Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Fear of the Lord
Thursday, June 24, 2010
'Gay'-pride parade features 10-year-old grand marshal
There is a way that seems right to a man (or woman) but in the end it leads to death.... THE MARKETING OF EVIL... Gen. 19.1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." 6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. The men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door. Jude 7: Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. 2Peter 2: 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; serving as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. It pains me to see the deception of the evil one...for there is a way that seems right to a man (or woman) but in the end it leads to death.(Proverbs 14:12) For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.(Matt. 24) scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.(2 Peter 3)
3 For I was envious of the boastful,
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there are no pangs in their death,
But their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men,
Nor are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore pride serves as their necklace;
Violence covers them like a garment.
7 Their eyes bulge with abundance;
They have more than heart could wish.
8 They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression;
They speak loftily.
9 They set their mouth against the heavens,
And their tongue walks through the earth.
16 When I thought how to understand this,
It was too painful for me—
17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
Then I understood their end.
18 Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.
19 Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment!
They are utterly consumed with terrors.
Only the gospel offers hope for freedom from the blindness of ones heart to the truth of mankinds troubles. Our own evil hearts.
Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is good and right. (Proverbs 20:12)
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Fear of the Lord
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt 10:28) Words from Jesus to the 12 when He sent them out to preach the gospel. He told them they would be hated for His names sake, that they would be interrogated and beaten. But added if God cares for the sparrows to whom He gives life, how much more does He care for those he is sending out into a world to do his will. Yes, Jesus said "take up your cross and follow Me. For he who loses his life for My sake will find it." Lose your life? Find your life? Tough words. Not something you hear much today in the evangelical world. Mostly it's come to Jesus, He'll make life easy for you. You'll get what you want in this life. Fortune. Fame. Yes friends it's all about you. NOT! The real gospel, the good news doesn't work that way. It's about the One who spoke out creation, from nothing. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Into the nothingness, piercing the darkness God said. God simply spoke it out of the divine essense of His eternal mind--The Light--The Heavens--Water--The Trees--The Fruit--and Living Creatures in the sea on the land and in the air. An abundance of creatures fashioned from the mind of a Holy, infinitely creative Divine being not limited by time or space or lack of imagination. Every creature that has or now exists reflects the infinite creativity of the one true God who wants to be known through 66 love letters called The Bible. Letters met for a people called from darkness to light, from death to life. (1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient Eph. 2:1-2) Called out of the darkness of unbelief, the enmity --the hatred you had of this God , separated from Him with the bleak eternity that awaits all the sons of disobedience... "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess. 1:) "‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.." That is the horror of an eternity spent without God. God gives the individual over to themselves for an eternity. No more grace. No more mercy. No more hope. Yet, Scripture contains the only words of hope. "The WORD who was in the beginning with God and was God. The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us...."(John 1:1;14) It's about the God of Scripture reaching down from heaven in the person of his Son, " "5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! (Phil 2:5-8) God, the Son became man. He who had no sin became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. For "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 cor 15:50) A new birth is needed." 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever," (1 Peter 1) For "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags." (Isaiah 64:6) Dirty, stained with the unclean, impure, detestable actions of a foul mind and corrupted spirit. It may sound harsh and unrealistic to the mind darkened with the cravings of this lost and vile world but it is the sorry state of mankind in the sight of a Holy, Pure, and Perfect Divine being. "For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23) "There is no one righteousness. NO NOT ONE....." "Truly no man can ransom another,or give to God the price of his life,8 for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,9 that he should live on forever and never see the pit." (Ps. 49) The ransom demanded was God's only begotten Son, " My Father loves me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me..." (John 10:17-18) Always doing what pleases Him God proclaimed, "this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him. "(Matt 17:5) You can hear God through His Word. You can learn about His Son between the pages of His book. "Whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned. he has crossed over from death to life." (John 5:24) That is the good news. That is the Gospel. God demands holiness to share eternity with Him. You're not perfect. No one can please God for without Christ you can do nothing. No one warrants a place in His kingdom. But he did not leave us alone. "10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1John) No matter where you've been, where you are now, what you've done or the lifestyle you're living that's contrary to a holy and righteous God. It doesn't matter. If God can deliever a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, one who persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, a man who later would call himself the chief of sinners, and later pen two thirds of the New Testament. He can remove the blinders from your eyes and open your heart to believe when you simply come to Him in sincere faith asking for Him to have mercy on you, a sinner. "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. "(Romans 10:9) Saved? From what? From the wrath of God. "The Lord will come in His day... the heavens will disappear with a great noise; the elements will melt with fervent heat, and both the earth and everything in it will be burned up." (2 peter 3:10-12) To those who follow their own evil hearts to believe not, "a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries." (Heb. 10:27) The King of Kings, Jesus saying, "depart from me, I never knew you.." But for the redeemed, those bought with a price, know it, and trust in the only name under heaven by which we can be saved.... A new life awaits. A new world is coming, the old order of things will pass away, "there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain....(Rev. 21:4) But " An eternity with the One who put eternity in our hearts."(Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Humbling Of A King
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Humbling of a King
[28] All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. [29] At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, [30] and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” [31] While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, [32] and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” [33] Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.
(Daniel 4:28-33 ESV)
Isn't it interesting how there is nothing new under the sun. Words of the preacher, Solomon from Ecclesiastes. Man thinks, and I say thinks, he has all the answers. That science is our savior. Our technology the instrument by which life extension will be accomplished. God proved to a King that he wasn't who thought he was. He didn't have all power, the Kingdom wasn't his because of his own actions and greatness and power but because God in His Power and Might allowed the king to conquer and rule and have what he had. God threw him out to live among the beasts, to see just how powerful he wasn't. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." God has allowed us, this nation to have what it has. Prosperity, wealth, equality, freedom. He can take it away in an instant. Our president said "I will built more oil wells off the coasts to provide our great nation with all the oil we need." WHAM! RIGHT IN THE KISSER! OUCH! Oil spilling into the gulf at a rate unimageable. The men who could dig a hole so far down in the gulf didn't know what to do. They are confounded by the consequences of their actions. From some who worked on that oil rig, comments that BP cut corners in the name of profits and now the magnitude of the problem, the death of the gulf too horrible to imagine. I looked at the pictures and videos of what's happening in the gulf and thought, "It's red like blood, the blood of the earth?" I thought of Revelation 16 where it says, "The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died." Man is not as smart, as wise, as in his arrogance he thinks. And now it seems all that technology and wisdom of man is held captive by a gushing flow that powers that technology that man created. I guess man never thought or wanted to imagine the folly or consequences of his actions. In Matthew 7 Jesus said, "21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” We need wise men to guide and lead us. But alas, are there any? Let Gods people pray for mercy, for a solution to this disaster. His Divine intervention, A Daniel or a miracle in an age where people follow their own evil hearts that are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Is there any hope? [Nebuchadnezzar Restored]
[34] At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,
for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
[35] all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”
[36] At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. [37] Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
(Daniel 4:34-37 ESV)
All who walk in pride he will humble. Whether now or later. For every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord, to the glory of God the Father. For God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud. Pray that sanity and reason will return and prevail in a Godless world. A world of false gods. A world bent on destruction. A world in love with its achievements. Never acknowledging the One who has given them the abilities, the mind to achieve. A world that follows the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who works in the sons of disobedience. That the veil of blindness will fall from their eyes and then they'll see the truth and be set free. That the world will praise,extol and honor the King of heaven. The King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, the only name under heaven by which we can be saved. Oddly tragedy can turn into a blessing. Making us see what really matters in life. That there is a reason why there is something rather than nothing. That there is a God and He wants to know you and for you to know Him. That the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. As John Milton wrote in his hymn Amazing Grace,"when we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we first begun." That's real hope and the only happy ending there is.