WHO REALLY KILLED JESUS

WHO REALLY KILLED JESUS?

Today is "Good Friday" (April 10,2009), the day we remember Jesus dying on the cross on a hill called mount Calvary over 2000 years ago. There has been much discussion through the years, trying to figure out who was to blame for the death of this innocent man. Many people, or groups of people, have been mentioned as the culprits. Some people believe it to be the "Jews" as a nation, because they rejected Him as their King. Others would say it was just their religious leaders who hated Him for showing the hypocrisy in their religious traditions, and paid Judas to betray Him to the Romans. Then of course some would say Pilate, who knew He was innocent, but went along with the crowd and consented to having Him beaten and then crucified. Still others would say it was the Roman soldiers who actually drove the nails and pierced His side who killed Jesus. I suppose all of these mentioned could be partly to blame, but not more than you and I, whose sin that we inherited from Adam, was the real reason why He came from Heaven to this sin cursed earth, to "reverse the curse" than Adam introduced to humanity by his act of disobedience to a direct command from God. (Rom 5:12).

But recently I have come to see that none of these above named individuals really killed Jesus, although indirectly we all had a part in His death. It really was Father God who killed His one and only begotten Son, as the only person worthy to be the sacrifice that would atone for our debt to Almighty God the Creator! (John 3:16) tells us that God loved us "So much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." This verse along with many others, make it clear that even before Jesus "became a human and dwelt among us" (John 1:14) the decision was made in heaven by the members of the Triune Godhead that Jesus would be the one to volunteer to become the "Lamb of God" who would take away the sin of the world by paying the price for all the sins of mankind! (Phil 2:5-11). This is how God proved His love for us, and should be on our minds as we take part in church services this weekend!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

THE LOVE OF GOD

THE LOVE OF GOD

I was impressed by a devotional thought in ODB (Our Daily Bread) on Mar 4th, 2009. The author quoted the words of an old hymn by this name, which you might be familiar with.

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made.

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky."

The author of these lyrics was probably influenced by the words of Paul's prayer to the Ephesian church, as recorded in (Eph 3:14-21), especially verses 18-19 "And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." NLT. Some Bible scholars believe "width" means its world wide scope (John 3:16), "length" its existence through all ages (Eph 3:21), "height" its victory over sin, opening the way to heaven (Eph 4:8), "depth" its profound wisdom (Rom 11:33). When we consider carefully the scope of these above mentioned words, truly this love of God is far beyond our understanding! Love like this cannot be explained, it can only be experienced! John was know as the "Apostle of love" because he wrote so much about it. Besides (John 3:16), which is probably the best known verse in the Bible, he also wrote three letters that were full of references to love. For example in (1 John 4:7-21) you can count between 25 and 30 uses of some form of the word love, depending on what version of the Bible you use! Then in (Rom 5:5) we read "---for we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love"! I trust you are presently experiencing this "love of God"! If not--why not?

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

WORSHIPING IDOLS

WORSHIPING IDOLS

There is a very interesting passage in Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth from chapter 10 we read in (1 Cor 10:14) "So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols." I can hear you thinking, well that doesn't apply to us followers of Jesus living in Canada! Maybe it might apply to pagans over in Africa, or East Asia somewhere, but surely not here in our civilized Western culture. I suggest you read this chapter over again slowly and really hear Paul's heart, he covers a lot of important issues. First he reminds us about what we should learn from Israel's experiences recorded in the OT. Then he talks about eating meat offered to idols, that was offered at a discounted price in the markets. He also includes a discussion about how they celebrated the "Lord's Supper", and how behind every idol is a demon, and he warned them about the danger of worshiping demons.

I recently read somewhere "An idol is anything that takes the place of God". Think about that statement for a few minutes, and consider carefully if we haven't been guilty of doing that. That word "anything" could include some "stuff", like material possessions you have accumulated, or perhaps people like parents, children or best friends, special food you like, or an endless number of other things. You probably haven't considered the possibility of there being a demon behind some of these! If Paul is correct in this statement, we should give this matter our prayerful consideration. We know from scripture that Satan hates God because he got cast out of the third heaven where God dwells, when he rebelled against God's divine will. (Isa 14:12-17). Since he is powerless to do anything directly against God, he takes out his wrath against God's children. His kingdom of darkness includes millions of demons and fallen angels, which he employs against the members of God's family. The demons are earth bound creatures, while the fallen angels still have access to the heavenlies, or the second heaven, but not to the third heaven where God dwells. Paul gives us direction in (2 Cor 10:3-6), and also in (Eph 6:10-18) how to do battle against these forces of darkness. Let us take encouragement from God's Word!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

DICTATORSHIP of ROUTINE

DICTATORSHIP of ROUTINE

I recently read an old sermon by A W Tozer, in which he used the above expression, and stated that he thought it was the church's greatest enemy! As I thought about it I found myself agreeing with him, and would like to borrow some of his information from that sermon for the main content of this article. Brother Tozer has been graduated to glory for many years now, so I have no way to ask his permission, but feel sure he would not object! We are all creatures of habit, and feel comfortable doing things like we have done them before. This helps us to develop our technique, or routine, and can be a real asset to us if we are a tradesman or professional person who can benefit by being experienced in what we do. However for the average person, doing the same thing over and over has certain dangers. Our "routine" soon develops into what we could call a "ROTE", or in other words the ability to do something without thinking about what we are doing, or why we are doing it. I'm sure we can all relate to this scenario----you are in church and the leader says we will now sing hymn # 245, it's a familiar piece you have known for years and probably sang it hundreds of times, so you just sing it by "rote", not thinking about the message, or what the author had in mind when he penned those words many years before. That is what we mean by doing things by rote.

The next stage after rote is "RUT". This is when you know exactly what will happen next, so you never expect anything different. I'm sure we have all been there and done that. This can be especially damaging to personal relationships, such as marriage. If we let our response to the other person become completely predictable, then we could say you are in a rut. It can be a very deadly thing in church services, and if we are not careful it can happen even to the churches that seem to be the most "alive".

The third and final stage is "ROT". This starts out as "dry rot", like in a piece of wood that can be rotten and not show it, but soon develops into full blown rot, that can be seen by all! So our routine can become so familiar it develops into a "rote", which if allowed to persist becomes a "rut", and this in turn becomes "rot". Let's beware of this danger in all areas of our lives as we relate to other people! Remember we who claim the name of Christ, should show forth to the world around us the character of Christ! Paul calls this the "fruit of the Spirit" in (Gal 5:22-23), and allowing "routine" in our lives to digress through "rote", to "rut", to "rot", will certainly not be in line with the Holy Spirit of God who indwells us!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer

UNDERSTANDING PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES

UNDERSTANDING PROPHETIC SCRIPTURES.

Many people are interested in the study of what the Bible has to say about future events. There is much confusion because of the many different, and often completely opposite interpretations, of the same scriptures. How can this be? Because not everyone uses a "Face Value" approach to understanding scripture. Following is a definition of face value by Robert Van Kampen. "Any given scripture passage must be understood at face value,in its most natural, normal, customary sense, making allowances for obvious figures of speech, taking the passage in its proper context, and taking into consideration all other passages of scripture dealing with the same issue. When in doubt as to the meaning of a particular word or phrase, let scripture interpret scripture! Look for the common denominator that harmonizes all the passages dealing with a particular issue, not just those that prove your presupposition at the expense of rejecting those that don't. Once a common denominator is found, then we have truth, that truth stands in judgment of us; never do we stand in judgment of it!"

This summary is based on the following five principles.
 1/ Seek to discover the author's intended meaning.--- Each and every passage of scripture has only one meaning, although it may have more than one possible application.
 2/ Recognize the importance of context.---Only when you know and understand the context in which a text is written, will you know how the writer intended the passage to be understood.
 3/ Whenever possible, let scripture interpret scripture.---Always interpret difficult passages in light of clear passages, since there are no contradictions in scripture.
 4/ Determine the Literal reference of figures of speech.---A figure of speech will normally employ a comparison, a substitution, or an amplification, in order to bring more clarification.
5/ Look for near/far implications and applications in prophetic passages. ---For example in (2 Samuel 7:8-16) this prophetic message to David applied to both Solomon (near), and Christ (far).

Since understanding this face value approach to scripture, I realized that many of the teachings I had received, believed, and in turn taught to others were not correct. For example the teaching that Jesus could return at "any moment" is completely contrary to scriptures that state clearly He will remain in heaven beside Father God "until" certain things are completed on earth. (Ps 110:1), (Acts 3:19-21). As far as to just when the Father will decide to send Jesus back to receive His bride, no one knows, but we do know that the church as we know it is no where near ready to be raptured! It must go through a period of purification to become the spotless bride that Jesus will come for. I believe this purification can best come through the time know as the "great tribulation" at the hands of the Antichrist! The best scenario describing His return is found in (Matt 24:4-44), which lines up with
(2 Thess 2:1-12), and of course with the book of Revelation. The answer of Jesus to the questions asked by His disciples in verse 3, are clearly answered in the balance of the chapter. Remember all of chapter 24 takes place during the final 7 years of life on planet earth, as we have  known it. This period is known as "Daniel's seventieth week". (Dan 9:24-27) and gives us a time line to follow in our study of end times. This period of time will start with the Antichrist signing a covenant with Israel for 7 years of peace, which he will break at the mid point. Then the time of "great tribulation" will begin for the church and for Israel. This will be the "Wrath of Satan" through his Antichrist, and will last until Jesus cuts short this time of persecution by His appearance (Matt 24:21-22) in order to save His "elect". This will be what is known as the rapture, which will end the "great tribulation", and clear the way for the outpouring of the 7 bowls of God's Wrath" (Rev 15:5-8). This wrath of God will be poured out on the ungodly who are left after the elect are removed, and is known in the OT as the "Day of the Lord". This is only a very brief outline of the end time scenario, that has come into view for me once I started to apply a "face value" approach to some of these familiar scriptures that I had always been told meant something very different!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer

 

Who Am I

WHO AM I ?

I woke up quite early this morning, with the words of an old song going through my head. Part of the words were, "Who am I that a king would bleed and die for, who am I that He would pray, not my will, Thine Lord. The answer I may never know, why He ever loved me so, that to an old rugged cross He'd go, for who am I?" This got me thinking about who I really am! The government of Canada know all about me. They know my name, address, date and place of my birth, my income last year etc. But am I only a statistic on their records? Who am I really?

For the correct answer to this question, we only have to go to God's Word, where we read in (Ps 139:13-16) in the NLT "You (God) made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous--how well I know it. You watched me while I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." The scientists have now discovered that every human being on planet earth has a very unique DNA, that makes us different from everybody else! We are all a "masterpiece", or one of a kind. (Eph 2:10) Is it really so marvelous that these intelligent scientists are just now finally discovering things that were known by God from the beginning? (Deut 29:29) He revealed them to certain of His servants like king David, and Paul the apostle. So all we have to do find out who we really are, is to read, and believe, the Word of God. Our Creator thought of everything we would ever need to know, and had it recorded in the Bible. Thanks to many faithful men and women over the years, this book has been translated into most known languages on our planet. The Bible is still the most widely distributed book in the history of the world, and continues to be the best seller from year to year. Every major religion of the world has their own "sacred book", but none can compare to our "Holy Bible", the Word of the Living God! (Heb 4:12-13) Hallelujah!!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer 

A SURE WORD

If we believers ever
needed a "sure word" it is now at the start of 2009! It
seems like the whole world is being shaken by forces that are beyond
our control, and every attempt by the so-called experts to assure us
everything will turn out okay fails, because they seem unsure
themselves. We read in (Heb 12:25-29) about a time coming when
God said "Once again I will shake not only the earth but the
heavens also". Could it be that we are now in the time spoken of
in this scripture? This passage goes on to say in verse 28 that the
Kingdom of God is "unshakable", that would seem to be our
only source of hope. The Bible has a lot to say about God's Kingdom
that came to earth over 2000 years with the King! His name is Jesus,
the King of kings, and the Lord of lords! He declared "I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except
through me" (John 14:6). If anyone has a sure word for us
in these uncertain times it is Jesus. He is the Living Word, "who
became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).

The apostle Peter, in his
second letter speaks about a "more sure word of prophecy"
(2 Peter 1:19) KJV. This entire first chapter is very
interesting, where he gives us a good description of growing in faith
from verse 3 to 11. Then from verse 12 to the end of the chapter he
discusses the place of the scriptures in out lives, especially
prophecy. As we know, Jesus is the "Living Word of God",
and the Bible is the "Written Word of God"! They always
agree since the scriptures were written by men who "were moved
by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God" (2 Peter 1:21).
So in these uncertain times in which we live, it is very important
to know Jesus as Savior, and be familiar with the written Word of God.
Before Jesus left His disciples to return to heaven, He told them
about the Holy Spirit who would be sent by the Father to take the
place of Jesus on earth, until He comes back again. You can read
about this in John's gospel chapters 14, 15 and 16, where Jesus
outlines exactly what the Holy Spirit will do for people. In Acts
chapters 1 and 2 we can read about what He started to do when He came
on the Day of Pentecost, and He continues to do the same things today!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer