THE IMMOVABLE MAN

The Immovable Man

The apostle Paul made a profound statement in (Acts 20:24) "But none of these things move me: Nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." (NKJV). We can safely refer to Paul as the "immovable man", not only on the basis of this one statement, but when we consider everything he endured for the sake of the gospel. In (2 Cor 11:16-33) we can read the account of the many trials and tribulations he went through while taking the gospel message to the Gentile world. When you read through the book of Acts, in nearly every city he visited spreading the gospel, he was followed by a band of fanatical religious Jews from Jerusalem, accusing him of teaching wrong doctrine. They had rejected the teaching of Jesus, and had Him killed by the Romans, because He was upsetting their religious traditions! Jesus came to put an end to the Jewish religion of the day, not to start a new religion! Of course they couldn't understand this because God had caused a spiritual blindness to come upon them, causing their unbelief.

Once Paul, who was then called Saul, met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was never the same man. He was converted, and then prayed for by a humble disciple named Ananias, to receive his sight back, and be baptized both in water and the Holy Spirit, (Acts 9:1-19) He never forgot this experience, and often shared it, even before kings and rulers. In many of his letters to the churches he had planted, he referred to opposition he had faced. For example in (Phil 1:12-26), and in (2 Tim 4:9-18) we read about some of the ones who spoke against him, and abandoned him in the end of his ministry. In spite of all this, he always ended his letters with a positive word of affirmation and kind regards to all his co-workers and friends. Even his letter to the church in Rome, that he didn't start, and had never even visited, he closed the last chapter with a personal word of greeting to some twenty-five people. This is amazing to me, and only adds to the many positive attributes of this servant of Christ, who we freely call "The Immovable Man"!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

THE BIBLE (in a nutshell)

THE BIBLE (In a nutshell)

The Bible is a very special book, because it is the Word of God, the Creator of the universe and all it contains. It is composed of two divisions, or covenants, known as the Old Testament, and the New Testament. They are clearly divided by the ministry of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the coming to earth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This can be seen in (Matt 11:7-15), where Jesus explains John's ministry as the greatest of the OT prophets, but being less than the least member in the NT in the Kingdom of God. An understanding of this basic division into these two Testaments is so important because of the introduction of a teaching by C I Scofield in 1909 which claimed that all of human history is divided into seven divisions called "dispensations". This teaching has become known as "dispensionalism", and has had a tremendous influence on the church since then. The divisions were 1/ Innocence, 2/ Conscience, 3/ Human Government, 4/ Promise, 5/ law, 6/ Church, 7/ Kingdom. Each division was thought to finish before the next one could start, hence the confusion between 5 and 6, and between 6 and 7, because they clearly overlap. The Kingdom came to earth with King Jesus, over 2000 years ago, and the church age only began after He ascended back to heaven. The Kingdom will not be fully manifested until Jesus comes again in Glory, but it is certainly present on earth today. I prefer to believe the words of Jesus as recorded in scripture, over the theories of any man such as Dr, Scofield!

The OT starts with the creation story in Genesis "in the beginning", no one but God knows when that was. Once the earth was ready to sustain life, He caused plants to be added to it, then animals of all sorts, and finally, about 6000 years ago, He created the first man after His own image and likeness. After this first man Adam disobeyed the one and only direct command given to him by God, (Gen 2:15-17), and sin was introduced to his perfect environment. This sin spread throughout Adam's descendants until the earth became so wicked that all life had to be destroyed. All except Noah and his immediate family (Gen 6:9-9:29), because Noah was a "righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at that time" (NLT).Then God chose the family of a man called Abram to become His chosen Nation. God changed his name to Abraham, and his grandson Jacob had his name changed to Israel, and became the father of the nation Israel, who became God's People. They were given the task of setting an example before their wicked Gentile neighbor nations, of what God expected. Of course they failed many times to live up to God's commands, and He sent them prophets to warn them of the danger of disobedience. When they failed to listen to the words of these prophets, He would use these Gentile nations to take them into bondage. The rest of the OT gives us the history of His dealings with His People, and the promise of a Messiah, who would deliver them from both natural and spiritual bondage!

The NT begins with the coming to earth of Jesus, the Son of God, who always existed in heaven as part of the Godhead, which we refer to as "The Trinity". The four gospel writers give a good coverage of His life, death, burial, and resurrection. Then the book of Acts tell of his Ascension back to heaven where He will remain at the Father's side "until" He decides its time to send Jesus back to receive His "Bride", the Church that the Holy Spirit came to call out of the world. (Acts 3:19-21) Jesus told His followers what the Holy Spirit would do when He came to take His place on planet earth (John chapters 14, 15, and 16). The book of Acts gives the history of how the Church that Jesus said He would build (Matt 16:18) is being built by the Holy Spirit, as He carries out the will of Jesus who remains at His place at the Father's side. The various letters of Paul and others, give us the instructions the Church should follow, to prepare for the second coming of Jesus to receive His Bride who has made herself ready! (2 Cor 7:1). Then the book of Revelation wraps up this age of grace by recording a series of visions that Jesus gave to the apostle John, who also wrote the fourth gospel, plus three short letters. Remember it is a series of separate visions, and can not be taken as a chronological book like Acts. In other words, the chapters don't necessarily follow each other in a logical order. However a careful reading of this final book of the Bible, with the enlightening of the Holy Spirit who helped John write it, will allow you to understand how it all ends. This will require a "face value" interpretation of God's Word, and not some man made theories.

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

IN THE BEGINNING

IN THE BEGINNING

This phrase occurs twice in the Bible, in both the Old Testament, and the New. "In the beginning God created the heavens (plural) and the earth (singular)" (Gen 1:1), and "In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." (John 1:1-5) Then in verse 14 we read "So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness, and we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son." This Word, of course was Jesus, who came to earth to be our Savior. We know that every thing must have a beginning, and also an end, and Jesus declared in (Rev 1:8) "I am the Alpha and the Omega--the beginning and the end----". So from these few verses from God's Word we can see what is meant by this expression, "In the beginning". No one knows when this beginning occurred except God!

Then when we read in (John 14:6) the words of Jesus "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me" we realize that this simple statement is absolutely true! We live in a so-called "Post Modern" world, and one of the foundational statements they believe, and promote is "There are no absolutes". They have developed a theory of "Relativism", which assumes there is no absolute truth, and everyone can live by whatever they consider to be true. In other words, when it comes to matters of morality, or ethics, since there are no absolutes, every one can do whatever they consider to be right in there own eyes. That is why we see the world in its present condition! That's why people need Jesus to become Lord of their life, because He alone is "Absolute Truth"!! One of the key words in the post-modern philosophy is "tolerance", they treat it as their god. They expect everyone to be tolerant to the views of others, since they believe there are no absolutes. But they show little, or no tolerance to followers of Jesus, who believe the Bible, and know Jesus is "The Truth"!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

Resurrection Sunday 2009

RESURRECTION SUNDAY 2009

Today we will be celebrating Easter Sunday again, when we remember the sacrificial death of Jesus, our Savior. This is really the highlight of the year for the church, when all eyes are focused on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Good Friday rallies have been very memorable times in the past, when the Saint John Ministerial sponsors a combined rally in one of the larger church sanctuaries in town, but Sunday morning has always been the most important day of all.

In the past few years I find more and more attention given to "chocolate bunnies" and "Easter eggs", and very little given to the story of Jesus. This has become more frustrating to me each year! How did the church ever fall into this completely non-scriptural tradition? It seems there was a pagan holiday that always occurred in the early spring, when all of nature was starting to come back to life after lying dormant over the winter months. The god called "Estar", who they believed was the god of "fertility", was worshipped at this time of year, and because it was always near the date of "Passover", it seems the church gradually chose this pagan holiday to celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. This would account for the emphasis on eggs and bunnies, since they represent signs of "fertility".

Maybe 2009 could be the year that Christians rose up and refused to use the term "Easter", which is taken from the pagan fertility god named Estar, and start to use the term "Resurrection Sunday". This is certainly a scriptural term, and loaded with powerful meaning for us believers. This word is found in many scriptures like (Acts 23:6), where Paul used it to bring confusion between the Pharisees who believed in a resurrection, and the Sadducees who didn't. The word is taken from the Greek word [anastasis] which means, standing up again, restoration to life, or rising from the dead. It seems to me that "Resurrection Sunday" is a much more appropriate name for the most important day on the Christian calendar, than Easter Sunday!

How do you think we could go about redeeming this day from the pagans and making it into the "Holy Day" that it should be, instead of a day to honor some ancient fertility god? If anyone has a good idea how we could do this, maybe you can contact me. Let's strive to make it a day to honor and respect the memory of our Savior who deserves our best!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

A NO-NAME DAY

A NO-NAME DAY

Today is Saturday April 11, 2009, the day between Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. Some one has said "Today is Friday, but Sunday is coming!". Those are two important days on the calendar for the Christian! The day Jesus died to pay the price for our sins, and redeem us to a place of fellowship with God our heavenly Father, and the third day after, when Jesus rose victoriously from the tomb! One of my favorite hymns is "Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o'er His foes---". But this day in between is a day of waiting, a no-name day, so to speak, but still a very important day for us. A day to mediate on yesterday, when personally, Dora and I were led to go to a service at Smithtown Baptist Church at 11:00 AM. This was a very simple service comprised of scriptures featuring the words of Jesus on the cross. They were read, with comments on them, by teen age young people together with their pastor, plus the singing of several appropriate hymns. The manifest presence of the Lord was clearly evident, proving that He was well pleased with the service!

Today is also a day to prepare our hearts for tomorrow, Resurrection Sunday. I prefer that to the term Easter Sunday, because of how the world has perverted Easter, by making it a celebration of "eggs, and bunnies". What have these to to do with the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ from the tomb? Absolutely nothing!! Easter is simply a Pagan celebration, recognizing spring as the time of year when nature comes back to life, so to speak, and hence the reference to eggs and bunnies. It was brought into church traditions during the "dark ages" of church history, along with many other pagan customs, because it overlapped with the celebration of Christ's resurrection. It has become a very profitable commercial time for stores selling candy and flowers, as have Valentine's Day, and many other days. It's a shame that Christians have fallen into the world's pattern of worshiping these days, and sort of worshiping the god of "mammon" (Matt 6:24), and leaving out Jesus, who should be our central focus in this season! The same thing has happen with Christmas, where Jesus is no longer the central figure of our celebrations, but has been replaced by Santa Clause! It's probably time for us followers of Jesus to rise up in protest!

Sincerely submitted

Dave Jamer

WHO REALLY KILLED JESUS

WHO REALLY KILLED JESUS?

Today is "Good Friday" (April 10,2009), the day we remember Jesus dying on the cross on a hill called mount Calvary over 2000 years ago. There has been much discussion through the years, trying to figure out who was to blame for the death of this innocent man. Many people, or groups of people, have been mentioned as the culprits. Some people believe it to be the "Jews" as a nation, because they rejected Him as their King. Others would say it was just their religious leaders who hated Him for showing the hypocrisy in their religious traditions, and paid Judas to betray Him to the Romans. Then of course some would say Pilate, who knew He was innocent, but went along with the crowd and consented to having Him beaten and then crucified. Still others would say it was the Roman soldiers who actually drove the nails and pierced His side who killed Jesus. I suppose all of these mentioned could be partly to blame, but not more than you and I, whose sin that we inherited from Adam, was the real reason why He came from Heaven to this sin cursed earth, to "reverse the curse" than Adam introduced to humanity by his act of disobedience to a direct command from God. (Rom 5:12).

But recently I have come to see that none of these above named individuals really killed Jesus, although indirectly we all had a part in His death. It really was Father God who killed His one and only begotten Son, as the only person worthy to be the sacrifice that would atone for our debt to Almighty God the Creator! (John 3:16) tells us that God loved us "So much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." This verse along with many others, make it clear that even before Jesus "became a human and dwelt among us" (John 1:14) the decision was made in heaven by the members of the Triune Godhead that Jesus would be the one to volunteer to become the "Lamb of God" who would take away the sin of the world by paying the price for all the sins of mankind! (Phil 2:5-11). This is how God proved His love for us, and should be on our minds as we take part in church services this weekend!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

THE LOVE OF GOD

THE LOVE OF GOD

I was impressed by a devotional thought in ODB (Our Daily Bread) on Mar 4th, 2009. The author quoted the words of an old hymn by this name, which you might be familiar with.

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made.

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky."

The author of these lyrics was probably influenced by the words of Paul's prayer to the Ephesian church, as recorded in (Eph 3:14-21), especially verses 18-19 "And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." NLT. Some Bible scholars believe "width" means its world wide scope (John 3:16), "length" its existence through all ages (Eph 3:21), "height" its victory over sin, opening the way to heaven (Eph 4:8), "depth" its profound wisdom (Rom 11:33). When we consider carefully the scope of these above mentioned words, truly this love of God is far beyond our understanding! Love like this cannot be explained, it can only be experienced! John was know as the "Apostle of love" because he wrote so much about it. Besides (John 3:16), which is probably the best known verse in the Bible, he also wrote three letters that were full of references to love. For example in (1 John 4:7-21) you can count between 25 and 30 uses of some form of the word love, depending on what version of the Bible you use! Then in (Rom 5:5) we read "---for we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love"! I trust you are presently experiencing this "love of God"! If not--why not?

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

WORSHIPING IDOLS

WORSHIPING IDOLS

There is a very interesting passage in Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth from chapter 10 we read in (1 Cor 10:14) "So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols." I can hear you thinking, well that doesn't apply to us followers of Jesus living in Canada! Maybe it might apply to pagans over in Africa, or East Asia somewhere, but surely not here in our civilized Western culture. I suggest you read this chapter over again slowly and really hear Paul's heart, he covers a lot of important issues. First he reminds us about what we should learn from Israel's experiences recorded in the OT. Then he talks about eating meat offered to idols, that was offered at a discounted price in the markets. He also includes a discussion about how they celebrated the "Lord's Supper", and how behind every idol is a demon, and he warned them about the danger of worshiping demons.

I recently read somewhere "An idol is anything that takes the place of God". Think about that statement for a few minutes, and consider carefully if we haven't been guilty of doing that. That word "anything" could include some "stuff", like material possessions you have accumulated, or perhaps people like parents, children or best friends, special food you like, or an endless number of other things. You probably haven't considered the possibility of there being a demon behind some of these! If Paul is correct in this statement, we should give this matter our prayerful consideration. We know from scripture that Satan hates God because he got cast out of the third heaven where God dwells, when he rebelled against God's divine will. (Isa 14:12-17). Since he is powerless to do anything directly against God, he takes out his wrath against God's children. His kingdom of darkness includes millions of demons and fallen angels, which he employs against the members of God's family. The demons are earth bound creatures, while the fallen angels still have access to the heavenlies, or the second heaven, but not to the third heaven where God dwells. Paul gives us direction in (2 Cor 10:3-6), and also in (Eph 6:10-18) how to do battle against these forces of darkness. Let us take encouragement from God's Word!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer