"For God did not appoint us to wrath...."

There are many people who think God is mean and vengeful and doesn't like people.  He wants to punish us.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

9For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  God did not appoint us to wrath…we brought that on ourselves.  Or more accurately I should say that those who reject God brought that wrath on themselves. 

The truth is that God appointed us to be able to obtain salvation.  That was God's wish for each of us.  But God also gave us free will which means each person is free to embrace God or reject Him.  Those who choose to reject God make a decision to reject God's kindness and to invite His wrath.  But that isn't the state of life that God appointed to us.  Make sense?

A question of innocence.

When civilians are killed during war time we often hear about how the innocent were killed.  But were they really innocent?  They supported what their leaders were doing.  Or at least they didn't oppose their leaders. 

You're probably wondering where I am going with this.  Let me set up this piece of Scripture and then I will explain on the other side.

This is the story of how Peter was in jail and an Angel came and got him out.  There were many guards there who were to make sure that Peter didn't get away and they failed.  Therefore Herod had them killed.

Acts 12:18-19(NKJV)

Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. 

But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there.

The guards were killed for not doing their job, they let Peter escape.  There are many who might say "that wasn't fair, God supernaturally through His Angel helped Peter escape.  Therefore the guards were innocent.". 

Were they?  I would suggest that the fact that they were there working to suppress God's word makes them anything but innocent.

 

Why did this "please the Jews"?

Doesn't this make you wonder?  King Herod has just had one of the disciples, James, killed with a sword.  The next sentence says it "pleased the Jews".  Here is my question.

Why did it please the Jews?

Acts 12:2-4(NKJV)

Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 

And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 

So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.

Why is this such a big deal to me? I ponder that.

As I've read Scripture over and over I haven't found anywhere Jesus said we had to believe in our hearts and confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord to get salvation.  From everything I've read, with Jesus it was 100% a heart issue.  There was no magic incantation.  That seems to have come from Paul as far as I can find.  Here is the first such example.

Romans 10:9-10(NKJV)

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

Now I've made this clear repeatedly but I'll say it again just to make sure everyone understands.  I'm not against confessing with your mouth.  I think it is a good thing.  Not bad at all.  My only point is that when you compare what Jesus said was needed for salvation and what Paul says, there is a difference.

The thing that concerns me here is man has a habit throughout history of adding to what God gave us in the Bible.  That's generally not a good thing because from there it is a short hop to "listen to us, not to God".  That was the choice that Joan of Ark faced and failed at.  She had always listened to God instead of man.  One time it became too much and she gave in and listened to man.  That was her downfall.

Now an argument could be made that Scripture very clearly says Paul was chosen by God for His role and therefore Paul has authority to speak.  That is certainly a compelling argument.  But does Paul have authority to add requirements to what is required for salvation? 

Why is this such a big deal to me?  I really don't know although I have a guess.  A bunch of us had an assessment done through church where it identified our spiritual motivators.  One of mine was accuracy in Scripture and Biblical understanding.  It's just part of my makeup, part of who I am. 

There have been many times I have suppressed writing about this but God keeps bringing me back to it.  Even after I wrote this today I tried to move on and write something else to post.  I was just going to keep this one for myself.  God wouldn't let me.  Weird. 

Anyway I long ago learned to trust God and I am going to trust Him now by sharing this.  And just to be clear this should not challenge anyone's salvation in any way.  The only way to God is through Jesus, irregardless whether it is heart only or heart and mouth!

"God shows no partiality"

I think this concept sometimes gets taken out of context.  A lot of people seem to think this means that God doesn't show a preference at all.  I think a lot of people miss the second part of the verse. 

Acts 10:34-35(NKJV)

Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 

But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. 

I think the proper interpretation is that God shows no partiality among those who believe in Him.  In other words Greek and Jew are saved equally in God's sight.  Scripture tells us repeatedly however that God favors those who believe over those who don't. 

Want proof?  Those who believe are saved and get eternal life.  Those who aren't saved get eternal damnation instead.  I'd say there is some partiality there.  :)

Salvation is not found in "Mother Earth"

There are many who worship the earth.  According to Scripture, those people will be disappointed.

Jeremiah 3:23(NKJV)

    Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,     And from the multitude of mountains;     Truly, in the Lord our God     Is the salvation of Israel.

Who killed Jesus?

Who killed Jesus?

Thursday, September 07, 2017

8:56 AM

I find it interesting how irate the Jewish Community gets when you say that the Jews killed Jesus.  The thing is there are several Scriptures that say that it was the Jewish Community who was responsible. 

Acts 3:12-23(NKJV)

So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 

But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 

and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 

And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

“Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 

and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 

whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 

For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 

And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’  

Here is another Scripture from the Gospel of John that predicts it will happen.

John 7:1(NKJV)

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 

What is interesting is when you look this subject up you see articles where Jewish believers go to great lengths to obscure and evade their responsibility.  They start out by attacking the New Testament itself as being anti-sematic.  Then they go on to point out that it wasn't the Jews who killed Jesus it was the Romans because Jesus was crucified and that is a Roman method of execution. 

Now technically that is true but it is true only because the Jews requested that Jesus be killed.  Pilate was going to let Jesus go and kill one of the other prisoners.  The Jews rejected that and repeatedly called for Jesus to be crucified.  Therefore the responsibility, no matter how much they would like to obscure the truth, lies with them.

Now as the verse in Acts points out, "

“Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 

and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 

whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."

Nobody wants to condemn the Jews for all time or anything.  Scripture acknowledges that they did it out of ignorance and that all they have to do is repent and all will be forgiven.  But instead of repent they choose to keep defending their actions. 

Interesting that they remain one of the groups opposed to Jesus when Jesus was foretold in there Holy writings as the Savior sent by their God to save them….and they rejected Him.  How sad!

For me it comes down to who am I going to believe?  Those telling me it wasn't the Jews fault or Scripture that I can read with my own eyes which clearly tells me with was?

No other name!

No other name than Jesus.  Seems pretty simple to me. 

Acts 4:12(NKJV)

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Delegation

An interesting passage about delegation.  Delegation is hard for control freaks like myself.  The thing is, you are much more productive when you delegate and focus your efforts on the best use of your talents.  Read the Scripture and then I will pick it up on the other side. 

Acts 6:1-4(NKJV)

Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. 

Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. 

Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 

but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

I had a mentor years ago who evaluated my financial planning practice.  One of the things he said was "You have to stop washing windows.".  What he meant by that was I had no business doing the things that I could pay someone else $10/hr to do, so that I spent more of my time doing the things that generated $100+/hr for my firm.   

I had never noticed before how close that analogy was to the way the disciples said it.  “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. "

Does that mean the disciples thought they were too good to wait tables?  Were they refusing to follow Jesus' example of servanthood leadership? 

Not at all.  They were simply looking at how to best use each person's skills to further the Kingdom of God.  The fact is that there were many good God fearing people who could do the work with the widows.  On the other hand there are a lot fewer people who are comfortable and effective evangelizing.  The disciples time was better spent winning people over for Jesus.   

As Scripture tells us, God gave us all different gifts.  That would indicate that He expected us to do different things in accordance to the gifts He gave us wouldn't it?  

God or man. Who ya gonna listen to?

Acts 4:18-19(NKJV)

So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 

But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 

Kind of a smart Alek response but I like it.  Who ya gonna listen to?  :)

And if that wasn't enough in Chapter 4 it is reiterated in Chapter 5.  God or man.  Who ya going to listen to? 

Acts 5:29-32(NKJV)

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. 

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. 

Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 

And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

Be grateful for the benefits!

I like the way this is phrased!

Psalms 68:19(NKJV)

    Blessed be the Lord,      Who daily loads us with benefits,     The God of our salvation! Selah

Pretty cool!  Try to recognize the benefits and then thank God for them each day.

Heaven in the Old Testament

As I do my word study on salvation I am struck by the difference in the meaning of the word between the OT and the NT.  I wrote about this just the other day.  You can read it here.  https://randomobservationsofacommonchristian.blogspot.com/2017/09/salvation-on-earth.html

That has led me to do a little research on Heaven in the OT.  Not mentioned nearly as much as in the NT.  When it is mentioned, many times it isn't mentioned as clearly as in the NT either.  I was starting to wonder if it even existed in the OT at all so I googled "Heaven in the Old Testament". 

Turns out that a lot has been written on that subject.  I was looking for OT Scripture references to Heaven.  Here is one of the clearest ones that I found.

Daniel 12:1-3(NKJV)

    “At that time Michael shall stand up,      The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;     And there shall be a time of trouble,     Such as never was since there was a nation,     Even to that time.     And at that time your people shall be delivered,     Every one who is found written in the book.

    And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,     Some to everlasting life,     Some to shame and everlasting contempt.

    Those who are wise shall shine     Like the brightness of the firmament,     And those who turn many to righteousness      Like the stars forever and ever.

While it doesn't specifically say Heaven, the description fits the process that we have been taught.  Book of Life, everlasting life or everlasting shame.

It is some interesting reading if you want to study the issue some time. 

I had never thought of it that way before.

I have written before about my thoughts on Kumbaya Jesus.  That it is a misguided paradigm of Jesus.  However I had not taken those thoughts to their logical conclusion.  Read this passage and then I'll tell you what I am talking about.

John 16:7-9(NKJV)

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 

And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 

of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 

I had never thought of not believing in Jesus as a sin.  Puts a bit of a different light on unbelief doesn't it? 

Salvation on Earth.

The next word in my study of the character of God is Salvation.  The thing that has struck me right off the bat is a new realization. 

We, or at least I have always associated salvation with Heaven.  Eternity and all that.  In reading some of the Scriptures in the OT I realize that God is our salvation here on Earth as well as into eternity.

What I mean by that is God can save us from our enemies and tribulations right here on earth in a very real way, not just down the road when we die. 

If you remember, one of my intentions when writing is to show the very real here and now benefits of being a Christian.  Well here you go!

God is…Helper

This was pretty much as I expected.  I see two themes here.  One is that God helps us.  Not in some ethereal way but in a real concrete way.  He helps us by guiding our lives.  By bringing people into our lives in a real way.  By making circumstances turn out the way He needs them to turn out when He needs them to turn out that way in order to steer our lives.  Those sorts of things.

The other way God is helper is He sent us the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said it this way "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper".  So Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as "another" helper from God.  Pretty cool!

Psalms 10:14(NKJV)

    But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief,      To repay it by Your hand.     The helpless commits himself to You;     You are the helper of the fatherless.

Psalms 54:4(NKJV)

    Behold, God is my helper;      The Lord is with those who uphold my life.

John 14:16(NKJV)

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

Hebrews 13:6(NKJV)

So we may boldly say:      “The Lord is my helper;     I will not fear.     What can man do to me?”