Posts Tagged ‘God’

Everybody enjoys hearing about how “Jesus is a God of love” and undeniably many sermons entitled “God is love” have brought much needed comfort to the heart of the truly repentant. Nonetheless, while these statements are certainly true, as believers we must remember that they are not complete statements of truth. An unwavering truth is that God is no respecter of persons and sometimes the holiness and righteousness of God requires a change in His posture with individuals, a concept some believers have a hard time believing. But consider the following two verses.

“And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it,” (Deuteronomy 28:63).

“After the number of the days in which ye searched the land . . . ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise,” (Numbers 14:34).

Certainly, God is a God of love, yet in Rev. 2:6 Jesus said “. . . this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.” Again in Proverbs it says, “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren.” Now, I am not trying to present God as a God of hate, just establish the fact that God is capable of hate.

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Hey, so you don’t believe in God and you’re an intelligent person? Well then, certainly you’re not going believe you found truth already before you’ve exhausted your life time truly seeking and proving it? Don’t you think that alone would be the height of foolishness? Look at the vastness of it all, the immeasurable expanse of the universe and consider the infinitesimal perspective that your meager little life has afforded you thus far. You may feel and even openly declare that only fools would arrogantly proclaim they know God, but a truly honest person would only admit that they don’t see him as others proclaim they do.

Personally, I will be the first to admit that there is a whole lot of the religious rhetoric out there which is absolute nonsense; endless dogmas saturated with egotistical men’s own silly imaginations that are being peddled to the world by these self-righteous hypocrites. But that doesn’t mean that there is not truth, divine truth out there. Rather to me it is credible evidence of a war that goes beyond our dimension where the real hidden enemies of truth have cleverly sought to discredit it by perverting it and intentionally dressing it up like a self satisfying gluttonous whore that simply exists to pray on the weak of mind.

I would highly recommend any person skeptical of a “divine being” or a “higher power” to posture themselves as students of life who are actively seeking and ever learning, resisting the temptation to get arrogant because you’ve been discerning enough to see the blatant flaws in the cesspool of religions. Certainly all these belief systems cannot all be right since throughout history and even now in many places they are literally killing each other. This world has no shortage of theologies and every religion has fractions that are against each other screaming condemnations of damnation back and forth. Seems to me that if one is really seeking to find truth, it is in fact the proverbial needle in a haystack of mysticism which seems to turn to ashes under the fiery test of genuine, sincere, open and objective evaluation.

We all know atheists who reject the concept of a god, and to a degree I respect their position exactly for the reasons I mentioned above; the world’s religions are a cesspool of obvious lies, and that includes some of the man-made doctrines in Christianity too. After all, what other religion in the world is as fractured as Christianity with its tens of thousands of denominations and cults all over the world claiming to be the true church? Having visited too many of these churches I am often amazed that anyone seeking God would actually go to some of these churches; seems most go just for the social status, or for business contacts, some out of personal guilt and others out of self-righteousness. But to practical and honest person it is clear that what many of these “believers” are saying versus what they are doing is often light years apart. How can any honest person with their eyes wide open embrace such obvious hypocritical “blind faith?”

One of my favorite quotes concerning the integrity of all faith which should be compelling men forward in their religion is from a book titled Creeds of the Churches. This book is evidence to the presence of falsities in some aspects of Christian faiths as readily obvious in the various creeds recorded from the past to the present, with many conflicting with each other about what is truth. The man who compiled it, John H. Leith, stated this in the first few pages of the book –

“What cannot be thought through critically and expressed with reasonable clarity cannot demand the allegiance of man’s whole being. Understanding is necessary for man’s full commitment. Hence faith must be spoken and be made intelligible. This is not to say that faith must be enclosed within the limits of reason, but it does mean that faith must require neither the closing of the mind nor the sacrifice of the integrity of the mind”

To me, a truly honest seeker trying to determine the credibility of a sovereign deity would look to those events which no  person can deny happened,  indisputable facts, “reality,”at least to the measure that all men can readily see. If there is a sovereign being, than certainly there has to be evidence for all the world to see. With that in mind, one would be prudent to consider how the Bible boldly proclaims that they that bless Israel will be blessed and they that curse it will be curse. My years of watching Israel seems to have the witness of history that the covenant above is true, and not only history,  for the present seems to be a continuous news feed of evidence that demands serious scrutiny. Only the arrogant and willfully blinded would reject that there something is going on globally with the little nation from which scripture clearly declares for all who will hear that God has chosen to send for His name from this proclaimed “Holy Land” unto all the earth that all men may know that there is a God which made the heavens and earth.

I trust most who have read this far are intelligent people who would agree atheists can certainly be good and decent people. But I do believe many self proclaiming atheists are merely honest people who have been fittingly turned off by the corrupt presentation of religion, yet still maintain their integrity doing what their heart feels is right and good. I would therefore recommend a book for everyone’s review concerning Israel and our own country America. It is an excellent  documentation of events that no one in the world can deny has happen or the time element in which they have happen. Facts are facts, and if we are to be honest with ourselves, one must admit when they are so and search for the common denominator. Today, there are many events that have unfolded since the printing of the book that could be added since this is a story still being documented concerning Israel in these last days, but amazingly much of it has already been written in the Bible itself for these things were foreseen thousands of years ago.

Here is a link to the book, take some time to read up about the author and then humbly consider these things. If you are truly intelligent, I know you will be compiled to seek answers to the questions that will come to your heart. In the Hebrew there wasn’t a word which one could translate to mean coincidence, they didn’t believe in it. It is in fact an atheistic concept,  that “things just happen.” The Bible warns all men to prove all things and hold fast to that which is good and sound, worthy of one’s faith and belief.

William Koenig’s Web Page

Also, if you have time,  I would encourage taking the time to read something I wrote a long time ago endeavoring to explain why Jesus wasn’t just another man, but God manifested in the flesh, and why He went to the cross.

Justified in the Spirit

Written by Rhonda…

Tragedy comes in many forms. It can strike by attacking your finances, your marriage, your home or even your family. It’s rather like that “mayhem” commercial we see where he comes to visit at most unexpected times.  It is my belief that God puts within us a homing beacon, a compass that points to Him during these difficult times.  After all, we know that when it comes to knowing of His existence we are without excuse.

  • Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

God doesn’t try to hide from us, or conceal Himself in such mystery that we’re left isolated and in confusion.  No, He is there quietly watching and waiting for us to turn to Him in everything, and to let Him prove how He has always been there waiting for us.

The death of a loved one is a time when we reflect on the meaning of life. It’s a time when we naturally think of the afterlife and its implications. Many times the death is a result of natural causes after a long life blessed with rewards.  “She lived such a full life, bless her heart,” is a sentiment often heard at funerals. And, in this instance, while we mourn the death of our loved one, we reflect on a lifetime of memories with both joy and sadness. In such a time we draw close to the Lord, standing firm on our belief that we believe.

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Hallowed Be Thy Name

This was a message God laid on my heart concerning the deity of Jesus the Christ, the Lord’s Prayer and its exhortation for us to petition that God’s name to be hallowed, revered and feared in this fallen world. God’s people need to recognize the necessity to daily seek first His kingdom and righteousness while the long-suffering of God’s waits as with one hand he holds His love and mercy while with the other hand holding back His coming wrath and judgment on a wicked world.



There was a time in my life as a believer where my walk was very far removed from the Lord. I had found myself more than entangled in several sins. I remembered one night being so overwhelmed and burdened to the point of utter despair, literally fearing that I could die in my sleep and would be forever lost. I cried out to what seemed to be heavens of brass, my prayer barely out of my lips only to be falling to the ground. All this after only a couple of years  after having been promoted through a local church fellowship to be a deacon, then elder-ship and then shortly before leaving the church I was made assistant pastor.

My last message I shared with the church before I left (to the surprise of many) was about Paul’s exhortation in Galatians to those who are spiritual to restore those who were overtaken by a fault. However, at the time I wasn’t preaching to the congregation, rather I was crying out against my fellow leadership. My emphasis wasn’t about restoring the one overtaken, but rather whether those who were leaders were “spiritual” enough to even discern when a brother was over taken. There I was discourage, oppressed by the adversary, walking with sin in my life and about to begin what was to be a dark journey that almost ended in my destruction . . . and they didn’t even know it.

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The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

PLEASE, if you recognize the following, please get past it to my main point. The verse above is continually used by believers to stress the fact that those who do not believe in God are fools. But perhaps one of the most foolish things I have seen is this nonsense below about these supposedly legal cases where a Texas judge, or a Florida judge . . . or a judge from whatever state the next promoter of this fictitious never-dying-story decides to select. The story goes –

In (pick-a-state), an atheist became incensed over the preparation for Easter and Passover holidays and decided to contact the local ACLU about the discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations 
afforded to Christians and Jews with all their holidays while the atheists had no holiday to celebrate.

The ACLU jumped on the opportunity to once again pick up the cause of the godless and assigned their sharpest attorneys to the case.

The case was brought before a wise judge who after listening to the long, passionate presentation of the ACLU lawyers, promptly banged his gavel and declared, “Case dismissed!”

The lead ACLU lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? Surely the Christians have Christmas, Easter and many other observances. And the Jews–why in addition to Passover they have Yom Kippur and Hanukkah .and yet my client and all other atheists have no such holiday!”

The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said “Obviously your client is too confused to know about, or for that matter, even celebrate the atheists’ holiday!”

The ACLU lawyer pompously said “We are aware of no such holiday for atheists, just when might that be, your honor?” The judge said “Well it comes every year on exactly the same date—April 1st!”

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” Psalm 14:1, Psalm 53:1

HOORAY FOR THIS JUDGE!

Now, it is truly a sad thing that a believer would feel the need to generate a lie to try to attack an unbeliever as a fool, especially since it can never bring glory to God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. I am not even sure what sort of “Christian” or Torah believing Jew would be willing to stoop to such nonsense. For it seems so very clear that a lie is always going to be a lie, regardless of the motive.

Ro 3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)  6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8 And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? –as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.

God doesn’t inflict wrath except when His righteous precepts are ignored (hint: you can’t go around telling lies) and isn’t really swayed by what your justification might be. How irrational it is to think that this type of gibberish might prove others to be fools while engaging in such obvious foolishness themselves. You can never prove others wrong by doing wrong and attempting to call it right, at that point you are the one who is putting forth bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Perhaps it is time for some to reconsider this fool’s verse in Psalm 14, which for the purpose of establishing a point I am going to use the KJV  –

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I hear it all the time, how God loves us all unconditionally. Over the years of having conducted services at a mandatory rehab for people whose crimes were drug related, ministered at homeless shelters and having countless conversations with “believers” who readily admit they are not walking with God as they should, I frequently run into those who enthusiastically confess to me how they know, absolutely know, that God loves them unconditionally and that He accepts them just as they are.

This has led me into many discussions with people about what it means to “believe” and what exactly this “grace” is that these people are boasting about since they know they are saved because of it.  Sadly, many have no real understanding of what grace really is, they simply repeat what they were once told, “It is unmerited favor.” It is as if people are convinced that when God looks at them He has on some special “Jesus only” colored glasses because they think God only sees Jesus when He looks at them and not themselves for how they truly are.

Grace is truly an amazing gift of God given to the believer, but there are four things about grace we can readily know from scripture –

1. Grace is sufficient

2. Grace can be frustrated

3. Grace while working similarly in all God’s children, still has a uniqueness to it purpose as it is given to each of us

4. Grace can be received in vain.

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While finishing up my next article I wanted to submit this exhortation I gave one night at the Coffee House.

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We are instructed by the scriptures to be vigilant in our faith, to strive to enter the strait gate, fight the good fight, run the race, be good soldiers, finishers of the faith.

Jesus taught us that “all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.” This is one of the great distinctions from those of other belief systems clarified by Jesus’ teachings on the oracles of God. Many religions out there aggressively preach messages of constraint, i.e., don’t treat people the way you don’t want to be treated. Often such religions and institutes affix to their messages oppressive obligations of repetitious prayer, have vain ceremonies and require their followers to maintain a cultural appearance of (perceived) piety.

Here Jesus takes us immediately into servitude to others, “Do for others what you would want them to do for you.” All those out there who continually harp on the difference between the law and grace, they would do well to pause and consider Jesus words here “for this is the law and the prophets.” Jesus wasn’t throwing away the law and saying, “From now on, this is what we do.” He was actually warning everyone not to get caught up in mere religion, that this is what God has always really required.

