THE EXCHANGED LIFE

THE EXCHANGED LIFE.

 

This term was the title of a recent article I read by Jim Watt about the life of Hudson Taylor. I was especially interested in the letter Mr. Taylor had written to his sister shortly after receiving this further revelation about his life in Christ. He lived during the later half of the 1800's and died in 1905.

It was during this time that the so-called "Holiness Movement" became popular among Evangelical Christian leaders, and produced such men as Hudson Taylor and A B Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, (C&MA) denomination. Many other men like John Wesley and General William Booth had their roots in this movement as well. It seems that since the beginning of the 1900's the emphasis has changed from Sanctification leading to Holiness, to other things. In the last decades of the 20^th century since I have been part of the "Church", I have witnessed a continual decline in preaching and teaching on the subject of holiness. I'm nor sure of the reason for this, but it could tie in with the way our NA culture has changed. All the electronic gadgets that have come out in the last few years have caught the attention of many people and they have less time for God and His Word. He gets crowded out of our daily schedules, and is replaced with i pads, smart phones, emails, face book etc. Instead of having more time to spend with Him we have much less!

 

What can we do about this problem? I expect the answer to this question will involve a return to the subject of an "Exchanged Life" as Hudson Taylor refers to here. The Apostle Paul probably writes more about this topic than any other NT writer. When as Saul of Tarsus he met Jesus on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9:1-9), he was completely changed from a religious Pharisee, to a "new creature in Christ" (2 Cor 5:17). Later after spending several years in the deserts of Arabia alone with the Lord, he became Paul the apostle and the writer of much of the NT scriptures. In (Eph 3:1-10) he was given by God the revelation of the "Church" which had remained a mystery until Paul came on the scene. When he wrote the letters Ephesians and Colossians, he explained more about who Jesus was and still is, and what it means to us when we trust Him completely. In (Gal 2:20-21) Paul explains the place of Christ in his life, that he "had been crucified with Christ" (past tense), but he now lived by"faith in the Son of God. This is a model we can follow if we want to live an "Exchanged Life"!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                  19/09/12

 

AN EXPERIENCE or A JOURNEY

AN EXPERIENCE or A JOURNEY

 

Our spiritual life includes both of these things, it starts with the "experience" of being "born again" as Jesus explained to a very religious man named Nicodemus, as recorded in (John 3:1-8). But this is only the beginning of the "journey" of getting to know our Creator God who is described in the Bible, which is the Book God had prepared so people could know how to live a life that will please Him. There are different "Religions" in the world, and each have their "Holy Book", but only the Bible was especially written by holy men and women who were led by God to write as they were directed by the Holy Spirit of God. (2 Tim 3:16-17). Today in this 21^st century many people claim to have "experiences" that they think are given to them by God, but are sometimes given to them by the enemy of God who goes under several different names in the Bible like Satan, the Devil, the Serpent, the Beast or the Deceiver etc. Jesus called him the "father of lies" in (John 8:44), in other words he is the great deceiver who couldn't tell the truth if he tried. It seems that when Jesus defeated him when He died on the cross as the perfect "God/Man", the only power He left him with was this ability to tell lies.  This action by Jesus at Calvary not only paid the price for the sins of mankind (Rom 6:23), but also reversed the curse that came upon all creation by the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve. (Gen 3:1-21) gives us the account of their disobedience, and the Apostle Paul in (Rom 5:12) gives us the results of this original sin.

 

In the teaching series by Bob Mumford called the Agape Road, Bob gives an excellent account of this journey we must all follow to arrive at an intimate relationship with our Father God. Having spent several years listening to Bob's teaching and also watching the DVD's of his presentation to a large audience over 10 years ago, I believe that every follower of Jesus should be exposed to this teaching  soon after accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. His step by step description of the start of this journey by crossing over what he calls the "death line", where Jesus is waiting for us to guide up the Agape Road toward intimacy with the Father is a good foundational teaching for anyone, but especially for new believers. I highly recommend that all followers of Jesus should take advantage of seeing these DVD's. They consist of 4 discs with 2 30 minute sessions on each, or 8 sessions in all.

A great resource for home Bible study groups, or small groups of any size from any church congregation!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                08/09/12

SOME THOUGHTS ON TIME

SOME THOUGHTS ON TIME     

 

The little word "time" is a very interesting word, that the Concise Oxford English Dictionary recently stated is the most often used noun in the English language. And the Bible has a lot of scriptures that speak about time. With our finite minds, it is very difficult for us to properly understand time. Most people complain about never having enough time, but the fact of the matter is that we all have the same amount of time. Every day has 24 hours, and every week has 7 days, that gives us all 168 hours a week, or 10,080 minutes! The best description of time I ever saw presented was a large circle drawn on a sheet of paper to represent time and space inside the circle, surrounded by eternity. God exists outside of time in eternity, and is not confined to operate in our circle. From His perspective it is always "now", and in (Ps 90:4) Moses stated when referring to God "For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few  night hours" NLT. And Peter was probably referring to this OT passage when he wrote "----a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day" (2 Peter 3:8) NLT.

 

There are lots of scripture passages that warn us that the day is coming when time will be no more, and that God is giving us more time to get things right with Him. But I believe He has an appointed time to roll up time as a scroll, so to speak, and our universe will become part of His eternity again. One of the most challenging scripture passages to me is the third chapter of 2 Peter, from which we quoted part of verse 8 above! If you read the whole chapter carefully you will see several references to "The Day of The Lord". This is probably the most important day mentioned in all of scripture, and is certainly worthy of some careful study. For the redemed children of God it will be a glorious day, but for the wicked children of Satan, it will be a horrible day when God starts to pour out His wrath. Listen to the last two verses from the NLT, "I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your secure footing. Rather you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to Him, both now and forever! Amen."

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                revised 01/09/12

TROBULED TIMES

TROUBLED TIMES

 

The inspiration for this article came from an article written by Joe Stowell in ODB on July 23, 2012. He started by quoting "Murphy's Law" that most people have heard many times, "If anything can go wrong it will". I have no idea who "Murphy" was but he might have been referring to the words of Jesus recorded in (John 16:33) "These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world". We can either focus on the "tribulation" or on the "peace" that Jesus promised, this choice is always left to us in every situation. We live in a "fallen world" ever since our first parents Adam and Eve disobeyed the one restriction their Creator had placed on them in the Garden of Eden. (Gen 2:16-17). We know from reading what Paul the apostle wrote in (Rom 5:12) that this one act on their part caused this perfect world to become "fallen". So naturally because we live in this fallen world we will suffer troubles of all kinds, but our faithful loving heavenly Father knew this would happen and made the necessary preparations to take care of this problem caused by "sin". He sent His only begotten Son Jesus, the only perfect "God/Man" who ever lived since the first Adam who was created in the image and likeness of God, to be the "Last Adam" (1 Cor 15:45) to reverse the curse brought on creation by the sin of the first Adam.

 

So we can rest assured that there is hope for all of mankind who will simply place their faith in the finished work of Christ on the Cross of Calvary, and receive Him as Lord and Savior from their sinful lifestyle. Jesus is the "Truth" (John 14:6), and His death on the cross "paid in full" the debt we all owed because of our inherited sin plus the sins everyone committed since birth (Rom 3:10-26). Paul further states this truth in (Rom 6:23) that the "wages of sin is death". And everyone knows that wages are what we receive as payment for the work we do. So we are without excuse, because God has given us everything we need to know in His Word the Holy Bible. And He expects us to simply read it and follow the directions it contains. It is not complicated, but actually so simple that even a child can understand the plan of salvation when they are properly instructed. The real trouble as I see it is that people don't take the time to become familiar with the Bible, and pass on the truth it contains to their children and friends!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                             24/07/12