Wednesday, 22 January 2014

THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST

Jesus depicted as the Good Shepherd
Part of a Series on Christianity



The Person of Christ:

The Bible says that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man in one person and will be so forever.
He was and is 100% God and at the same time 100% human.  That is;  He held a full set of divine
qualities in the same Person in such a way that they did not interfere with each other.

The Humanity of Christ:
 Jesus had a human birth. (Virgin Birth).  Virgin birth of Jesus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_birth_of_JesusThe virgin birth of Jesus is the belief that Jesus was conceived in the womb of his mother Mary by the Holy Spirit and born while Mary was yet a virgin. The New ...

Distinction from ... ·

Jesus was conceived in the womb of His mother Mary by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and without a human father (Matthew 1:18-25;  Luke 1:25;  3:23). The doctrinal importance of the virgin birth is seen in at least three areas;   It shows salvation must come from the Lord and never through human effort.(Gal 4:4-5).
It made possible the uniting of deity and full humanity in one person.
It made possible Christ's true humanity without inherited sin.(Luke 1:35).

Jesus had a human body:  Jesus had a human body just like ours in every respect before his resurrection, and after resurrection it was still a human body with "flesh and bones"
but made perfect, the kind of body that we will have when Christ returns and we are raised from the dead as well. Jesus continues to exist in that human body in heaven, as the ascension is designed to teach. (Luke 2:7;  Luke 2:40;  2:52;  John 4:6;  John 19:28;  Matt 4:2;  Luke 24:39;  Luke 24:42;  John 20:17).  Providing we have accepted Him in our heart and life, as our Lord and Saviour and have repented of our wrongful sinning lives because of Adam & Eve's fallen state of sin that we inherited and there needs to be a repentance and a turning away from sin [and be baptised in water which symbolises leaving the old self life behind in the water and rising to a new life in God through the Saviour and the Holy Spirit in due course] and wrongful living that is an affront to Almighty God and only through Jesus Christ His One and only Son we can finally be at one with Almighty God.

Jesus had a Human Mind: to be continued.

Monday, 20 January 2014

The Promise of a New Covenant

God Changes Hearts!

The Promise of a New Covenant:

"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel . . . I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people . . . they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," says the LORD. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."  (Jer_31:31, Jer_31:33-34)
Long ago God promised a new covenant of grace for His people Israel. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel." Some day the Israelites will turn to Messiah as a group and enter into this promised covenant of grace. "And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins" (Rom_11:26-27). This will take place when the Lord Jesus returns to this earth. "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn" (Zec_12:10). 
Meanwhile, the church of the Lord Jesus, comprised of all Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ, already has the new covenant instituted for her. "This cup is the new covenant in My blood" (Luk_22:20). 
Note the astounding three-fold provisions this new covenant offers by faith to all believers today. First, there is the forgiveness of sins. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Second, there is the opportunity to have an intimate relationship with God. "They all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them." Third, there is the internal working of the Lord God Almighty enabling and changing people's lives from the inner core of their being. "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts."

Almighty God, the provisions of Your new covenant of grace are staggering in their richness! Forgiveness of sins by You, intimacy with You, and inner transformation from You - - all of this is mine through faith in Your Son, my Savior. O Lord, what bountiful grace You make available to us in Christ! I fully and desperately need all three of these wondrous workings that You alone can provide. I praise You for the gift of forgiveness of sins. I seek You for increased intimacy with You. I look to You to be shaping my life according to Your will, from the inside out, all through the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.



Power of God!

THE ALL-SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST



THE ALL-SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, He which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty."-- Rev_1:8 (R.V.).

IT IS hardly needful to explain that these are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. They represent all the intervening letters which they enclose as in a golden clasp. This majestic announcement refers to the Eternal God. His Nature underlies the whole created Universe, all races of being, the entire work of redemption, the destiny of His children, and the ultimate victory of righteousness and peace. "Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to Whom be glory for ever and ever." Let us, for a moment, join with the ceaseless chant of Heaven, saying: "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which is and which was and which is to come." We must never rush into His presence without due preparation and reverence of heart.
Jesus Christ is the Complement of our Need. From the alphabet of His Being we may obtain all the letters and words which will make good our own deficiencies. It is a question whether some of us would ever have learnt the fullness of Jesus, if we had not been brought face to face with the infinite needs of our own nature and condition. You may engage your guide in an Alpine village, but you only realise all the qualities that lie hidden within him when you have crossed the glaciers, bridged the yawning chasms, and escaped the descending avalanche through his knowledge and care. So as we walk with Jesus we find in Him the complement of our need.
Loneliness is an opportunity for Jesus to make Himself known as the Living One (Rev_1:17). When, like the beloved Apostle on the Lord's Day in his lonely isle, you seem to hear songs and prayers on which you can only join in spirit, turn to the Lord Himself, and reckon on Him to bear you company. That loneliness constitutes a claim on Him! Call upon His Name out of the lowest dungeon. He will not hide His ear at thy breathing or thy cry. He will draw near in the day when you called upon Him, and will say, Fear not! He will plead the causes of thy soul; He will redeem thy life. The site of Polycarp's death is still visible above the Smyrna coast-line and harbour; but Jesus stood there with him, enabling him to be faithful unto death, and encircling his brow with the Crown of Life. Be thou faithful unto death; the First and the Last is with thee! "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me!"

PRAYER
Be Thou, O Lord, the Alpha and the Omega of every year, month, day, hour, and act of my life. Let all things be begun, continued and ended in Thee. AMEN.




Free!

Thursday, 16 January 2014

Believing!

Can we profess to believe in the Word of God and not do the Word of God? What does believing look like? What does the Bible say? How does Biblically defining terms affect the meaning we extract in our study? This study examines those questions and uses the Bible to reveal the answers.  John 3: 21-24

REPENT AND LIVE!




In Ezekiel18, our Creator does not provide the answer on how He is able to forgive our sin should we repent, despite Israel questioning Yah on this matter. He simply commands Israel to focus on repenting first. He did not say that it was not a good question. It is actually a very good question. They simply asked the question at the wrong time. Now it is time to find out how He forgives us of sin, when we repent and live.
  • And Jeremiah 34


What Is The Gospel?





Have you really heard the WHOLE gospel? What is the Gospel? There are many responses you will get if you randomly ask this question. The popular Christian definition of the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Then, there is the gospel of the kingdom which John the Baptist and Christ himself preached. Also the book of Revelation refers to the end-time preaching of the eternal gospel. What are these gospels, and what are the similarities and differences between them? And Paul speaks of the mystery of the gospel...which the majority today still do not understand...These and other questions will be answered in this study.



Thursday, 9 January 2014

WILL YOU EVER KNOW HOW MUCH IT COST TO SEE YOUR SIN HUNG ON THAT CROSS

Tim 4:18 All those who seek first the Kingdom of God in their lives can dare to have a similar confidence. Of His Son, God says; "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the sceptre of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."Heb 1:8-9 May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.Psalm 141:2


Psalms 34:1-10

The title of this psalm tells us both who penned it and upon what occasion it was penned. David, being forced to flee from his country, which was made too hot for him by the rage of King Saul, sought shelter as near it as he could, in the land of the Philistines. There it was soon discovered who he was, and he was brought before the king, who, in the narrative, is called Achish (his proper name), here Abimelech (his title); and lest he should be treated as a spy, or one that came thither upon design, he feigned himself to be a madman (such there have been in every age, that even by idiots men might be taught to give God thanks for the use of their reason), that Achish might dismiss him as a contemptible man, rather than take cognizance of him as a dangerous man. And it had the effect he desired; by this stratagem he escaped the hand that otherwise would have handled him roughly. 
Now, 
1. We cannot justify David in this dissimulation. It ill became an honest man to feign himself to be what he was not, and a man of honor to feign himself to be a fool and a mad-man. If, in sport, we mimic those who have not so good an understanding as we think we have, we forget that God might have made their case ours. 
2. Yet we cannot but wonder at the composure of his spirit, and how far he was from any change of that, when he changed his behavior. Even when he was in that fright, or rather in that danger only, his heart was so fixed, trusting in God, that even then he penned this excellent psalm, which has as much in it of the marks of a calm sedate spirit as any psalm in all the book; and there is something curious too in the composition, for it is what is called an alphabetical psalm, that is, a psalm in which every verse begins with each letter in its order as it stands in the Hebrew alphabet. Happy are those who can thus keep their temper, and keep their graces in exercise, even when they are tempted to change their behavior. In this former part of the psalm,
I. David engages and excites himself to praise God. Though it was his fault that he changed his behavior, yet it was God's mercy that he escaped, and the mercy was so much the greater in that God did not deal with him according to the desert of his dissimulation, and we must in every thing give thanks. He resolves, 
1. That he will praise God constantly: I will bless the Lord at all times, upon all occasions. He resolves to keep up stated times for this duty, to lay hold of all opportunities for it, and to renew his praises upon every fresh occurrence that furnished him with matter. If we hope to spend our eternity in praising God, it is fit that we should spend as much as may be of our time in this work. 
2. That he will praise him openly: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Thus he would show how forward he was to own his obligations to the mercy of God and how desirous to make others also sensible of theirs. 
3. That he will praise him heartily: “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, in my relation to him, my interest in him, and expectations from him.” It is not vainglory to glory in the Lord.
II. He calls upon others to join with him herein. He expects they will (Psa_34:2): “The humble shall hear thereof, both of my deliverance and of my thankfulness, and be glad that a good man has so much favor shown him and a good God so much honor done him.” Those have most comfort in God's mercies, both to others and to themselves, that are humble, and have the least confidence in their own merit and sufficiency. It pleased David to think that God's favors to him would rejoice the heart of every Israelite. Three things he would have us all to concur with him in: - 
1. In great and high thoughts of God, which we should express in magnifying him and exalting his name, Psa_34:3. We cannot make God greater or higher than he is; but if we adore him as infinitely great, and higher than the highest, he is pleased to reckon this magnifying and exalting him. This we must do together. God's praises sound best in concert, for so we praise him as the angels do in heaven. Those that share in God's favor, as all the saints do, should concur in his praises; and we should be as desirous of the assistance of our friends in returning thanks for mercies as in praying for them. We have reason to join in thanksgiving to God,
(1.) For his readiness to hear prayer, which all the saints have had the comfort of; for he never said to any of them, Seek you me in vain. [1.] David, for his part, will give it under his hand that he has found him a prayer-hearing God (Psa_34:4): “I sought the Lord, in my distress, entreated his favor, begged his help, and he heard me, answered my request immediately, and delivered me from all my fears, both from the death I feared and from the disquietude and disturbance produced by fear of it.” The former he does by his providence working for us, the latter by his grace working in us, to silence our fears and still the tumult of the spirits; this latter is the greater mercy of the two, because the thing we fear is our trouble only, but our unbelieving distrustful fear of it is our sin; nay, it is often more our torment too than the thing itself would be, which perhaps would only touch the bone and the flesh, while the fear would prey upon the spirits and put us out of the possession of our own soul. David's prayers helped to silence his fears; having sought the Lord, and left his case with him, he could wait the event with great composure. “But David was a great and eminent man, we may not expect to be favored as he was; have any others ever experienced the like benefit by prayer?” Yes, [2.] Many besides him have looked unto God by faith and prayer, and have been lightened by it, Psa_34:5. It has wonderfully revived and comforted them; witness Hannah, who, when she had prayed, went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. When we look to the world we are darkened, we are perplexed, and at a loss; but, when we look to God, from him we have the light both of direction and joy, and our way is made both plain and pleasant. These here spoken of, that looked unto God, had their expectations raised, and the event did not frustrate them: Their faces were not ashamed of their confidence. “But perhaps these also were persons of great eminence, like David himself, and upon that account were highly favored, or their numbers made them considerable;” nay, [3.] This poor man cried, a single person, mean and inconsiderable, whom no man looked upon with any respect or looked after with any concern; yet he was as welcome to the throne of grace as David or any of his worthies: The Lord heard him, took cognizance of his case and of his prayers, and saved him out of all his troubles, Psa_34:6. God will regard the prayer of the destitute, Psa_102:17. See Isa_57:15.
(2.) For the ministration of the good angels about us (Psa_34:7): The angel of the Lord, a guard of angels (so some), but as unanimous in their service as if they were but one, or a guardian angel, encamps round about those that fear God, as the life-guard about the prince, and delivers them. God makes use of the attendance of the good spirits for the protection of his people from the malice and power of evil spirits; and the holy angels do us more good offices every day than we are aware of. Though in dignity and in capacity of nature they are very much superior to us, - though they retain their primitive rectitude, which we have lost; - though they have constant employment in the upper world, the employment of praising God, and are entitled to a constant rest and bliss there, - yet in obedience to their Maker, and in love to those that bear his image, they condescend to minister to the saints, and stand up for them against the powers of darkness; they not only visit them, but encamp round about them, acting for their good as really, though not as sensibly, as for Jacob's (Gen_32:1), and Elisha's, 2Ki_6:17. All the glory be to the God of the angels.
2. He would have us to join with him in kind and good thoughts of God (Psa_34:8): O taste and see that the Lord is good! The goodness of God includes both the beauty and amiableness of his being and the bounty and beneficence of his providence and grace; and accordingly, 
(1.) We must taste that he is a bountiful benefactor, relish the goodness of God in all his gifts to us, and reckon that the savor and sweetness of them. Let God's goodness be rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel. 
(2.) We must see that he is a beautiful being, and delight in the contemplation of his infinite perfections. By taste and sight we both make discoveries and take complacency. Taste and see God's goodness, that is, take notice of it and take the comfort of it, 1Pe_2:3. he is good, for he makes all those that trust in him truly blessed; let us therefore be so convinced of his goodness as thereby to be encouraged in the worst of times to trust in him.
3. He would have us join with him in a resolution to seek God and serve him, and continue in his fear (Psa_34:9): O fear the Lord! you his saints. When we taste and see that he is good we must not forget that he is great and greatly to be feared; nay, even his goodness is the proper object of a filial reverence and awe. They shall fear the Lord and his goodness, Hos_3:5. Fear the Lord; that is, worship him, and make conscience of your duty to him in every thing, not fear him and shun him, but fear him and seek him (v. 10) as a people seek unto their God; address yourselves to him and portion yourselves in him. To encourage us to fear God and seek him, it is here promised that those that do so, even in this wanting world, shall want no good thing (Heb. They shall not want all good things); they shall so have all good things that they shall have no reason to complain of the want of any. As to the things of the other world, they shall have grace sufficient for the support of the spiritual life (2Co_12:9; Psa_84:11); and, as to this life, they shall have what is necessary to the support of it from the hand of God: as a Father, he will feed them with food convenient. What further comforts they desire they shall have, as far as Infinite Wisdom sees good, and what they want in one thing shall be made up in another. What God denies them he will give them grace to be content without and then they do not want it, Deu_3:26. Paul had all and abounded, because he was content, Phi_4:11, Phi_4:18. Those that live by faith in God's all-sufficiency want nothing; for in him they have enough. The young lions. often lack and suffer hunger - those that live upon common providence, as the lions do, shall want that satisfaction which those have that live by faith in the promise; those that trust to themselves, and think their own hands sufficient for them, shall want (for bread is not always to the wise) - but verily those shall be fed that trust in God and desire to be at his finding. Those that are ravenous, and prey upon all about them, shall want; but the meek shall inherit the earth. Those shall not want who with quietness work and mind their own business; plain-hearted Jacob has pottage enough, when Esau, the cunning hunter, is ready to perish for hunger.