had fallen in Eden, mankind’s whole nature was incapable of obeying any set of rules, let alone the 10 commandments of a holy God without the Holy Spirit empowering them to “keep” and “obey” the agreement in the Spirit. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV)

Only if we are led by the Spirit of God by faith in the grace that Jesus has provided for sinful man, are we are gladly motivated by two primary divine measures of law: love and justice. When these two principles are missed or side-stepped as the modus operandi of man’s relationship to God and to man – if these are unheeded, relationships suffer and we will pay the dire consequences of the written law, which is the judicial representation of love and justice brought to bear in a life when love to God and man (and thereby justice) is unheeded.

The first covenant/agreement was to keep all the laws of God prescribed to Moses on Mt. Sinai. It offered no provision for the grace that could make mankind obedient. Why? Because Jesus had not yet entered the scene of earth’s history to redeem us from sin and our fallen nature.

Before Christ, the law only served to show mankind (the Jewish race first via the old covenant) their sin, a teacher or a tutor to lead them by experience, as they sought to obey on their own steam and by their own methods – it taught them to be ready to realize their need of Christ’s new Spirit-led covenant based on loving God first and your neighbour second, which fulfils the two divine metrics of love and justice in God’s universe.

Men argue about the evolution of the earth, its age, and the many scientific theories related to carbon dating matter – rocks, skeletons, dinosaurs etc.. However, man’s greatest evolution is that God’s Spirit has been teaching mankind a progressive revelation as he works to redeem us as sons and daughters – to bring fallen mankind back to Himself from our ruin, Man has become wrapped up in self importance – mentally unbalanced because the conscience is not led by the Spirit. He wants to return us relationally to an Edenic status of living in the Spirit led and motivated by love and concomitant justice.

In our text God promised to make a new covenant in which He would enable men to live a life of obedience:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant…” (Jeremiah 31:31 ESV)

The Spirit of God must lead our desires

In this new covenant, the law was to be put in their mind and written on the heart, not with the ink of inscribed letters, but with the Spirit of the living God. As Jeremiah puts it in context, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me.” (Jeremiah 32:40 NLT)

The operative of the new covenant would be the inner urging of the Spirit of God motivating values-based directives: “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left”. (Isaiah 30:21 ESV)

There were certain men who walked closely with God and evidence tells us that they understood the need to walk as Spirit-led men. King David of antiquity understood this. He said “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40:8 ESV) This is why God called him “a man after his own heart”. (1 Samuel 13:14 ESV) When David was anointed King over Israel God said through Samuel: “I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him” (Psalms 89:20 ESV)

Further after David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he prayed a prayer to the Lord that made it clear that his prior obedience was due to waking in accord with the indwelling Spirit. This is important because David also confessed in the same prayer, that he was part of the fallen race: “I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalms 51:5 ESV) The following verses indicate that David was a man after God’s own heart when he was walking led by the Holy Spirit prior to his great moral fall.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right[a] spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” (Psalms 51:10-15 ESV)

These prophetic texts must be viewed as operative new covenant promises

These promises ensure a continual, wholehearted obedience – the mark of the true believer who takes God at His Word and fully claims what these promises secure. We need to bow in deep adoration and quiet calm before God and believe what He says. Then all of His moral law, motivated by what it is based on love and justice, will bring us delight. The moral law will take possession of our inner life with all its power within our minds and become an advanced philosophic way of living anew. This is why Jesus said when he offered the wine to His disciples during the Last Supper at Passover: “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin.” (Matthew 26:28 ESV)

The cross was to bring about a revolutionary new way of thinking about love versus legalistic living law in relation to God and man The cross of Jesus Christ was meant to display love and justice to the very end in contradistinction to bare rules. Man could realize just how far they had slipped into a critical mass – into a collective consciousness bound to disobedient hatred, and murderous selfishness both intellectually and morally. Man had collaborated to kill their own God! Yes God. The apostle Paul noted the absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ as God, collaborate tri-unified in mind with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16 ESV)

shutterstock_98508599

Jesus knew that the disciples would need the Holy Spirit to help them understand the depth of the new covenant. He told them prior to his ascension, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. “All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16: 12-15 ESV)

The new covenant glorifies Christ in life’s application of the promises

“He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” He is glorified when we demonstrate our trust and obedience, by faith living out the covenant in love as we apply the promises of the God in our real life circumstances. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14 NAS)

Forgiveness Frees Us To Love, Jesus in Life, Uncategorized

Christ is our High Priest of the New Covenant

The Jews had revelations given to them from God through the old prophets including Moses during the Exodus from Egypt. Many years later Jesus Christ came to earth through His incarnation teaching a new and expanded message of salvation.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV)

A new perspective on our relationship with God

Indicating the relationship of Jesus to the heavenly Father, we note from the above verse:

1. God now spoke to His people directly by his Son.
2. God appointed Jesus Christ heir of all things.
3. God created the world, including His people through Christ “whom also he created the world” (vs. 2).
4. Christ “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature”—I want to emphasize exact imprint of the mind, character, power and being of His Father.
5. Christ “upholds the universe by the word of his power”—sustains the entire universe by the command of his power.

Christ’s all-encompassing, and all-commanding power was and remains the same because he is God, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Christ’s participation in the godhead was validated by His miracles to heal, raise the dead and calm the seas. He is far greater than the prophets of old.

Jehovah Witnesses and Muslims claim Jesus was only a prophet and a man, not conceding to the fact that he is God. The portrayal of Christ in Hebrews adds to the facts regarding the deity of Christ and compares with the letter of Paul to the Colossians:

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven”. (Colossians 1:15-20 NIV)

We also see this in the Gospel of John, the first chapter:

“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made”. (John 1: 2-3 ESV)

When we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is God we can understand why Jesus has the authority to be our mediator on earth, between mankind and His Father, demonstrated when he created all mankind by directing His power over the universe.

The High Priestly Ministry of Christ

Since the fall of man in the garden of Eden, “death has passed unto all men” because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) Man is disconnected from God and needed our Lord Jesus Christ to show us the way to return to Him.

The entire work of Christ is to mediate our reunification to his Father. He achieves this as our High Priest, seated in the place of highest honour in heaven, at God’s right hand. God gave Jesus the seat of universal authority when He said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (vs.13)

This place at God’s right hand belonged to Christ because he was more than just a high priest; he is God’s Son. Until Christ the Jewish priestly ministry advocated with God on behalf sinful man—it was only a representation or shadow of what was to come in Christ. Until Christ arrived on the scene it was only to “serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (vs. 8:5). Christ’s ministry is the reality which the shadow-type pointed to.

The ceremonies of sacrificing animals to atone for man’s sin was only a dim illustration of what was coming—only theological symbols of the final great significance of Christ’s work to redeem man as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” as the apostle John pointed out.

Christ, as our High Priest, in lieu of the animal-type offering, made the real and effective sin-offering. He offered his own life to God in our place—the perfect gift that could never be surpassed. “He sacrificed Himself on the cross” (Hebrews 7:27 ESV).

Christ’s sacrifice is all-sufficient; that is, all sins are covered in his once-for-all offering to God. Therefore, his role as priest, his sacrifice, and his service to God all surpass the symbolic plan under the old covenant. The book of Hebrews does not try to describe heaven; instead, it shows how Christ serves in a better, more personal way than any other priest could.

The emphasis on the shadow ministry of the old covenant Jewish practices in the temple are clearly noted as being replaced entirely by the ministry of Christ as our High Priest: “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (vss. 8:6-7)

Jesus’ ministry emphasized a shift from an old covenant methodology of getting right with God using tradition and symbolism, to an entirely new new covenant (agreement with God) which is superior for several reasons.

