THE ARMY OF GOD

A popular chorus back in the “charismatic renewal” days of the 70’s and 80’s, before some of you were born, came to mind recently and with it the following thoughts. First let me give you the words of this chorus.

“God’s got an army marching through the land

Deliverance is their song, with healing in their hands

Everlasting joy and gladness in their heart

And in this army I’ve got a part.”

I’m not so sure that God has ever had an army, in the true sense of the word. We could sing the songs and pretend that we were, but when it came to going into battle against the enemy forces, many people went “AWOL” (Absent Without Leave) in case you’ve never heard the term! Two of my brothers were involved in WW2, one in the R.C.A.F. and the other in the Merchant Marines. I was too young of course to be involved, but I heard lots of stories after the war ended with the celebrations of VE Day.

I’m sure that God wants an “army” to do battle against His enemy Satan and his kingdom of darkness, but does such an army really exist? Consider what an army, or “armed forces”, the more politically correct term used today, actually consist of. The methods of fighting a war have changed drastically since WW2, but the requirements for the armed forces involved has not changed much. Basic “boot camp” is still the starting point for new recruits, where they learn the difference between their old life as a civilian and their new life as a soldier. This includes, but is not limited to, learning to obey orders even if they don’t make sense. Some day their life may depend on it! How many believers do you know that have learned to obey a command given by their leaders to do something that they don’t understand the reason for? We live in a society that is very “independent”, and accustomed to making our own decisions based on what we think is best for us, with no thought to how it might affect anyone else! This is definitely not allowed in an army setting! We must know our “superior officers”, and obey their commands. One of the problems in the church today (who we consider to be God’s army) is that they are not submitted to leadership who has been appointed by God to lead His people. We have more “self appointed” leaders today, or ones elected by a group of people, and not set in place by God. How can we consider this thing we call a church the “army of God”?

This is just one more way we have been deceived in our understanding of what the word “church” really means from God’s perspective! That's how I see it anyway!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp

THE BOOK OF GENESIS

Our English translation of the Bible has the book of Genesis divided into 50 chapters, but a careful study of the book reveals that it should only be divided up into 11 true chapters!

Chapter 1---(Gen 1:1-2:3) The general account of creation.

Chapter 2---(Gen 2:4-4:26) The generations of the heavens and the earth.

Chapter 3---(Gen 5:1-6:8) The generations of Adam,---Seth being chosen for the Messianic line.

Chapter 4---(Gen 6:9-9:29) The generations of Noah,---Shem being chosen for the Messianic line.

Chapter 5---(Gen 10:1-11:9) The generations of Noah's sons.

Chapter 6---(Gen 11:10-11:26) The generations of Shem.

Chapter 7---(Gen 11:27-25:11) The generations of Terah,---Abram being chosen for the Messianic line.

Chapter 8---(Gen 25:12-25:18) The generations of Ishmael.

Chapter 9---(Gen 25:19-35:29) The generations of Isaac---Jacob being chosen for the Messianic line.

Chapter 10---(Gen 36:1-37:1) The generations of Esau.

Chapter 11---(Gen 37:2-50:26) The generations of Jacob---Joseph being chosen for the Messianic line.

Check this out in your Bible and see if it doesn't make good sense! I got it from "Halley's Bible Handbook" page 58, and also from "All About The Bible" by Sidney Collett, written sometime in the early 1930's.

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp

JESUS THE MAN

There has been so much controversy about who Jesus really is that I feel compelled to attempt to put something together on this topic. Part of the confusion comes from groups like the Mormons, or the JW's, who refuse to believe the truth about what God's Word declares about the Trinity! I don't pretend to know a lot about their particular doctrines, but I have studied the Bible for quite a few years, and believe it to be the absolute truth! Especially the words attributed to Jesus by the divinely appointed authors of scripture, such as the apostle John, who states in (John 14:6) "Jesus told him (Thomas), I am the the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me".

I recently had occasion to read the book of Hebrews again, and couldn't help but see clearly how the writer of this letter to Hebrew believers, declares Jesus is far superior to angels. Actually verses 3 and 4 of the first chapter give a good description of Jesus (Heb 1:3-4) "The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and He sustains everything by the mighty power of His command. When He had cleansed us from our sins, He sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave Him is greater than their names". Then in chapter 2 the writer goes on to talk about how God made mankind a little lower than the angels, but "gave them authority over all things". He then goes on in verse 14 to explain how Jesus also was given a body of flesh and blood like ours, so that He might die "and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death". This explains the real purpose of the incarnation of Jesus. As the angel Gabriel told Joseph when he explained about Mary being pregnant by the Holy Spirit, in (Matt 1:21) "And she will have a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins".

Because Jesus the Son, was always God, the only way He could atone for the sins of mankind, was to become a man and die in our place to pay the only price that would satisfy the justice of God. (Rom 6:23). God's Word makes it clear that no angel or an ordinary mortal man could do this. Only Jesus, the last Adam, could rectify the results of the sin of the first Adam. (Rom 5:12), and (1 Cor 15:45-49) It took "Jesus the Man" to accomplish this miracle of providing redemption for us sinful humans!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp

SALT & LIGHT

We read of these two common things in the words of Jesus recorded in (Matt 5:1-16). As followers of Jesus we are to be both of these things to a lost and dying world! Salt and light are both "influential factors" in this dark and corrupted world. As we know salt not only improves the taste of food, but also is a preservative. Before we had refrigerators and freezers (most of you don't go back that far) meat and fish were preserved using a salt solution. And of course we all know the main property of light is that it drives away darkness!

We referred to both of these things as "influential factors" because there is definitely power in influence. Most of you are too young to remember the influence "The Beatles" had on the youth culture of North America back in the 60's, but it was real! Thank God I was no longer a youth then (in my 30's, and a father of 2) and never followed the Beatles, but have observed the effect they had on shaping the behavior of the teens of that day. The same thing could be said for different groups who came on the scene at different times in history. But musical groups are not the only means of influence, there are many other things.

Probably the greatest "power of influence" in any one's life is Jesus Christ Himself! When we believe the truth about Him, and receive Him as our own personal Savior, we come under His influence in all areas of our life. Some things in our life change immediately, but some gradually. There are several terms used to cover this gradual change in the behavior of a believer in Jesus. We are familiar with terms like discipleship, mentoring, spiritual maturity etc. but the Bible term is "sanctification", which simply means to be "set apart" from our old life and it's ways, and to become a follower of Jesus. Thus we not only come under His influence, but because of the salt and light principle, we can now be an "influencer" in our relationship with others. This will happen in our immediate family, our workplace, our church, business associations etc. I recently read a little poem that points this out.

"Lord, let me be a shining light

In all I say and do;

That Your great love displayed in me

May lead someone to You." ---Sper

And the words of an old song give us the same message.

"Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,

All His wonderful passion and purity,

Oh thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine,

'Til the beauty of Jesus be seen in me!"

Sincerely submitted

Gramp

GOD'S INVOLVEMENT WITH PLANET EARTH (part 2)

In Part 1 we covered the time from creation to the beginning of the church in the first century after the resurrection of Christ. The book of Acts records the activities of the early Church that Jesus began to build, or "call out" of the then Jewish world. All the disciples were descendants of Abraham, so the early Church was made up of only Jewish converts from "Judaism". Cornelius was the first non-Jewish believer, who heard the good news of the gospel of the Kingdom from Peter, after God had dealt with them both in a vision. You can read about it in (Acts 10:9-48). At the time the NT was written, there were only two classes of people, Jews, or the people of "The Covenant", and all other non-Jews were referred to as "Gentiles", or sometimes as "Greeks". Paul the Apostle, was born a Jew, but became a Roman citizen. He became one of the leading apostles that laid the foundation for the Church. He wrote most of the NT scriptures except the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation.

In Paul's letters to the early churches, we find most of our information on what the church should look like, especially in Ephesians and Colossians. In Ephesians he reveals the secret that the Church, which is the body of Christ on earth, whose head is in heaven, is really the dwelling place for the Holy Spirit of God. When Jesus returned to heaven after His resurrection, He sent the Holy Spirit back to earth to carry on the work of building His Church. He clearly told the disciples that not only would He, the Spirit, be with them, but He would dwell within them. We know that is exactly what happened when we read the book of Acts. Part of this secret that God revealed to Paul, was that both Jews and Gentiles would be made into "one new man", by the work of the Spirit. This truth was very hard for the Jews to accept, because they had been the "covenant people" for so many years, and thought that God would only deal with them.

