Our Natural Life vs. Our Spiritual Life

OUR NATURAL LIFE vs. OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE

 

We humans live our life journey on two different levels at the same time. We all began our "natural life" with the miracle of "conception" in the womb of our mother, which starts us on our journey of life on Planet Earth. But then at some point when we are old enough to reason and understand things, we can "choose" to place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ the Son of God our Creator, at which time Jesus becomes our Lord and Savior from the sinful life style we all inherited from our original parents Adam and Eve. This experience is called being "born again" by the Spirit of God, and Jesus explains this miracle to a certain man named Nicodemus in (John 3:1-8), which prepares us for life with Jesus when we die, and we call this our "spiritual life". We have no choice in our natural life, but we do in our spiritual life. When we hear the good news of the Gospel of the Kingdom, and realize what Jesus did for us on the cross be being our "sin bearer", and make a choice to accept Him as our Lord and Savior a second "miracle" happens to us and we become a "new creation". See (2 Cor 5:17-21) where the Apostle Paul explains what it means to be "In Christ", this is when we take on our "spiritual life" that prepares us for life in eternity with Jesus. 

 

So at this stage on our journey we start living our lives on 2 different levels, we are still natural but now have supernatural power from the Holy Spirit who now indwells us. The moment we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior Father "adopts" us into His eternal family, and gives us the gift of His Holy Spirit. From that point on we are "followers of Jesus" and our lives should be "transformed" more and more into the likeness of Jesus. But even though the old sinful lifestyle we inherited from Adam died with Jesus on the cross, we still have our "natural life" we were born with. And Paul calls this our "flesh nature" in (Gal 5:16-21) he explains our responsibility of not yielding to this "flesh nature", but instead let the Holy Spirit guide us into a life that reflects His character as "the fruit of the Spirit" as listed by Paul in verses 22-26. This is the only way to live a life that will please our Heavenly Father, and it is available to any born again follower of Jesus. God always leaves the choice in these matters of behavior up to us, but He has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to make the right choices. So we have no excuse for continuing to allow our flesh nature to lead us into sin of any sort, when all we have to do when we face temptations of any type is simply to trust the Holy Spirit to guide us into victory in Jesus!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                               05/08/14                                                                                                                                         

The Timing of The Rapture

THE TIMING of THE RAPTURE

 

Ever since I started to read the Bible back in the early 60's, I have never understood the timing of the rapture. I know for sure that Jesus is going to come back to earth some day for His Church (Acts 1: 6-11), but only the Father knows when that will be according to Jesus in (Matt 24:36). Paul explains clearly how it will happen in (1 Thess 4:15-18) but there has been much speculation about when it will happen. I easily figured out it had to be "pre-millennial", He has to be here on earth in order to reign for 1000 years. But then I was faced with deciding was it "Pre", "Mid", or "Post" regarding the time of the "Great Tribulation". I chose the "pre-tribulation" position at the time because I didn't like to consider suffering under the rule of that terrible "beast of Rev 13". I believed that doctrine, and taught it to others for some 30 years, before I knew there was another position called "The Pre-wrath Rapture" position. Once I understood that position toward the timing of the rapture, I never looked back.

 

I was introduced to this new position of the timing of the rapture by reading "The Sign" by Robert Van Kampen, written and published first in 1992 after spending 8 years and some 9000 hours of studying the scriptures pertaining to this subject. I consider this book was a gift from God to me from a brother in the Lord from Oklahoma USA, who was in SJ at the time as a representative from Martyrs for Christ organization who were having a conference in SJ and he stayed with us for a week. His name is Ray Thorne who just happened to have his copy of the book with him. He asked me if I had ever heard of the book, and of course I hadn't, so he let me look it over for that week and when he left graciously gave it to me as a gift. If happens to be a revised copy dated 1999, and I received it on Feb 20/2001, and it has answered my many questions about not only the rapture, but the whole end times scenario. It especially covers how God is going to deal with His "chosen people" the Jews in these end times. Something my previous teaching on the rapture never mentioned, it seemed all they were interested in was getting to heaven before the tribulation started. I now am sure the tribulation will start at the mid-point of the 7 year period mentioned in (Dan 9:24-27), when this world ruler will reveal himself as being the Antichrist and will immediately start the tribulation with the church. At some point in this tribulation God will shorten this time (Matt 24:21-22) by sending Jesus for the rapture, and then the angels to pour out God's Wrath!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                                   15/10/14

A Sure Foundation

A SURE FOUNDATION

 

The devotional from ODB (Our Daily Bread) today Oct 19, 2014 prompted me to put together this article. The author used the scripture where Jesus had just finished what we call "the sermon on the mount", based on chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew's Gospel. Then to finish this chapter with (Matt 7:26-29) He told the story of two men, one who He called "Wise" built his house on bedrock, while the other man He called "Foolish", because he built his house on sand. Then when the storms came against their houses, the one built on the bedrock stood firm, while the other one collapsed because of the unsound foundation. Verses 28-29 finish this chapter with "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, for He taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religion". (NLT)

 

Moses was a man who had a good relationship with God and often had intimate discussions with Him as recorded in (Exod 33:12-23); Moses wanted to see "God's glorious presence", but God said "no one may see me and live". But because of His favor toward Moses He agreed to a way that Moses could see His glorious presence but not His face. The plan included Moses being placed in a crevice in the "Rock", which represented Jesus and God passed by placing His hand over Moses until He was safely past and only then could Moses see His back. So whenever we read about Moses meeting with God "face to face" it must have been with Jesus, the only member of the Godhead with a body. In the NT scriptures we read about His birth, ministry, death, and resurrection. And scriptures (John 1:1-14) and (Heb 1:1-4) confirm that Jesus and Father God are one and the same Devine person. So it is perfectly clear that God's Son Jesus Christ is the one and only "safe foundation" to build our lives on!

 

In (John 14:6) we hear Jesus declaring "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me". This scripture is very clear that "Jesus is Truth" and therefore, if we want our life to be one that pleases Father God, it "must" be built on the only safe and solid foundation which is Jesus Christ. We are all sinners (Rom 3:23), so the first step to take is to believe what He did on the cross was for you, and personally receive Him as your Lord and Savior. Father then adopts you into His Eternal family as a child of God, and you are then assured of a place in heaven when you die. This is the only way according to God's Word the Bible!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                             20/10/14

Timely Words

 TIMELY WORDS

 

I was impressed by the devotional by this name in Our Daily Bread (ODB) on 13/10/14. We have probably all heard the old adage "Timing is everything", and I certainly believe it is true when it comes to knowing whether to speak or remain silent in certain situations. In (Prov 25:11-12) in the NLT version we read "Timely advice is lovely, like golden apples in a silver basket. To one who listens, valid criticism is like a gold earring or other jewelry". Some times it is wiser to remain silent than it is to speak what you had in mind to say to someone. In (Eccles 3:1-8) it tells us there is "a time for everything", and in verse 7 we read "A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak". (NLT) Knowing the right time to speak is beneficial for both the speaker as well as the hearer.

 

There is some good advice for us in (James 1:19-20) on this topic, "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: you must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires". (NLT) This is good advice, and requires that we be under the control of the Holy Spirit at all times. Every born again child of God has been given the Holy Spirit as a free gift from the Father when He "adopts" us into His Family. This happens the moment we as lost sinners, place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! Father knew we wouldn't be able to live a life that would please Him without the help of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will always help us to use the right word at the right time, or perhaps keep silent if that is the best thing to do.