In the Old Testament when Balak, king of Moab, consulted with Balaam what he needed to do that he might know the righteousness of the LORD. Being ignorant to the righteousness of God, he asked what was it he had to give. Listen to his question and Balaam’s reply –

 Micah 6:6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Should  I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?  7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what the LORD requires of you, do justly and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

Sadly, because the churches are no longer teaching from the whole Bible, many people nowadays fail to understand the distinction between the two separate aspects of “The Law,” that part which was fulfilled and done away with, and that part of which not one jot or tittle will pass away until after all is fulfilled.  Let’s look at Jesus words –

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There are many things that still must come to pass before the Lord returns, things that are clearly written in scripture that we might be aware of the time and season in which we are living. These things were written so that we the Church could stand fast, and keep our focus on our responsibility of each of us perfecting our call to holiness while endeavoring to fulfill the purpose for which we have been elected/enlisted/chosen by the Captain of our salvation.

2Ti 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. (KJV)

2Ti 2:4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. (NASB)

We all have not only been called to be holy for the Lord is holy, it is both a commandment and a necessity; for without holiness no one will see God on favorable terms. Equally true is that each of us have been given a certain rank and file in the army of God whereby we are to . . . no, whereby we must labor together with other members of the body of Christ according to the effectual working of His grace given each and everyone of us. None of this has to do with God being a respecter of persons, rather it is in His wisdom that He has dispersed His gifts unto men with the seemingly greater gifts also bearing the greater responsibility. Nonetheless, regardless the uniqueness of our individual calls to ministry given by our Father, every believer’s priorities should be for His name’s sake to be wholeheartedly seeking and doing His will “according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

2 Pe 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brothers, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things, you shall never fall.

Sisters and brothers, we must make our callings certain (not in vain), for there has been given to each an everyone of us “grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ,” meaning our Lord has equipped each and every one for a unique function in His body that by having ears that hear what the Spirit is saying we can collectively work together making Christ known and warning men to flee the wrath to come. This is why we study to show ourselves approved, that we might not only rightly divide the  Word of truth, but be applying it as well, thereby proving all things as we submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God . . . for there is no place for rouge independent “Christian ministers.” That is not to say that true men and women of God at times will not feel alone, but their hearts are ever seeking others with whom they may labor to God’s glory.

Eph 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

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Since early 2011 there has been much chatter across the web about Comet Elenin and what appeared to be a correlation of seismic activity with its alignment with earth. We had no shortages of doomsayers and predictions concerning the end of the world and the timing of an imminent rapture of the church . . . but we are still here. I too labored many long hours in an effort to examine all the information available and submitted it for public scrutiny with my exhortation to give greater heed to God’s word foremost.

As it seems to stand today, apparently Comet Elenin was blasted by solar winds which blew away much of it coma. Now according to various accountings Elenin was destroyed, fragmented, is deteriorating, and/or has been reduced to even less significance than the seemingly correct unbelievers of doom had said it was. At the moment Elenin is now on its way back out into the vast expanse of the universe perhaps taking with it the threat of imminent death and destruction that so many had attached with it.

For almost two months I have been sitting back and praying that God help me to rightly divide and understand what I have been observing (and not observing) in my own Christian responsibility to “watch and pray.” There have been various things I felt God was impressing upon me, but there was also a sense of waiting before the Lord as Elenin continued it course past it inner alignment with Earth and the Sun on late September 26. It appears Elenin came and made alignment with no great calamity befalling the earth . . . apart from this year’s predicted increase of solar activity, record breaking droughts in one part of the world while storms and floods make new records in other places. Currently we are having a huge snow storm in the northeast while elsewhere volcanism and seismic disturbance continue about the world . . . but seemingly with no absolute correlation to the comet.

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This is part one of a two part series on hell.

It is not enough that we each have our own set of Christian beliefs that we faithfully hold to. For many religions have faithful followers; many of which that would shame the half-hearted “Christian” who professes to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Even if one was faithful to their favorite religious creed, faithfulness cannot deliver from sin or offer an assurance of eternal life.
Yet so many people boldly declare they are free simply because they have a belief system, a religion of choice, and their favorite translation or particular version of holy oracles or religious book which they cling to above all others. Many going about their daily lives with absolutely no clue that they are deceived and dead in their trespasses and sins; having only a form of godliness while they deny the true power of God which truly sets men free and transforms them.

John 8:31-36 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, “If you continue in My word, then are you My disciples indeed;  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  They answered him, “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how say you then, ‘You shall be made free?'”  Jesus answered them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin.  And the servant abides not in the house for ever: but the Son abides ever.  If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

If one is off a little in their foundation of their theology, then they will be considerably more off as they continue to build upon the principles they have embraced for their faith. As a building contractor I learned a long time ago that if I start off out of square, unlevel or out of plumb, the more I build off my starting reference point the further off I get. It is the same with the tenants of faith in Christendom.

