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

THE CHURCH FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE (part 3)

THE CHURCH FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE (part 3)

 

The word used by Jesus in (Matt 16:18) for Church, should always be used in the singular, since there can only be one, sometimes referred to as the "Church Universal". There can be many local branches or cells, called "churches" in various locations, but the two should never be confused as being the same. They both should be composed of "born again" individuals who are added to the Church after they become members of the "Family of God", and then join with other believers for fellowship in their locality. We become members of God's family the moment we repent of our sin, and trust Jesus as our Savior. The Father then adopts us into His "Forever Family", and gives us the Holy Spirit as a "Seal" of the transaction.

(Eph 4:30) NKJV. This is all based on our acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross of Calvary, where He paid in full the price of our redemption with His own blood! (Col 1:19-20).

 

The Church should never be considered as a building or an organization like a particular denomination, but always as redeemed people meeting together. That's why I like the picture of a family, to describe the Church that God has always had in mind. He has always wanted a family to represent Him on earth starting with Adam and Eve, then Abraham's descendants, and now the Body of Christ. Howard Snyder calls the Church the "Community of the King", which is a good title in my opinion, because we are part of God's great Kingdom! Not the total "Kingdom", which is much larger than the Church, but you might say we are the "agent" of the Kingdom, in the same way that a real estate agent is not the real estate company, but merely a representative of that company.

 

I like to read (Rev 21), where we see the completed Church, the New Jerusalem, coming down from its present location, to be established for eternity just over the new natural Jerusalem that at that time, will have been rebuilt after the destruction of the  Battle of Armageddon. This description of "heaven" with streets of gold etc. has always been held out as the goal for the Church to arrive at when we die or are raptured. Here what John was allowed to see in a vision was really the completed Church, the "New Jerusalem" in all her resurrected glory! This will finally be the place God the Father, and God the Son, together with His Bride/Wife, the Church, will spent eternity in the Presence of God the Holy Spirit! Hallelujah!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

THE CHURCH FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE (part 2)

THE CHURCH FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE (part 2)

 

In (part 1) we briefly covered the time from the creation of the "first Adam", who was God's "governor" of planet earth, until he lost his position to Satan when he disobeyed the command of God and allowed sin to enter creation. The promised Messiah Jesus Christ came from God to be the "last Adam", (1 Cor 15:45) to reverse the curse brought on creation by the first Adam's sin. It would appear that God's intention was to have a family on earth that would be a proper representative of His Kingdom. (Matt 6:10). This was accomplished by Jesus, who has been in the process of building His true Church, from His exalted position at the Fathers side. (Ps 110:1)

 

As I see it, this Church that Jesus has been calling out of the world to become His [ecclesia], which is the Greek word for a "governmental assembly", has always been His intention! When Jesus chose His first 12 disciples to follow Him, who later became the first apostles, often referred to as the "Apostles of The Lamb" (Rev 21:14), they became part of the foundation of this "Church". Paul the apostle to the Gentiles was the first to be trusted with this great mystery of the Church. In his letters to the Ephesians, and the Colossians, we get our best picture of this Church. Here we find many different every day things like a house, a body, a bride, or a family, to describe the Church. I like both "Body" and "Family" to help me understand a little better what Jesus meant by the Church He said He would build.

 

When Paul compares the Church to our human body which is "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps 139:14), we realize that the true Church is an "organic thing", and not an "organization" like General Motors. When we consider the modern church today this is what we see, an organization organized like any business corporation, with its CEO's and chairmen of various boards etc. This must grieve Jesus, who gave us the proper way to gather for worship and fellowship with Him in His Word! It makes you wonder if people ever read the scriptures, which are very clear to give us  directions for when we gather (1 Cor 14:26). It would appear that what Jesus spoke about the Pharisees in (Mark 7:7-8), could apply to many churches today. "Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God. For you ignore God's law and substitute your own traditions"!! (to be continued in part 3)

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer