He Leads Me

HE LEADS ME

 

This was the title of the devotional from ODB today Dec 30, 2014 based on (Ps 23) that prompted this article. The author Dave Egner told the story of an incident that happened in Istanbul Turkey in 2005, where 1 sheep jumped off a cliff to its death, followed by nearly 1500 others. Not knowing which way to go, these other sheep just mindlessly followed the other members of the flock. We humans are often referred to as sheep, for example read (Is53:6) "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him (Jesus) the sins of us all". This fact just proves our need for a trustworthy Leader, and thank God He has given just such a Leader in Jesus Christ, once we by faith trust Him as our Lord and Savior. Jesus calls us to follow Him as our "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), as the original 12 men He called to follow Him as His disciples.

 

When King David wrote the twenty-third Psalm, and started it with "The Lord in my shepherd", and he certainly knew the life of a shepherd having been one for several years when he was young. So we can safely claim Jesus as our own personal shepherd just as David did, providing we have made the choice of accepting Him as Lord and Savior. He calls all of us, but always leaves the choice up to us to accept or reject Him. We can certainly not claim Him as our Shepherd, if we have not received Him as Lord and Savior. I know people who think that because they faithfully attend Sunday school and church, and give money to support missions etc. that therefore they qualify to claim Jesus as their Shepherd. But according to scriptures like (John 3:1-8), or (2 Cor 5:17-21), unless they are "born again" spiritually, and are truly "in Christ", then Jesus is not their Shepherd. Our author closes his article with a poem by Sanders "Like sheep that sometimes wander from the flock in tangled paths of life to lose their way, I need my Shepherd's hand and watchful eye to keep me always, lest I go astray". I think this is good advice for most of us who claim to be followers of Jesus and part of "the Body of Christ" on earth today. How easy it seems to be to get off the path, and get tangled up in some wrong teaching, or questionable church doctrine. We all need the guidance of our Shepherd for sure; then our author closed with these words, "The Lamb who died to save us is the Shepherd who lives to guide us". Well spoken I believe, and I leave you with this truth!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                

 

Our Human Gender

OUR HUMAN GENDER

 

All of us who are members of the human race were created by our Divine Creator, as either "male" or "female". (Gen 1:27) Our gender was clearly Chosen by our Creator before we were ever conceived in our mother's womb. And our Creator is perfect in every way, and never makes any mistakes. So I fail to understand the big "issue" that has been created lately by this so-called LGBT movement! Apparently the leaders of this movement don't read their Bibles, or there never would be an issue. From my perspective as a follower of Jesus, this whole issue must be caused by our enemy Satan, who was formerly known as Lucifer in heaven. He was created by God as part of His three highest created beings, called Arch-angles named Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. The history of how sin was found in him and God had to "cast him out of heaven" for his sin of "pride and rebellion" are all detailed, and can be found in (Is 14:12-23), and (Ezek 28:11-19), as both of these OT prophets give the story of why God had to "cast him, out of heaven". He chose to come to earth, the only planet designed to sustain life, where he is referred to as Satan or the Devil, or the Beast of (Rev 13:1-10). He is the avowed enemy of God and His children!!  

Satan cannot create anything, but only destroy what God has created, so as I see it, this whole "issue": is his doing without a doubt. My wife Dora and I have had several great grandchildren added to our family lately, both girls and boys. And it is not hard to tell the difference between the two, the little girls are so petite and beautiful, and the boys are so rugged, and just "all boys", if you know what I mean. The difference between their male and female gender is impossible to miss! So how anyone could become involved in this LGBT issue is beyond my powers of comprehension!