Part of the devil’s plan was to saturate Christendom with theologies that are “mostly” true. I have a saying I use often with my kids, “The best lie is the one with the most truth in it.” Reason being, that if you want to deceive someone, let’s say someone with a little understanding and knowledge of God’s word, you will need to bait them with certain truths and plausible theories in their own popular Christian lingo.

They will then recognize some of those aspects of the truth they are acquainted with and will be more likely to embrace it, since it appealed to their logic and familiarity. However, because of their weakness of scriptural knowledge and understanding they can be tricked into embracing a carefully forged lie simply because they saw logic in it and will therefore often embrace a whole theology without thoroughly proving it. This is because most people have a pride that causes them to trust in their own ability to recognize truth without having to prove it.

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I would like to start by sharing a quote by John H. Leith, who compiled a book concerning Christian doctrine from the Bible days to the present entitled “Creeds of the Churches”

 “. . . the nature of man is an intelligent being. Just because of intelligence the Christian, of all men, has to learn to discern with agonizing clarity what is conceivable by him about God Himself. What cannot be thought through critically and expressed with reasonable clarity cannot demand the allegiance of man’s whole being. Understanding is necessary for man’s full commitment. Hence faith must be spoken and made intelligible. That is not to say faith must be enclosed within the limits of reason, but it does mean that faith must never require neither the closing of the mind nor the sacrifice of the integrity of the mind.”

This statement is one that has influenced me probably more than any other man’s words of wisdom to always try my best to understand every man’s profession of faith and to share mine as simply and clearly as possible. That is why before I share my thoughts on my next post regarding the Seven Year Tribulation, I would like to state a couple of things for some readers who do not know me.

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For centuries there has been much confusion when people try and reason the different accounts of Jesus’ resurrection as recorded by the apostles. The fact that they all seem to have a different story to tell does not help. Perhaps, a good way to consider their seemingly different reports is to view them like transparent overlays, similar to the one’s we have seen in books showing the skeleton, then the nerves and blood vessels, organs, muscular and finally the skin and hair.

The Gospels, similarly, are each reporting different events which had taken place around a major singular occurrence, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact is that these different events are recorded in God’s word and are therefore true. Perhaps the answer to the confusion is to consider that there were multiple trips made to the tomb.

The best way to determine the possible order of these Trips to the Tomb is to consider the different details that have been given about the time of day and light of the sun. Was the sun going down or coming up? These questions are actually quite easy to answer. However, we must remember that the Sabbath, like all the other biblical days, began and ended with sundown.

I would like to give acknowledgement to a brother Harry Miller who has gone to be with the Lord. Many years ago I read a tract he had written a tract entitled Three Days and Three Nights in which he mentioned there had to be multiple trips to the tomb. It was upon his prayerful studies and insight that I was motivated to search the scriptures  that I might further understand these things and have therefore sought to put these things down to share with others. Therefore I am humbled and thankful to be able to continue in sharing these things with fellow seekers. Nevertheless, while I rejoice in the benefits I have enjoyed from other men’s prayer and labors, true blessing become tangible when we diligently seek the truths of God for ourselves in His word. There are no promises made to the half-hearted seeker of God, be diligent therefore, be studious and seek God while He may be found.

Peace.

Trips to the Tomb

I have posted this before, but since it is Easter this coming Sunday I figured it would be a good repost for those who may have missed it. I hope it blesses you.

For centuries there has been much confusion when people try to reason the different accounts of Jesus’ resurrection as recorded by the apostles. The fact that they all seem to have a different story to tell does not help. Perhaps, a good way to consider their seemingly different reports is to view them like transparent overlays, similar to the one’s we have seen in books showing the skeleton, then the nerves and blood vessels, organs, muscular and finally the skin and hair.

The Gospels, similarly, are each reporting different events which had taken place around a major singular occurrence, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact is that these different events are recorded in God’s word and are therefore true. Perhaps the answer to the confusion is to consider that there were multiple trips made to the tomb.

The best way to determine the possible order of these trips to the tomb is to consider the different details that have been given about the time of day and light of the sun. Was the sun going down or coming up? These questions are actually quite easy to answer. However, we must remember that the Sabbath, like all the other biblical days, began and ended with sundown, see Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 and Lev. 23:32.

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