Category: Jesus Christ

For July 11, 2021
Heaven is the eternal place of perfection where there is no selfishness, depression, doubt, fear, worry, or stress because God is present in His full glory and holiness. Each moment forever, we will experience His gentle, loving presence, without the anxieties and fears associated with our sin-scarred earthly existence,

God can be known in personal experience. A loving Personality dominates the Bible, walking among the trees of the garden and breathing fragrance over every scene. Always a living Person is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting Himself whenever and wherever His people have the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation.¹

Impossible world, you say? Not really. Such how it was after God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden with everything they could ever want or need forever. Let’s explore the actions of the loving Creator Genesis according to 1:1 (AKJV), “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

This foundational passage of Scripture does not defend the existence of God. It merely presents a personal God, who is a loving, caring Creator and Sustainer of everything that has or will ever exist. Words cannot describe the vastness of God adequately, although one writer offers this illustration,

[Our  Lord God is the] Good Being, a fountain of infinite benevolence and beneficence towards his creatures. The Being whose purposes and actions spring from Himself, without foreign motive or influence: he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, and most spiritual of all essences; infinitely benevolent, beneficent, true, and holy: the cause of all being, the upholder of all things; infinitely happy, because infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made: illimitable in His immensity, inconceivable in His mode of existence, and indescribable in His essence; known fully only to Himself, because an infinite mind can be fully apprehended only by itself. In a word, a Being who, from His infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived; and who, from His infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just, right, and kind.²

Could not such a Being create all that exists today? Could He not also preserve and sustain it? God continues to do all these things and more as Nehemiah 9:6 (NLT) tells us,

You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you.

Instead of expressing Himself as an impersonal, ambiguous force to be reckoned with, the Lord chooses to fellowship with the human species—the pinnacle of His creation. He fixed our incomparable destiny forever in the Garden of Eden as we thrived in His loving, holy presence as He supplied our spiritual, physical, emotional, and psychological needs abundantly.

Our Lord has designated us as humans to be separate and distinct; creating us “in His image and likeness.” As such, we can have loving, joyful, fulfilling, fellowship with Him forever. Genesis 1:26-27 (NLT) indicates,

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Our creation was most distinctive,

It is clear that man, as God made him, was distinctly different from the animals already created. He stood on a much higher plateau, for God created him to be immortal, and made him a special image of His own eternity. Man was a creature with whom His maker could visit and have fellowship and communion. On the other hand, the Lord could expect man to answer him and be responsible to him. Man was constituted to have the privilege of choice, even to the point of disobeying his Creator. He was to be God’s responsible representative and steward on the earth, to work out his Creator’s will and fulfill the divine purpose.³

Through His creation, we see God’s majesty and design to ensure our happiness and well-being in the most intricate detail. Thus, as Genesis 1:31 tells us, God’s creation is “very good!”

Just think! The entire universe, with its galaxies, solar system, and our earth, including everything in the sky, underwater, and on land, was not created for eternal fellowship with God. Only you and I were created to fulfill this uniquely wonderful purpose, and through our faith in Jesus Christ, can we achieve our full potential as forgiven and free Citizens of His eternal Kingdom. Won’t you trust in Christ for salvation and eternal fellowship with God today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For July 4, 2021
The evening Jesus Christ spent with His Disciples just before His crucifixion has always fascinated me, as I wonder what our Lord was thinking and feeling. There is a commentary on our Lord’s contemplation in Romans that captivates me (my emphasis),

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But, God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8 NIV).

The first Adam’s disobedience introduced sin into God’s perfect world, which resulted in our spiritual and physical deaths. Our spiritual death or sin nature, which separates us from God forever, happened instantaneously. But physical death came gradually—as we age and die.

In essence, God created us to be holy (sinless), and to live forever in His perfect world. But because of Adam’s disobedience, our world is full of sin, sadness, anxiety, fear, pain, disease, trouble, and death. Thus as the Bible teaches, all of us will sin, and all of us will die. (Romans 3:23, 5:14, 6:23)

In addition, we are sinners by nature. Thus, all of our “good deeds” are corrupt and sin-polluted. A splendid illustration would be how when men wore white dress shirts and carrying a fountain pen in the shirt breast pocket was a common practice. Often, the ink pen leaked, and the slightest ink spot on the white shirt ruined the shirt—completely!

As the ink spot polluted the shirt, sin has polluted our righteousness. On our best day, we are still worthless before a holy God (who has never been polluted), and our self-righteousness and pride become filthy rags before His righteousness,

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind (Isaiah 64:6 NLT).

However, this is not the case with Jesus Christ. He was without sin and fully aware His death would redeem all fallen humanity from sin and restore us to a loving, eternal fellowship with God,

Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous (Romans 5:18-19 NKJV).

It is truly unbelievable how Jesus freely chose to offer Himself to redeem the entire world; whether Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, believer or non-believer. All of us can vicariously receive the full benefit of His perfect sacrifice—without preference or distinction. No longer can Satan, sin, and death overpower us and bind us. Our faith in His perfect, work determines our righteousness (or lack thereof) before our Heavenly Father.

Ultimately, Jesus chose to redeem those who love Him, those who hate Him, those who believe in Him, and those who do not believe in Him. This idea of “equal atonement” is difficult for the modern mind to capture fully. Not concerning Christ’s saving efficacy as His sacrifice remediates all our sins forever.

However, His commitment to give Himself freely and willingly for every man, woman, boy, and girl—past, present, and future—so comprehensively, is difficult to fathom. Such an action is not a normal human response, especially toward someone we feel is “less desirable.”

Sacrificing for a loved one is conceivable when our love for them or our desire to protect them motivates us. However, choosing to sacrifice our lives for an enemy or someone who dislikes us is extremely hard to envision.

History has shown there may be certain situations where we would risk life and limb for someone we might not necessarily care for. During the Second World War, for example, cultural issues fostered adversarial relationships that fragmented our troops occasionally. Although these valiant men and women may have been divided, they proved themselves more than willing to sacrifice for their adversary’s greater good by fighting and dying to spare the world from the global tyranny of the Axis powers.

Fast-forward eighty years to our current global pandemic. We have replaced our noble altruism with a cold-hearted malevolence as we maliciously engage in “germ warfare” by unleashing a virus that targets innocent victims with underlying health issues around the world. Then, we withhold vital technologies and politicize medical remedies that can prevent and treat illness and improve our overall health and safety, and we hoard or resell safety supplies at inflated prices and expose those who are vulnerable with premorbidities to even more peril.

I am saddened by the barbarism plaguing human hearts today. Truly, the Enemy is at work in the callous and malicious disregard for human dignity witnessed in the indiscriminate killing of the unborn and helpless, the calculated euthanization of the weak and aged, and the exploitation, abuse, trafficking, oppression, and violence perpetrated against all those who fall between these two extremes. Ultimately, we have reduced precious, God-given lives to mere dollars and cents.

People will “sell their souls” for anything. Our heartlessness is most unfortunate because technology, education, politics, military, and industry do not make our country great. It is our faith in God, and the Judeo-Christian values we embrace and uphold, as the Scriptures attest, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34 NKJV).

Oh, what sorrow and despair await those of us who insist “evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter” (Isaiah 5:20 NLT). A civilized people must exercise vigilance and due diligence to promote and secure the moral and spiritual well-being of our fellow countrymen and women,

The freedom of God is exercised and illustrated in His government of His moral creatures. It has pleased God to create intelligences possessed of moral freedom and to make their ultimate destiny contingent upon the right use of their freedom.⁴

As we celebrate our Nation’s Birth, let us also remember that God has endowed us with the sacred trust to preserve civility, decency, and goodwill for people with whom we work, serve, and live. Most importantly, let us never forget that it is only through our faith in Jesus Christ, our Sinless Savior that we can have eternal liberty and freedom—from sin and death. Won’t you trust in Him today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For June 27, 2021
It was our Lord’s first declaration preparing the world for His distinctive ministry and message,

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, And saying: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel!” Mark 1:14-15 (AKJV)

Jesus declares: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand!” To what would become the New Testament World, His proclamation referred to a fulfillment of the promised Messiah, God’s Anointed One, who would restore the throne of David in Jerusalem, free the Jewish people from Roman domination, and establish God’s eternal Kingdom.

Four thousand years of human history has passed now was the time to drastically change the course of human history with the advent of His Son presenting Himself as the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

Jesus Christ would initiate a new Kingdom where love, righteousness, and peace would reign forever. The Lord is no respecter of persons, and His Eternal Kingdom is spiritual, not material. As fallen humans, we crave power, influence, and human supremacy. On the other hand, God wants to transform sinful human hearts because of our proclivity to sin,

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV)

The Lord knows that once He possesses our hearts, He then can own everything else we possess by default. But even with transformed hearts, we may not experience any significant external changes, like having our names listed in Who’s Who, or having others speak well of us, or even obtaining wealth and notoriety. Nevertheless, we do have a new, internal spiritual being that makes us acceptable before God.

Time was now ready for Jesus Christ to communicate a message and perform and ministry for God’s people everywhere—both Jew and Gentile—that would free us from sin and death forever.

The crux of the message is two-fold: Repent and believe the Gospel! God requires our surrender in order to perform in us His perfect work of redemption since proud, sinful humans will never inherit His glorious, eternal Kingdom,

What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.  (1 Corinthians 15:50 NLT)

We must agree with God that our proud, sinful ways are woefully inadequate for achieving His righteousness, which is always observed and practiced in His glorious Heaven. This is true repentance. God is holy, and His standards are holy.

As sinners, we will always fall short and must turn from our sin and to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, Here we surrender to Him as our Lord and Savior, so that His Holy Spirit can possess us, and transform us from the inside out. As we continue to surrender, His Spirit can forever change our being, position, choices and destiny so that we achieve a noble Christ-likeness.

Romans 8:1 tells us that there is no condemnation to those who in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 12:2 tells us that we are not to be conformed to this world, but are transformed by a renewed mind so that we can live out God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will.

A transformed heart with a renewed mind pleases God, because it produces a progressive yearning for godly things, and a growing disdain for the worldly things. We surrender the control of our lives to the Lord Jesus each day, and His Holy Spirit gives us a growing desire to please Him in everything we do.

By our repentance towards sin, and our humble, reverent, and sincere faith in Christ, we are assured to experience His divine presence forever. Won’t you trust Him today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For June 13, 2021
Ancient Israel was set on a course of demise after King Jeroboam erected the two golden calves in Bethel and Dan while proclaiming to the nation “Here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.” Although the practice of worshiping idols was strictly forbidden (Exodus 20:2-6), the people worshipped the two golden calves. This practice would lead to the nation’s demise and exile at the hands of the Assyrians in 722 BC (1 Kings 17:7).

The Southern Kingdom, Judah would follow Israel’s lead and erect “high places” for idol worship on every high hill and under every green tree. (1 Kings 14:23) Jehovah was the only true and living God they were to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem. Babylon was God’s instrument of Judah’s chastening and exile.

Nebuchadnezzar carried Daniel and many of Jerusalem’s nobles into captivity around 606 BC. A second wave of deportation happened around 597 BC, with the final wave of destruction 586 BC. Habakkuk saw the impending doom of Judah and questioned God,

Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? (Habakkuk 1:13 NIV)

This is an age old question why evil seems to triumph while the righteous suffer. In this instance, God raised up the Babylonians to chasten Judah according to many prophetic warnings. We could surmise that Habakkuk is philosophical in his orientation. For he complain to about being silent in the face of the injustice imposed on Judah—God’s chosen people.

Habakkuk realizes that God’s aim is to punish the people of Judah. Through this lesson the Lord enforces upon his watching servant the great moral principle that arrogance and tyranny will never last, and that the righteous will always be sustained by their faith,

Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4 NKJV)

The presence of sin in the world will ensure evil, pain, and suffering will be experienced by all—including God’s righteous. When Habakkuk posed these questions to God, Judah was wallowing in its sin and political instability. Sin and idolatry was rampant as the people engaged in idol worshipping. Although Pharaoh Neco made Jehoiakim king in Jerusalem, soon Egypt would fade as Assyria’s world domination is replaced by Babylon. But, in less than one–hundred years, the Medo-Persian Empire would bring God’s punishment on Babylon in 539 BC.

As we grapple with the patience of God concerning evil in light of His holiness. Sometimes, we feel, as did the prophet, that the Lord looks at our plight with indifference. But this is not the case due to His great love for us and His wonderful plan for us.

He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, to provide the answer to our sin problem. And by our faith in Him, we can experience eternal, abundant life. (John 10:10) Also, He has promised to keep us in His care, as we abide in Him, as Habakkuk understood in the final analysis,

Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! GOD the Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer; He makes me walk upon the heights! (Habakkuk 3:17-19a NIV)

The Lord’s plan for us is perfect and will always result in our blessing and His glory. In today’s world with widespread idolatry, inflation, political uncertainty, social unrest, random violence, tyranny, rampant sinful behavior leaving many of us overcome with anxiousness and fear.

Nevertheless, we can be at peace, because the Lord is in control, and He has a perfect plan for us. Thus, we can exult in Him in every situation. Won’t you trust in the Lord’s plan for you today?

What a Wonderful Savior!