A Better World

A BETTER WORLD

 

We all know that since Adam and Eve listened to the lies of our enemy Satan in the Garden of Eden in (Gen 3:1-7) and ate the forbidden fruit from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” they introduced the sin of disobedience to God’s command into our world. And since that time it has became known as the “Fallen World”. Is there any way we can improve this fallen world as followers of Jesus? I just read a devotional article in Our Daily Bread (ODB) today March 29, 2014 by Joe Stowell, by this title. He used a scripture portion from (1 Peter 2:7-12) to base his article on, and I will use this same scripture passage for this article. I just read this passage from my NLT version, and Peter is talking about Jesus as the “Cornerstone” that some people stumble over because “they do not obey God’s Word”.

 

This is definitely an encouraging passage, and if we understand Peter’s remarks and put them into practice, it just might make our world a better place. Let us look at a few statements he makes, in verses 7and 8 he gives a warning to those who “do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them”. Then he quickly assures them “but you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, and God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light”. This last statement matches the words of Paul as recorded in (Col 1:13-14) all because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Peter goes on in verse 10 “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy”.

 

Just by carefully obeying Peter’s words in verses 9 and 10, I believe that we could certainly improve the condition of our fallen world as committed followers of Jesus. But in order to accomplish that we would need to heed his advice given in verse 11 and 12. Remember we are “temporary residents and foreigners” in this world, as our home is in heaven with Jesus. So we need to “Keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors”. Then they will see your “honorable behavior, and will give honor to God when He judges the world”. This type of behavior before our worldly neighbors will only be possible as we depend completely on our staying “full of the Holy Spirit”, there is no other way (Eph 5:18-20)!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                   29/03/14

FROM SINNER to SAINT

FROM SINNER TO SAINT

 

This is an interesting journey from being born as a “sinner” from our mother’s womb, to becoming a “saint” by being “born again” by the Spirit of God. One of my favorite scripture passages that explain this process is found in the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church he had founded in the city of Ephesus. Read (Eph 2:1-10) for the details, which in the NLT version of the Bible has the heading “made alive in Christ”. Paul begins in verse one “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins”. He continues through verses two and three to explain who is the cause of us being sinners, “the devil—the commander of the powers of the unseen world. He is the spirit that is at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else”.

 

Then in verse four Paul starts out with “But God is so rich in mercy, and He loves us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that we have been saved!) For He raised us from the dead along with Christ ands seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus”. Paul continues in verse eight with “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago”. I consider this passage of scripture to be one of the best in the Bible to explain the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom in only 10 verses.

 

Thank God for Paul who was known as the “Apostle to the Gentiles”, and for the “mysteries” of God that were revealed to him (Eph 3:1-13), and recorded for our benefit. My observations of the average church attendee would indicate that they don’t know the truth of the plain simple gospel message, probably because they have listened to “another gospel” that eliminates that fact that we are all sinners (Rom 3:9-21) and have believed in a “false gospel” like the church in Corinth (2 Cor 11:1-4) and in many churches today. A so-called gospel without repentance and the truth of what Jesus did for us on the cross, He is our one and only Savior from sin!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                     08/05/13                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

SIN REDEFINED

SIN, REDEFINED

 

Sin as defined by God’s Word has been purposely redefined by our humanistic secular society in the past century or two. All to make it more acceptable and less offensive to the modern or post-modern mindset! The Bible, which is our Creator God’s written standard for a life style that will please Him, is very specific in defining sin. It uses several words to cover the meaning of sin, but basically they all pertain to the breaking of the 10 commandments listed in the Old Testament book of Exodus, written by Moses and recorded in (Exodus 20:1-17). This is known as the “Moral Law” of God, which Jesus came to fulfill in his life time on earth. The Jewish religious leaders at the time of Jesus had multiplied these 10 laws to 613 rules and regulations that the people were expected to keep in order to live a life that would satisfy God! This is the natural outcome of any “religion”, which is always based on activities designed to earn acceptance with their particular understanding of their god, or “higher power”.

 

Those of us who have become followers of Jesus, since we were ”born again” by the Holy Spirit of God when we accepted Him by faith, now realize this is a gift from God. As a gift of grace, and not the result of religious good works, we receive it as a gift and thank God for it. Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, since He is Spirit and invisible. Jesus came to make Him known, and once we have accepted Jesus as Savior, we are then adopted into the Father’s Forever Family, and receive the gift of eternal life! (1 John 5:11-12). Some sins like homosexuality are condemned in the Bible, and listed as an “abomination” to God. Today it is simply called an “alternative gay life style”, and a woman who was once a “prostitute” is now given the title of being a “sex trade worker”, and on and on the redefining goes. I’m sure that God has not changed His opinion on anything He lists as sin in His Word, just because we have redefined it. God never changes, and is the same “yesterday, today, and for ever”. He refers to Himself as “Alpha and Omega”, the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. (Rev 22:13). Jesus said “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End”. This should convince even hardened modern day Pagans, that they cannot get God to change His stand on what He considers as sin! So let us continue to pray for people who have not yet seen their need to repent, and ask Jesus for forgiveness. May they see Jesus in our behavior and life style, and be convinced He is who He claims to be!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                           revised 17/09/13                                                                                                                                                                    

The Thirst Quencher

THE THIRST QUENCHER

 

This could be used to describe Jesus, based on a story in the Gospel of John recorded in (John 4:7-14), where He spoke of “Living Water”. I got the idea for the title from ODB Fri Feb 28, 2014, where they told about a large spring in Northern Michigan called “Big Spring” that produces 10,000 gal. of water per minute at exactly 45 degrees Fahrenheit in summer or winter. This is a “miracle spring”, but compared to the water that Jesus promised to give in this story, that is a mild miracle compared to the “living water” He offers to anyone who asks for it! This is an interesting story of a Samaritan woman who had been married to several men and was living with another man who was not her legal husband at the time. She was coming to the well to draw water at noon when no one would ordinarily be there, and when Jesus asked for a drink she was very surprised because He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan. Jews never communicated with Samaritans in those days, so this caught her attention. Their discussion came to the matter of religion, and where the proper place to worship God was. Jesus used this opportunity to declare in (John 4:23) “But the time is coming—indeed is already here now—when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth”. A discussion that started about a drink of water, opened up to Jesus telling her about “Living Water”, and where to properly worship God!

 

Only Jesus Christ can supply “Living Water” that will slake the spiritual thirst of any person. That is why we can refer to Him as the “The Thirst Quencher”, because no one else but Him can do that. We are all born with a built in desire to seek after and worship Almighty God, but we are distracted by “other things”. And of course we have an enemy who also desires to be worshipped instead of God, and he who once was, the “god of this world” from the time he lied to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1-7) and he stole their position of “dominion” from them and became the legal ruler, or god of this world. He held this position “until” Jesus defeated him completely on the Cross of Calvary (Col 2:6-15), and he would like to make us think that he still has that position. But we know from reading (John 8:44) that he is the “father of lies” and hence the “Great Deceiver” who is the cause of deception that is spreading in the “church”. We were warned this would come in the letter days by Jesus and the other apostles in the early church, so we should not be surprised to see it happening in our day, because we are living in the beginning of those days!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                         01/03/14                                                                                             

The Sons of Issachar

THE SONS of ISSACHAR

 

Issachar is the name of one of the 12 sons of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. His name is mentioned many times in the OT, especially in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and First Chronicles. We want to look at (1 Chron 12:32) in the NLT version, “From the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives. All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take”. How we need men like that in the Church, as well as in government positions in our times, that Paul describes in (2 Tim 3:1-5) as “very difficult times”. If you keep up to date on the world wide news each day you realize how true these statements of Paul are for the days we are living in nearly 2000 years later. Those who are followers of Jesus know from reading our Bibles that the main reason the world is in the shape it is in, is because of the problem of “sin” that entered our world through our first human parents Adam and Eve. See (Gen 3:1-7) and then (Rom 5:12-21) for the details of how it happened.

 

To the Apostle Paul God revealed many secrets that had not been made know before Paul came on the scene. He explains these truths about God’s original plans for our universe, and also His plans for His Church, that are recorded in (Eph 1:3-14; 3:1-13). It would seem that these sons of Issachar in the OT were something like Paul, to whom God made known certain secrets. Now that God has given His Holy Spirit to indwell His children who have been “born again”, and adopted by Father into His family; He probably intends us to be like these sons of Issachar, “and know the signs of the times, and what the Church should do”. Is that too much to expect from followers of Jesus who are filled with His Spirit? The fact that we may not be seeing men functioning like that today is not the fault of God I’m sure, but the lack on the part of the men involved.

 

So I’m not sure if that is expecting too much of men today to be able to function like the Men of Issachar in the OT or not. Perhaps it is, although why should it be since we have the Holy Spirit to empower us today, since Jesus’ death and resurrection did away with the effects of sin in our world. If we really understand the tremendous victory that Jesus won against Sin and Satan on the Cross of Calvary, there should not be anything that we can not do in the strength and power of The Name of Jesus!! This is probably a topic that should be considered and discussed prayerfully, but it just stood out to me when I read this passage from (1 Chron 12:32) recently. Why should men of old have understanding of the times they lived in any more than us who live in the 21^st century? If anyone has some thoughts on this topic, please let me know, as I am open for a discussion!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                          04/02/14                                                                                    

 

Tell it on the mountain

TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

 

I read a devotional message in ODB today Feb 21, 2014 by David McCasland by this title. He starts with a story that was written up in the “Summit Daily News” about a group of teenage snowboarders who held weekly church services on a Colorado ski slope. This story apparently caught the attention of many people about this group of teens, who loved to snowboard, but also loved to tell how Jesus changed their lives and wanted to share the Good News of the gospel with others. One of the snowboarders in Colorado stated “I’ve never been able to build relationships with family or friends; I’ve kept them at arm’s length. The [program] has showed me God’s love. It opened me to reach out to people”. This should be the result of spending time together with other followers of Jesus no matter where we choose to meet. Building healthy relationships is certainly necessary, but not always easy to do. It often depends on our personal relationship with Jesus, and depending on the Holy Spirit to draw you together with other followers of Jesus.  

 

We often read in scripture where Jesus went up in a mountain to pray, and in (Mark 3:13-19) we see that He took certain disciples with Him, and chose 12 of them to be his original disciples to spend time with Him. He trained them to spread His teaching to the Church He said He would build (Matt 16:18), and this Church was started shortly after His crucifixion and resurrection. This “Biblical Church” is sometimes referred to as the Body of Christ and is different from those buildings with a steeple on top, and stained glass windows that we call “churches”. The true Church that Jesus has been building is a “Living Organism” and not an “organization” like these other groups that go under the name of “churches”. Our brother McCasland ended his article with a poem:

 

 “Let us go forth, as called by God.

Redeemed by Jesus’ precious blood;

His love to show, His life to live,

His message speak, His mercy give”.

 

His last word was “Witnessing isn’t a job to be done but a life to be lived”.

 

I believe this article by our brother is true and deserves our attention!!

Sincerely submitted.

DaveJamer                                        21/02/14                                          

The High PlacesTHE HIGH PLACES The Bible has a lot to say about "The High Places" where the inhabitants of the Land of Canaan lived, and worshipped their false gods. See (Deut 12:2) to see the instructions God gave to His people Israel before they entered the "Promised Land of Canaan". The tribes who lived there at the time Abraham first visited were very wicked followers of many false gods that they chose to worship them "upon the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree". When God's people moved into this Promised Land, they did not obey God's command to destroy completely these tribes, and they started to follow them in worshipping their Idols in the same way. When we study the history of the reign of the kings of Israel and Judah for example in (2 Kings 12:1-3) we see that Joash was one of their better Kings, yet he "did not destroy the pagan shrines, and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there". Of course this made Jehovah the true God an

THE HIGH PLACES

 

The Bible has a lot to say about “The High Places” where the inhabitants of the Land of Canaan lived, and worshipped their false gods. See (Deut 12:2) to see the instructions God gave to His people Israel before they entered the “Promised Land of Canaan”. The tribes who lived there at the time Abraham first visited were very wicked followers of many false gods that they chose to worship them “upon the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree”. When God’s people moved into this Promised Land, they did not obey God’s command to destroy completely these tribes, and they started to follow them in worshipping their Idols in the same way. When we study the history of the reign of the kings of Israel and Judah for example in (2 Kings 12:1-3) we see that Joash was one of their better Kings, yet he “did not destroy the pagan shrines, and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there”. Of course this made Jehovah the true God angry with them, and eventually led to the dispersion of them by their enemies to Assyria and Babylon.

 

Derek Prince declares that even today the “church” still have their “high places”. According to him the only proper place to worship God is described in the NT in (Matt 18:20), in the NLT version it reads “For where two or three gather as my followers, I am there among them”. But Derek says the proper understanding of the Greek would sound like “Where two or three are led together by the Holy Spirit, I am there among them”. He claims it is the Holy Spirit who leads us based on Paul’s statement in (Rom 8:14) “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God”. In other words the proper place to truly worship God is where two or three born again children of God are led together by the Holy Spirit of God.

 

Derek believes there are 3 wrong bases for worshipping God; they are 1/ the basis of nationality, 2/ the basis of a particular doctrine, and 3/ the basis of loyalty to a specific human leader. Some churches were considered as being part of a certain nation and were called state churches, such as “The Church of England”, or “The Church of Scotland” etc. And of course many churches are known by their particular denominational name, such as Baptist or Catholic etc. And then other churches are known as followers of a certain preacher or leader. In Derek’s mind these would all be examples of “High Places” where we worship today, that he considers as similar to the high places that we considered from the OT examples. Whether you agree with Derek or not, I think he makes a good point and this we should give some consideration to. We do know that when we worship Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Father is pleased, and we enjoy His presence!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                                    31/01/14