 

We should always have the other person's best interest at heart at all times. Read carefully (Col 3:1-17), which in the NLT version is headed up with "Living the New Life". Here Paul gives some very practical advice for us to follow as committed followers of Jesus. I especially like verses 12-15 "Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all clothe yourselves with love, which binds all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And be thankful". That pretty well sums up what God expects of us as His children!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                    17/10/14                                                                                  

A New Paradigm

A NEW PARADIGM

 

I have been hearing much lately about the need for the church to have a "new paradigm". As I understand the term, it simply means a new way of seeing and understanding our role as the "Body of Christ" here and now on planet earth! We have operated for years under an old paradigm, and now must leave the old behind, in favor of the new. Something similar to the "New Covenant", which replaced the "Old Covenant". Our Bibles are clearly divided into these two parts that we call the Old Testament and the New Testament, with John the Baptist being the dividing line between them. (Matt 11:11) One thing that has helped to shape our old paradigm was the introduction by Dr Scofield of what he called the seven "dispensations" of history, instead of two! His teaching is known as "Dispensationalism", and has greatly affected the church in the last century. A more important thing that has shaped the old paradigm has been the church "structure" introduced by Constantine back in the fourth century. We see God's plan for church structure in the NT writings, especially the book of Acts, and Paul's letters. And a big part of the new paradigm for the church will simply be getting back to the original model set up by Jesus! There have been many restoration movements in the history of the church that have brought changes to doctrine, but not to this old structure of how we "do church"!

 

One big problem as I see it, is our understanding of heaven being our "goal". Everbody wants to get to heaven as soon as possible, to escape the wickedness in the world we are called to live in. That has never been God's intention for His children, in spite of what we have been told. Bob Mumford stated recently in a teaching given at Elim Bible Institute, "Heaven is not the goal!", the goal is found in (Rom 8:18-25), and in (Eph 4:11-13), and would seem to be that we are to become the "mature children", who can properly demonstrate to the world what God's Kingdom is all about! The world has never really seen that in the church, which has always been focused on getting to heaven and avoiding hell. The world around us needs to see Jesus in all His Fullness and Beauty! That's why God left us here on planet earth after He redeemed us, to be "shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people" (Phil 2:15)!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                      20/03/12                                                                   

The Ultimate Reunion

THE ULTIMATE REUNION

 

This topic was brought to my mind this morning by the devotional in ODB by Joe Stowell. He used (1 Thess 4:13-18) for his text, which is commonly referred to as "the rapture passage". Paul was addressing the question of what happens to those loved ones who had died "in the Lord", and if they would ever see them again? This is a clear explanation of what will happen at the return of Jesus to receive His "Church/Bride", and includes "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall ever be with the Lord". This will definitely not be "a secret quiet little affair" as some believe, but I expect will be quite "noisy"! And of course only Father God knows when this will occur (Matt 24:36), although many people have made predictions of when this rapture will happen, but they are all "false prophets" according to Jesus.

 

But we can be certain that it will happen in God's perfect time, until then Jesus will remain at His Father's side "until" certain things happen, See

(Ps 110:1) or (Acts 3:19-21) for details. This should end all of those theories that Jesus might return "at any moment", these are definitely not true and are impossible according to scripture. But this will be what Joe calls "The Ultimate Reunion" with family or friends who knew Jesus as Lord and Savior, and have already passed on. This is our glorious hope if we have obeyed the advice given by Paul to Titus in (Titus 3:1-8), which is part of the "Gospel of the Kingdom" that must be preached to all nations and tribes and tongues before the "end of this age" (Matt 24:14), which are the words of Jesus.

 

Most everyone has at least a few people who you know had a relationship with Jesus before they died, and are now enjoying His presence in heaven. This is the "Ultimate Reunion" you can look forward to if you have that same relationship with Jesus here and now in this life. If you are not sure where you stand with Jesus, I would suggest you read (John 14:6) and then (Eph 2:1-10) where Paul explains clearly how we can be sure of this relationship with God. This is how we can be sure of having this "ultimate reunion" with those who have gone on before us!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                       27/09/14