Tag: The Cross of Christ

Make a Change Impeach? No Change Will Come Until We Preach! |Only Christ’s Crucified Will Change the World!

…25 Demetrius assembled the craftsmen, along with the workmen in related trades. “Men,” he said, “you know that this business is our source of prosperity. 26 And as you see and hear,not only in Ephesus, but in nearly the whole province of Asia, Paul has persuaded a great numberof people to turn away. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. 27 There is danger not only that our business will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited and her majesty deposed—she who is worshiped by all the province of Asia and the whole world.” —Acts 19:25-27 Berean Study Bible

As Christians, we need to keep the priority on what we want to accomplish in our faith.
— Some Christians want to change the world for America through politics.
— Some want to go to the ends of the earth and proclaim the Gospel to other nations.
— Some want to be the best in their fields with the help of God.
— Some want to change society from within and force non-Christians to live as we do with a set of Biblical laws, whether people want them or not.
—Others see themselves living quietly and letting the world take care of itself while they await the coming of our LORD for us.
— Most of these priorities are by themselves, okay. Yet, they miss the mark on what God wants for His followers.
You see, we can’t change the world on our own and for our country until we change peoples lives through Christ.

We can’t change a community, & or a nation or the world with more Laws. We change them all with Christ’s love and what He did on the cross for them!

—We can’t go to the ends of the earth until we go next door and proclaim the Grace of God for all mankind to our family and neighbors.
— We can be the best in our fields without having a fulfilled life. This fulfillment is only brought to life if we are in God’s will.
— We can’t place God’s laws on people who will not understand them. It is by the Spirit who counsels us in the things of God that we will recognize and be guided to do what Christ wants for our lives. I believe that all life begins before birth. Why? Because God states it in His scriptures. I can’t see taking a precious life unnecessarily, or only because I consider it an inconvenience that I will be responsible for taking care of this baby for eighteen years plus.

Getting back to the reasons why Christians believe that they should force our way of life on others…

Christian principles have been, and still, are valuable to the world, to individual nations and to communities where we live.

Christian beliefs, laws, and morals could be implemented ’til Kingdom come. But without having a saving knowledge, and personal commitment to the LORD and Savior Jesus, we will have the cleanest cities on earth; with the most law-abiding people on earth, going straight to hell once they leave this planet!

“”17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate…. 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength...””—1 Corinthians 1 Berean Study Bible

What we need to do is preach Christ crucified and keep preaching His sacrificial blood on the cross.

We need to let people know that it is only through Christ’s death payment, that individuals can come to a lasting relationship with God. But we also need to tell them the consequences of not listening to what we are saying. If we only preach love, we could be condemning people straight to hell.
Each person needs to know what their wrongdoings or sins have done in their lives. Each person has to come to repentance and commitment to changing the direction they are headed in their life.

If you are anything like me, I had to hear this time and time again until I realized that it was not by saying thousands of repeated prayers, or going to church every Sunday, but not adhering to Christ’s teachings the rest of the time.

We need to be like the Apostle Paul. His total commitment to preaching is all he did. There was no, I am going to speak to the city leaders to implement the Torah to the Greeks. He did not go and speak to King Agrippa or the Governor Festus to change the way unwanted Roman babies were being thrown out into the front porches all over the Roman Empire. What Paul did was take the Gospel into all towns, cities and provinces of the Empire. He spoke to one person after another, groups of people by rivers, mountains, and major cities!

Just one man filled with the Holy Spirit turned all of Asia to Christ. To the point of people turning away from their false gods and committng to the LORD Jesus! So much so, that he was stoned and thrown from a cliff by the sellers of the false deities who had been losing customers and their livelihood becasue of one man.

My fellow brethren, preach Christ crucified as much as you can. Do as much preaching about Jesus as soon as you wake up, until you go to sleep. If need be, open your mouths to tell this world about Him! What I am saying is this— Live your lives so filled with God’s Spirit, that they see the goodness in you and glorify the LORD!

Go change your homes, communities, nation and the world for Jesus!

If you are reading this and want to preach Jesus and Him only, but don’t know how to get started. Get to know God more and what He wants for your life:

Know God

Steps to Peace With God

How Can I know God

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Sundays: Don’t Politicize, Criticize, Compromise or Chastise — But Liberlize Thru Christ

Opposing Shapes

Is posting political posts and debates serving our community? Especially when family members or friends who are unbelievers are watching us on what’s supposed to be one of our Holy Days?  ….

First off, as Christians, we have a duty to be involved in all aspects of life. This includes having a political view.  I am a firm believer that we, as Christians, should gIve back to the community in everything and by individual callings God has placed in each person’s heart. If this means being the best doctor or lawyer or political leader, you do it to the fullest. Because God gives all of us different gifts and directions to journey through in life. 

Secondly, if you have to work on Sunday’s because of the industry you’re in, keep doing your work cheerfully until the LORD brings you out of this period. Be an example to all who see your work. Let those who don’t know the grace and peace of Christ, glorify His name and want to have what you have.

Now to the thing I have noticed— Sunday Posts:

I see more and more political posts on Facebook. Even Christians are getting to the political arena or into things that may not be what we should be talking about on Sundays. 

Sunday is the Lord’s day. This is when Christ rose. And this is where we, as Christians, observe our faith in God’s miraculous mighty power of defeating death and bringing people back to a personal relationship with Him. 

Of course every day should be the Lords day. But on Sunday it’s a special thing. Some of our brothers and sisters in Christ believe that we need to keep the Sabbath Holy. Yes, this is God’s command to all humanity. It is not a Jewish thing to do. But remember what Paul said in Romans:

…4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One man regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes a special day does so to the Lord; he who eats does so to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.… Romans 14.

I personally have a Friday Night study that has been going on for years. I did not start it as a Sabbath Study or to keep the Sabbath, but because I wanted my kids and their friends to have a safe place to be on Fridays. I just kept teaching on that certain day and the blessing of seeing the Orthodox Jewish folks pass by and hear me speak about Jesus and his prophetic Jewishness, is a blessing to know that they are being witnessed to as they pass by our house and the windows are wide open for all to hear.

Now the reason why Sunday’s are crucial to observe and why we call it the LORD’s Day is because of Jesus’ resurrection, and the most important implications for us as Christians. You see, without Jesus rising from the dead, there would be no faith in our own resurrection through Christ’s work on the cross and in the grave. We tend to forget this essential and highly critical second part of His work. 

Which brings me to what we as as Christians should be doing for our community. Sundays are too important to get caught up in political debates which sometimes get heated. Because politics will never ever save anyone, or ever change a person’s heart.

The only way that we will change this country is not by going at each other politically. Yes, there are times when we have to say something to refute the fake news or dangerous political views being glamorized on TV or schools, but… 

We have six days to do this. On Sundays, I’m going to start first by sharing what God has done for me.

I will post of His promises and of His love for people without comprimising my tenets:

—That God became human as He was born to a Judean virgin named Mary. 

—That Jesus grew up with every human weakness we all face in our lives. 

—That God brought His promises from prophecies of old. 

—That these promises of old, became real and were fulfilled in Jesus. 

—That Jesus died on the cross, was buried and rose again. 

—That Jesus ascended into heaven and promises us to come back for His sheep. 

—That if He rose from the grave, He has conquered death and we also have conquered death through His power of salvation through God’s grace, which is given freely for the repentance of our sins.

—That we as Christians, need to become His actions here on earth, and reach the community with the Gospel. 

—That we share the gospel so intensely with our actions and love, that we will not have to preach it with our mouths. Because non-Christians will see Christ in us through our actions and the way we live. 

—That we go out into our communities and make disciples of all nations! Literally here in Souther California, there are hundreds of languages being spoken. We are the crossroads to the Asian Continent. We don’t need to fly thousands of miles to reach the world for Christ. We can, and should start in our community first, this is our Jerusalem.

Therefore, we need to change people’s hearts and minds through the power of salvation , regeneration and transformation into each person’s life.

We as Christians need to be a community united in one accord in prayer, discipleship, and outreach to our communities. This is the only way that we will be effective and change the direction we are seeing all over the United States and the world. Join me in sharing the Gospel in some way on Sundays. Leave everything else behind. May we concentrate sharing and discipling the Grace of Christ and His commands with our families, our neighbors and our friends on Sundays. Sports, politics and entertainment can wait until Monday…

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He is Not Here…! |Passion Week-Resurrection Sunday

This is a very special Blog Post for a very special Holy Week. Culminating today when our LORD and Savior Jesus the Christ, played a joke on Death’s sting (1 Corinthians 15:55 )! I usually don;t do a post on Sunday’s but for this, I will make an exception…

00F188C9-EFA2-44C2-973A-7A5ED806B59E.pngPlease click on links to get the full text:

The Death of Jesus
“45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”…..50 When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit. 51 At that moment the veil of the temple was  torn in two from top to bottom. 

The earth quaked and the rocks were split.52 The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.…”- Matthew 27:51

E04FA4FA-DAEB-4C53-9283-B9F92A12A58F 2.png…5 As the women bowed their faces to the ground in terror, the two men asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again. 8 Then they remembered His words. 9 And when they returned from the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and to all the others. .. 11 But their words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.’”… Luke 24:5-11

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  • Jesus had completed the once for all sacrifice. His body had been tortured and killed.
  • As Jesus gave up His spirit, His body dying., the Curtains of the Temple  ripped from the top to the bottom. It is said in Jewish writings, that the veil or huge curtain was as thick as a man’s hand. So roughly 4-6 inches thick.
  • In order for the veil or curtain to rip, it would take a supernatural event to make it happen.
  • This incredible statement found in Matthew’s Gospel gives us the finished work of Jesus the Messiah or Christ or Savior of the world.
  • Once He obediently became the blood sacrifice for the world, there was no need to have a Temple here on earth since His death on the cross was sufficient enough for taking (Hebrews 9:26) our sins away forever.
  • After they had buried Jesus, they sealed the tomb with a Roman Seal. No one was to break the seal, If they did, whoever was responsible would have the full might of the Roman forces against him.
  • Yet, with the most powerful army known to man, Jesus showed them who was more powerful. The tomb was rolled away by The LORD Himself!
  • The Roman soldiers saw everything but knew what their punishment would be for letting a dead person escape from the tomb they were guarding (Matthew 28:12)….yes, my attempt at humor….so the Chief Council in Jerusalem helped them out.
  • Why because the death and resurrection of Jesus put them in a fantastic bind. This non-graduate from their Rabbinic prestigious schools had, for three years or so, made fools of the wisest of learned men in Judea.
  • Jesus knew the scriptures, and spoke them with authority ( Mark 1:22). The authority of being the Messiah of Israel.
  • John called him The Word who became flesh ( John 1:-5 ).
  • Jesus had to die in order for humanity to once again come into a holy communion or relationship with God.
  • This is why Jesus came to be born of a virgin ( Isaiah 7:14 ).
  • Preach His Good News of salvation through Him and just Him (Isaiah 61:1 , Luke 4:18 , John 14:6 )
  • Be arrested, tortured and die ( Matthew 16:21 ) at the hands of the Council of Judea.
  • He also told His followers that he would die and come back to life ( see above link Matthew 16:21).
  • So today, Resurrection Sunday (Easter Sunday), we celebrate our freedom. Just as Jesus beat Death’ sting and rose to life, we one day when our bodies give up, will also rise up from Death’s door and live again ( Romans 6:5 , 2 Corinthians 4:14 )!
  • May you have a blessed Sunday and may you get to know Jesus in a personal and saving way.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

 

If you want to get to know God:

Know God

Steps to Peace With God

How Can I know God

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The Passover LAMB of God |Passion Week- Last Passover

Matt 26_26.jpg

“26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.” 27Then He took the cup, gave thanksand gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.…” Jesus in Gospel Matthew 26:26-29 Berean Bible Study

  • We take time today to commemorate Jesus’ Last earthly Passover before He became the Pesach Lamb of God
  • He is the reason why the Israelites celebrated and practiced this yearly Feast
  • On Passover:
  • The Israelites would take the 1-year-old male lamb which they had chosen 4 day earlier
  • Fed this little lamb for 4 days
  • Kept this little lamb with them
  • And on the 14th day
  • They would sacrifice its life
  • Use hyssop to mark the door posts as sign
  • For the LORD to pass over and cover their sins
  • Thus saving them from
  • The “Angel of Death”
  • What would this look like?

The PassOver Sacrificial Lamb.jpg

  • Like the above drawing…
  • Eerily familiar to this:

 

After Jesus was taken down.jpg

  • On that Passover day, Nisan 14… The blood of the Lamb of God was placed on the wooden beams
  • The cross would be outside of the city
  • All the 1-3 million Jews coming into Jerusalem for the Passover would have witnessed Jesus’  Via Dolorosa through the streets of Jerusalem.
  • Most would have heard of this Miracle Worker
  • Most would wonder why He did not save Himself
  • He would not save Himself for our sake
  • He would die for our transgression and sins
  • By His stripes we are saved and healed
  • By His death & resurrection we are saved from spiritual death

Thank You Jesus for being the Lamb of God who took my sins away. You were telling your disciples and us to celebrate today and as many times as we can, Your willing sacrifice. By taken the bread and drinking the wine, we are commemorating the Passover Feast, and remembering what You did for us.

Happy Passover weekend everyone!

If you don’t know God personally and want to know the One who died for you and me. For our sins. Get to know Him:

Know God

Steps to Peace With God

How Can I know God

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Entrance Fit For A King! |Palm Sunday

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Zechariah 9:9

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of a beautiful culmination of promises (Prophecies) set by God to His people, the Israelites and to the rest of the world.

Imagine being a captured Jewish teenager, living in Babylon, and serving the King who destroyed and enslaved your people.

Now imagine being older and becoming an important political figure in the same kingdom and for the same king who destroyed and took most of your countrymen and women captive into his service.

  • Daniel is such a man. He is found to be highly beloved by God. There have only been a few people loved by God who are mentioned in the Bible, and Daniel is one of them.

Now here’s where the story gets to be incredibly and magnificently miraculous.

Daniel is seen in chapter 9 of his book, praying and asking for God’s guidance on when the Jews would be returned to Israel and to their city Jerusalem. As he is praying the most remarkable of prayers, Gabriel the Archangel comes to deliver a heartwarming message for Daniel and his people.

Gabriel gives Daniel the hope he has been praying for. You see 3 things we can learn from Daniel:

—Daniel is a serious student of the Word. He knows scripture. He knows the time is drawing close for God to restore His people.

— Daniel discerend the time of the Jews to be delivered was coming upon them; since the 70 years of captivity were closing in. Jeremiah the prophet wrote about their captivity and explained how many years they would be gone from Israel and for what reason in Jeremiah 29:10-11.

— He is a prayer warrior. I don’t care if people think I can write, teach and preach the word. What I want them to remember that none of those things are any good without being a fervent prayer warrior. This is where all of us gain in strength, courage, patience and endurance.

Without Daniel’s fervent and faithful prayers, he would never have found favor with Nebuchadnezzar and more imperative, would never have had such a favorable position with God.

In Daniel 9:20, Daniel  prays, God answers. He sends Gabriel to explain what will happen:

—Comes to give Daniel insight & understanding vv 22

—70 weeks are decreed or commanded for Daniel and the Jews.

    a. To stop the sins of Israel vv 24— Through Jesus The Messiah or Savior

b. Put an end to sin vv 24—Through Jesus The Messiah or Savior

c. To make atonement for their evil sins— Through Jesus sacrificing Himself on the cross for all our sins

d. To bring in everlasting Righteousness— The King of righteousness Jesus

e. To seal up vision and prophecy— Jesus came to fulfill and complete prophecy. More prophecies still to be fulfilled in His Second Coming

f. To anoint the Most Holy Place.— Still to come on Second Coming

Daniel 9:25:

— From the command to rebuild Jerusalem— King Artaxerxes in Nehemiah 2:1-8, gave approval to rebuild Jerusalem and thus, the whole country.

—Until Messiah the Prince, there will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. A total of 69 weeks.

Now keep in mind that a week here would be like us saying 5 decades. To the Jews 7 weeks could mean 49 years. I will not bore you with the days and numbers. If you want to look at the different formulas, check JV MaGee’s commentary on Daniel and Sir Robert Anderson’s work in his Book—The Coming Prince.

Of course there are always skeptics within the church and I will cover this in a different post. But, I give you these numbers because if we believe that God is omnipotent, and outside of time and space, then He could bring about timelines to the exact day and time for His Son to stroll into the Gates on a donkey and be proclaimed King of the Jews.

Again I will stop on the day today roughly almost 2,000 years ago. When a humble Servant King allowed the people of Israel to shout Hosanna! Hosanna! While using Palm branches to make a royal procession for Jesus, while riding on a donkey and thus fulfilling the 69th Week of Daniel’s Prophecy in chapter 9. And also fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy.

All this to the exact time and day Jesus was fulfilled to come in riding on a foal of a donkey…to the day!

Here is the shortcut version of this post:

Daniels 70 weekDaniel's 70 Weeks WATWRLG.jpg

Our Messiah King came in in the exact time as people were singing Psalm 118 for Him. I give you an excerpt but please click on the link below for all of this beautiful and prophetic Psalm.

Last Part of Psalm 118:

19Open to me the gates of righteousness;

I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.

20This is the gate of the LORD;

the righteous shall enter through it.

21I will give You thanks, for You have answered me,

and You have become my salvation.

22The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

23This is from the LORD,

and it is marvelous in our eyes.

24This is the day that the LORD has made;

we will rejoice and be glad in it.

25O LORD, save us (hosanna), we pray.

We beseech You, O LORD, cause us to prosper!

26Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.

From the house of the LORD we bless you.

27The LORD is God

and has made His light shine upon us.

Bind the festival sacrifice with cords

to the horns of the altar.

28You are my God, and I will give You thanks.

You are my God, and I will exalt You.

29Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;

His loving devotion endures forever.

  • Next up, the Passover-Last Supper of Jesus.

 

External Links:

JV MaGee free material resources

Sir Robert Anderson–The Coming Prince

Bible Hub

Berean Study Bible

 

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Words Which Bring You Peace, Grace, joy & Set You Free |The Bible

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John 8:34-36 NKJV

  • Words are powerful, they are precise.
  • Words can make you climb the highest mountains or leave you crawling the lowest of valleys.
  • Words can build up or destroy. They say that violence is the reason for so many deaths in this world and that guns kill.
  • What they have missed is the rhetoric on both sides of the political aisle.
  • They also have missed the constant and systematic social media onslaught of making people who have differing views hate each other.
  • Words. Words unite. Words divide. Words hurt. Words heal.
  • The Word of God in His scriptures does both. We must have the full counsel of God to know what we as humans are capable of. Left to our own free will and thinking, we are then left to our own demise.
  • Free will and thinking can only coincide within us when there is a Higher Power that has given us limits on what we can and can’t do.
  • I know you are thinking, “How can you say that we are free people who have free will and thought if you are saying that we need a Higher Power to tell us what we must and mustn’t do?”
  • This is where Moral Law and Truth come in.
  • We can’t have a free society without morals. Morals are taught and practiced.
  • We also need civil law to keep society in order.
  • The less government intervention, the better. Let me explain. How can people be a free society if every action is dictated by the government? The more government interferes, the fewer people are free to think for themselves and make the right decisions. Because human laws are imperfect, no matter how good they seem.

  • Why? Because human beings have both good and evil inside of them.

  • Words. Words can teach, or make people ignorant.
  • The Bible is still the most read book in human history. It has founded societies and has made more people free.
  • The words inside have changed lives. This book has withstood the test of time.
    There are more copies which prove how close to the original writings of the Old and New Testaments they are than any other book out there.
  • Even the skeptics are unable to say otherwise. The critics have tried saying that we can’t trust the Bible because it was written by men and the writings are so old, we can’t believe what the original manuscripts.
  • Yet, the more they fight this Book, the more the Bible verifies itself, more than any other book out there (See References below).
  • Words. The Bible has words. If you read them and acknowledge what these words say, it brings new life to the person reading it.
  • Words inside this beautiful, awe-inspiring Book have led more people to be free, than any other book in History.

  • Words. Can transform a person from the inside out.

  • I invite you to read the Bible yourself.
  • You will find the words refreshing.
  • Start with the Book of Psalms and Proverbs.
  • Once you are there, you can jump into the Gospel of John.
  • Then you can go to Romans where the words will give you what people without God are like.
  • What people with God plus regulations are like.
  • Finally, what people who have a lasting personal relationship with Jesus, the Savior of the world are like.

The Word.png

 

You see, words can be read and interpreted in personal fashions. But once you understand God’s word, there is only one way you can learn it.

  • You can read it for the task of reading through it like any other book. You can read it and see how God gave us do’ and don’ts, and try incredibly hard to abide by God’s Commandments.
  • Or, you can take those same Commandments and read what Jesus said about them in his Gospels and in Acts, Romans, 1st, and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians,, etc..
  • Once you read the explanations of the God’s Word and Commandments in these Letters, you will be set free.
  • And once someone is set free in Christ, the person is forever free, no matter what governing bodies are in charge.
  • No matter what words anyone uses against the person that has been set free through Jesus the Savior of the world.
  • Remember, words can hurt, divide and misinform.

  • But the Word of God heals, unites and points you to the grace, peace, and joy of knowing God wholly, through a personal relationship with His Son Jesus.

I invite you to know Jesus and ask Him into your life. I encourage you to be indeed set free…

Get know God & be truly free:

How Can I know God

Steps to Peace With God

Know God

 

REFERENCES:

BibleAsk.com

Dead Sea Scrolls

New Testament Writings Research

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