Hide and Seek

HIDE AND SEEK

 

I'm sure you all remember when we were kids we could spend hours playing "hide & seek". We would all take turns trying to find the perfect hiding place where no one could find us! Of course we never found the perfect place, and were always found. But the idea of finding some place, where we could remain hidden from the searchers, and yet see them, would keep us playing this game for hours!

 

The scriptures mention in several places about a secret hiding place, where we can remain hidden from our spiritual enemies. This is important for those of us who are followers of Jesus, who are often being hounded by Satan and the spirits of his kingdom of darkness. In (Psa 91:1) we read "He, who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty". This verse plus many other similar ones, give a clear message that our God has provided a safe place for us to hide from our enemies. This safe hiding place is found only in an intimate relationship with our Creator God, which He has made possible because of what His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, did for us on the cross of Calvary!

 

This is the very core of the gospel of the Kingdom, that Jesus came to declare, and was then passed on to his disciples. After His death and resurrection he sent the Holy Spirit to take His place on earth. These disciples were baptized with this Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4), and became known as the first apostles (sent ones), who went about spreading the good news of the Kingdom. This same Holy Spirit who came to earth that day is still here, and is still baptizing and filling people with Himself as they yield themselves completely to Him. Paul declared in (Eph 2:19-22) that we have become a temple or "dwelling where God lives by His Spirit" NLT. So now as followers of Jesus, we can be filled with the Spirit of God, and have Him living in our hearts by faith! Could this be the NT way of expressing the truth of these OT scriptures about being safe under His Wings etc? How could we be any more protected by our God, than by having Him living within us? It would seem to me that if we make Satan aware of this fact, by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony (Rev 12:11), that he would have to back off, and leave us alone!

 

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                              Revised 18/07/14

UNISEX

UNISEX

 

The first time I remember ever seeing this word was sometime in the early '60's as part of an advertisement for men's shoes with pointed toes. That was about the time that the United Church of Canada came out with their "New Curriculum", and both these topics have come a "long way" since being introduced to our culture. The United Church has led the way toward replacing God's Word with "Liberal Theology", and "New Age" teaching. And the "Gay Agenda" continues to push their agenda to unbelievable heights, including so-called "same sex marriages". Most of us could never imagine the word "unisex" could ever expand to include such things as those demanded by the present "Gay Agenda". But that is just an example of how far sin can be multiplied by our enemy Satan. God's word is very clear regarding sin as recorded by the Apostle Paul in (Rom 1:18-32), and certainly God has never changed His mind. Thank God that He never changes, imagine what it would be like to worship a "god" that you never knew when he would change his mind completely about certain things!

 

This whole subject of "perverted sexual relationships" has been so promoted by the Public Media in the past few years that it is hard to believe how far lies can spread. We certainly know that the enemy Satan is behind it all, and as Jesus told the Jewish Pharisees in (John 8:44) that they were of their father the devil who "is a liar and the father of lies". And Satan (the devil) has never changed since lying to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and causing sin to enter our creation. The church leaders have apparently tried to eliminate "sin" from their vocabulary, or "redefine" the word sin to a more acceptable one. We hardly ever hear the word sin or the need to "repent" from sin today in our "seeker friendly" churches. The very thought of being a "sinner" is quite offensive to the modern mind today, they need to read (Rom 3:9-20) and see what God's Word says about sin.

 

The Apostle Paul clearly describes the works of the flesh in (Gal 5:16-21) and the list starts with "sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures" plus 14 other sins that can result in those who do such things "will not inherit the Kingdom of God". We should become familiar with scriptures such as this passage, and let people know what our Holy God thinks about these kinds of sin. Thank God He has given each of us who have placed our faith and trust in Jesus, and been "born again" by the Spirit of God, the "gift of His Spirit" to war against our sinful "flesh". Our "old nature" we inherited from Adam died with Jesus on the cross, but we still have this sinful "flesh nature" which must be keep in line by the Spirit of God!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                              26/04/14

Out of Orbit

OUT OF ORBIT

 

I was impressed by a devotional in Our Daily Bread Aug 4, 2010, by Joe Stowell, from which I borrowed his title and a few quotes. He based his thoughts on Psalm 63, which is a Psalm written by King David while he was in the wilderness of Judah. Joe said "David understood that true joy and purpose came not in admiring God from a safe distance, but from chasing hard after Him". This is the theme of his article, and he starts by comparing our journey of following Jesus, with a space probe to Mars. He imagines the waste of time and effort if that probe should get drawn off course by the gravitational pull of some other less significant object!

 

This is a distinct possibility for any of us in our journey of following Jesus. There are many things that can draw us away from our original determination to be a follower of Jesus, who paid the price of our redemption from our life of sin! Perhaps it is our immediate family, or close friends, who think we have become a fanatic, or have joined a cult. Perhaps it is the draw of worldly entertainments, or some habit you established before you came to know Jesus. Whatever it might be, you can be sure your enemy Satan will use it to try and draw you back to serve his kingdom of darkness, and not God's Kingdom of light! The important thing to remember is that our loving Father has made ample provision for everything we need to live a life pleasing to Him. But the decision to accept these provisions is always left to us.

 

A careful reading of (Psalm 63) will show us what King David did while hiding out in the wilderness of Judah, fleeing from the wrath of Saul. In the NLT, verse 1 reads "O God, you are my God. I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you, my whole body longs for you, in this parched and weary land where there is no water". When we seek for God, as David did, He will be found by us. He is not hiding from us, but the fact is that He is holy, and unless we become holy as He is holy we can not have intimate fellowship. (1 Peter 1:16). We, as part of the Body of Christ on earth, must follow Paul's advice in (2 Cor 7:1) "Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God" NLT. So we can see that God has made provision for our holiness, but it is our responsibility to keep "in orbit", so to speak, and stay close to Him!

Sincerely submitted

Dave Jamer                                Revised 04/07/15     

Two Favorite Scriptures

TWO FAVORITE SCRIPTURES

 

There are two scripture verses that I have found in the Bible that I would like to recommend to everyone, just is case you haven't found them yet. The first one is found in Paul's second letter to his young disciple Timothy, (2 Tim 3:16-17) "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work". When these verses start with "all scripture", it literally means the whole Bible. The complete bible is inspired by our creator God from cover to cover. So it is not possible to just take certain verses and ignore the rest. Every word in our Bibles was written by the particular author of each book, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit who directed the author what words to use in each sentence. Of course most of us don't read Hebrew or Greek, the two extremely accurate languages that our Bible was written in, so we must depend on a translation into our mother tongue to understand it.

 

The second passage is found in the OT book of Deuteronomy (Deut 29:29), "The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions". This I find to be a very interesting verse, and deserve our careful study. I'm not sure how many books I have seen that have tried to tell when Jesus is going to return for His "Church/Bride". The truth is that no one except the Father knows when this and other events will happen. See (Matt 24:36) for details, this is one of God's secrets. We humans tend to be very interested in knowing what the future holds for us, but unless God by His Holy Spirit reveals the future events to us, they remain as part of "His Secrets". Probably the whole subject of the so-called "Pre-Tribulation Rapture" would be a case in point. There certainly will be a "Rapture" when the Father permits His Son to return to earth for His "Church/Bride", but it will not happen before the Antichrist comes to start the "Great Tribulation" with the Church and Israel. Read (Rev 13:1-10) to learn what life will be like under the rule of this "beast", who will be the "man of lawlessness" as Paul calls him in (2 Thess 2:1-4).

 

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                             18/12/15                                                                                            

 

Daniel Nine: Twenty to Twenty-Seven

DANIEL NINE: TWENTY to TWENTY SEVEN

 

We know that Daniel was a man God trusted to reveal many of His secrets to, a man that was "very precious to God", as Gabriel told him when he appeared from heaven while Daniel was still praying to God and confessing the sins of his Jewish people. This is possibly one of the most important passages of scripture in the entire Bible. It reveals 6 important things that God will settle with His chosen people Israel, after removing His Church from the scene by the "rapture", see (1 Thess 4:15-18) for details. Verse 27 is often referred to as "Daniel's Seventieth Week", and as I've come to understand, it represents the very last 7 year period of life as we have known it on Planet Earth. The first "ruler" mentioned in verse 26 would of course be the Roman Empire who destroyed Jerusalem and their temple in 70AD, and the second "ruler" mentioned would have to be the Antichrist who pretends to be a "man of peace" who signs a treaty with Israel for a period of 7 years, only to break it at the "Mid-point" of this 7 year period, and reveal himself as the Antichrist or the "beast" of (Rev 13:1-10). Paul refers to him as "the man of lawlessness" in (2 Thess 2:1-6). His revelation of not being a man of peace, at the mid-point of this 7 year period but instead the "beast" will be the start of the "Great Tribulation"

 

Jesus describes this period of time in (Matt 24: 21-22) "For there will be a Greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again. In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God's chosen ones". The truth is that the Church will certainly be here at the beginning of this great tribulation, for without a Church to receive the wrath of Satan through his beast, there could be no tribulation, plain and simple! This tribulation time will last until God cuts it short with the return of Christ for His "Church/Bride". (Matt 24:22) This will be the rapture, not pre-tribulation, but Certainly before the wrath of God is poured out on the wicked unbelievers who are left behind? To me this should end any possibility of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture in anyone's mind.

 

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                14/12/15

 

Two Beginnings

TWO BEGINNINGS

 

A few years ago I put together an article called "In the Beginning", since then I have reason to believe that there could be two beginnings, so to speak, mentioned in scripture. The first is in (Gen 1:1) which happened sometime in the prehistoric past, know only to God. (Deut 29:29). The second time it is mentioned is in (John 1:1-14), and I believe this could be considered as the beginning of time as we have come to know it as described from (Gen 1:2) through to (Rev 22:21). It would seem that this period of time started with the reconstruction of planet earth, to make it suitable to sustain life, after it became "without form and void" (NKJV), then approximately 6000 years ago as we humans reckon time God created Adam. I believe our Creator God is perfect, and couldn't have created our planet as it is described in (Gen 1:2). This would leave a period of undetermined length between verses 1 and 2. I   realize there has been much speculation about this apparent gap between the original beginning, and what I'm suggesting might be considered a second beginning.

 

The facts pertaining to fossils, and the evidence of so-called prehistoric creatures, and the evidence of science that our universe is much older than 6000 years, has always bothered me since becoming a follower of Jesus. I consider myself to be a seeker after truth, since coming to accept Jesus, who is "The Truth!" (John 14:6). I have recently read a series of articles by a respected Christian leader, in which he attempted to prove that everything mentioned in the Bible has happened in this 6000 year period. Then shortly after reading these articles, and not understanding why he thought he needed to prove the universe could not be any older, I read another article by a Christian brother who holds a completely different view. I tend to agree with the latter view, and see no reason why we cannot leave room in our scriptural view for more proven scientific discoveries. I certainly don't believe in the "theory of evolution", or in the belief that there could be life on some other planet, which I consider is simply man's attempt to discredit the Bible. But since the discovery of the Hubble telescope, much more is being revealed about the size and age of God's creation. In (Ps 115:16) NLT we read "The heavens belong to the Lord, but He has given the earth to all humanity." I take from that statement that the earth as we know it was given as the only perfect environment in the universe to sustain human life! Why should we be spending money looking for some other place?

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                          21/04/12                                                                                     

 

Agape Perfected

AGAPE PERFECTED

This is a term taken from the teaching series by Bob Mumford called "The Agape Road". It consists of eight thirty minute sessions that clearly explain what is involved in receiving and walking in a new lifestyle that pleases God our heavenly Father. It is based on the truth of (John 14:6) where it records a very important statement of Jesus "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". Since we know from scripture that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the perfect God/Man, because He was born of a virgin so He was "sinless", so He was 100% human and 100% God at the same time. So we can safely say that He was "Agape Perfected" because we know that Agape is the Greek word that is translated as "Love". The Greek language has several different words for love, but in English we only have one. So we can say "I love God", but we can also say "I love pizza", or "I love my cat or dog" etc. The apostle John declared in (1John 4:8) that "God is love" [Agape], so we can say that Agape is God's kind of love since "God is Agape".

 

Back in the last part of the 19^th century there was a lot of church groups teaching "holiness", and some developed a doctrine called "sinless perfection" which told people they could become so holy they would be "perfect" in this life. We can only be "faultless", or without sin when we stand before God in our resurrected bodies (Jude: 24-25). As long as we still dwell in our earthly bodies we have our fleshly nature which is rebellious and opposes the things of the Spirit. (Gal 5:16-21). Only as we yield to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who indwells every "born again" adopted child of God can we live a life of liberty that pleases our heavenly Father. We live in a "fallen world" in which we have an enemy who hates God with a passion, and since he can do little directly against God he takes out his wrath against God's children. His kingdom of darkness is a well organized army consisting of millions of "fallen angels" who still have access to heavenly places (Eph 3:10). And also a huge number of "earth bound" wicked demon spirits who because they are "bodiless creatures" have an intense desire to inhabit a body to carry out the enemy's plan to hinder God's plans. These demons naturally prefer a human body. But will settle for the body of an animal rather than be unclothed. (Mark 5:1-20). This is only one of many incidents that show how Jesus dealt with demons in the gospels. And in (Mark 16:17) Jesus declares the believers in Him shall cast out demons!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                     30/08/12