TRUE RICHES

REAL RICHES

 

Jesus had a lot to say about "riches" while here on our planet for some 33 years. Most people think of "money" when they talk about riches, and the more they can accumulate, the richer they think they are. Actually true riches consist of much more than having an abundance of money. We often hear people misquote (1 Tim 6:10), and say that money is the root of all evil. This is not quoting scripture accurately; this verse actually says "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows". NLT. In (Matt 6:24) from the NKJV we read "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Here we hear Jesus speaking, and He uses the word "mammon", which was a common Aramaic word for riches. Since Jesus used it this way, as a word to point out a complete opposite attitude towards God than we should have in regards to riches, we should pay special attention!

 

We have seen many examples of people having an unhealthy love of money in the late financial crisis. Certain CEO's of large corporations have taken huge bonuses from their firms, and then declared bankruptcy for the company, with shareholders losing millions of dollars! This is nothing but pure "greed", which is based on a love of money or mammon, which according to Jesus is not real riches. Real riches are being reserved in heaven for us, and Peter refers to them our "priceless inheritance" (1 Peter 1:4). I believe this to be our part in the "Kingdom of God" that Jesus spoke so much about. We are "born again" when we put our trust in Jesus as Savior, and are adopted by the Father into God's family, (Rom 8:15) and are sealed by the Holy Spirit. (Eph 4:30). But according to (Col 1:13) we are "transferred" into the Kingdom, which apparently is not the same as being "born" into His family. Our new birth is clearly a gift, and can never be taken from us. It is pure grace, we didn't earn it, and we can't lose it. But our inheritance, on the other hand, is being kept for us in heaven, and our receiving it is dependent on our behavior! (1 Cor 6:9), or (Gal 5:19-21) A clear understanding of this will end the controversy about whether we can, or cannot lose our eternal salvation! No, I don't think we can lose our place in God's family, but we might lose part, or possibly all of our position in His Kingdom depending on how obedient we are to His Word!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

IT IS FINISHED

IT IS FINISHED

 

These were the words uttered by Jesus as He hung on the cross on mount Calvary so many years ago. What exactly did He mean by these last recorded words, as He yielded up the Spirit that had been with Him since His baptism in the river Jordan over 3 years before? This is a key question in my opinion, especially in this "post-modern" age we are living in. It seems to be very difficult to completely finish a certain task, to the place where we can say without hesitation, "it is finished"! At least that has been true in my life's journey. Jesus was able to say to His Father in prayer as recorded in (John 17:4) "I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." This work He referred to was undoubtedly the task of redeeming, or buying back the whole creation, including fallen mankind. In other words "reversing the curse", brought on creation by the first Adam, the curse of sin! In order to accomplish this He had to be a perfect man, as Adam was when God created him. (Gen 1: 26-28). Jesus is called the "last Adam" (1 Cor 15:45) and became the only one ever to exist who was qualified to perform this task. That is how He could boldly declare "it is finished" just before He died on the cross.

 

People living in this post modern age do not believe the Bible is the living and accurate written Word of God. Their motto is "there are no absolutes!" Without a belief in God the Creator of the entire universe, who gave us His "Manufacturer's Handbook" (the Bible) to tell us how we should live, its true everyone could do as they please. But any person in their right mind, using the "common sense" given them by God, can easily see that this creation needed a Creator! Even a casual reading of the first few chapters of the letter Paul wrote to the church in Rome, should confirm this. Paul was a man with a brilliant mind, who was part of the Pharisees, the most religious party in the Jewish culture of the day. After he met Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-20), he was a completely changed man, and was used by God to write much of the NT scriptures. He is a good example to us as present day followers of Jesus. Even in the last part of his life, he was still "pressing on", and declared in (Phil 3:12-16) that he had not yet arrived at the level of perfection he knew God had called him to attain. So let us take encouragement from Paul to press on toward the mark, which is to become fully mature "sons of God" (Rom 8:18-25) that can help to deliver all creation from the curse it is presently under!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

Fwd: Life In Real Time - Steely Resolve

Hi Guys

I thought of you and those precious grand children of ours when I read this!

