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     

Whose Side Are You On

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

 

In a recent article by Joe Stowell in ODB, he mentioned a quote by President Lincoln about whose side God was on in the US civil war. Lincoln replied, "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right". That is a very accurate quote, and represents an attitude towards God that we should all embrace. In the book of Joshua, he had a strange encounter with a stranger with a sword in his hand. (Joshua 5:13-15) NLT Joshua demanded "are you friend or foe?" To which he replied "neither one, I am the commander of the Lord's army". This would probably have been the Arch Angel Michael, who was in charge of a great number of warring angels, whose job was to protect God's people. Joshua fell on his face in reverence and said "I am at your command, what do you want me to do?" The commander of the Lord's army replied "take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy" and Joshua did as he was told.

 

This is probably the proper response to any command we read in God's Word, instead of our often attitude that we will do things "our way", and ignore His way. Read (Is 55:6-11) for a clear instruction from God as to how we should respond to the hearing of His Word. Actually this whole chapter is an excellent read, which in the NLT version is headed up "Invitation to the Lord's Salvation". It makes it very clear that His ways are far above our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. In (Ps 139:23-24) we read "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life". Then in (Ps 73:28) we read "But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do". NLT

 

"So let's ask ourselves: are we on the Lord's side? Being on His side means that we will reflect His love to the world around us in the way we interact with others. We will forgive, treat others justly, and seek peace. God's ways are always best". That's how Joe finishes his article, and then ends with this prayer "Father, teach us to search Your ways so that we may know how to be on Your side of the critical issues of life". He closes with this punch line "When you draw near to God, you are sure to be on His side".

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                                               04/12/14

 

Second Best

SECOND BEST

 

No one likes to be "second best", but always want to be first, its part of our human nature. There is a story in the OT that deals with this matter, it is found in chapters 29 and 30 of the book of Genesis. It involves Jacob who had gone to find a wife among his relatives in a place called Haran, where he met the daughter of his uncle Laban, who invited him to stay with his family for a month. Laban had two daughters named Leah and Rachel, and Jacob loved Rachel who was the younger of the two. Jacob agreed to work 7 years for Laban in return for Rachel as his wife, but Laban tricked him into marrying Leah, because of some custom that demanded the first born child must be married first. Anyhow Jacob stayed and worked an additional 7 years for Rachel and had them both as his wife. Rachel proved to be barren while Leah bore him several sons. She named the first one Reuben meaning "See a Son", the second one she named Simeon, meaning "Heard", and the third she named Levi, meaning "attached". Clearly she had been trying to please Jacob by bearing him sons, but she seemed to change at this point and bore him a fourth son and named him Judah, meaning "Praise", and then she stopped bearing children. Her attempts at gaining Jacob's love never worked for her, which reminds me of some people's attempt by various religious "works" to please God, who already loves the whole world so much that He allowed His only begotten Son Jesus to die for our sins (John 3:16).

 

We can do nothing to deserve or gain His love because He is love according to (1 John 4:8), and the word John used here for "love" is the Greek word [Agape] which always means a God kind of love, because "God is Agape". Because God is Agape, therefore all of His creation including every person whether they know it or not is loved by Him, and Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord and Savior is the door or entrance into a relationship with Him. (John 14:6) Bob Mumford points out in his teaching in "The Agape Road" that the 7 fold DNA of God consisting of 1/ Compassion, 2/ Grace, 3/ Slow to anger,

4/ Mercy, 5/ Truth, 6/ Faithfulness, 7/ Forgiveness, so we can rest assured that there is no such thing as being "second best" in His Church, which is the "Body of Christ". As long as you have made the choice to "believe by faith", accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and Father has adopted you into His Forever Family, you are part of His Family for Eternity!! That is certainly why the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is called "Good News"!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                                             14/02/13

Secret Affairs

SECRET AFFAIRS (revised)

 

While recently reading again Jesus' "sermon on the mount", my attention was drawn to (Matt 5:27-30) where He addresses the topic of "adultery". He here compares the Old Covenant by first saying "You have heard it said----but I say to you----"then proceeds to list His interpretation of the topic at hand. In every case His words are stronger than the Old Covenant law. This made me think of the common practice of men viewing pornography today, which would be classed as "adultery", and I have read some statistics as high as 50-70 % of men in our churches regularly are involved. And under the OT the penalty for adultery was "death by stoning". And as I understand the penalty spelled out by Jesus, of losing an eye or a hand, is not a death sentence, it is still quite severe. It seems to me we would see a lot of men with one eye or one hand. How are we to deal with this present situation I wonder?  Thank God we live in the period of grace, when all sin can be forgiven because Jesus bore the sins of the whole world on the Cross of Calvary. Men need to be told that this is what God's Word demands, but because they are quite often Bible illiterates, because they don't read the Bible for themselves, or perhaps attend a church of some kind, that does not preach the pure gospel of the Kingdom of God, they simply don't know this.

But ignorance of the facts is no excuse, so unless these men are made aware of the truth of God's Word, they will all suffer the consequences.

 

Most people don't believe in a literal "hell", and we often hear expressions like "surely a Holy God wouldn't send a person to hell". And that is correct, God doesn't "send" anyone to hell, but because He is just and righteous, that is why He allowed His one and only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay the debt we all owed. (Rom 3:23) and (Rom 6:23), but He leaves the choice to us. The choice is simple, chose eternal life in Christ, or don't chose Him and suffer the consequences of a wrong choice. The Bible is very clear on this point, there are only two choices, the right choice is "heaven" with Jesus, and the wrong choice is "hell" with the devil and his fallen angels. Hell was a place created for them, but because of people making the wrong choice either because of ignorance or rebellion, a lot of "good" people will end up there. Just imagine if you can, how out of place a known "sinner" would feel in heaven surrounded by millions of redeemed sinners praising Jesus along with millions of God's holy angels! I expect that is why our merciful God provided a special place for these people.

 Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                                               23/04/12