This truth, that today God is calling "whosoever will" from every nation on earth to be part of His body, is the most important truth for believers in Jesus to grasp. Some Christians are like the Jews of Jesus' day, and think they have some special relationship with Jesus that not everyone can have. God is no respecter of persons, and His grace is free to all who believe Jesus is Lord!

Israel is still God's "covenant people", because He never breaks a covenant he has made. Some Jews will accept Jesus and be "born again" into the spiritual body of Christ, and some will not. When you study the scriptures carefully that refer to the end times, it seems that God will always have a remnant from His covenant people as an "earthly family" to re-populate the earth during the millennial reign of Christ, and on into eternity. When we read passages like Isaiah chapter 66, or Rev 21, we can clearly see an earthly people abiding in an earthly Jerusalem, at the same time, the "Heavenly Jerusalem" that God brings down from heaven to be the earthly abode for His heavenly people, the Church, who will be ruling and reigning with Christ. These two separate groups of people apparently exist together throughout eternity in the two cities called Jerusalem! One heavenly, and one earthly. This is part of the mystery that only God knows, and until He makes it known to us, we have to believe it by faith. (Deut 29:29, and Heb 11:1, 6)

We encourage you to be like the Bereans as recorded in (Acts 17:11) "And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those of Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth". These two articles are only meant to give you a brief overview of God's involvement with planet earth, and encourage you to search the scriptures for yourself for further details!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp

GOD'S INVOLVEMENT WITH PLANET EARTH (part 1)

In the beginning He created it as part of the universe.

He created Adam and gave him the right to rule over planet earth.

Satan stole this right from Adam when he deceived Eve and caused Adam to disobey God's clear command, and eat the forbidden fruit. Adam thus removed himself from his position as "governor" of earth. Satan then became the legal ruler of planet earth, and remained as "god of this world" until Jesus, the "Second Adam" took it back from him at Calvary.

God chose Abraham to be the father of a holy nation to live on earth as a model nation before the other nations of the world. From his descendants God chose Jacob, a deceiver who God changed into a new man spiritually, and changed his name to "Israel". The descendants of Israel became a great nation under king David, after Saul their first king failed the test of obedience. God never intended for His "chosen people" to be governed by a king. After the deliverance of His people from bondage in Egypt under Moses, He settled them in the "promised land" under Joshua. After that he governed them for many years under appointed judges (governors), who He raised up from among the people. Under the rule of Samuel, the last of the judges, the people demanded a king like the other nations around them. When Samuel reported this to God that the people were rejecting him as ruler over them, God said to Samuel "they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting Me". He then directed Samuel to appoint them a king after first warning them about what a kingdom reign would be like.

David was a man after God's own heart for His people, and would probably have been His choice to follow Samuel as the next judge anyhow, so he became king after Saul. This "kingdom of Israel" continued for years as one united kingdom, until it split into two after Solomon. The Northern kingdom carried the name Israel, but the Southern kingdom named after Judah, one of Israel's sons, was definitely God's choice of the two. Both kingdoms fell to their enemies, Israel to Assyria, and Judah to Babylon, but God allowed Judah to return to the promised land under Ezra and Nehemiah.

God never allowed Israel to return to a great kingdom like they had known under the rule of David. During the rule of the kings following Solomon God continually spoke to His people through various prophets that He raised up and appointed and equipped for this task. Many of them spoke of a coming "Messiah" that would come and restore the kingdom of Israel like they had seen under David. Some of these prophets even referred to this coming Messiah as being the "Son of David", so the people were looking for a king like David had been, who would deliver them from their oppressors. However God had in mind a Spiritual Kingdom, under His Son Jesus, and not some military leader like David. The prophet Nathan had given David a word that is recorded in (2 Sam 7:5-16) that applied to his son Solomon, but also at a much later date to Jesus, who as we know was born to Joseph and Mary, who were both descendants of David. We call this type of prophetic word a "near/far" prophecy, in other words it has a double application. In this case the near application would apply to Solomon, and the far application was to Jesus. So it's no wonder the people, especially the Scribes and Pharisees, who were experts in God's word, couldn't accept and receive Jesus as their Messiah!

Not only was Jesus their promised Messiah, but He was God's "Second Adam" who would regain the rulership of planet earth from Satan. Adam was the first perfect man, created in God's image, and was the "governor" of planet earth until he lost this position by his act of disobedience. Jesus of course was the perfect man to take Adam's place, because He was the only "begotten" Son of God. He was totally God, and totally man, and thus perfectly qualified to take back the control of earth that had been stolen by Satan. This was accomplished on the cross, when He died to pay the price of mankind's sin. We know the "wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23), so the death of Jesus, the perfect man, completely satisfied the demands of our Holy God.

We know from scripture that when Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in the Jordan river, that the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, and settled on Jesus. For the next three and a half years Jesus was filled with the Spirit and did many miracles. On the cross when he "bowed His head and released his spirit", the Holy Spirit left Him and went back to heaven. If He hadn't, Jesus could not have died! After His resurrection, in the upper room with His disciples, Jesus "breathed on them" and they received the Holy Spirit who had been in Jesus for that period when He was performing His ministry on earth. Paul tells us in (Col 2:9) "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body". That's why He told his disciples just before He was arrested that it was absolutely necessary that He go back to heaven so that the Holy Spirit could come to them.(John 16:5-15). We know from reading Acts 2 that He came and filled them with Himself. Today the Holy Spirit of God comes to every believer at the moment of salvation, when they are born into God's family. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians that He is the down payment on our inheritance in the Kingdom of God, that is being reserved up there for us, but will be revealed some day.

When Jesus said He would build His Church, I believe He intended it to be a dwelling place, house, temple, abode etc. for the Holy Spirit on earth. He is God's "Governor" sent to this colony earth, by our King Jesus, who is in heaven at Father's side. We the Church, that He is in the process of building from His present location, are the "Governor's Mansion", if you will, that He lives in here on earth, We are the earthly abode of God, as Paul said in (2 Cor 6:14-18). Some day in our redeemed spiritual bodies, we will abide forever in the "New Jerusalem" sent down from heaven, (Rev 21)

So we see from this "big picture" that earth has always played a important part in God's plan for eternity. All we need to know He has made available to us in His Word. All we have to do is properly interpret it at face value, asking the indwelling Holy Spirit to help us!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp

INCARNATIONAL CHRISTIANITY

This is a relatively new term to me, but coming just after we have celebrated the incarnation of Jesus for another year, I think I know what it means. When Jesus left His place in heaven to become the babe in Mary's womb, this to me was the greatest miracle that ever could be! Our Creator God becoming flesh and blood, in order to put a face on God, so to speak, that we might see what our invisible [to the human eye] God is really like, we call the "incarnation". Paul explains this process in (Phil 2:5-8), where in the NLT verse 6-7 we read "Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine plivileges, He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being when He appeared in human form". And after Jesus had completed the work of redemption, by dying for our sins on the cross, he made provision for us to become the physical "body" to take His place on this planet. He said He would send the Holy Spirit to be with us and "in us" (John 14:17).

Thus as I see it, when we receive salvation by the act of recognizing we are sinners, confessing our sin. and receiving Jesus as our personal Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our life. He is the one who never leaves us, and therefore wherever we go and whatever we do, we are the incarnation of Christ. When we read the book of Ephesians where Paul describes the Church that Jesus said He would build, we should see that we are the body of Christ on planet earth. Our head is Jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, and we are His body. This is a tremendous privilege and responsibility, to be His "ambassadors", or representatives on planet earth!

I recently read a book by Jerry Cook called "The Monday Morning Church", in which he stresses this point that we are the Church not only on Sunday morning when we "go to church", but every day of the week! When are we ever going to wake up and realize that what we have seen and experienced as "church" in our Western society is nothing like what Paul describes in his NT letters? I recently read an article by Wolfgang Simson in which he made the following statement "Church as we know it is preventing Church as God wants it". I don't know brother Simson personally but I sure agree with this statement. I think Jerry Cook would also agree with it as he describes the changes that will be necessary to become the Monday Morning Church. In the introduction to his book Jerry uses a term "strategic placement", by which he means God has placed each one of us in certain places "to be the presence of Christ that opens the door for His revelation as Savior to an unbelieving world". Isn't that what this being a follower of Jesus is all about? This is what I would consider "Incarnational Christianity"! Just some food for thought!

Sincerely submitted
Gramp