Blessings.
Gramp

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Life In Real Time <dave@lifeinrealtimeonline.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 3:41 AM
Subject: Life In Real Time - Steely Resolve
To: daveanddora <daveanddora@gmail.com>

Steely Resolve Deuteronomy 30:4(b): "From there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back" (NIV). Observation: God spoke in this passage of restoration. Through Moses, He predicted that Israel would stray even though they were now poised to enter Canaan, their land of promise. But His emphasis in these verses was on their future return to the Lord and their subsequent restoration to their inheritance. He said if Israel would obey the law with their heart and soul, He would restore their fortunes and regather them "even if [they] have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens" (Deut. 30:4a). Application: Today's passage reminds again that the fulness of God inhabits all the pages of His Book. There are among us some who have overlooked love in reading the Old Testament, and who would discard law in the New. From the beginning, God has required both. He demands strict, complete obedience from those who would desire to be His, but He consistently says that His ownership is dependent not just on our rule following, but on the set of our hearts.  He has always sought far more than just my steely resolve to stop breaking His rules. Raw obedience has never been sufficient to achieve intimacy with Him.  Having made me in His image, I should not be surprised that my heart works like His. Remember that parenting episode when you were horrified to realize you had "lost" your child? You corrected one whom you saw walking in increasing disobedience. Earlier infantile petulance had blossomed into more open rebellion. Now, you face a son who increasingly alarms by the friends he runs with, or a daughter who has become too attracted to the provocative fashions of the day. Your pleading and admonitions fall on ears increasingly deaf and a heart sickenly deadened toward your desire for intimacy. Are you to be satisfied by sullen acquiescence from such a child? Of course not. Such hollow commitment is of little comfort. I inherently understand that if the child doesn't wholeheartedly desire to please and obey me, he or she is still lost to me. Deep grieving over lost relationship is unfathomable to such a child, as his heart is walled off from mine.  It matters little that he makes outward pretense of a renewed commitment to break no further rules, but an omniscient God always knows. Obedience is not credited to our account unless it has been led by our heart's devotion to Him, a passionate commitment to loving God above all else. In the end, I must know that God will never be content with my most steely resolve. Only wholehearted devotion satisfies. Prayer: Father, there have been seasons of great resolve in my life, but they were dry and lifeless. Thank You for reminding me of my own life experiences to understand why such resolve alone is so inadequate. • Email to a friend • Thanks so much for reading. I'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to visit my blog and leave a comment or just reply to this email. I look forward to hearing from you. Dave P.S. If you know someone that you believe would be blessed by this message, please feel free to forward this to them.  You can either use the "email to friend" link above, or simply forward this email. Many of these devotionals are available in a beautiful devotional book, A Journey: Life in Real Time.  You can order a copy here. Free Daily Devotionals It's so encouraging to learn that someone is receiving these devotionals because they were forwarded by a friend. I encourage you to forward these to anyone you feel might benefit from them. Recipients will find an easy link they may use in signing up to receive their own emailed devotionals each morning. No cost, ever. To forward to a friend simply use the links at the bottom of the devotional.

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THE CHURCH FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE (part 1)

THE CHURCH FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE (part 1)

 

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the "church", as we have come to know it in my lifetime. I can see clearly that it does not resemble the church we read about in the book of Acts, which must have been the Church Jesus said He will build. (Matt 16:18) I have read books like "Rediscovering God's Church" by Derek Prince, a man I greatly respect as a solid Bible teacher, and enjoyed his outline of what the church should look like. So I have tried to imagine what God had in mind in the very beginning for a family on earth that would show forth to the world a picture of His Kingdom, and how it should function. In this series of articles I will attempt to describe, as best I can, what I think might have been His plan.

 

In (Gen 1:26-28) we read about the creation of Adam, and later God brought forth from Adam's side a mate, so they could be a family and reproduce children. This union of Adam and Eve, as a "one flesh" couple became the very first family, which I consider to be the first picture of a "Church" from His perspective. It seems that God has always wanted a family on planet earth to represent Him and be, as it were, an extension of His Family in heaven, that we refer to as "The Trinity". We know from reading Genesis chapter three that Satan disrupted this plan by introducing sin into this first  human family (Rom 5:12). But God set in motion His plan to "reverse the curse" brought on by this disobedience on the part of Adam and Eve to His direct command to Adam to not eat of the fruit of one tree (Gen 2:16).

 

The first stage of this plan was to establish a family on earth that He would call His "chosen people" (Israel), which started out by calling a man named Abram, to leave his family and country, and journey to a "promised land" that God would show him. God later changed his name to Abraham, and through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, who had his name changed to Israel, He established the nation through which He brought into our world the promised "Messiah". (Gen 3:15)We know from reading the NT scriptures that this promised Messiah was none other than Jesus the Son (John 1:1-14), who became the "last Adam" (1 Cor 15:45), who through His death on the cross accomplished our redemption, by reversing the curse brought on by the first Adam. This curse affected the entire creation (Rom 8:18-25). (To be continued in part 2).

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

Life is a marathon

LIFE IS A MARATHON

 

This journey of life as a follower of Jesus is a marathon, and was never meant to be a series of short "dashes", like 100,or 500 meters! Runners in a marathon must prepare themselves in a different way than those who just plan to compete in the 100 meter dash. I have never competed in a marathon, but have talked to people who have, and understand from them the discipline in training that is required. As we read the writings of Paul, we can see how often he refers to preparing for the spiritual race we are all called to run as followers of Jesus, as a marathon. For example look at (Phil 3:12-16), where we read "I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God , through Christ Jesus,is calling us." This is marathon language, and I like how he expresses himself in verse 16 "But we must hold on to the progress we have already made." I think this is the key to completing our race of life, as we look back over where we have come from, let's strive to hold on to the progress we have made, and not give up!

 

In my nearly 50 years of being involved in this spiritual race, I have seen some fellow runners who have not run well. Many have been like "sprinters", who take off from the starting blocks like a rocket, but their lack of disciplined training soon shows up, and they crash and burn! Others keep running for years but never seem to really progress in their spiritual maturity, but remain as "baby believers" all their life. They are like the people Paul was addressing in (1 Cor 3:1-4), who never got beyond the milk stage in their walk. We see much the same thing in (Heb 5:11-14), where the writer is encouraging them toward maturity. Then in the next chapter he goes on to say in (Heb 6:1-3) "and so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding." This seems to really be the problem with these people, they are afraid to leave their comfortable place in their spiritual journey, and check out new things. I realize there have many false teachings spring up over the years, and some quite "flaky" so-called "prophetic people" bringing forth words that don't measure up to scripture, but through it all God has been trying to lead His people on to maturity! He has given us His Holy Spirit to be our guide, let's follow Him closely!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

A Mixture of Spirits

A MIXTURE OF SPIRITS

 

Have you ever heard the old expression "The truth of the matter is", when discussing some particular topic? I certainly have, and often use it myself. Where do you think this expression would have originated? In a recent reading of a little booklet by Derek Prince called "Protection From Deception", I noticed he uses the expression "a mixture of spirits", to describe a certain revival movement. He went on to explain that he meant something that started as a move of the Holy Spirit of God, but had become contaminated by an evil spirit from our enemy Satan. We then have a mixture, and people tend to do one of two things, they either focus on the error and reject the truth, or they will focus on the truth but accept the error! This always causes "confusion", from which comes "division", because people tend to chose sides, and become aggressively committed to one or they other. Everyone likes to think their side is always right, and therefore the other side must be wrong! This has been the underlying cause of most church splits, and the forming of complete new denominations. A careful reading of church history covering the past 2000 years will easily prove this!

 

So what is the answer to this problem? I don't pretend to know the answer, but a careful reading of Paul's second letter to Timothy might give us a clue. In reading (2 Tim 3:1-5), depending on which translation you use, you will find as many as 18 unacceptable moral practices listed. Paul never wrote letters to pagans, as far as I know, but always to followers of Jesus, so we can expect to find some of these things mentioned here in the average church congregation today. Study this passage from several different translations and see what you can find out. In the NKJV you will see that it starts verse 1 with "Know this, that in the last days perilous times will come." Paul is being quite assertive here by using the phrase "know this", and when you check the word "perilous" in Strong's you find it could mean harsh, savage, difficult, dangerous, painful, fierce, grievous, or hard to deal with. Take your pick of these words, but you won't find an encouraging one among them. This word in Greek is only used one other time in the NT, in (Matt 8:28) to describe two demonized men. This fact should tell us something!! No wonder the Pretrib rapture is so popular among churches today!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer