Who is Jesus?//a series

Just who was Jesus anyway? Some say He was a man, better yet a few say that He is still a man...a good man but just a man. The Bible says, and you may be one who questions the Bible as to whether it is relevant today, that He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I prefer to believe the Bible rather than some flaky TV personality who can't even keep their own life straight. In fact it says in 1 Timothy 6:13-15 "I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession beforePontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing , which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the King of kings and Lord of lords," verse 16 says "who alone has immortality, dwelling in unaproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, in whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen."Rev. 19:16 says, "And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." I am not about to prove that the Bible is true...it will prove itself without my help. But I believe it with every fibre of my being. Jesus is the One who deserves all praise. He has given me eternal life...As the King of Kings and Lords of Lords, He is also the Image of the Invisible God. My next blog entry will talk about that title. Your comments are welcome on this blog or any other blogs Ihave prepared -

A forgiving nature

"Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; that your father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses." (Jesus in Mark 11:25 NRSV)
Jesus had just finished giving His disciples a practical lesson about faith, faith that can move a mountain but He concluded this by inserting into His faith message the necessity of forgiving anyone to whom the praying person had something against. Unforgiveness will hinder receiving answers to prayer. It will prevent you from removing the mountain that Jesus refers to in this passage. In fact unforgiveness may very well be the mountain that He is talking about. And it takes faith to remove the mountain of unforgiveness that is hindering your prayers. I have been in these situations, one in particular where a certain individual caused me much grief and has never said that they were sorry and usually avoids me and I find that tendency myself and one day I made it a point to go and shake that persons hand and every time I see them, I do just that. I have found that it works. It is a God like thing to do; it is a God quality. Forgiveness to another person gets the albatross off your back. Remember what Jesus said about forgiving your enemy and thereby heaping coals of fire on their heads? It will cause your enemy to become defenseless and you might even gain a brother. You will get an answer to your prayers. Try it...you might like it. RC

Hebrews 12:1,2 antidote for clutter

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Judy and I have been married almost 46 years.....wonderful years as well. And this year we moved...so what you might say, what's the big deal? Clutter, that's the big deal...after 46 years you accumulate a lot of stuff, some of you understand better than others just what I mean. You don't realize just how much stuff until you move into a place that is a lot smaller. Then you realize that you have a way too much stuff. One meaninhg from the online dictionary that I frequently refer to describes clutter as a disorderly heap. An example statement: "it is impossible to find anything in all that clutter." Sometimes our lives are like that; cares weigh us down, family issues, health issues, finances, things that we accumulate can be burdensome to the point that they rob us of our time that we should spend with God...our first priority. This scripture reference from the book of Hebrews admonishes us to "lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with patience (endurance) the race that is set before us". This Christian life is like a race that we must run and as in any race there are hurdles...roadblocks if you will that we must jump over and in order to do so there are things that you have to rid yourself of in order to lighten your load. You need to lighten the load in order to run faster, sometimes in order to run at all. Burdens we bear can be overwhelming and sometimes we don't seem to no where to turn, it's as if we have lost our way. But the writer to the Hebrews gives us the answer..."looking unto Jesus" What a revelation! It's as though I never saw it before, although I must have read it a thousand times before, give or take a hundred or so. As I read this again this morning, it's as though He is just revealing it to me. "Looking unto Jesus". It's not hard to do. It is a Divine revelation; it's as though He was opening my minds eye to see Him standing there at the finish line cheering me on saying "you can make it, just lay aside those burdens that are weighing heavily on your heart, in fact, here...give them to Me, I will take care of these things, you don't have to carry them anymore." He's the Author and He's the Finisher of my faith. I do not have the faith but He has and He gives me just what I need when I need it. Let Him get rid of the clutter, He's the professional. An old hymn of the church comes to mind, "come every soul by sin oppressed, ther's mercy with the Lord, and He will surely give you rest, by trusting in His Word." And then the chorus "only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now." "Cast your burdens on the Lord and He will sustain you." Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!

All mixed up; nothing has changed

After the scripture reading of a couple of blogs ago 2 Timothy 3:16, I began to read further and that would be chapter 4 and verse 1" Now the Soirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." I f you read further you will see in verse 10 that it says, " For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. In other places we see that Jesus is identified as the Saviour. Luke 2:11-"For unto you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 19:10-"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost/" John 3:17, "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through might be saved." Also you might want to read Acts 5:3, 1 Timothy 1:15, and there are many more similar scriptures proving Jesus is our saviour, therefore according to 1 Timothy 4:10, He alone is God. Why then are there those who say Jesus is not God?Could it be that these once stalwarts of the faith have given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils? How then can there be any basis for fellowship? I have been asked to call a couple of these people so that they can explain their position to me, however I am not prepared to enter into what would only be an argument. These few verses that I have quoted and listed for all who read this blog are proof enough for me, anything less is men's ideas at best. At the worst they are the doctrines of devils. There is a provision in this blog setup where one may leave a comment and you may leave yours if you want to agree or disagree. I will publish anybody's opinion so long as it is not of an offensive nature and I am speaking of offensive language. I will publish disagreeing positions as well as those who agree.

Is Jesus really God?

What kind of a question is that? Of course He is really God. In a couple of hours we will gather (in community) with those of like mindedness, those of like precious faith, we call it church. The Bible calls it church and even though we all may not agree on every detail, we do all agree that Jesus is our God. We may not dot every "i" or cross every "t" exactly the same but one thing we do agree on wholeheartedly is this fundamental truth, He is very God. A couple of verses from the Amplified Bible explains this thing about community (church) and our relationship to one another and to our God. 14Although I hope to come to you before long, I am writing these instructions to you so that,
15If I am detained, you may know how people ought to conduct themselves in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and stay (the prop and support) of the Truth.
16And great and important and weighty, we confess, is the hidden truth (the mystic secret) of godliness. He [[a]God] was made visible in human flesh, justified and vindicated in the [Holy] Spirit, was seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, [and] taken up in glory. In these few verses the writer, who just happens to be the Apostle Paul, is explaining some fundamentals to his spiritual son in the faith, Timothy, that first of all, the church of the living God is the purveyor of all truth in the world and secondly that truth is that God became flesh; just read that verse16. Now I for the life of me cannot understand why reasonably intelligent human beings can't see that it is rerferring to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

And to deny the truth that Jesus is God is to deny the Christian faith and I shudder to think what the consequences are for such a decision. Remember, it's not the first mile that you'll be judged for...you may stumble along the way but there is still time to repent and get ready for His appearing..."and every eye shall see Him."

Who is Jesus?...a series

He was there before Bethlehem, Christ was there from before the foundations of the earth In the epistle to the Hebrews, speaking of Christ, reading from ch. 1 verse 10 it says, " You LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; " The thought comes to mind since this entire passage is talking about the Son that He must in fact be God Himself. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, it says "Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ." Now how could Christ be in a cloud or in the sea at the time of Israel's exodus out of Egypt if He was just a man? How could He have laid the foundations of the earth if He were just a man? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the answers to these two questions. He was and therefore still is God! However, it would not matter who He was or is if He was not a God of compassion....if He did not care for us. Look at these words from the prophet Hosea chapter 11:1 "When Israel wasa child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son,...vs 3, I taught Ephraim to walk, vs 4, I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love....vs 7, My people are bent on backsliding from Me....but look at God's response in verse number 8, How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over Israel....My heart churns within Me." You should read this entire chapter to understand the compassion that God has for the backslider...wayward children who are lost. Truly His heart is full of compassion for our families, for those of us who have a son or daughter who has lost their way and are bent on backsliding. Chapter 12, verse 6 says,"So by the help of your God treturn; obsderve mercy and justice, And wait on your God continually." The prophecy of Hosea is about returning...repentance and God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself through Christ's sacrifice on the cross. He is still extending an invitation to all today who are outside the ark of safety, so take heart all who are trusting in Him for a loved one to get saved..love never fails and God is love and Jesus is God.

A tribute to Uncle Mac

This is a poem that I wrote about Uncle Mac after a visit back in Feb/07 and I published it in my blog called moreaboutHisWord , a blog that I shared with Naida. Today we will bury Uncle Mac on the Island he called home...

The Golden Years...so called.He just seems to sit there, staring into space. Emptiness, loneliness written on his face. He's eighty three now, tired, a broken, lonely man And I remember when that picture wasn't in the plan. He was young and strong, determined; had life in full control Knew where he was going and deep within his soul There was a fire burning; yes a yearning deep inside To be the best at anything, whatever thing he tried I used to think; Wow! what a man. He really runs the show But running isn't there anymore...even his speech is slow The Golden years are seldom kind, though some may think it's true Too many old folks laid aside like an old worn out shoe But it pays to show real kindness as you walk along life's way For most of us end up like hm, we've seen a better day And as I face the future, sometimes I contemplate What will be my portion; what will be my fate? Will I be tired and lonely too? Will every day be blue? Will I lose my driver's licence, my independence too? If fate is what I depend upon who knows what it will bring? But I decided long ago to put my trust in Him He carries me when I'm too weak to walk; I have trouble too In the end He's still my Friend and He will take me through There's an empty place in each of us that lies within the soul That only Jesus can complete and make us every whit whole If you're looking for a better day, then that day will start When you let Jesus Christ come in and fill your empty heart He'll give you joy and peace inside, a love that you can't hide Instead of empty loneliness His Presence will abide Don't let the golden years depress they're just a stepping stone To that eternal place of rest, that Heaven I call.....Home RC
posted by Randall