Randy Green's Blog - Posts Tagged "end-times"
Death warmed over
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins...Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh…But God…made us alive together with Christ [Ephesians 2:1-5].
Examine those excerpts from vv.1-5, if you will. Note the three classes of people listed. They are delineated by three different sentences.
The Hebrew Christian Paul the Apostle wrote to the Christians in the city of Ephesus. They were predominantly Gentiles, i.e., non-Jews. He distinguished them from the Jews by employing the word "you". YOU guys were dead in sins!
In the next sentence the Hebrew Paul identified the Jews as also being in like condition of death because of sins. He left off the "you" word and inserted the "us" word. We Jews were likewise dead in our sins, living for the lusts of our flesh.
Both those classes of people were once upon a time born dead to God, born with a sin nature which inclined them to live according to what seemed right in their own eyes. Each person perforce made his/her determinations of right and wrong on the basis of what seemed beneficial to self.
The third class of persons is identified in the third sentence, viz., "But God". Needless to say, but God was not born dead in sins! Truth be told, God wasn't born at all! God is eternal, and He is without sin and is the definition of holy.
So what did Paul teach the Ephesian Christians about God? Well, he taught them that while they were in sin, while they were at war with God—and the Jews too, which incorporates every last person ever on earth as being dead in sins—but God made some people "alive together with Christ".
The "some people" refers to Christians, to those who accept God's offer of salvation in Christ. Such persons are not only "born" in sin: they are also born again in Christ. Since Christ is without sin, those who are in Him are also without sin. The old life of sin has passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Being without sin, we Christians no longer have to pay the penalty of death for our sins. Christ paid the penalty for us on the cross.
We learn from this that some folks are born once and die twice. They are born dead to God and they die again at God's judgment because they refused God's deliverance in His Son Jesus Christ. Other folks are born twice (born again) and die once. They also were born dead to God, but they don't die again at God's judgment because they are in Christ and Christ in their stead.
The Bible uses the words "second death" to depict those who die twice. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire [Revelation 20:14-15].
You see, every person is born dead to God. Some folks receive God's new life through Jesus, and some folks reject Jesus and remain dead to God. When they enter eternity and stand before Him for judgment, their destination is the "second death".
This is not a pleasant topic, and it is not one we should take delight in. But it is the truth, so we should want to warn people of what awaits them on the other side of the curtain. To do so is not to be "judgmental". It is to share the Word of God, which He commands us to do. Nor is it to be callous and hateful to people. Rather, it is to share the love of God given us in Christ Jesus.
Let's be faithful to what the Lord calls us to do. Before we can do so, we must first be born again. Look intently into the mirror of God's Word and allow the Holy Spirit to give you discernment concerning these things.
Examine those excerpts from vv.1-5, if you will. Note the three classes of people listed. They are delineated by three different sentences.
The Hebrew Christian Paul the Apostle wrote to the Christians in the city of Ephesus. They were predominantly Gentiles, i.e., non-Jews. He distinguished them from the Jews by employing the word "you". YOU guys were dead in sins!
In the next sentence the Hebrew Paul identified the Jews as also being in like condition of death because of sins. He left off the "you" word and inserted the "us" word. We Jews were likewise dead in our sins, living for the lusts of our flesh.
Both those classes of people were once upon a time born dead to God, born with a sin nature which inclined them to live according to what seemed right in their own eyes. Each person perforce made his/her determinations of right and wrong on the basis of what seemed beneficial to self.
The third class of persons is identified in the third sentence, viz., "But God". Needless to say, but God was not born dead in sins! Truth be told, God wasn't born at all! God is eternal, and He is without sin and is the definition of holy.
So what did Paul teach the Ephesian Christians about God? Well, he taught them that while they were in sin, while they were at war with God—and the Jews too, which incorporates every last person ever on earth as being dead in sins—but God made some people "alive together with Christ".
The "some people" refers to Christians, to those who accept God's offer of salvation in Christ. Such persons are not only "born" in sin: they are also born again in Christ. Since Christ is without sin, those who are in Him are also without sin. The old life of sin has passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Being without sin, we Christians no longer have to pay the penalty of death for our sins. Christ paid the penalty for us on the cross.
We learn from this that some folks are born once and die twice. They are born dead to God and they die again at God's judgment because they refused God's deliverance in His Son Jesus Christ. Other folks are born twice (born again) and die once. They also were born dead to God, but they don't die again at God's judgment because they are in Christ and Christ in their stead.
The Bible uses the words "second death" to depict those who die twice. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire [Revelation 20:14-15].
You see, every person is born dead to God. Some folks receive God's new life through Jesus, and some folks reject Jesus and remain dead to God. When they enter eternity and stand before Him for judgment, their destination is the "second death".
This is not a pleasant topic, and it is not one we should take delight in. But it is the truth, so we should want to warn people of what awaits them on the other side of the curtain. To do so is not to be "judgmental". It is to share the Word of God, which He commands us to do. Nor is it to be callous and hateful to people. Rather, it is to share the love of God given us in Christ Jesus.
Let's be faithful to what the Lord calls us to do. Before we can do so, we must first be born again. Look intently into the mirror of God's Word and allow the Holy Spirit to give you discernment concerning these things.
A Clarion Call – Part 1
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.
The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days has been and continues to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.
The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that now is the last days. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.
Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.
You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.
Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Have you seen the evening news of late? Even worse, have you noticed the reality of the world we live in today? And I’m not just referring to the third world nations or, for that matter, to any foreign land. I mean the reality we face when we walk out of the house each day and go to work, to church, to school, to the market, anywhere.
The quoted text which kicked off our study begins with a mention of “the last days”. What is that? Well, we are living in “the last days”, dear friends. Ever since Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church, the last days has been and continues to be. They will end when Jesus comes again to rule the earth at the termination of the Great Tribulation.
The Bible makes many references to “the last days”, or “the end times”, or “the last hour”, etc. For our purposes today it suffices for us to understand that now is the last days. It is generally recognized that, the closer we get to Jesus’ Second Coming, the more striking will be the signs of the last days or the end times.
Considering the Apostle Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we mustn’t grow lax in watching and waiting for Jesus’ return at any moment. In theology textbooks this concept goes by the title “imminence”. Nothing needs to happen first, before Jesus can return. He can appear at any moment. His appearance is “imminent”.
You will notice there are a lot of sets of three periods (…) in the quote from 2 Timothy 3 above. This means that I left off some words where the sets of periods occur. The quotation is already excessive, so I eliminated some of the words to keep it from being even longer. I highly recommend that you read all of verses 1-7 straight from the Bible. You’ll see that I’m not trying to make it say something it really doesn’t say, and you’ll also be blessed to enjoy all the words.
Here’s the thing. In the course of my daily activities, I repeatedly encounter the reality of existence today, even as each of you do. The more we read our Bibles and pray, the more we become transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This means that we stop thinking like the world thinks and instead think with the mind of Christ.
Hold that thought. We’ll return to it tomorrow. Jesus is waiting for us now. Let’s enjoy His company.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 2
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Time alone with Jesus, as He speaks to us in His Word and we speak to Him in prayer, is the lifeblood of the new life. We Christians cannot survive spiritually apart from personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The Bible is the Word of God, the words of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit inside the Christian leads us in reading the Bible, so that we understand what God is telling us. With the natural mind alone we will understand the Bible only in terms of our own experiences and learning. We will miss a good deal of teaching because the Bible is Spirit and it is truth. It is not the natural man and the flesh.
As we spend time alone with Jesus every day, reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His worldview becomes ours. Our understanding of reality is viewed through the eyes of eternity, as seen from the very throne of God Himself. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, you see.
I had the pleasure, the blessing, the marvelous grace of God, to be born again in 1978, thirty-four years ago now. When I was born again, fellow saints volunteered their advice. It went like this: “Read this book. It’ll help you.” “Listen to this tape. It rocks!” “Go see this evangelist. He’ll open your eyes big time!” etc. etc. ad nauseum.
I was brought up churched and walked away from all that “religious stuff”. It took the Lord ten years into my adult life to get me to where I could actually turn to Him again. I’m to blame, not my parents or the neighbors or the church or the dog. But when I did turn to Him, the last thing I wanted was to choose a denomination or other group to join sides with in the fight for who’s right.
So I politely declined those well-meaning saints with their advice. I simply told them the truth. I didn’t want to read man’s words. Everybody insists he has the truth about the Bible. But the truth about the Bible comes from only one source, viz., the Bible!
This is why I now teach Rule #2 for Bible study: “The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” So I explained that I didn’t want to read man’s books at all, until after I read the Bible all the way through first to see what it actually had to say.
And that is where we will stop today. A time alone with Jesus is in order now. See you tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Time alone with Jesus, as He speaks to us in His Word and we speak to Him in prayer, is the lifeblood of the new life. We Christians cannot survive spiritually apart from personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.
The Bible is the Word of God, the words of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit inside the Christian leads us in reading the Bible, so that we understand what God is telling us. With the natural mind alone we will understand the Bible only in terms of our own experiences and learning. We will miss a good deal of teaching because the Bible is Spirit and it is truth. It is not the natural man and the flesh.
As we spend time alone with Jesus every day, reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His worldview becomes ours. Our understanding of reality is viewed through the eyes of eternity, as seen from the very throne of God Himself. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, you see.
I had the pleasure, the blessing, the marvelous grace of God, to be born again in 1978, thirty-four years ago now. When I was born again, fellow saints volunteered their advice. It went like this: “Read this book. It’ll help you.” “Listen to this tape. It rocks!” “Go see this evangelist. He’ll open your eyes big time!” etc. etc. ad nauseum.
I was brought up churched and walked away from all that “religious stuff”. It took the Lord ten years into my adult life to get me to where I could actually turn to Him again. I’m to blame, not my parents or the neighbors or the church or the dog. But when I did turn to Him, the last thing I wanted was to choose a denomination or other group to join sides with in the fight for who’s right.
So I politely declined those well-meaning saints with their advice. I simply told them the truth. I didn’t want to read man’s words. Everybody insists he has the truth about the Bible. But the truth about the Bible comes from only one source, viz., the Bible!
This is why I now teach Rule #2 for Bible study: “The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” So I explained that I didn’t want to read man’s books at all, until after I read the Bible all the way through first to see what it actually had to say.
And that is where we will stop today. A time alone with Jesus is in order now. See you tomorrow.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 3
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
When I was born again I chose not to read books about the Bible, but to read only the Bible. Accordingly I read the entire Bible in my first year of rebirth. It was the King James Version because I grew up on it and knew that version was accepted by everyone as a good translation. After that I read the Bible through every year at least once, and most years at least twice. For half of those years I read the Bible through three and four times a year.
So I’ve read the entire Bible over one hundred times now. This doesn’t include reading portions of the Bible as quoted in commentaries and other books. Nor does it take into account reading the Greek New Testament six or seven times and the Hebrew Old Testament considerably. Neither does it include Bible reading where I spend time with Jesus in prayer, and meditate on portions of the good Word of God while sitting at His feet.
I don’t state this to gain clout, or as a status symbol. I don’t win any brownie points for reading the Bible! I read the Bible because it is spiritual food. The new life we receive when we are born again needs to be fed, just as our natural bodies need natural food daily, even thrice daily, to stay healthy and grow.
So I note my Bible reading to tell you that I have stopped thinking in terms of the evening news, or in terms of movies and TV shows. I don’t see the world the way most folks I encounter see the world.
This is readily apparent to me in most of the conversations and comments I share with others. Most of mankind is under the mind control of the evil one. Man has lost the reality of the Bible and gone to feeding in the scorched earth pastures of the world and its prince, the devil.
Daily I am beleaguered by worldly behaviors and thinking, yea, even by Christians, self-professed Bible-believing Christians. These kind folks do things and say things contrary to the express teachings of the Bible, and they haven’t a clue they are being anti-biblical because they are conformed to the world (Romans 12:2).
When a Christian doesn’t feed daily on the spiritual food of the Bible, eating all the food God places on the table from Genesis through Revelation, then he is malnourished, anemic, spiritually enervated. The world and its thinking dominate him and make it even harder for him to read the Bible or schedule time to be alone with Jesus.
This has a snowball effect, rolling down the mountain at increasing speeds and growing bigger with each revolution, until all that exists is the snowball. The snowball is the old way of life, the sin nature which focuses on self and enjoying its own pleasures.
Snowballs are fun when we have a handful of snow in our mits. But a humongous uncontrollable mass of snow plummeting down the mountain slope? Now that is an entirely different matter! We will continue our study tomorrow. Greet Jesus and allow Him to refresh you today.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
When I was born again I chose not to read books about the Bible, but to read only the Bible. Accordingly I read the entire Bible in my first year of rebirth. It was the King James Version because I grew up on it and knew that version was accepted by everyone as a good translation. After that I read the Bible through every year at least once, and most years at least twice. For half of those years I read the Bible through three and four times a year.
So I’ve read the entire Bible over one hundred times now. This doesn’t include reading portions of the Bible as quoted in commentaries and other books. Nor does it take into account reading the Greek New Testament six or seven times and the Hebrew Old Testament considerably. Neither does it include Bible reading where I spend time with Jesus in prayer, and meditate on portions of the good Word of God while sitting at His feet.
I don’t state this to gain clout, or as a status symbol. I don’t win any brownie points for reading the Bible! I read the Bible because it is spiritual food. The new life we receive when we are born again needs to be fed, just as our natural bodies need natural food daily, even thrice daily, to stay healthy and grow.
So I note my Bible reading to tell you that I have stopped thinking in terms of the evening news, or in terms of movies and TV shows. I don’t see the world the way most folks I encounter see the world.
This is readily apparent to me in most of the conversations and comments I share with others. Most of mankind is under the mind control of the evil one. Man has lost the reality of the Bible and gone to feeding in the scorched earth pastures of the world and its prince, the devil.
Daily I am beleaguered by worldly behaviors and thinking, yea, even by Christians, self-professed Bible-believing Christians. These kind folks do things and say things contrary to the express teachings of the Bible, and they haven’t a clue they are being anti-biblical because they are conformed to the world (Romans 12:2).
When a Christian doesn’t feed daily on the spiritual food of the Bible, eating all the food God places on the table from Genesis through Revelation, then he is malnourished, anemic, spiritually enervated. The world and its thinking dominate him and make it even harder for him to read the Bible or schedule time to be alone with Jesus.
This has a snowball effect, rolling down the mountain at increasing speeds and growing bigger with each revolution, until all that exists is the snowball. The snowball is the old way of life, the sin nature which focuses on self and enjoying its own pleasures.
Snowballs are fun when we have a handful of snow in our mits. But a humongous uncontrollable mass of snow plummeting down the mountain slope? Now that is an entirely different matter! We will continue our study tomorrow. Greet Jesus and allow Him to refresh you today.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 4
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Snowballs plummeting down a mountain slope? You are wondering what all this has to do with 2 Timothy 3, aren’t you? Well, my daily living brings me into contact with a world full of folks who are living according to the patterns and behaviors expressed in the first seven verses of 2 Timothy 3. We are indeed in the last days, and the reality smacks me in the face daily.
Alas, but the folks who display this to me—and I don’t mean the non-Christians because they are expected to act this way—but the Christians who display the behaviors and attitudes enumerated by Paul, they haven’t a clue that they are replicas of the devil’s kids, and often down to the most minute detail! They might had a born again experience several decades ago, but they still live in a spiritual nursery, lying in a spiritual crib, and crying to be fed and have their diapers changed.
Babies in the crib, you realize, don’t know they are babies in a crib. They don’t know the difference. They are only behaving naturally. In rebirth we become newborns in a crib. We need spiritually mature mom’s and dad’s to rear us to spiritual adulthood, else we remain spiritual babes in a crib for decades until the Lord brings us home. And what a wasted life that is!
Here’s the problem we face today—and let me be quite frank about this, as a prophet speaking the truth in love. What happens when the Christian community is parented by babies in a crib? What happens when “capricious children will rule over them” (Isaiah 3:4) and “women rule over them” (Isaiah 3:12)?
Isaiah’s words pronounced God’s judgment on a sinning nation. Israel’s sin was that she deserted the Lord her God by ignoring His Word and doing what seemed right in her own eyes. So the Lord left her to her own devices. Since the Lord established male leadership, the first thing to transpire when God’s Word is rejected is for women and children to be the rulers.
Voilà! the good ol’ USA of today! And the behaviors and attitudes Paul enumerated in 2 Timothy 3 are the norm in our society too. For example, once upon a time in a far away land—not! I was just funning you a bit. Not long ago in our society it was normal to consider our actions in terms of society and the neighbors.
If I wanted to blast the stereo, I knew it was wrong to do so in the middle of the night or with it so loud that it disturbed the neighbors. The same applied if I wanted to have dogs. If the dogs barked they needed to stay inside, or else I needed to train them not to bark. If I wanted to build a patio out the back door or repair an automobile engine in the driveway, I knew better than to do so at 2:00 AM.
Let’s pause here and betake ourselves to the prayer closet for a fine time alone with Jesus. See you in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Snowballs plummeting down a mountain slope? You are wondering what all this has to do with 2 Timothy 3, aren’t you? Well, my daily living brings me into contact with a world full of folks who are living according to the patterns and behaviors expressed in the first seven verses of 2 Timothy 3. We are indeed in the last days, and the reality smacks me in the face daily.
Alas, but the folks who display this to me—and I don’t mean the non-Christians because they are expected to act this way—but the Christians who display the behaviors and attitudes enumerated by Paul, they haven’t a clue that they are replicas of the devil’s kids, and often down to the most minute detail! They might had a born again experience several decades ago, but they still live in a spiritual nursery, lying in a spiritual crib, and crying to be fed and have their diapers changed.
Babies in the crib, you realize, don’t know they are babies in a crib. They don’t know the difference. They are only behaving naturally. In rebirth we become newborns in a crib. We need spiritually mature mom’s and dad’s to rear us to spiritual adulthood, else we remain spiritual babes in a crib for decades until the Lord brings us home. And what a wasted life that is!
Here’s the problem we face today—and let me be quite frank about this, as a prophet speaking the truth in love. What happens when the Christian community is parented by babies in a crib? What happens when “capricious children will rule over them” (Isaiah 3:4) and “women rule over them” (Isaiah 3:12)?
Isaiah’s words pronounced God’s judgment on a sinning nation. Israel’s sin was that she deserted the Lord her God by ignoring His Word and doing what seemed right in her own eyes. So the Lord left her to her own devices. Since the Lord established male leadership, the first thing to transpire when God’s Word is rejected is for women and children to be the rulers.
Voilà! the good ol’ USA of today! And the behaviors and attitudes Paul enumerated in 2 Timothy 3 are the norm in our society too. For example, once upon a time in a far away land—not! I was just funning you a bit. Not long ago in our society it was normal to consider our actions in terms of society and the neighbors.
If I wanted to blast the stereo, I knew it was wrong to do so in the middle of the night or with it so loud that it disturbed the neighbors. The same applied if I wanted to have dogs. If the dogs barked they needed to stay inside, or else I needed to train them not to bark. If I wanted to build a patio out the back door or repair an automobile engine in the driveway, I knew better than to do so at 2:00 AM.
Let’s pause here and betake ourselves to the prayer closet for a fine time alone with Jesus. See you in our next study.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 5
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
Not long ago society knew responsibilities. We knew not to disturb the neighbors just because we wanted to do something. We put society and others first and fit in. We knew right and wrong because the Bible taught us right and wrong. But no longer.
I’m being serious, dear friends. Nowadays most people don’t recognize right and wrong, and this includes the authorities! If anyone complains about disturbances of the peace, they are complainers. The criminal becomes the victim and the victim the criminal.
This is the season of the witch! It proves we’ve lost all semblance of Bible reality in our society, and the Christians fall right into the same pattern of behaviors too. Paul refers to this behavior by the phrase “lovers of self”. Biblical love gives. Worldly “love” takes.
Not long ago our society thought in terms of others, and this is known as “responsibilities”. The concept of responsibilities leads us to give. Today’s society thinks in terms of “I-me-mine”, and this expresses itself as “rights”. The concept of rights leads us to take.
Paul’s list is extensive and more than we can expound upon in this venue. It would be a good spiritual exercise for each of us to read each behavior and attitude, then weigh its application in today’s society. Let us draw from our conclusions examples of how we are conformed to the world. Finally let us determine to be in prayer about this, conducting spiritual warfare with vim and vigor to overcome these worldly behaviors and mindset in our lives.
If we will have any success in reviving our society—and if we don’t we’ll degenerate into an utter socialist train wreck in a generation or two—but to succeed we must grow into mature men and women of God. We need Biblical spiritual leadership, not doctrinal carnal leadership. Man’s words brought us to our present unspiritual condition. We must flee from man’s words and embrace the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.
Not convinced? Read another of Paul’s worldly behaviors: “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Our kids today think they are entitled to an easy, comfy life. Society owes it to them, and the parents had better produce. And we parents have swallowed this antichrist sentiment hook, line, and sinker! We go on guilt trips if our sweet, little child can’t keep up with the Joneses. Oh, the poor dear. Pooh pooh… I’ll bet he is scarred for life, never again to be heard from in cultured society.
Methinks the Lord would prefer we raise the little tyke to know Him, to teach him to feed on the Bible daily and talk to Him in prayer. The worldly things are secondary, a remote and distant secondary at that. But we put worldly success up front. We’ve done this for so long that we don’t know any different. We’ve reached the point where the Bible just isn’t relevant, so why waste time reading it?
A sad note on which to finish the song. Praise the Lord! It’s not the finish. The fat lady hasn’t finished singing yet. We’ll look for a ray of hope in our next study. Here comes Jesus now. Won’t you let Him in?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Not long ago society knew responsibilities. We knew not to disturb the neighbors just because we wanted to do something. We put society and others first and fit in. We knew right and wrong because the Bible taught us right and wrong. But no longer.
I’m being serious, dear friends. Nowadays most people don’t recognize right and wrong, and this includes the authorities! If anyone complains about disturbances of the peace, they are complainers. The criminal becomes the victim and the victim the criminal.
This is the season of the witch! It proves we’ve lost all semblance of Bible reality in our society, and the Christians fall right into the same pattern of behaviors too. Paul refers to this behavior by the phrase “lovers of self”. Biblical love gives. Worldly “love” takes.
Not long ago our society thought in terms of others, and this is known as “responsibilities”. The concept of responsibilities leads us to give. Today’s society thinks in terms of “I-me-mine”, and this expresses itself as “rights”. The concept of rights leads us to take.
Paul’s list is extensive and more than we can expound upon in this venue. It would be a good spiritual exercise for each of us to read each behavior and attitude, then weigh its application in today’s society. Let us draw from our conclusions examples of how we are conformed to the world. Finally let us determine to be in prayer about this, conducting spiritual warfare with vim and vigor to overcome these worldly behaviors and mindset in our lives.
If we will have any success in reviving our society—and if we don’t we’ll degenerate into an utter socialist train wreck in a generation or two—but to succeed we must grow into mature men and women of God. We need Biblical spiritual leadership, not doctrinal carnal leadership. Man’s words brought us to our present unspiritual condition. We must flee from man’s words and embrace the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible.
Not convinced? Read another of Paul’s worldly behaviors: “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Our kids today think they are entitled to an easy, comfy life. Society owes it to them, and the parents had better produce. And we parents have swallowed this antichrist sentiment hook, line, and sinker! We go on guilt trips if our sweet, little child can’t keep up with the Joneses. Oh, the poor dear. Pooh pooh… I’ll bet he is scarred for life, never again to be heard from in cultured society.
Methinks the Lord would prefer we raise the little tyke to know Him, to teach him to feed on the Bible daily and talk to Him in prayer. The worldly things are secondary, a remote and distant secondary at that. But we put worldly success up front. We’ve done this for so long that we don’t know any different. We’ve reached the point where the Bible just isn’t relevant, so why waste time reading it?
A sad note on which to finish the song. Praise the Lord! It’s not the finish. The fat lady hasn’t finished singing yet. We’ll look for a ray of hope in our next study. Here comes Jesus now. Won’t you let Him in?
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
A Clarion Call – Part 6
In the last days…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money…disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…haters of good, treacherous…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these…who…captivate weak women weighed down with sins…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth [2 Timothy 3:1-7].
As a society and even as Christians we’ve relegated the Bible to the back burner at best. Hence we have women and children leading us, setting the standards by which we are to live if we don’t want to be considered a failure. We love pleasure when we should love God. And, yes, pleasure and God are pretty much at odds, when it comes to the reality of daily living.
Ergo, we go into the Christian community and come face to face with folks who are “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power”. They get this way because they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.
The truth is to be culled from the Bible. When the Christian community shuns daily Bible reading—and I mean Bible reading, not parts-of-the-Bible reading—how are they to come to a knowledge of the truth? Oh, they can learn all right, learn man’s words and doctrines and soapbox issues. But the truth is not attained anywhere but from the Bible.
Without the truth they build humongous cathedrals, sit in the pews twice and thrice weekly, sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, be nice to their workmates, and help little old ladies cross the street—but this is no more than “holding to a form of godliness”. Real “godliness” is not a form. It is a heart condition which grows outward fruit, viz., good works. Forms of godliness only show supposed fruit without having the heart condition.
So with Christians shunning the Bible and embracing man’s words and works in its place, the heart condition is eliminated and the form alone remains. Voilà! church services today, with their programs and activities and manmade contrivances.
I wish this wasn’t the reality, dear friends. I really do. I have to live in the worldly mess right along with all of you. Alas, but it is spiritual reality today. We have become an antichrist society, and God’s witness via the Christians has been conformed to the world. No light, no salt, no Christ is given out to the world. Manmade ideas of right and wrong and good and bad have replaced them.
And small wonder. The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. But the Bible has been lost in the temple, and no one even knows it’s missing! A clarion call to arms goes out to would-be spiritual leaders. The trumpet soundeth:
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn [Isaiah 8:20].
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
As a society and even as Christians we’ve relegated the Bible to the back burner at best. Hence we have women and children leading us, setting the standards by which we are to live if we don’t want to be considered a failure. We love pleasure when we should love God. And, yes, pleasure and God are pretty much at odds, when it comes to the reality of daily living.
Ergo, we go into the Christian community and come face to face with folks who are “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power”. They get this way because they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”.
The truth is to be culled from the Bible. When the Christian community shuns daily Bible reading—and I mean Bible reading, not parts-of-the-Bible reading—how are they to come to a knowledge of the truth? Oh, they can learn all right, learn man’s words and doctrines and soapbox issues. But the truth is not attained anywhere but from the Bible.
Without the truth they build humongous cathedrals, sit in the pews twice and thrice weekly, sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, be nice to their workmates, and help little old ladies cross the street—but this is no more than “holding to a form of godliness”. Real “godliness” is not a form. It is a heart condition which grows outward fruit, viz., good works. Forms of godliness only show supposed fruit without having the heart condition.
So with Christians shunning the Bible and embracing man’s words and works in its place, the heart condition is eliminated and the form alone remains. Voilà! church services today, with their programs and activities and manmade contrivances.
I wish this wasn’t the reality, dear friends. I really do. I have to live in the worldly mess right along with all of you. Alas, but it is spiritual reality today. We have become an antichrist society, and God’s witness via the Christians has been conformed to the world. No light, no salt, no Christ is given out to the world. Manmade ideas of right and wrong and good and bad have replaced them.
And small wonder. The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. But the Bible has been lost in the temple, and no one even knows it’s missing! A clarion call to arms goes out to would-be spiritual leaders. The trumpet soundeth:
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn [Isaiah 8:20].
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Kingdom of Eretz
Did you know...? I have already expounded upon all five books of Moses. These consist of the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The five Bible books together are known as the Law of Moses, aka Torah. Each and every verse of this major section of Scripture is vetted in detail. The Law of Moses is the foundation for the entire Bible. If you want to know the Bible, to really get a handle on it, you need to begin at the beginning and understand the foundation.
However, before initiating the Heavenly Citizens series I wrote my first book. It is title Kingdom of Eretz and is available from CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle. It is much smaller in pages than any of my Heavenly Citizens books, but it is no less ambitious. It is a Biblical Allegory of the Church Age, consisting of any exposition of two chapters in the Bible. You may purchase your copy from http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
However, before initiating the Heavenly Citizens series I wrote my first book. It is title Kingdom of Eretz and is available from CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle. It is much smaller in pages than any of my Heavenly Citizens books, but it is no less ambitious. It is a Biblical Allegory of the Church Age, consisting of any exposition of two chapters in the Bible. You may purchase your copy from http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
Of Nerds & Squints & Other Assorted Characters
What do CSIs and Squints have to do with Deuteronomy 21? Hmm... That's a toughie. If you want to know the answer, purchase your copy of Deuteronomy: Book III, Volume 5 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. It's very interesting.
Sundays Are Great!
Greetings! one and all.
I am pumped today because it's Sunday! Under the Law of Moses the Sabbath was the day of rest, and the Sabbath was and always is the seventh day of the week, aka Saturday. More specifically, the Sabbath began at sundown on Friday and concluded at sundown on Saturday.
Then along came the prophet like Moses (Deut.18:15), viz., Messiah Jesus, and fulfilled the Law of Moses. He followed this up with dying on the cross as mankind's sin offering, then was put in a tomb, rose out of death on the third day, and ascended into heaven. He is there now serving as our great High Priest, while sending the Holy Spirit to indwell us and conform us into His image. Having fulfilled the Law, Jesus instituted a New Covenant, aka the Church. The Church is the spiritual family of God, with the fulfillment of the Law and death to sin and resurrection to new life being its makeup.
The day Jesus rose out of death was the first day of the week, aka Sunday. Hence the Church's day of rest is Sunday, the Resurrection Day, not the Sabbath. The New Testament notes that the disciples met together on the first day of the week, and refers to this day as the Lord's Day (Rev.1:10). I am pumped for Sunday because it is the Resurrection Day. I can't wait to be promoted to eternity to be with the Lord, which is far better (Phil.1:23). Sundays remind me of this imminent happening.
I am pumped today because it's Sunday! Under the Law of Moses the Sabbath was the day of rest, and the Sabbath was and always is the seventh day of the week, aka Saturday. More specifically, the Sabbath began at sundown on Friday and concluded at sundown on Saturday.
Then along came the prophet like Moses (Deut.18:15), viz., Messiah Jesus, and fulfilled the Law of Moses. He followed this up with dying on the cross as mankind's sin offering, then was put in a tomb, rose out of death on the third day, and ascended into heaven. He is there now serving as our great High Priest, while sending the Holy Spirit to indwell us and conform us into His image. Having fulfilled the Law, Jesus instituted a New Covenant, aka the Church. The Church is the spiritual family of God, with the fulfillment of the Law and death to sin and resurrection to new life being its makeup.
The day Jesus rose out of death was the first day of the week, aka Sunday. Hence the Church's day of rest is Sunday, the Resurrection Day, not the Sabbath. The New Testament notes that the disciples met together on the first day of the week, and refers to this day as the Lord's Day (Rev.1:10). I am pumped for Sunday because it is the Resurrection Day. I can't wait to be promoted to eternity to be with the Lord, which is far better (Phil.1:23). Sundays remind me of this imminent happening.