What the New Covenant (NC) achieved to supersede the old:

• fulfills, ends, and replaces the priest’s’ ministry and the old covenant;
• Christ’s ministry lasts for eternity, because Jesus is High Priest forever;
• Jesus dies on the cross, and thus the NC requires no further sacrifices;
• Jesus accomplished what all the other sacrifices could not do—it truly atones for our sin;
• The death of Christ provided a substitute death taking the place for our eternal death, ransomed humanity giving us the opportunity to have a personal relationship with God (see vss. 8:10–11).

The old covenant was an imperfect shadow in the progression leading to the reality found in Christ: “if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (vs. 8:7) The need for a second covenant implies that the first covenant was faulty. Does this mean that God ordered Moses and Aaron (head of the Levitical High Priesthood) to begin a way of worship that was mistaken or poorly contracted? No, but the old covenant was in every way preparatory for and pointing to the dynamic of the new covenant (see 7:11–19; also Romans 3–4; 9–11).

The new covenant was prophesied long before Christ’s introduction of the New Covenant as coming to replace the old covenant. The following is a quote from the prophet Jeremiah:

“For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt” (Hebrews 8:8-9 ESV; cited from Jeremiah 31:31)

Since the people continually broke God’s covenant, God found fault with the old covenant. A part of the covenant involved keeping God’s laws; however, the Israelites chose to disobey (see Jeremiah 7:23–24). When they failed to keep the requirements imposed on them, they broke the covenant. God, however, promised a new covenant that would not be filled with ceremonial laws about sacrifices and other external responsibilities. Rather, it would bring about spiritual reconciliation by producing a change in people’s inner beings by being born again of God’s Holy Spirit.

The old covenant was replaced because it was not eternal, not sufficient to completely deal with sin, and could not provide sinful humanity with a relationship with God. In its time, however, the old covenant was necessary which would lead us to Christ—teaching man that he cannot be saved by trying to be good, but by allowing the Spirit of Christ to dwell within the heart.

Why the new covenant replaced the new covenant?

The old covenant needed to be replaced by a better covenant, as was prophesied by Jeremiah and quoted in the following verses. Hebrews 8:10–12 quotes Jeremiah 31:31–34, which is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Jeremiah prophesied about a future time when a better covenant would be established, because the first covenant, given to Moses at Mount Sinai, was imperfect and provisional for its time.

The Israelites could not maintain faithfulness to it because their hearts had not been truly changed. This change of heart required Jesus’ full sacrifice to remove sin and offer us the Holy Spirit’s permanent indwelling. When we turn our lives over to Christ, the Holy Spirit instils in us a desire to obey God in a personal relationship with him, and this is accomplished under the new covenant/agreement. Jeremiah prophesied of the coming change in the covenants—the new to replace the old.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbour and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more”. (Hebrews 8:10-12 ESV; cited from Jeremiah 31:32-34)

The new covenant made the old covenant entirely obsolete.

When Christ died on the cross the curtain between the Most Holy places was ripped in two during an earthquake indicating the end of the old temple’s sacrificial services: “…behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split” (Matthew 27:51 ESV)

“In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13 ESV) The old one was fulfilled by Christ and completed by him; therefore, it was no longer needed. Old systems, old sacrifices, and the old priesthood now have no value in securing God’s approval.

Under God’s new covenant, God’s law is inside us. The 10 commandment laws are expanded by Christ in the new covenant. The Spirit of the expanded law encompasses and admits that all these ten moral laws were “holy just and good” (Romans 7: 12 KJV) The sacrificial ceremonial laws were changed, not the moral law of God which is His standard. Most great theologians such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Owens, and John Wesley have agreed with this theological premise.

For example, most agree, that Christ’ teaching that “to look at a woman to lust for her”, is the initiating intention to break the law “do not commit adultery” in your heart, which is where the new covenant is directed by the Spirit.

GP (10)

It is no longer an external set of rules and principles. The Holy Spirit reminds us of Christ’s words, activates our consciences, influences our motives and desires, and makes us want to obey. Now we desire to do God’s will with all our heart and mind.

The new covenant has four provisions as noted in Hebrews 8: 10-12:

1. The new covenant provides inward change: “I will put my laws in their minds … I will write them on their hearts.” This means having a new “heart,” and with it a new sense of intimacy with God where he is known as Father and where Christians are known as children of God and heirs. This new heart opens the way for people’s relationship with God to be realized at a personal level (not just through earthly priests as intermediaries). Having these laws written on our hearts motivates us to want to obey God.

2. The new covenant provides intimacy with God: “I will be their God, and they will be my people.” This reveals a positive, close relationship between God and his people. In the first covenant, people continually failed to live up to this relationship. In the new covenant, this relationship is secured through Jesus Christ. Although the promise was always there, it now has a newer and richer meaning because of the provision of Christ offering us forgiveness and redemption from sin and the hope of eternal life (versus eternal death).

3. The new covenant provides knowledge of God: “Everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me.” The new covenant brings a new relationship between people and God, making each believer a priest (1 Peter 2:5, 9). Every believer has access to God through prayer. Every believer can understand God’s saving promises as revealed in the Bible because he or she has God as a living presence via the Holy Spirit in his or her heart. There will still be the need for teachers, but every believer will be able to know God—not just priests or a select few.

4. The new covenant provides complete forgiveness from sins: “I will forgive their wrongdoings, and I will never again remember their sins.” People of the old covenant had forgiveness of sins (see Exodus 34:6–8; Micah 7:18–20), but they had experienced an incomplete, not lasting forgiveness as demonstrated by the ongoing need for daily and annual sacrifices for sins to be made for their sins. In the new covenant, sin and its effect of separating people from God are eliminated. God wipes out the memory of sin and reckons sin as if it had never occurred. Sin’s impact on our lives is completely overcome, making it possible for believers to receive the promised blessing. There is no longer any barrier to our relationship with God.

Only relationship-based motives of faith and love towards God through Jesus Christ brings about a true righteousness that could not be known under the old covenant. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NIV)

Understanding the shift from the old to the new covenant is a vital truth misunderstood by many well-meaning Christians. It emphasizes a shift from salvation by works, to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ provided by His sacrifice for our sins, replacing the old shadow animal sacrifices, symbolic of the true and sufficient sacrifice “once and for all” achieved in Christ. He ministers to us via the Holy Spirit with an emphasis on living by faith.

Be assured beloved that “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever” (Hebrews 6:19-20 ESV)

Second Coming of Jesus in Glory

What event brings about the resurrection of the dead?

glen001-sm  By Glen R. Jackman

Study:1 Thessalonians 4 on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ

The Apostle Paul like Jesus before him always taught people about the future—that salvation carried a promise of eternal life. Jesus can offer us the power to overcome death, because “all things were created by Him and for Him and through Him” (see Colossians 1)

Resurrection

Jesus Christ who died, arose, and ascended would one day return. This will be what is referred to as his “Second Coming” or “Second Advent” (1 Thessalonians 2:19). The early believers knew that this could occur at any time unannounced, though Jesus cautioned us not to place a date on this event. Let’s address several questions regarding the resurrection of believers and the Second Coming.

Early Christians in Thessalonica, Greece – believers in Jesus Christ – questioned Apostle Paul regarding the Christians who had died. The believers had been taught that Christ would one day return and take his people to himself—every believer should be ready for that return at any moment.

In the interim as the believers awaited Christ’s return, some of them had died. The Thessalonians were wondering why this had happened before Christ’s return, and what would happen to those who had died before he came back. Some may have feared that believers who had died would miss the Kingdom.

The thought that their loved ones would not be with Christ caused them great sorrow. Paul comforted them: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonian 4:13 NIV)

Paul wanted the Thessalonians to understand that death is not the end. When Christ returns, all believers—dead and alive—will be reunited, never to suffer or die again. Believers need not be full of sorrow like people who have no hope. Paul recognized that the death of loved ones naturally results in grieving; but when Christians grieve for Christians who have died, there is a difference. Their grief is not hopeless. While the pain is real, the fact is that these loved ones will be seen again as the following verse describes. “For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (2 Thessalonians 4:14 NIV)

Believers can have hope in the resurrection because of what happened to Jesus. Because Jesus died and was raised to life again, believers can also trust that those who have died will also be resurrected and made alive agin with Him. And exactly at the same time, when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died.

Believers who have died are with God and will come with Jesus at the event of his second return to earth. They haven’t missed out—in fact, they are enjoying God’s protection and immortality because as believers in Christ they have entered eternal life with Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 5:8 and Philippians 1:21–22 for this assurance).

Here is a key verse about all Christians being united together to meet the Lord upon His return, as they claim absolute victory over death:

“According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16 NIV)

All Christian believers can be assured that neither the dead nor the living would be at any disadvantage with regard to Christ’s return. All believers will share the blessings of the resurrection. Those who have died are already with Christ and will be with him when he returns: “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (4:14); those who are still living when Christ returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves.

Instead, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves first. Knowing exactly when the dead will be raised, in relation to the other events at the Second Coming, is not as important as knowing why Paul wrote these words. He wrote them to challenge and motivate believers to comfort and encourage one another when loved ones die – a great comfort when any believer dies.

The same love that unites believers in this life (4:9) will unite them when Christ returns and reigns for eternity” “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.(2 Thessalonians 4:17-18 NIV)

The Second Coming will occur in God’s timing. He alone brings it about. Christ, who is the Lord himself, will descend from heaven, for that is where he has been since after his resurrection (Acts 1:9–11). Christ’s return will be unmistakable. No one will miss it, for he will descend with a shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. Whether these are three different ways of referring to one sound, whether they happen simultaneously, or happen in sequence is unknown. But these sounds will herald his return.

Paul used distinctive imagery associated with the end times. An archangel is a high or holy angel appointed to a special task. Clearly, the angelic hosts will be taking part in this celebration of Christ’s return to take his people home (Mark 8:38). A trumpet blast will usher in the new heaven and earth (Revelation 11:15). The Jews would understand the significance of this because trumpets were always blown to signal the start of great festivals and other extraordinary events (Numbers 10:10).

After the dead have risen from their graves, the believers “who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”. A reference to “clouds” in the Bible often symbolizes the presence of God (Exodus 13:21; 14:19; 19:16; 24:15; 40:34–38; Mark 9:7; Acts 1:9).

Jesus also indicated that His Second Coming would have a majestic visible sign – atomic-like light will encompass the earth as He returns in glory: “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:27 ESV)

Christ’s purpose is to execute judgement and command His angels to separate His believers – those that are saved – and take only His faithful. Are you ready for this apocalyptic event to occur? “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other”. (Matthew 24:30-31 ESV)

You can be ready. Simply confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (see Colossians 1 to see Him as your Creator and Life-giver). Jesus admonishes all mankind to “…stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming”; and “…you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”. (Matthew 24:42,44)

Clearly, all believers—whether they are alive or have died at the time of Christ’s return—will be together with one another and with the Lord forever. This supernatural event will cause a great reunion among believers who are alive and those who have already died. Both groups will experience Christ’s return together. This joyous reunion will go on forever.

Love & Grace, Uncategorized

Let Your Love Light Shine!

The Manifesto of God’s Love for You: Part 2

by glen001-sm Glen R. Jackman

In the Greco-Roman world, only the wealthy could afford the luxury of having a facial mask sculptured. Today we use photographs or paintings, as well as sculptures which are usually of famous men like Churchill or Lincoln. The following mask was unearthed from an ancient ruin site in Greece. Deterioration due to its age has made it appear to have tears running profusely from its eyes. When I see this photo it reminds me of the misunderstanding of God’s love for those he came to redeem  – a visual allegory for the dysfunction of love in our world. We do selfies galore to boost our self-worth or to fit in with society, but inside we may feel a degree of disconnect from others. We can feel unloved, like an outcast or lack mutual trust.

Face Mask, Ruins, Greece, 2002, by Glen R. Jackman

Photo by Glen R. Jackman

Jesus foretold our day in which we live: “Sin [missing the mark of love] will be rampant everywhere and the love of many will grow cold”. (Matt 24:12) The apostle Paul said the same thing, with an emphasis on the powers of love becoming self-directed; not firstly God directed, and further not properly expressed to others: “For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred”. (2 Timothy 3:2) Many people today are breaking the two laws of love, considering “nothing sacred” while “scoffing at God” and loving “only themselves and their money”. Do you see this in our current society?

Jesus spoke of the two laws as all encompassing to live by:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27; cf. Deut 6:5, Lev 19:18 ESV)

Our hearts often deceive us and create thoughts and emotions that are destructive and against the second law of love, to truly love others. A man spoke up  “desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (vs. 29) When Jesus spoke of the heart, he meant the mind. He knew our problem was a universal issue that most people struggle with at some point in their lives. We do not, and we cannot change our way of thinking, when we continue to disobey the commands to love both God and others.

Why does loving God become a determining factor?

If we side-step loving God with an attempt to love others without His influence, this will fail, because we cannot appropriate the blessings of love without abiding by the first principle addressed by Jesus Christ in our life, to love God. Love is empowered by the Spirit of God, when God is reciprocally loved in return for His love. In fact God, who “is Love”, manifests His uniting love, when two or more people, who love God meet or converse: “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them”. (Matthew 18:20 NIV) Moreover God’s love is reliable and inseparable from loving others: “…we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him”. (1 John 4:16 NIV)

This is often seen when one or more individuals’ unity appears to cool off and drift. A man cannot fully comprehend love without understanding the motivation of God’s love from His source purpose to bless the families He created and to have generations taught to love and serve Him first: “But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children’s children” (Psalms 103:17) The acknowledgement of God’s love in the widening circles of the family can be noted in many scriptures such as: “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord” (Ps 102:18)

Without understanding the two principles of love as Jesus taught, the Agape love of God uniting the family in a generation-to-generation continuum via the powers of love, unity begins to break down in either the first or a successive generation. Consciences are then weakened, love fades, division occurs, and mankind begins to prey on one another’s weaknesses magnifying our selfish fallen nature in our society. Jesus taught: “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand”. (Mark 3:25)

Our best human analogy of the characteristics of love permeating interrelating minds together is in a sharing relationship of two loving individuals sharing mutual dependence upon one another as found in the case of a genuine marriage. Here a man and a woman become “one flesh”; that is, live according to a common life pattern of loving God and each other. There is no more creative human relationship either physically or spiritually. The outcome of this affects the children and our grandchildren. Likewise, for the Christian individual the new life in Christ is unexcelled in bringing meaning and hope to life lovingly with others – family and friends alike.

shutterstock_17813797 (resize to mid size)

Clarifying the term “sin”

Because all true law is based on Agape love, when we misperceive this love, we will misunderstand that all God’s moral laws are intended to support His Spirit’s empowerment of love for the good of man. Breaking any one of God’s laws premised on God’s true love, is referred to as “sin”: “Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God”. (1 John 3:4) Another way of putting it is “sin is breaking the principles of true love (Agape)”. The end result of this misconception of love is that sin is man living from the center of his selfish heart, which is the opposite of living by the Spirit directing a man in the path of God’s motive of true love.

Why has man become so selfish?

Bear in mind, that Jesus came to teach us why we were and still remain in a mess. Today with many temptations at every turn, the mind’s judgments may not be based on the protective Spirit managing Agape love from within. The mind is easily distracted and wanders off in any one of the mind-sets and behaviors that destroy love, ways that Jesus pointed out. The primary mistake man makes is the misuse of his free will when he begins to follow his lust versus the guidance of God: “For from within, out of a person’s mind, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness”. (Mark 7:21)

How do we limit our selfishness?

God promised to abide “within” our hearts/minds but Jesus noted it is the mind “within” that actually creates these thoughts, precursors to behaviors. So what is our society’s main problem? The majority of people no longer acknowledge, listen to, or have the Spirit of God abiding in them. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” (1 Cor 6:19) Many have entirely ignored, or defiantly shut the Spirit of God out of their lives, as they freely choose to walk separate from God. Mankind has developed many philosophies, physiological reasons, academic replacement theories, 1,000 religions, ideologies, idolization, corruptions of God’s good gifts such as sex, and endless superstitions to side-step facing the truth of our dilemma.

Jesus taught that there is an aspect of our heart that leans towards thoughts that miss the mark of love, which leads to deeds that harm others. “Sin” is missing the mark of love. Sin is the antithesis to love. This aspect of man’s anti-love character has separated man from others and his God. All the prophets talked about this problem. Jeremiah, one of the greatest prophets, wrote: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9) And Job was one of the few men on earth that remained close to God in ancient times. He said: “Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!” (Job 14:4) Thus our efforts to live within the scope of good behavior, becomes impossible without the indwelling Spirit, regardless of the many alternate views we accept to explain man’s love-less mean disposition, or the popular masks that we hide behind in order to fit in with the world’s viewpoint that it is more important to take care of number one, at all costs, including the value of loving others.

Why can’t a man make himself good?

Paul taught that people who do not practice the two laws of love can lose their conscience, one of the perceptive faculties of the conscious mind: “Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings …their consciences are dead”. (1 Tim 4:1-2) Mankind is medically concerned about various diseases of the mind such as Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Mad Cow disease etc., but are we collectively concerned about losing our individual consciences, the governing, directorial facility of our mind?

shutterstock_11312902

The ruination of our consciences has been achieved through deceptive “teachings”. Much of our loss of love can be attributed to the influence of others who deny the love commands given by God, beginning by hating, not loving God: “They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful”. (Romans 1:30) Many influential people in society loathe the Bible as “haters of God”, denying His very existence and refer back historically to the defamation of Christianity in general by the errors of both Catholicism and Protestantism, such as the “holy wars” and the terrible acts against martyrs and those who did not believe specific doctrinal truths. I agree that the history of the false front of Christendom as religious eccentricity, ecclesiastically and gross times of militaristic intent was horrific, and failed for the same reason that we are failing in society today while living in a false pretense of love. It failed because it was devoid of the empowering Spirit of God and His Agape love.

The only restoration of love for God and our fellow man is firstly to be restored to friendship with God, through Jesus Christ: “For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son”. (Rom 5:10)

Jesus was not far off when He said: “What comes out of a man’s heart is what makes him ‘unclean.’” (Mark 7:20) “Unclean” is a term that means that mankind in general trends towards collectively corrupting his purpose of life, to love God and others. Corrupting himself, by either not understanding or by disobeying the command to love God first and others reciprocally, mankind has collectively separated from God.

Jesus Christ has offered to give mankind a better view of our heavenly Father’s love and has given us the Spirit to restore our capacity to love God and each other. As the song goes, Let Your Love Light Shine!

The Manifesto of God’s Love for You: Part 1

Share your thoughts with author

Bible Study Notes

You are God’s Own Child – His Possession

glen001-sm by Glen R. Jackman

The letter to the church at Ephesus was authored by the apostle Paul. This study looks at the first chapter of his letter.

“the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:14 NAS)

shutterstock_13861057

As Christians we find that our greatest blessings are more deeply appreciated when we comprehend that our Father – the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is glorified in the process of blessing his children (cf. Eph 1:14). Most fathers find great joy when their children are around them united in kindred spirit. I recall taking all my four children into a restaurant when they were young during a holiday trip. The restauranteur said to me with great admiration as he sat us around a special table, “you have a beautiful family”. In a way, I understand the Father’s joy when his redeemed children have returned to his realm and are spiritually close to Him. As a father looking at my children I was indeed delighted. The story of the prodigal son also illustrates the love of our heavenly Father as he yearns for his lost children to come home to Him.

I have no greater joy than to see my children walking in the truth (cf. 2 John 1:4, 3 John 1:3). In good family relationships children also are happy to be around their fathers: “the glory of children is their fathers” (Prov 17:6 ESV)

Moreover we are to reciprocally bless, meaning praise God the father for his blessings: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3 ESV)

It is also noteworthy that the Father has blessed us “in Christ”, which denotes a necessary vital union with Jesus Christ. The following explanation that the apostle Paul gives, emphasizes this vital union that “in Christ” means:

“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (vss. 4-3).

Key points are revealed here:
1. We were predestined as chosen by the Father in Christ – “in him”.
2. We were chosen long before the world was created – “before the foundation of the world”.
3. Our predestined selection was a sovereign act of love for us with a view that we are his children adopted out of the world – “in love” by “his will”.
4. Our enablement to rejoin the Father’s family was achieved “through Jesus Christ” whose act of dying for our sins as an atoning sacrifice – dying in our stead – opened up the only way that we can be reconciled to the God the Father. This occurred when our sin was paid for by his ransom-death for us on the cross. When we accept his ransom offered to us we are freed from the condemnation of sin and resulting eternal death.
5. We are viewed as “holy and blameless” in Christ, firstly as we are covered by his redemptive act of atonement on the cross referred to as legally justified (cf. Romans 3: 24-26, ch 5) – holiness can only be our ongoing aim – and will always not yet be obtained (Phil 3:12) as we approach purity and a likeness of Christ via restoration by his indwelling Spirit

Our blessing came to us through Jesus Christ’s redemptive act of dying for our sins on the cross of Calvary as the entrance method God chose to bring us back home. He has blessed us “in Christ” also noted as “through Jesus” – reiterated for impact as “in the Beloved” and “in him” – “…he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (Eph 1:5-6 ESV).

The blessings that we derive are primarily spiritual and cover the wide scope of life now and into eternity, things that only followers of Jesus can understand and appreciate by faith. Paul notes that the Father has blessed his chosen, preordained children who come to him via Jesus by faith with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…according to the riches of his grace” (vs 3, 7)

We know these are spiritual blessings because as the Father’s children we acknowledge that he gives us insight into the gospel of grace in the Word of God to the degree that he has “lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will” (vs 9)

The church is universally united via the Spirit of Christ “according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (vs 9-10).

Again I want to draw attention to the “the Father of glory” (v 17) who is at work to “give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (vs. 17-19)

Why would the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be so concerned that you have wisdom, a revelation of the knowledge of him, by having our hearts enlightened? Clearly it is so that you reader, can know “the hope to which he has called you” and that you understand all of God’s efforts via his Word set forth by reading, by pastoral ministry, preaching and by prayer to him, available as God the Father’s own possession.

King David, a man of great power and wealth and victory over his enemies could say prayerfully with praise to the father: “You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139: 13-14 NASV)

Have you ever thought about being a child of God? Let’s go one step further. Have you ever considered that you came to your father as the one who created you and gave you your life? Through Jesus Christ by faith, this life is renewed and restored to both you and your Father. You are not your own possession! The Father is actually taking back his rightful fatherly role over you as his child in the process of redeeming you from the corruption of this world (which continually disregards his Creatorship/Fatherhood).The New American Standard Bible puts it this way:

“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory”. (vs13, 14)

Summary: You were elected — predestined to be reunited to the Father by faith in his son Jesus Christ. The gospel is a message of truth bringing you salvation from eternal judgment. Now, by being in connection with Christ to the family of God, the Father is taking you back as his created, and now redeemed possession. This offers you unlimited spiritual blessings now and in eternity as you follow Jesus Christ. The Father “gave him as head over all things to the church” (v 22) and Jesus continues to lead and guide his true followers showered with eternal blessed insight.

Send your comments

Read Ephesians Chapter 1