 

God created us as male and female, with a sexual attraction to the opposite gender in order that we might marry the mate he has chosen for us, and raise a family of children in the Lord!! That should not be difficult to figure out! But because we all live in a "fallen world", since our original parents Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan in the form of a "talking serpent" in the Garden of Eden, and disobeyed their Creator, which brought "sin" into our perfect world. See (Rom 5:12-21) for the details of how this sin spread to all of creation. And that accounts for our present "Gender Issue" in my opinion!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                            

 

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On Nature or Two

ONE NATURE or TWO

 

I've heard certain controversy over can a person have two natures? I think the real question is whether a human "soul" and their "nature" are one and the same thing. I'm sure that our Bible has the answer to this as well as other difficult questions we might have, since it is the "Written Word of God". Let us start with Genesis, the first of the five books written by Moses, the man that God chose to begin to record His "Written Word". Genesis begins with "In the beginning God created the heavens (plural) and the earth (singular)", then in (Gen 1:26) we read "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us". We understand that our Creator God is a "Triune" (three in one) being consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who always existed in "perfect unity" in what we refer to as being "eternity past". We read in (Gen 2:7) "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and man became a living person" NLT. Some translations use "soul" instead of person.

 

We read in the NT letter of Paul the apostle to the Gentiles (non Jews) in (1Thess 5:23) "Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again". I understand this to be the proper way to refer to our human body as spirit soul and body. Now when Adam and Eve listened to the lies of our enemy Satan in the Garden of Eden about eating the "forbidden fruit" from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden, they disobeyed the command of God given to Adam that the day they should eat of this "forbidden fruit" the would die. Their "souls" didn't die that day but their spirit relationship with the Father did die, or was cut off from the intimate relationship they once had with God in the cool of the evening in the Garden. This one act of disobeying the command of God brought "sin and death" into God's perfect creation that day. And this sin was spread to the whole of creation that day. See (Rom 5:12-21) for the results, Adam's body and soul lived for nearly 900 years, but his soul was "corrupted" that day and was part of what he passed on to all of his decendents, so we are "sinners" as a result, with "corrupted" souls, but not "sinful natures" as far as I can understand scripture!!

 

Sincerely submitted

Dave Jame                                                                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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One Nature or TWO

ONE NATURE or TWO

 

I've heard certain controversy over can a person have two natures? I think the real question is whether a human "soul" and their "nature" are one and the same thing. I'm sure that our Bible has the answer to this as well as other difficult questions we might have, since it is the "Written Word of God". Let us start with Genesis, the first of the five books written by Moses, the man that God chose to begin to record His "Written Word". Genesis begins with "In the beginning God created the heavens (plural) and the earth (singular)", then in (Gen 1:26) we read "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us". We understand that our Creator God is a "Triune" (three in one) being consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who always existed in "perfect unity" in what we refer to as being "eternity past". We read in

(Gen 2:7) "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and man became a living person" NLT. Some translations use "soul" instead of person.

 

We read in the NT letter of Paul the apostle to the Gentiles (non Jews) in (1Thess 5:23) "Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again". I understand this to be the proper way to refer to our human body as spirit soul and body. Now when Adam and Eve listened to the lies of our enemy Satan in the Garden of Eden about eating the "forbidden fruit" from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden, they disobeyed the command of God given to Adam that the day they should eat of this "forbidden fruit" the would die. Their "souls" didn't die that day but their spirit relationship with the Father did die, or was cut off from the intimate relationship they once had with God in the cool of the evening in the Garden. This one act of disobeying the command of God brought "sin and death" into God's perfect creation that day. And this sin was spread to the whole of creation that day. See (Rom 5:12-21) for the results, Adam's body and soul lived for nearly 900 years, but his soul was "corrupted" that day and was part of what he passed on to all of his descendents, so we are "sinners" as a result, with "corrupted" souls, but not "sinful natures" as far as I can understand scripture!!

 

Sincerely submitted

Dave Jamer                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Koinania

KOINONIA

 

In the New Testament the Greek word that is usually translated as fellowship is [koinonia], which is the Spirit's gift to the church. Today whenever we think of "fellowship", we associate it with coffee and sweets after a church service! This is definitely not the New Testament understanding of the word. We see this type of real fellowship in the Spirit displayed in (Acts 2:42), and referred to by Paul in several places such as (2 Cor 13:14), or (Phil 2:1). The church today is suffering a "koinonia crisis"!!  Part of this crisis is due to the typical church structure, which is designed to facilitate "pulpit to pew" one way communication. There can be little or no real fellowship in this type of structure. Someone has remarked, "the only fellowship we have is with the back of the head of the person sitting in the pew in front of us". In the NT church they didn't have this problem because they met in homes, in a very informal setting. Church buildings, as such, were unheard of until Constantine married the church to the Roman Empire in the fourth century. The other factor in this crisis is the fact that until people experience real koinonia, they don't know what they are missing. Some churches have "cell groups" or some type of small group that meet in homes to facilitate this koinonia, while some people are finding it in a new move of God known as "The House Church Movement".

 

There are two dimensions involved in true koinonia, a vertical dimension of the believer's fellowship with God, and the horizontal dimension of his kononia with other believers in the Spirit. A believer can have fellowship with God by themselves alone, but not koinonia! This is only possible in the company of fellow believers who are gathered in unity. In (Matt 18:20) Jesus said "where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them". This is certainly the basis of koinonia! We could list a few things that describe real koinonia. 1/ that fellowship among believers which the Holy Spirit gives. 2/ the fellowship Christ had with His disciples. 3/ the fellowship of the early church. 4/ the earthly counterpart and foretaste of the eternal fellowship we can look forward to. 5/ it is analogous to the unity, fellowship, and communion between Christ and the Father. A quote from George Webber sums it up "No relationship of love can develop unless there are structures in which it can grow". The koinonia we have been discussing can only grow when there are structures to nourish it! Let's seek to promote those structures that will facilitate this type of fellowship!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer 

Jesus Will Never Let You Down

JESUS WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN

 

Our Daily Bread (ODB) for today April 24, 2014 was written by Joe Stowell and was called "Never Let Down", from which I got the idea for a title to this article. When Jeremiah wrote the book called Lamentations, in chapter 3:22-24 we read "The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, the Lord is my inheritance; therefore I will hope in Him!" NLT I'm not sure if Jeremiah had God the Father or Jesus the Son in mind when he penned these words, but it really doesn't matter because both are referred to as Lord! And we know that when we come to understand what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, and accept Him as Lord and Savior, Father adopts us as his child and gives the Holy Spirit as His gift to us. So, it is safe to say we can apply these verses to ourselves!

 

Having just come through the Resurrection Season including Good Friday, and 3 days later Resurrection Sunday, the truth about Jesus becoming the "Lamb of God" who died for the sins of the human race is fresh in our minds. In (Exodus 34:5-7) you can read God's own description of Himself given to Moses to record in scripture. Here we have 7 character qualities of God that Bob Mumford calls the "7 fold DNA of God", which are 1/ compassion, 2/ graciousness, 3/ slow to anger, 4/ mercy, 5/ truth,6/ faithful, and 7/ forgiving. Since Jesus is the "Living Word of God", and He told His disciples "If you have seen me you have seen the Father", so they are really one and the same Divine Person. See (John 17:20-21) for the unique relationship Jesus has with His Father, and we through Him have the same relationship of complete "perfect unity".

 

There are many other scripture passages we could refer to that make similar claims about the fact that Jesus will never let you down. He is a faithful "Brother", who is the True "Elder Brother" to all truly born again children of God. We get a good look at Him as our "Good Shepherd" in (John 10:1-21), and also in Psalm 23 written many years before Jesus was born by King David. Just try "Meditating" on scripture passages like these, and see what it does for you! I will guarantee that you will be forever changed into a different person as you dwell on His character, and realize that in Father's eyes you and Jesus are one and the same to Him! There is a little chorus we often sing. "When He sees me, He sees the blood of the Lamb. He sees me as worthy, and not as I am. He sees me in garments as white as the snow, for the Lamb of God is worthy, and He loves me this I know". It is important that the Father sees us through the blood of Jesus that was shed for all sinners like us on the "Old Rugged Cross". Hallalujah!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                             

Eros or Adape

EROS or AGAPE

 

These are both Greek words that are translated as "love" in our English language, although their meaning is nearly opposite to each other. Eros is only found in Greek philosophical writings and is never used by authors of scripture. It basically pertains to "sensual" things. In our culture it has come to be used to express not only sensual things but also "sexual" things, and thus the word became "erotic" and is used almost entirely to describe things pertaining to lust or sex. In fact when used as love in our day it should be called "lust" and not really love at all. It can be contrasted with the Greek word Agape which is translated as God in (1 John 4:8) "God is love" [Agape], and also in (John 3:16) where we are told "God [Agape] so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life". This gives us the true meaning of Agape which is often referred to as "God's kind of love". In Bob Mumford's teaching series called the Agape Road he explains clearly the difference between these two words. Basically Agape is a love that "gives" with no expectation of it being returned, While Eros is a love that "takes" with a very selfish motive, expecting something in return.

 

Bob studied this subject for many years before arriving at the truth he explains in this teaching. It has tremendous implications when we consider the whole matter of establishing a relationship with our Creator God. Because God is Agape He loves His whole creation including us rebellious human beings who since the original sin of Adam brought this "death line" into our world (Rom 5:12-21), we are all separated from God who is Holy. This was no surprise to God who knew this would happen because He created us with a free will with which to make choices, some good but some bad choices. Definitely Adam's choice to disobey the only restriction God had placed on him to not eat of the fruit of that one tree in the Garden was a wrong choice that has affected us all. God already had a plan to remedy this problem by sending Jesus to earth to become the perfect God/Man who was qualified to "reverse the curse" brought on creation by the first Adam. As we know His death on the cross "paid in full" the debt we all owed because we were all sinners (Rom 3:23), and the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). So the offer to receive the free gift of salvation is now available to all who desire it. Just read (Eph 2:1-10) and follow the simple instructions there given by the apostle Paul. God is faithful to keep His Word!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                      

Christian Unity

CHRISTIAN UNITY

 

Recently I read something written by an early Father in the faith, to the Roman Emperor in the second-century. He was describing the believers of that day. He wrote, "They love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something, they give freely to the man who has nothing; if they see a stranger they take him home, and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don't consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God." In (Eph 4:6) where Paul is finishing up one of his "long sentences" about keeping the "unity of the Spirit", which he began in verse 4. He states "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all". This is the key to Christian unity, to realize that we all are children of the same Father. That makes us all brothers in the Spirit, as that early church father stated in the above quotation. Even though we may be divided by all sorts of barriers and differences, deep down we are really all members of the one human family.

 

Paul exhorts us in verse 3 to "keep or (preserve) the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". We can only keep, or "preserve", something that we already have in our possession. For example we preserve fruit and vegetables from our gardens in the fall, for use later in the winter months. It would seem that the "unity of the Spirit" must be something that becomes ours at salvation, while the "unity of the faith" mentioned in verse 13, is something we come into later. The first must be a gift, while the second is like fruit that comes only with maturity. This corresponds with the "gifts of the Spirit", and the "fruit of the Spirit", which we spoke about in previous articles. We often confuse these two types of unity, although they are clearly not the same. The unity of the faith, in verse 13, is linked with "the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ". This speaks of maturity, which only comes from submission to God appointed, and anointed, servants as mentioned in verses 11-12. The 2 key words here are "equipping" and "edifying", which both have to do with our following faithfully the teaching of these men Jesus gives to the body. Unity among Christians comes from our union with Christ. Unity in spite of our diversity is the most effective witness in this sin-fractured world! Let's start living like those believers in the early church!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer