HEAVENLY PROTOCOL

HEAVENLY PROTOCOL

 

For those of us who never lived in a culture that contains masters and slaves, we have a hard time understanding the idea of "protocol". It means there is a proper way to address people, and an improper way. As I understand it, you must never speak to, or give orders to a slave! You always speak to the master, and he in turn gives the orders to the slave to carry out your request. This sounds logical when it comes to earthly situations, but how can we understand it when we consider events in heaven?  Here we face the mystery of the Godhead, which we call the "Holy Trinity", Or "Three in One". God is certainly only One, Who has chosen to reveal Himself in three ways, for us to better understand Him. With our finite minds it is near impossible to understand the "Infinite"! As near as I can understand it, they are all equal in essence, but different in function. The Father as the Source of all things is Spirit, and is invisible. (John 4:24) The Son is the visible image of the invisible God! (Col 1:16, 2:9). The Holy Spirit is of course invisible too, but His role seems to that of a servant or  "Slave", to the Father/Son who we can consider the "Master". This may not be a proper analogy, but when I read scriptures like (John 16:13-15), that is the picture I come up with.

 

With that in mind, and the limited knowledge I have about the relationship of a slave to his master, it seems to me that a heavenly protocol would demand that we never speak directly to either the Holy Spirit, or angels! Yet I'm aware of many Charismatic believers who do both! You read testimonies of people being transported to heaven and talking to angels, and even giving them commands. I have often heard well meaning believers commanding the Holy Spirit to do things, like "come" or to pour out "more" of the Spirit on certain people. This sort of thing opens the door to spirits of darkness, in my opinion. Read (2 Cor 11:12-15) carefully and consider the warning given by Paul. Derek Prince declares that any spirit you can give orders to is not the Holy Spirit, but must be a counterfeit spirit, or demon operating under orders from Satan! We are warned many times in scripture to be aware that many false prophets will be sent by our enemy in these last days to deceive many! For example hear what Jesus said in (Matt 24:4, 5, 11, 24), and we should believe Jesus because "He is the truth"! Right? So let us beware of the danger of deception, and heed scriptures like ( 1 John 4:1) or (1 Thess 5:21-22) because we are certainly in the last days!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

THE PHARISEES

THE PHARISEES

 

I have often wondered why Jesus was so hard on the group of Jews known as the Pharisees. (see Matt 23:1-36). Recently I read some of the history that explained how this religious group got started. They were the descendants of a Godly family of priests named Maccabees, who for over 200 years before Jesus came to earth fought for the scriptural standards against the paganism of the day. The word Pharisee actually means "the separate", representing their stand for righteousness against the onslaught of paganism. Apparently this concept of separation eventually made then aloof and self-righteous toward their fellow man. They were experts at interpreting the Law of Moses, yet when Jesus came in fulfillment of OT scriptures, they were unable to realize who He was because of their spiritual pride.

 

Before we level too much criticism against them, we better give some thought to the body of believers in the church today. There are some people today that have been labeled as "Fighting Fundies" because of their stand for what they consider the fundamentals of the faith. They can be compared to the Pharisees in certain ways. Because of their stand against what they consider "Liberalism", they tend to become aloof, and proud of their position, so they often miss the new things God could be doing. When the Magi from the East came to Jerusalem asking about where the new king was to be born, they told them that Bethlehem was the place. Because of their knowledge of OT scriptures they knew the Messiah was to be born there, but never bothered to check it out for them selves although Bethlehem was only 6 miles from Jerusalem. This is so typical of church members today, they may hear of some new thing God has been revealing to His people, but fail to check it out. They believe they already have the final word from God based on their understanding of scripture. A brief study of church history will reveal many cases of this very thing happening in the past. So as followers of Jesus today, we need to check out carefully any reports of new things, but heed (1 Thess 5:21). Jesus warned us about the danger of being deceived (Matt 24:4, 5, 11, 24). We need spiritual discernment as well as knowledge of scripture. The Pharisees had a knowledge of the OT scriptures, but were blinded by their pride, and missed the coming of the greatest gift ever given to mankind, that tiny babe in the manger, Emmanuel, Jesus the only begotten Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

INCARNATIONAL CHRISTIANITY

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". And after Jesus had completed the work of redemption, by dying for our sins on the cross, he made provision for us to be 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?  Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

THE INCARNATION

THE INCARNATION

At this time of year when we celebrate the coming to earth of Jesus Christ, in a time we call "Christmas", our minds are drawn to the miracle of what we call "the incarnation". In the writings of the apostle Paul, we find several passages that pertain to this event. (Phil 2:5-11) is one of my favorite scriptures pertaining to the first coming of Jesus to our planet, and (Gal 4:4-7) is another. But first we should look at (Luke 1:26-38), where we read of the coming to Mary of the Archangel Gabriel, with the news that she had been favored by God for the task of being the human instrument through whom the Savior of the world would take on human form! Most of us learn quite early in life how the human reproduction system works. It requires a female to produce an egg at a certain point in her monthly cycle, which must then be fertilized by a male at the right time in order to achieve conception. In Mary's case, at the correct time in her monthly cycle, she was "overshadowed" by the Holy Spirit, and the child conceived in her womb was truly the Son of God. This was one of the greatest miracles of all time!

The way Paul described this miracle event in (Phil 2:5-11) is "awesome!" The first part of the chapter describes how we should relate to other members in the body of Christ by putting others ahead of ourselves. He uses Jesus as our example of humility. Let me quote verses 5-7 from the Amp version "Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus—let Him be your example in humility—who although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained; but stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity] so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being."

That is what Christmas is all about!! Is it any wonder that the world system and other world religions, do not want us to celebrate Christmas as the birthday of the Savior Jesus Christ? They do not believe in Jesus, and don't want to be reminded of His coming in the "fullness of time", born of a virgin, so that He could fulfill all the scriptures from the Old Testament prophets, who told about His supernatural birth. Let's do all we can do to keep this true message of Christ in Christmas this year, and every year until He comes again for His second appearance!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

TIGER'S FALL

TIGER'S FALL

 

The news reports have been full of stories of Tiger Woods lately, and his fall from the pedestal people had placed him on. He was a real sports "idol" to many, truly one of the world's best golfers, and probably the richest! At last count seven women have come forward to confess that they had all been involved sexually with him since the scandal started, and who knows how many more may join their ranks? What can we followers of Jesus learn from all this exposure about these disclosures?

 

I suppose the first thing we might note is how many times scripture warns about worshiping "idols" of any sort. It seems we love to make idols out of sports figures that have developed their skills in any given sport, without bothering to checkout their character! I would think Tiger would certainly be a case in point. He may have attracted various big name sponsors, who have been willing to invest large sums of money for the right to use his name to advertise their particular products, but what happens to them now? Will they withdraw their support, and apologize to the public for their part in promoting an adulterer? I doubt it!

 

We in the body of Christ have been guilty in the past of doing this very same thing. We have promoted certain people who seem to be gifted as an evangelist, or someone used by God in ministry in some unusual way, and lifted them up and placed them on a pedestal. Only to find out, perhaps months or years later that they have been living a "double life"! I won't mention any by name, but we can all think of several such cases in the past few years. Our track record as the "church" in this regard has not been good, and shows a critical lack of proper discernment! When are we going to learn that you can't judge a man by his gifting, but only by his character? Jesus said we can tell a person by the fruit showing in their lives. Our job is not to be judges, or even policemen, to check up on people to see how they live, but to simply be "fruit inspectors". We should all be able to do that, and report back to Jesus whenever we see some bad fruit that might contaminate our brothers and sisters in the family of God. We should do thus, instead of spreading rumors throughout the church about the results of our inspection, based on scriptures like (Gal 5:22)! I'm sure the world would be a better place if we could just discipline ourselves to do that.

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

a brief overview of end times

AN OVERVIEW OF THE END TIME

 

As most of you know I have changed my position regarding the rapture, from the popular "Pretrib" to the "Prewrath" position of the timing of the return of Christ to rapture His Church. This change has been a process for me, extending over several years. For most of my years as a follower of Jesus, the Pretrib was the only position I was familiar with. Then I realized that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ were already going through extreme persecution equal to that described in scripture as the "great tribulation". That started my search for the truth of what this rapture of the church was all about. I reasoned that we believers in the NA church were not going to escape persecution from the Antichrist by an "any moment" secret rapture, while much of the church is already going through their great tribulation. About that time, nearly 10 years ago, a friend gave me his book by Robert Van Kampen called "The Sign". In it I saw an interpretation of common end time scriptures with a completely new understanding.

 

First of all, I realized Jesus will remain in heaven with His Father "until" certain events take place. (Ps 110:1) That erased the teaching of an "any moment", or imminent rapture from the equation. Then I understood from (2 Thess 2:1-4) that Jesus will not return before the "man of lawlessness" reveals himself. That took care of the theory of a Pretrib rapture. Then I came to understand that the wrath of Satan through the Antichrist, and the Wrath of God are two separate events. Indeed, God will use the tribulation of the Antichrist to purify the church in preparation for the rapture of the true believers who refuse to accept his mark. The rapture will actually end the tribulation when Jesus returns in clouds of Glory! Read (Matt 24:21-22) without your Pretrib glasses on, and see how Jesus explains this. It is the time of great tribulation that He will shorten, not the 7 year period known as "Daniel's Seventieth Week"! This rapture will occur sometime after the mid point of the 7 year period when the Antichrist reveals himself.(Daniel 9:20-27) The remainder of the 7 year period will be used for God to pour out His Wrath on the unrighteous that are left behind. (Rev 15:5-16:27). Then the remnant of the Nation of Israel, who has been protected by God, will be dealt with as described by Daniel in chapter 12. Especially note the extra 30+45 days added to the 1260 days, which is the last half of the 7 year period. This time is especially for the remaining remnant of the Jewish nation, to prepare them for the millennium, during which they will be God's earthly flesh and blood people on earth. At this time the redeemed family of God who have been temporarily in their heavenly abode, will be transported down from heaven to earth as the "New Jerusalem" (Rev 21)

 

This is only a very brief overview of what I have come to understand the scriptures teach about the end times that we are now entering. This has only come about as I have asked the Lord to reveal to me what the writers of scripture meant to convey to us the reader, and ignore what I had been taught by some theories of man! Remember this is only my brief outline, arrived at by my study of scripture over the years, and is certainly open to further changes or correction by the Holy Spirit.

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

SUMMARY

THE SUMMARY

 

Some authors close their books with a last chapter called a "summary", or perhaps "epilogue", or just "last words". As I understand it, the meaning of all of these words is more or less the same thing. They are trying to sum up the intended content of their book in one brief chapter. I have recently been spending some time in the book of Revelation, and consider it to be God's summary of His book, the Holy Bible. I often refer to the Bible as the "Manufacturer's Manual", and compare it to the manual that always comes in the dash of a new car. This manual gives you all the information you need to operate this car properly, in order to obtain "optimum performance" from it throughout the life of the vehicle. I see Revelation as God's attempt to sum up the entire content of His book in one chapter. In (Rev 1:3) from the NLT we read "God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and He blesses all who listens to the message and obeys what it says, for the time is near". My question is why do we not do that? The reasons are varied I'm sure, because many false prophecies and strange doctrines have been birthed from its pages, by people with a natural mind. And Paul has a word for these people in (1 Cor 2:14). But we shouldn't allow the actions of a few so-called prophets, or people with weird interpretations of parts of Revelation, to keep us from taking advantage of the truth it contains.

 

Revelation is not a book like Acts, which can be read in a chronological fashion, because Acts is like a history book, but Revelation is a series of prophecies or visions given by Jesus to His servant John.

(Rev 1:1-2) These visions often overlap, and are sometimes like different views of the same event. Therefore the chapters do not follow each other in the normal way! This is critical to know, and requires careful study of other scriptures pertaining to the same topic being discussed, and discernment from the Holy Spirit when reading this book. There is such a thing as the gift of the Holy Spirit referred to in (1 Cor 12:10) as the gift of "discerning of spirits". I understand this to be the supernatural power to discern what spirit is behind any type of utterance. Apparently there can be three sources, 1/ The Holy Spirit, 2/ The human spirit of the person involved, or 3/ A demonic spirit from Satan's kingdom. So this gift operating in our churches today could well be the most important of all the spiritual gifts mentioned. Jesus warned us that there would be many false prophets in the last days! (Matt 24:4,5,11,24)

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

FORGIVENESS

FORGIVENESS

 

The Word of God has a lot to say about the act of forgiveness, but there are certain "myths" that have been circulated throughout the church about forgiveness that are not true! I would like to mention a few that come to mind, and comment briefly on them. The first one that is often heard is "Just forgive and forget!", but this is impossible for us to do in the natural. Yes we can forgive the other person who offended us, but to forget about the damage it did to our relationship is a completely different matter. God forgets, or actually chooses to not remember, our sins once they are confessed, but we humans cannot do that. Our memory bank is such that once that offence has been registered in our brain it is there to stay. To forgive requires an act of our will, but the damage has been done to our emotions and recorded in our memory bank. So although we may forgive with our mind, and be very sincere about it, the damage caused to our emotions is not healed, and we may never be able to trust that other person again to have a close trusting relationship.

 

Another thing I consider to be a "myth", is believing that you cannot forgive the guilty party unless, and until they confess their wrong actions, and ask you for forgiveness. Lots of times they are not even aware that their words or actions have offended you. So you could wait for a very long time, and continue to be offended. The important thing to remember is that you are the one who is suffering, so forgiveness will end this. Someone has said that forgiveness is simply "letting go" of the offense, and beaming out forgiveness in the spirit toward the party involved. They are certainly not suffering, if they are not even aware of the incident, but the act of forgiveness will release you from the pain. After all forgiving actually is the act of canceling out the offense, or writing " paid in full" over the record we have been holding! After all, this is what our loving God does with the record of our sins against Him! (Col 2:13-15)

 

In order to accomplish this however, we must first forgive everyone for every sin ever committed against us. (Matt 6:14-15). Then in (Matt 18:21-35) Jesus tells a very important story of the man who owed his master an enormous debt, but his master showed him mercy and forgave the entire debt! Then this man had a friend who owed him a very small debt, and refused to forgive him for it. This man was turned over to the "torturers", or Satan's demons, for not showing mercy to his friend! This is a warning to all of us!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

MESSIAH'S COMINGS

MESSIAH'S COMINGS

 

One of our favorite scriptures that tell of the promised Messiah is (Is 9:6), which we know was fulfilled when Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. When it reads "A child is born to us", this refers to His humanity, or His position as the only perfect man who became the second, or last Adam, (1Cor 15:45). However "A Son is given to us", refers to His "Divinity"! Not only was Jesus the perfect man, but He was also the "God Man" (John 1:14), and Paul declared in (Col 2:9) "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body." NLT. Because of this fact, we know that Jesus is the only person who can "reverse the curse" brought on creation by the disobedience of the first Adam. He is also the only person who is found worthy to open the seals of the scroll in (Rev 5:5).

 

We also know from many scriptures like (Acts 1:11), that this same Jesus that the disciples saw taken up to heaven in the clouds, will come back to earth again, just as they had seen Him go. This disproves the theory of some "secret rapture" that has been made popular by certain books and videos. Jesus will certainly come back to our planet at the time appointed by His Father, to receive a bride who has made herself ready. (Matt 24:36). His appearance will put an end to the period of tribulation by Satan's Antichrist. (Matt 24:21-22). In other words when Jesus says this time will "be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones" NLT, He doesn't mean the 7 year period mentioned by Daniel, but only the period of the persecution by the Antichrist in the last half or 3½ year portion of this time. This will be the time of the "Rapture" that some people expect could happen at any moment, and remove the church and escape the period of tribulation. But a careful examination of all the scriptures pertaining to His return will disprove this theory. It is a very interesting fact that both the Jews and the Muslims are waiting for a coming "Messiah". When this person shows up, who the Bible identifies as the "man of lawlessness" in (2 Thess 2:1-4), other wise know as the Antichrist, these people will be deceived and welcome him as their anticipated Messiah.

 

So in summary, yes Jesus Christ the Son of God who came the first time as a humble babe in the manger in Bethlehem, and died on the cross on Mount Calvary, will come again in the clouds of glory to establish His actual Kingdom on planet earth! One Messiah—Two Comings!!

Sincerely submitted.

DaveJamer

THE ADVENT SEASON

THE ADVENT SEASON

For many centuries church tradition has set aside the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day as the "Advent Season". A time to prepare for the second coming of Christ, by dwelling on the events that surrounded His first coming. According to scripture, God is continually coming to His people, to refresh them by His presence. As part of his second recorded sermon, Peter exhorts the people "Now repent of your sins and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and He will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For He must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through His holy prophets." (Acts 3:19-21) Because of the teaching in church circles about an "any moment" return of Jesus, to rapture the church to heaven before the "great tribulation", that's the first thing they think of when God manifests His presence. According to Peter, His presence is meant to refresh us, for what is to come in the days ahead of us. Jesus must remain in heaven "until" the "restoration of all things" that the Lord promised through the prophets. Only the Father knows when the church has cleansed itself from "everything that can defile our body and spirit" (2 Cor 7:1). Jesus is coming back to earth for a bride who has made herself ready for her groom, Jesus Christ! The church is portrayed as the "new Jerusalem" in the book of Revelation (Rev 21:2, 9-10), which is the way God sees His redeemed people!

So this time of Advent every year, is a time for us to "cleanse" ourselves of anything that could defile us, and cause a separation between us and our Savior. As we wait upon God, He will show us what things we need to repent of, and ask forgiveness for. This is what will bring the presence of God to our lives, and the time of refreshment that Peter spoke about! Once we get beyond the idea of an any moment rapture, and realize what God is up to, our lives will never be the same. Everyone who has studied church history will realize the church has never been ready to be raptured. Actually the church today has been so influenced by the world system, that it's difficult to tell the difference between church members and the people of the world, in their behavior and life style! What will it take to bring the church to the place of sanctification, and holiness before God? Perhaps only a time of intense persecution will do the job. Many parts of the world are already going through this type of persecution, and history proves that the church grows in number, and in quality, in these times! We in North America, know very little about real persecution, except what we read about he church in other lands. Let's use this Advent Season to prepare ourselves for the future!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

WHICH WAY WILL YOU CHOOSE

WHICH WAY WILL YOU CHOOSE ?

 

This is the title to a song I recently heard by Randy Travis, which is taken from the book of Revelation. He describes a future event when we who are still living on planet earth will have to make this important choice! The choice is clearly explained in chapter 13, which describes two beasts who will appear at the start of the last half of the 7 year period spoken of by Daniel, and know as "Daniel's seventieth week". Most Bible scholars agree that this 7 year period describes the last 7 years on earth as we have known it, that Jesus spoke of in (Matt 24:3-36), sometimes referred to as the time of "great tribulation". Many people believe that a Pre-tribulation Rapture will remove the church before this Antichrist (first beast mentioned) appears on the scene. But even a casual reading of (2 Thess 2:1-4) will disprove that theory, and clearly show us that the church will still be here at that time.

 

So the all important choice at that time will be, will we choose to receive the mark of Antichrist, and be able to buy and sell, or will we choose to be true to Jesus and refuse to worship the "man of lawlessness". It would seem that once he shows his true colors at the mid point of this 7 year period, and demands the world to worship him as god; that is the beginning of the real time of tribulation. His wrath will be extended toward the church and the Jewish Nation, until the time of persecution is "cut short" by the return of Jesus in the clouds of glory. (Matt 24:21-22). At this time the rapture of the true church, that has made herself ready, (2 Cor 7:1) will take place, and immediately the bowls of the Wrath of God will start to be poured out on the remaining ungodly crowd whose names were not recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. (Rev 16). This will include all those who have taken the mark of the beast (Rev 13:5-10)!

 

So you can see how important the proper choice will be at this critical time. A choice to refuse the mark, and be able to buy and sell as usual, will result in being persecuted by the Antichrist forces, and possibly dying as a martyr. On the other hand to take the mark may buy you a bit of freedom from the wrath of the Antichrist for a brief time, but will result in spending eternity in hell with Satan and his kingdom of darkness! I trust you will search the scriptures, like the believers of Berea did and see if these things are so!

(Acts 17:11) This will probably be the most important decision of your life!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS

CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS

I recently heard a definition for "ambassadors" that gives new meaning to (2 Cor 5:20) from which the title for this article is taken. The dictionary tells us an ambassador is "a diplomatic agent of highest rank" or a representative of one country to another in the world. The new definition I heard was that an ambassador is really "the embodiment" of the country they represent! Try to wrap your mind around that thought for a few minutes!! As you probably know an ambassador's living expenses are totally taken care of by the government of the country they represent. Their housing, travel, meals, children's education, etc. Read (Matt 6:25-34) again with this thought in mind! Remember you are reading the words of the King of the Kingdom that you and I represent, right? We are ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, of which Jesus Christ our Savior is the King!!

This concept of a kingdom has been replaced in our world by other forms of government. For most of us that would be some form of democracy, or a republic. Even most church forms of government have taken on the idea of a democracy, or a government of the people for the people. This was never God's plan; in fact it is the complete opposite of a kingdom concept. His plan called for a King or supreme ruler with delegated authority given to certain people, through whom He could govern His kingdom. Every world kingdom or empire before the Roman Empire came into power used the same technique when they conquered an enemy nation. They subdued the nation, dispersed the people from their homeland, and often took prisoners back to their capital city. Daniel and his three friends are an example of this concept under the Babylonian Empire of their day. However Rome set up their empire under a kingdom concept, they left the people in their homeland and appointed governors in every conquered nation, to govern the people. Pilot in the time of Christ would be an example of this kingdom concept of delegated authority, answerable to the Roman Caesar as king. Because of this Roman influence God chose that time for Jesus to come to earth and introduce the Kingdom of God. (Gal 4:4) As ambassadors of Christ we have been chosen by Almighty God to be His delegated representatives on Planet earth, the "embodiment" of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. That is a truth to meditate on!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

PREDESTINATION

PREDESTINATION

This is a word you don't hear used much lately, but once it was used a lot by a certain group of believers. They were known as "Calvinists" and were followers of John Calvin, who first made this term popular. He had formulated a doctrine based on an understanding that certain people were destined to be "saved", while others were destined to be "damned". His followers used an acrostic TULIP to explain their doctrine. The T stood for Total depravity, the U for Unconditional security, The L for Limited atonement, the I for Irresistible grace, and the P for the Perseverance of the saints. This doctrine is directly opposed to several scriptures that come to mind, such as (1 John 2:2), (1 Tim 2:2-4), and (2 Peter 3:9).

To understand predestination, we must first understand the "foreknowledge" of God. Read (Rom 8:29-30) in the NKJV "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first of many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined , those He also called; whom He called, those He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." This is a very important scripture, along with (1 Peter 1:1-2), and (Eph 1:3-5), where we can easily see that because God knows everything, He knew even before we were born who would come into His family, and who would not. Read (Rev 13:8) and you will see that the names of those who choose to follow Jesus, the Lamb of God, had their names written in a book in heaven even before the world was created! Talk about the foreknowledge of God! Our finite minds cannot begin to comprehend this truth! And yet mere man with our limited ability to understand spiritual things, come up with all kinds of theories that have been presented to the church over the years as true doctrines.

All humans from Adam through to us in the twenty first century, have all been given a free will, with which to make choices. Our choices may be good choices, or bad choices, but we are responsible for them all! God didn't want a race of "robots" that He could program to love and obey Him, or always make right choices, so He gave us a free will. He also gave us His Holy Spirit to indwell us to help us make the right choices, if we will only trust Him to direct us!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

THE DNA OF GOD

THE DNA OF GOD

God is Spirit, (John 4:24), and cannot be known unless He chooses to reveal Himself. We know He did this in the person of His Son Jesus, when He allowed Him to take on human flesh, and be incarnated as the baby Jesus in the womb of a young virgin maiden over 2000 years ago. As you know every human has a unique DNA that distinguishes us from every other human being on planet earth. God also has a very unique DNA which represents the very essence of His being! In a face to face discussion with God, Moses requested "Show me your glorious presence" (Exod 33:17). In the next chapter we can read the account of how God answered this request of His friend Moses. From chapter 34 of Exodus, depending on the translation you read from, you can find what we could call the seven fold DNA of God. It consists of 1/ Compassion, 2/ Grace, 3/ Slow to anger, 4/ Mercy, 5/ Truth, 6/ Faithfulness, 7/ Forgiveness. All these characteristics are part of the very essence of our Creator God, and are found also in both Jesus Christ, and in the person of the Holy Spirit. Let's look briefly at each of these characteristics.

1/ Compassion—(Strongs #7439, #3628) It is pity or empathy, inward affection, and tender mercy. Compassion means my insides are moved toward you in a supernatural way! (Luke 15:20)

2/ Grace—(Strongs #2587, #5485) This is one of the most beautiful words in Hebrew. It means to find favor, kindly, friendly, benevolent, courteous, disposed to show or dispense grace, and forgive offences, or to impart unmerited blessings. (Neh 9:17)

3/ Slow to anger—(Strongs #639, #750, #3115) It means not being easily provoked and able to bear injuries, longsuffering, forbearance, or patience. (Num 14:18), (James 1:19)

4/ Mercy—(Strongs #2617, #1656) Mercy is mildness and tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook injuries or to treat the other offender better than they deserve. (Num 14:18), (Luke 6:36)

5/ Truth—(Strongs #571, #225) Truth is conformity with fact or reality; exact accordance with that which is, has been, or shall be. Jesus said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

6/ Faithfulness—(Strongs #2617, #4103) The Greek word means fixed, determined love, to be kept, guarded, watched over, and preserved. This is covenantal faithfulness. (Deut 7:9), (Heb 13:8)

7/ Forgiveness—(Strrongs #5375), (#5746) This word means pardoning, remitting, disposed to forgive, inclined to overlook offences, mild, merciful, and compassionate as a forgiving temperament. (Ps 51:1-3), (Matt 6:12)

 

When ever we think of Almighty God our heavenly Father, we should realize that He is all these character qualities rolled into one, so to speak, and Jesus the Son is exactly like Him, and is certainly worthy of our praise and worship!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

The Radical Relocation of God

THE RADICAL  RELOCATION OF GOD

 

The basis for this article came from notes I had made at a visit to Saint John by Jerry Cook many years ago. He was contrasting the way God is presented to us in the Old Testament, as opposed to the New Testament. Basically in the OT, God existed outside of human society, and so a religious system consisting of an official Priesthood was necessary, to handle the Tabernacle or Temple where sacrifices were offered to this "distant" God. This OT God was not considered to be someone you could come to know personally, in fact He was considered to be so awesome and holy that they would not even mention Him by name. Some people think that the OT is now obsolete and not to be considered as being important to us today, but that is not correct! It was not wrong, but only incomplete, so God introduced the NT!

 

God has always wanted to have an intimate relationship with us humans. Just think of how He came down in the cool of the evening and visited with Adam and Eve in the garden. (Gen 3:8) But Adam's disobedience brought sin into the picture, and changed everything! (Rom 5:12) God's plan of redemption was then put into motion, so that this relationship could be restored. This involved Jesus the Son of God leaving His place with the Father, to become the baby in Mary's womb. This miracle of the "incarnation", allowed Jesus to take on human flesh, and become the perfect man, "the Lamb of God", whose death on the cross would pay the debt of sin for whoever would receive Him as Savior! In the words of Jerry Cook, our God in "His unlimited dimensional Reality, stepped out of this dimension and into our 3 dimensional realm"! Since Jesus came to earth the first time, we now have a perfect picture of what God is really like. "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body." (Col 2:9) NLT If that is not a "radical relocation", then I don't know what the term means! Then just before Jesus returned to His rightful place at Father's side, He gave some very important instructions to His followers. For example, in (John 14:15-17), He tells them about what the "holy Spirit" will do when He comes to take His place  on earth. In the last of verse 17 He is quoted as saying "He lives with you now and later will be in you." NLT. This is a tremendous truth, the very Presence of God was dwelling with them in the person of Jesus at the time, but shortly after that on the Day of Pentecost, the promised Holy Spirit came to indwell the 120 believers in the upper room. (Acts 2:1-4)!! This the ultimate "radical relocation of God"!!!

Sincerely submitted

Dave Jamer.

THE BRIDE OF CHRIST

THE BRIDE OF CHRIST

 

In a recent series called "The Church From God's Perspective", we mentioned several scriptural names used to describe the Church that Jesus has been in the process of building for some 2000 years. Here is another word used by writers of the NT to try to describe the Church. The problem for most people with using a "Bride" as a word to describe the Body of Christ is our cultural understanding of a bride. We naturally think of a bride as a beautiful young lady in her "prime" years, dressed in white to represent her purity, who has made herself ready to be joined to her groom to become a "one flesh" couple. From this paradigm it is very difficult to imagine a bride as being composed of a "great multitude" of people "from every nation and tribe and people and language" (Rev 7:9)! Then in (Rev 21:9), this completed Church, the "New Jerusalem" is described to John as being the "the bride, the wife of the Lamb"!!

 

It would seem that this has always been the desire of the Father from day one, to have a suitable marriage partner for His Son Jesus. Ever since the first Adam sinned by disobeying the direct command of God in the Garden of Eden, the Father set in motion His plan to remedy this situation. As we described in the other series, this involved establishing a special nation from which the Messiah could be introduced to humanity. This of course required Jesus to take on human form in the womb of Mary, a young virgin maiden from the "chosen people" (Israel), in order to become the "Lamb of God" that would take away the sin of the world. Jesus became the "last Adam" (1 Cor 15:45), who was the perfect man, and the only one who was able to "reverse the curse" brought into creation by the first Adam.

 

Paul was the man God chose to reveal this great mystery about the Church. In his various letters to the early churches we learn what God wants us to know about this mystery. In (Eph 5:25-33), in the context of describing the relationship between husbands and wives, we have a beautiful picture of the Church, "as a glorious Church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault." For those of us who have been associated with various local churches from different denominations, this is almost impossible to imagine! What will God have to do to get us ready for Jesus to come back to receive us as "His Bride"?? How about persecution, or "great tribulation", as a starter?

Sincerely submitted.

DaveJamer