Greatest Story Ever Told...part 2

In the Jewish Torah, ancient prophets for told of His birth.  Many prophecies exist in their scriptures telling of different aspects of his birth, his life, and even details of his death.

He was to be their messiah, their king.  He was going ensure that all Jews would fulfill every commandment from God, defeating the evil one once and for all.  Bringing about complete repentance for the sins that tarnished the relationship Israel had with God for so many years.  Evidence of his coming date back to the earliest of Jewish books, the book of Genesis. 

Here God is speaking to satan after he tempted Eve in the garden of Eden, telling him that he will be crushed once and for all.  Then the savior would reign over Israel in a new world of peace and order.  Traditional Jews believed He would be a political/military king to bring about peace and the sovern rule of Israel for eternity.  Looking into prophecies of the Torah , one finds many specific details of his birth that must be fulfilled in order for this messiah to be authentic.  He had to be born of a virgin,

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be
with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14

be a descendent from the family line of king David,

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
   “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
   and do what is just and right in the land.
⁶ In his days Judah will be saved
   and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
   The LORD Our Righteous Savior. Jeremiah 23:5

and be born in the town of Bethelhem.

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans
of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over
Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.  Micah 5:2

Many more scriptures exist regarding the coming of the Messiah, his life and his death, roughly 130 of them.  Here's a link to a great video from Mark Driscoll about the many prophecies of the coming of Christ,   How did people know Jesus was coming?

Despite all the historical evidence of these fulfilled prophecies, the Jewish people and many others today still reject the truths about Christ.  This rejection, too, was prophecied in the old testament.  Christmas is the celebration of this birth. Not just the birth of Christ, but the birth of a new world order where God and man can live intimately once again as was intended from the the first Adam.  Christ is sometimes considered the second Adam in this light.  Trust in Him, and you will find your way back to God, right where you are created to be.  He loves you more than you can ever imagine.  I hope God blesses you this holiday season and in many more to come.  Until next time.

Greatest Story Ever Told...part 1

Well, its that time of year again. With black Friday and cyber Monday past us, maybe we all can really focus on the real meaning behind Christmas; the birth of Jesus Christ. Many of us know about his birth, but the story of Christmas dates back to a time long before the birth of Christ.  It dates back to the beginning of creation.  Man was birthed into this world, born from God's own hands, his greatest and most cherished creation.  Out of his great love for man, gave him all he ever needed in life, placed him in a garden with total fulfillment, even the freedom to choose his own way.   But man, out of his own naivety and selfishness chose to listen to the temptation from the Satan, the evil one, to learn about sin after being warned by God not to.

God's heart was broken.  He had given man all could ever want and need, but man wanted something more, something that would scar him and all his offspring for many generations to come.  He banished man out of his perfect garden forever, to live a life of hardship and death.  In doing so, he also spoke to the evil one saying that though mankind will suffer from Satan's victory in the garden, their will be a time when he will tempt one that will not fall into his trap, but will instead be victorious over sin and death, and he will be crushed for all of eternity.
         Genesis 3:15 
And I will put enmity between you and the woman,and between your offspring and hershe will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. 

God knew mankind would be in need of such a savior to separate sin's power from man so that he could join back with him the love relationship he intended from the start.  In the face to temptation, man would need a strict set of rules in order to develop the discipline necessary to remain close to him and apart from sin.  Yet, God knew man would ultimately fail at this, which was why he warned him from the start.  Time and time again, God would redeem man and draw close to his people because he loved them.  But, time and time again God would have to punish him as mankind failed to obey his tenants.  This was not out of cruelty, but out of tough love as a loving father would punish a child to teach him lessons in life.  God needed to show man that sin has serious consequences.  He established this covenant with the people called Israel, which means 'struggles with God'.

God knew sin would separate man from Him and that man would be in need of a savior.  Someone to stand in between the power of sin and man to break its bondage and reunite God and man again in a deep and intimate love relationship for eternity.  God also knew that only he had this power to destroy this sin.  So God came down to earth, as a man named Jesus, sinless before the world, and showed the world how much God loved his creation.  Many followed Jesus as he taught about God's kingdom.  He healed the sick, and loved the unloveable.  His coming into the world marked a new covenant with man, one based on faith and grace, and not works and deeds.

Though he had many followers, God was again rejected and Jesus was put on trial and sentenced to die by public crucifixion.  Though he was sinless and had the power to stop it, he sacrificed his own life for man's sins, to die a horrible death.  But in doing so he defeated death, and the power of the evil one was destroyed.  Three days later, he rose from the grave, the power of sin and death would finally be lifted from mankind, and he would live and reign together with God forever.  He ascended into heaven, but sent the holy spirit after him to be our guide, Christ's voice in our lives.

That is why we celebrate Christmas.  Because of Christ's work on the cross, we can be reunited with God and can live in right standing with him.   Because of Christ, the purpose of our creation is made full, we are whole again, and God can once again manifest His glory into a broken and painful world.
 But, just as mankind was given a choice in the garden, we too, must choose to except this truth or reject it.

But this exceptance is more than just words.  To truly except and believe that Christ came as God and died for our sins is to live out our lives as a response to this great love offering from God.  But it is not our works that save us.  We are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.   God still abhors sin, and we must respond to it by believing that Christ  has the power to destroy it.  Trust in his power to better love God, and love others.  Until next time.

All Things Created For Him

     Haven't blogged in a while.  Hope all is well out there with everybody.  Read a piece of scripture that really spoke to me this weekend. It was in St. Paul's letter to the Colossians.  I was drawn to it during my weekly prayer meeting on Sunday.  This Tuesday, as I was reading The History of the Christian Church, by Philip Schaff, I ran across it again.  God sure has a way of highlighting what he wants us understand sometimes.  So I decided it needed to be thought through and shared with you all.

Colossians 1:16-18

16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

      It's important for us all to wrestle with this concept.  As we look out into the world we see governments, employers, church leaders, etc. who impose on us certain rules and ideas that seek to influence our decisions and world views.  As we walk in this world, too often we limit ourselves to these mind sets only to place God in some box that has to fit into another category, moulded around the rest of our preprogrammed ideas as if he was just an afterthought to be used at our convienence.  We should be instead moulding our worldly structures around Him and His ways.  Then our ideas would instead match His, and not the other way anound.  This world would become a much more Glorious place to live. 

     Remember, He is our CREATOR!! All other institutions, authorities, and ideas were created by Him, and held together by Him.  THEY are the afterthoughts and were never created for us to use for ourselves, but instead were meant to Glorify Him.  He who was first, the last, and everything in between.  This is all for Him, and has nothing to do with us.  We are to die to ourselves daily and take root in His purposes for this world and his church. 

Note about Churches

      Paul also emphasizes here that he is also the head of the church, above any donominational institution or pastor, (verse 18).  He should be thought of as the head pastor of any church.  Our church leaders should be held accountable for this.  If a church leader is not leading in a manner that is surrendered to Christ, but instead is leading on his own plan, he will not build up a church that can be used effectively for God's purposes.  Now that being said, all of God's ministers will fall short of the Glory of Christ, but they should continually seeking Christ for direction and purpose and should be surrounded by other church elders that will keep his motives in line with God's plan for His church.

 I hope God can speak to you all through this passage in Colossians as he did for me.  And I hope your lives have been blessed this week.  Stay strong in His love.  Until next time.

We Were Never Meant To Fight Alone

Hello everyone!! I am writing this blog post in response to a wonderful night of fellowship and dinner at bible study on Wednesday.  We have been journeying through 1 Corinthians this past few weeks on Sunday and have been focusing in on what God has designed for His church.  And by His church, I do not mean the building, but the people who gather and journey together in their path towards Christ.  This past week we have focused specifically on the topic of church accountability.  In this broken and empty world we live in, following Christ can be a daunting task.  We are surrounded by stress, distractions, and temptations that draw us away from the closeness of God.  A life truly sold out for Him, should be challenging and uncomfortable, and full of difficult decisions

Left to our own devices, we certainly have an impossible task in understanding and carrying out God's will to our fullest.  At times, we need to rely on each other as believers to ensure we make proper decisions and to help each other break out of our broken habits to mature into stronger Christians.  Sometimes all we need is encouragement, or friendly advice.  Other times when we're really struggling, especially with sin, we really need a friend to rebuke us (with love).  I love Christ's example He laid down for his disciples, the first church,  when they began their ministry so long ago.  He sent them out in twos.  He knew that alone they would falter, become afraid, and ultimately fail.  But together they could better accomplish the mission He had given them.  We we never meant to fight alone.  

This week in bible study we divided up the group into men and women.  Us men began by opening up about the areas in our lives that we find it hard to remain close to God.  Then thought of practical ways we can help one another achieve success in it.  We committed to a communication system via texting to check in with one another throughout the week.  I really loved this idea, in that I have others not far away I can rely on life gets hard.  I am blessed to have such a great group of guys that aren't too proud to ask for help or too admit that they need help either.   I pray God surrounds you with others like this as well.   Until next time.   --James

Vessels of Wrath, Vessels of Mercy

Had an interesting talk with a Christian brother of mine at a local pub with some of other of our buddies from our bible study (I was not drinking however).  We had talked on many subjects relating to God and marriage, community, etc.  One discussion that stuck with me was on predestination.  It's one of John Calvin's main tenants and a topic that has been in debate in this Christian world for a long time.  I hadn't really heard of some of the scriptural references of this idea until that night.  My buddy brought up Romans 8-9, specifically in Romans 9.  Calvinists take this passage and postulate that God decides whom is he wants to save and whom is will not be saved, that god predetermines our fate, negating our free will to chose his grace.  I pondered the thought and can see where they might come to this conclusion based on the scripture's face value.  But all scripture must stand up against its context and other parts of God's word as well. 

I decided to ask a former pastor of mine to shed some light on the other side of the debate.  He states the passage referring to 'vessels of wrath' and 'vessels of mercy' refer back to Jeremiah 18:1-10. Paul in Romans is responding to the claim from the Jews that they are the 'chosen people', justified by their obedience  under the law.  But, God is just to blind an already rebellious people (Israel), referring to the potter analogy from Jeremiah, hence 'vessels of wrath'.  He is stating to the Romans that they, too, can be 'vessels of mercy'.  God is sovereign through Christ Jesus all can be made into righteous vessels, Jews and gentiles alike.  Admittedly I am still a little confused about this debate, and would love some feedback.  Let me know (from scripture) what you think. God Bless.