Calvary's Cross (part 3)

CALVARY'S CROSS (part 3)

 

We have been taught that when Jesus cried out from the cross "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?", that at that time Father God had forsaken His Son but that was not true because of what we learned in part 2. I believe that since Jesus was the perfect "God/Man", 100% God, and 100% Man at the same time, that was probably His human flesh crying out because He knew the suffering that was coming. Thank God that He willingly suffered for us to pay the price for our salvation! That is just one small example of believing something from scripture because we have been told by some leadership person we trusted. From my experience in the past I would have to say this is a fairly common occurrence for many people. In some cases I think it can just be that the leader does not understand the real meaning of a certain passage like the one I mentioned in (Matt 27:46), but in other cases it could be a planned desception. Remember how many times we are warned about in the last days of life on Planet Earth before the return of Jesus from heaven, where He been residing beside His Father on His throne (Psalm 110:1) for some 2000 years now? I don't know how many times we have been told by well meaning people that Jesus will come back at a certain time, but the truth is that only the Father knows the answer to this mystery. (Deut 29:29) And unless He reveals it, then this person would qualify as a "false teacher". Read what Jesus said in (Matt 24:36) about this matter "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

 

Since the death of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary and His return to earth to set up His Kingdom are two of the most important truths in the Word of God, then we should expect that God's enemy will do everything he can to bring confusion to the Church on these matters. And the use of "False Teachers" is certainly one way he will try to do this. And in the past few decades we have seen many of his devices showing up in certain segments of the Church. And I am very surprised at the lack of "discernment" on the part of some Church leaders, toward these false teachers that seem to becoming very numerous, especially in some churches from the Charismatic section. Because we are warned by Jesus in (Matt 24: 4-5, 11, 24) plus other places by Paul in (2 Thess 2:3-12), and Peter in (2 Peter 2: 1-3). So we need to be extra careful who we follow in these "last days"!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                     08/03/13

Calvary's Cross (part 2)

CALVARY'S CROSS (part 2)

 

Crucifixion by way of nailing a convicted criminal to a rough cross was invented by the Romans, and was probably the cruelest form of death that a person could possibly die from. First they were scourged with a whip of nine pieces of leather strips with a piece of bone tied to the tips that would tear strips of skin off the backs of the victim. The soldier with the whip would stop just short of the victim passing out from loss of blood and the sheer pain and trauma. Then the victim was required to carry his cross to the waiting crucifixion site, where he was laid on the cross and large spikes were driven through his wrists and feet to secure him to the cross and then the cross was dropped into holes prepared for it. His death would come slowly over a period of several hours of intense suffering from loss of blood and dehydration under a hot sun. In the case of Jesus who was an innocent sinless Man, with a guilty criminal on either side of Him who taunted Him with the crowd watching Him suffer? The custom was to break the legs of the victims to speed up the dying process, but when they came to Jesus He had already "given up His spirit", probably from a broken heart, but the soldier thrust a spear into His side to make sure He was dead. Just before He died He cried out "Father forgive them for they know not what they do". This account is covered by all four gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, read them all to get a complete list of details.

 

This happened on Friday, but three days later on "Resurrection Sunday", after spending the three days in a borrowed tomb, He Arose victoriously over death, just as He told His disciples in advance would happen. and appeared to many of His followers. So His death on the Cross coupled with His resurrection three days later is the very core of what we call the"Gospel of the Kingdom of God". This was preached by Peter and others of the original disciples, and later by Saul of Tarsus after he had an encounter with the risen Jesus on the Road to Damascus, recorded in (Acts 9:1-9). This incident more that any other, shows us how much the Father loves us by letting Jesus suffer and die for our sin, (2 Cor 5:18-20). This destroys the doctrine that Father had to turn away from Jesus while He took upon Himself our sin. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation". This tells us without any doubt that Father was there with Jesus through the whole ordeal of the Cross on Calvary!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                08/03/13

CALVARY'S CROSS (part 1)

CALVARY'S CROSS (part 1)

 

The cross, on which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, freely gave up His life in exchange for our lives that believe in and have accepted Him as Lord and Savior, is probably the most common symbol of Christianity. This cross was located on a hill just outside a gate into the city of Jerusalem, a place that could be seen by people entering or leaving the city. This of course was part of God's plan from before the creation of our "universe", when the Triune God Father, Son, and Spirit, that we refer to as the Trinity made a statement recorded in (Gen 1:26) "Then God said, let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness". He had to start by creating our time and space universe "out of nothing", so to speak, because in the beginning there was only God and Eternity, as I understand scripture. So God had to create a universe with a planet that could sustain human life. We read that in (Gen 1:1) "In the beginning God created the heavens (plural) and the earth"

(Singular) in spite of what the scientific world tries to tell us. Because there is a creation, common sense tells us there had to be a Creator. Plain and simple! Right?

 

I have noticed that some people have necklaces or other pieces of jewelry fashioned as crosses to remind them of this cross, and I guess that is okay as long as they don't worship that piece of jewelry instead of Jesus who died on the original cross on Calvary. That can become "idol worship" which is a sin. Actually any "thing" that takes the place of Jesus in our lives can become an idol, like family members, a car or a home or even a pet etc. God must be first in our lives once we come to know him through Jesus, and Father adopts us into His family. This we refer to as being "born again" and is the start of a new spiritual life Christ, (2 Cor 5:17-21). "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new". This is all because of accepting the truth of the transaction that was settled at Calvary when "For He made Him  who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him". This we can consider on the part of Jesus to be the "Great Exchange", when He voluntarily gave up His life of complete holiness without any sin, for us sinners, and cried out "It is finished". That means that "nothing can be added" to His action there, by way of "good works" of any kind to obtain salvation. It is what we can consider "A done deal", and all we have to do is "believe it"!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                               08/03/13

WHICH WAY WILL YOU GO

WHERE DOES OUR GUILT GO?

 That is a question that often comes to mind when I think seriously about my relationship with God. We all need forgiveness for our many sins, resulting from our rebellious sinful nature inherited from Adam. One of the results of carrying this sin is the "guilt" we continually feel. This comes from our guilty conscience which is our God given gauge that is meant to cause us to repent and turn back to our Creator. But when we finally do this, and receive Jesus as our personal Savior from our sins, and are "born again" into the family of God, where do these sins go? They go somewhere accompanied by the guilt they have caused our soul! The scriptures were given to us by God to answers such questions. In the book of Psalms we read in (Ps 103:12) "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west". What a profound statement! We know that if we should start at any point on planet earth to travel west, we could continue to travel west forever and never reach a place called east. And the same thing could be said for traveling east from the same spot. Then in (Micah 7:18-20) God gives a promise to His chosen people Israel, that He will pardon their guilt, and "trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean". This is another tremendous promise, and although we may not be part of the Nation of Israel, if we are born into God's family, then we are part of His "elect", some times referred to as His "forever family".

The above mentioned scriptures from the OT give us part of the answer to our question, but probably the best answer comes from the NT letter to the church at Colosse (Col 2:13-15) where  we read in verse 14 "He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross." On the cross when Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, and died in our place, the sin debt against you and I was "paid in full"!! (2 Cor 5:21) Our sins, and the guilt associated with them were "absorbed", so to speak, into the very person of Christ! This is the core truth of the Gospel (good news) of the Kingdom of God, and is a truth that is worth spending time trying to wrap your mind around. It is amazing how much we just take for granted because of the "cheap grace" that has been taught be certain churches, in my opinion. For example some so-called "seeker friendly" churches never tell people that they must repent of their sins and believe in, and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior in order to be "born again" in order to become a child of God. Only then does Father God adopt us into His Forever Family, and we can be sure of going to heaven when we die. Be assured that according to God's Word there is no other way!!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer                                                                                revised 06/02/13

 

ADDICTIONS

ADDICTIONS

 

Our Creator has built into every person the desire and the need for love and acceptance. People need to be able to give and receive love freely! But not everyone is able to do that for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons are based on their environment, or family situation. Sometimes it can even be something that has been inherited, or passed down from past generations, like rejection or fear for example. And we must realize that we have an enemy who is always trying to keep us in bondage, and he has lots of invisible demon helpers to do his work for him. God has created us so that when we love Him, love ourselves, and love others, (Matt 22:37-39) our body produces the proper hormones like (serotonin) that make us feel good. A shortage of this hormone in our system causes us to look for a substitute, which can be any one of many things like food, alcohol, tobacco, or various drugs etc. People who have deep problems but live in denial are especially prone to addictions. It is difficult to walk away from addictions while still feeling unloved. A person must choose between bondage and freedom, God won't do it for us no matter how much we pray. (Deut 30:19). The Bible says choose this day whether we want blessings or curses, life or death!

 

Our Creator God created each one of us with this ability to make choices they can be good choices or bad choices. These choices are made by our "will", which along with "intellect" and "emotions" make up our "soul". Like all three parts of our soul, our will can be influenced by many different factors. We must keep this in mind when we try to understand addictions, whether for ourselves or others. The power over addictions or any other problem is always available through God. But it is only available on God's terms. On certain occasions He can move in our lives by supernatural methods that we call "miracles", but usually He operates according to His normal divine order. This requires a person to be in relationship with Him as a member of His Forever Family, and this is only possible by believing in, and receiving His Son Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. (John 14:6). This requires exercising "faith" which is a gift from Him, as explained by Paul as recorded in (Eph 2:1-10). When we do this and ask Him to forgive us of our sin, He will forgive us and cleanse us of all our unrighteous deeds, and adopt us into His Forever Family. At that point in time He gives us His Holy Spirit to dwell within our spirit. We are then qualified to ask Him for healing or deliverance from any bondage or addiction!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                            30/04/12

A Blueprint For Life

A BLUEPRINT FOR LIFE

 

The daily devotional word for today in ODB was written by Joe Stowell and his closing line was "The Bible is the Christian's blueprint for life", from which I got the idea for this article. As followers of Jesus we all believe the Bible is God's Word from cover to cover, and contains everything He wants us to know in order to live a life that is pleasing to Him. He personally chose the authors of the 66 books that the Bible contains, and His Holy Spirit supplied them with the proper words to use. So in the true sense He, the Holy Spirit, is the real Author of the "Book". (2 Tim 3:16-17). So we can safely depend on the Holy Scriptures to use as a "blueprint" to direct our life. I have found the OT books set the outline, or the basis for our system of "spiritual values" written by men like Moses, King David, or one of the prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah, but NT writers like Paul condense these truths in his letters written to the various churches he had established in the first century. Some of these letters like Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians plus others, make up a good part of the NT, and along with the words of Jesus as recorded in the four gospel accounts, attract most of my attention.

 

So I will quote a few passages from some of Paul's letters in the balance of this article. Let us start with (1 Cor 3:10-11) where he speaks about building our lives on the only safe "foundation", which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Then from (Phil 2:3-4) we read some good advice from Paul about valuing others above ourselves by humbly serving them. Then to finish off our blueprint for life we can read from Paul's classic letter to the church at Rome. In (Rom 12:9-21) from my NKJV study Bible, the heading of the section is called "Behave like a Christian". You can take lots of pointers from these verses that will help you to complete your blueprint for living. Such as "be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love", "bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse", "If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live at peace with all men", and "do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good". Of course we realize that this is only possible as we yield to, and be filled with, the Holy Spirit! (Eph 5:18), If we were to attempt these actions in our own strength we would surely fail. But thank God we know from reading many scriptures that once we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, and Father "adopts" us into His Family, The Spirit is given to us as our faithful Guide and Teacher!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                    09/05/12

We Harvest What We Sow

WE HARVEST WHAT WE PLANT

 

The scripture has a lot to say about sowing and reaping a harvest. In his letter to the churches in Galatia, Paul makes some powerful statements in (Gal 6:7-10). He starts off by declaring "you always harvest what you plant", in other words there is more than one kind of seed, but the harvest will always be of the same type as the seed sown. Remember there is always a time factor of several months in the natural, between sowing the seed and reaping the harvest. The same principle applies to the spiritual realm, which is what we want to consider. Some folks seem to grow old gracefully, while others become grouchy and ill-tempered. This doesn't happen suddenly, but gradually over a period of time. If we were able to go back in time to see what sort of things these people sowed into their lives and relationships with others, we would probably see the reason for the difference!

 

C S Lewis is credited with saying "Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before". If this is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, then we need to be very careful what type of choices we make. We can choose to submit our wills to line up with God's, or we can choose to follow our own desires, or those of certain friends. The result will not always be seen immediately, but will show up in your life eventually. So why not heed the advice of Paul "Don't be misled----you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful flesh nature will harvest decay and death from their sinful nature, but those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up." The question we have to ask ourselves then is, which way am I sowing? Am I sowing to the Spirit or to the flesh? It seems clear from this scripture passage, as well as others, that the seeds we sow today will determine the kind of fruit we'll reap tomorrow.  We read in

 (Gal 5: 16-21) where Paul describes what he calls the "works of the flesh", as sins that will prevent those who do such things from  their "inheritance" that is being reserved in heaven for us according to (1Peter 1:3-9). With this in mind we should warn people of the eternal danger of being involved in any of these "works of the flesh" mentioned here. Instead of the works of the flesh let it be the fruit of the Spirit listed by Paul in (Gal 5:22-23)!!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                revised 30/01/13