Sunday, November 11, 2012

Mike Evans in Lebanon ministering to soldiers

  I read this testimony and I thought I would share this since it is so great!!
                             Mike Evans in Lebanon ministering to soldiers ,
  Jerusalem Prayer Team
"On October 23, 1983, twenty-nine years ago today, I was sleeping on the beach a stone’s throw away from the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. That morning the building was blown up, killing 221 Marines, 18 sailors, and thee soldiers. It was the deadliest single-day death toll for the US Marine Corps since the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
In 1983, United States citizens were taken hostage in Lebanon and terrorists were crossing the Lebanese border and killing Jews. The Lord spoke to me to go there and preach the Gospel to them, delivering them from the spirit of murder—knowing that their only hope was Jesus. When I arrived in Jerusalem, my traveling companion received a call from Israeli intelligence telling him that Sidon, the town that we had planned to visit first as we made our way to Beirut, was targeted for an attack at the time we would be there. He was told that we could not go.

When I got back to the hotel that evening, he was asleep. I woke him and said, “Get packed. We have to leave early in the morning.” He said, “No, I’m not going. Israeli intelligence called and said if we do, we’ll be killed. I can’t take the risk because my insurance would be cancelled. I’m not covered for a war zone.”

I smiled at him and asked, “Insurance or assurance? You need some blessed assurance.” I took a trash can, emptied it on the floor, and filled it with water. I then told him to get out of bed and place his feet in the can. He thought I had lost my mind as I washed his feet as Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. I believed that the spirit of fear would be broken. He wept and rejoiced as he said, “I’ll go with you. I’m not afraid.”


The attack happened minutes before we arrived in Sidon. We were there to minister life and grace to suffering souls, and God protected us. I went into Beirut with a team of three. I was determined not only to preach to the terrorists, but also to the Marines who were stationed there. I filled the trunk of the car with Bibles, passed those out, and shared the Gospel. I will never forget one young Marine who I led to Christ. I had a television camera with me, and we decided to let the Marines record Christmas messages to their families since they would not be home for the holidays.

The eighteen-year-old Hispanic man was from Wooster, Massachusetts. He said, “Mom, I’ve got great news for you. I know you’ve been praying I would find the Lord. Today I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior!” That was on October 22nd.

Early the next morning, I was jolted awake by one of the loudest sounds I’ve ever heard. A suicide bomber drove a truck onto the airport where the Marines were headquartered. He had hijacked the truck for the water delivery the Marines were expecting. He drove into the building and detonated the equivalent of 12,000 pounds of TNT. I experienced the shock wave and saw the fireball of the explosion.

Every terrorist in the city opened up with gunfire targeting anything that moved. I had rented an Avis vehicle in Jerusalem and had to get back to Nahariyya on the Israel border. It was inconceivable that anyone could get down that road. That night as I drove and prayed with the team, I took a wrong turn into the middle of a Hezbollah funeral. I could see the body being carried over their heads of the crowd and guns waving. Had they looked at our car and realized it had Jerusalem license plates, we all would have died on the spot.

As I sped away, I had no idea where we were going. I had followed the sea to Beirut, and now it was too dark to see. After taking another wrong turn, we began to pass UN checkpoints on the road to Damascus. We were being targeted by 135 mm shells being fired at us as spotlights swept over the car. We felt like the balloon targets in a dart-throwing contest at a carnival. Then—horror of horrors—we ran out of fuel. Charlie Weston and L.W. Dollar (one of my board members) looked at me and said, “We’re dead!” They knew there was no hope of survival.

I stepped outside with a screwdriver and removed the light from the license plate so no one would be able to see the distinctive Jerusalem plate. As we sat in the vehicle and prayed, suddenly an Arab came to the window. In the natural, it seemed he was about to blow our heads off. He lifted his hand which I thought held a gun but instead held a can fuel. He walked back to the gas tank and poured the gasoline into the vehicle. He came back and pointed to the button that would unlock the car door.

For some reason, I felt this was God and opened the door. He climbed into the passenger seat, and without saying a word, pointed in the direction we were to go. For thirty-two kilometers, our guide rode with us. When he saw the lights of Nahariyya in the distance, our guide held up his hand and indicated that I was to stop. He opened the door and stepped out, never uttering a word. We drove a few yards, where a lieutenant colonel stopped our car and looked at me with complete shock. He said, “I thought you were dead. I notified the prime minister’s office that you had been killed. There is no possibility that you could have gotten down this road alive, especially in an Israeli vehicle.”

I pointed behind us and said, “That man saved our lives.” There was no one standing there. There is no doubt in my mind that twenty-nine years ago today, an angel of the Lord divinely intervened and saved my life. Let me encourage you today to keep your eyes on Jesus and keep doing what God has put on your heart to do. God will protect you, no matter what you see or what the circumstances!"

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Second coming of Christ

"The prophecy  about Messiah, based on books of  Daniel, Isaiah, Zachariah"
"The One coming back"
Prophet Daniel  had a vision  "I kept looking into  the night visions, and behold with the clouds of heaven  One like a son of man was coming  and he came up  to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory and  a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations  and men of every  language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which  will not be destroyed."
But then we also know  from the prophets that the Messiah  will have to meet the other  requirements ;he will be the descendant of David, born from a woman, one  from  among  his brothers, born in Bethlehem. How is that all possible, prophet Daniel  showing  him coming in the clouds of  heaven to conquer  and rule , as the one to whom  was given everlasting dominion and a kingdom. Prophet Isaiah  talks about the one who will  be  born of  a woman ( Isaiah 7;14), having the earthly life like ours, coming in a gentle and humble way to suffer (Isaiah 53) .  The only way  for all these verses to be  true  is that there would have to be two separate comings. The first followers of Jesus  didn't understand that either, until after Jesus' death and resurrection when he told them that the Messiah came to suffer first before entering his glory.
Isaiah 53  talks about a servant who had to suffer and  die   before he was glorified and gives a purpose for that;
v.3 " the one despised and rejected by men" v.5 “wounded for our transgressions, crushed because of our sins, the punishment  that brought us peace was upon him and by his wound we are healed
The verse .6  explains ;  ” We all like sheep went astray, we turned each one to his own way, yet Adonai laid on him the guilt of all of us."v.7 "led as a lamb to the slaughter....he opened NOT his mouth"
v.8. "cut off from the land of living,  for transgressions of my people  he was stricken”,
v.11. ” My righteous Servant shall justify many , for he shall bear their iniquities“
As the verse 10 says; He made his soul offering for sin .He made his life a quilt offering, sacrificed for us so that we may have  God's  forgiveness and life. Forgiveness of sins that we have in his blood shed for us.
Isaiah talks about him having his life back; "  He shall see the labor of his soul, and be satisfied."
In the  verse 12  Isaiah  said; ” Therefore I will assign him a share with the great, he will divide the spoil with the strong for  having exposed himself to death and being counted among the sinners."
Some Jews saw that  the Messiah  would  have to suffer but they did not see his death  and resurrection. Just before  what we now clearly see as a classic prophecy about his suffering and death, comes Isaiah 52;13  which speaks of the exaltation  of the Messiah " See my servant will act wisely, he will be raised  and lifted up  and highly exalted"
While Daniel 7;13  speaks of  'son of man' coming in the clouds of heaven to bring justice,  Isaiah  also talks about the same suffering servant who will bring justice  (verse  42;1 ) says;   "Behold  my Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom my soul delights! I have put my Spirit upon Him, He will bring justice to the gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise his voice to be heard in the street (...) He will bring justice for truth."
We will read later about why all the scriptures haven't been fulfilled yet. All the great promises are still to come.
Old Testament scriptures talk  about Messiah' glorious time in the future to come.  Why  couldn't  it all together be accomplished  at once?  Had he come to bring justice right away, nobody would stay alive!
For it says; "all have sinned and fell short of the glory of God."  We  had to be justified by him to have clean heart,  he had to die  in our place, by that sacrifice we are saved from God's wrath.  Restoration of hearts  by forgiveness of sin comes first. He said himself  " This is my body given for you ...this cup is a new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" Luke 22;19-20
We can rejoice in the hope and peace we have in his salvation, many people are lacking living without Christ.
Ignoring that fact, we wonder why ALL the prophecy about Christ hasn't been fulfilled yet . Even Jesus' disciples asked him the same question;" When they had come together, they asked him saying "Lord will you at this time restore  the kingdom to Israel?' And He said to them '  It is not for you to know  times or seasons which the Father  has put in his own authority. But you shall receive power when  the Holy Spirit  has come upon you  and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea  and Samaria  and to the end of the earth."  Acts 1;6-8
So   'Now'  it is  time of salvation. He took  upon himself the sins of  us  freeing  all  who would accept His payment.
Who would be just enough to live forever?  Without the Savior, nobody would!
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that
whoever believes in Him shall never perish but have everlasting life"  John 3;16
His promise about everlasting life to those who trusted in Him was supported by  his authority to give life; apart from healing others, he raised Lazarus and Jairus' daughter back  to life. He was risen back to life after his death on the cross.
" John 10;17-18  "Therefore my father loves me, because  I lay down my life  that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I  lay it down of myself  I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again."
The roots for our beliefs are the same ; God's promise about the Messiah to come who would 'save ' their people.  We can choose to see only one side of the whole picture skipping the suffering part, and expect only the glorious future or we choose to see the whole picture- all scriptures   put together like a  big puzzle. The first followers of Jesus were Jews who watching Jesus' life were able to see in him the lamb of God. They saw him being ascended to heaven on clouds, and angels coming down saying; " Man of Galilee, why do you stand  gazing up into the heaven? This same Jesus  who was taken up  from you into heaven  will so come in like manner  as you saw him  go into heaven."    Acts 1;11  " Behold he is coming with clouds  and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes  of the earth  will mourn because of Him.Even so, Amen." Revelation 1;7
Look  also how  does  Zachariah talk about the Messiah  coming as  the deliverer  of Israel.
  Zachariah  12-8-11
" In that day the Lord will defend  the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the one who is feeble  among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord  before them. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy  all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 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 pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him  as one mourns  for his only son  and grieve for him as one grieves for  a firstborn. In that day there shall be  a great mourning  in Jerusalem."
The question is 'why would they cry and mourn? Who  was pierced??? Who suffered like the  Isaiah 53 talks about? Who justified many by suffering for our sin?  (Isaiah 53;11) By whose wounds we are healed?? Based on Isaiah 53;5, who  would have to  be "raised  and  lifted  up  and highly exalted " ?   If the only one thing the Messiah was to accomplish was to come as the glorious deliverer of the nations, why  it talks about him first raised and lifted up?
All scriptures in the Old Testament are  pointing to  Christ, all events relate to Him, all stories written have a meaning  so that we would recognize Him;  Abraham willing  to offer his only Son as the sacrifice, Joseph' life  in affliction, rejection by his own, saving  their  family and people when they came to him  in need in the 'trouble years'  and  at the end he revealed himself to his family that he was one of their own.
The same it says about the Messiah; before he comes  there will be really bad times, nations gathering around Jerusalem, his own people will finally recognize Him;  Zachariah 12;10  " They will look on Me , whom they  pierced..."
He is like an Noah's ark -in Him everybody can hide before the coming wrath of God.He is our  Passover lamb,  his shed blood for us keeps us from eternal  death. The Jewish  feast of Bikkurim ( first-fruits) points to Him. Paul tells the Corinthians that Jesus raised from the dead  is the 'first-fruits'  of those who have fallen asleep."  1 Cor 15;20
Feast of Unleavened Bread points to Him as Jesus called Himself  " the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever." John 6;50  "Eating" as the symbol of trusting in him.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Authority of Jesus Christ in Heaven and on Earth

"The great authority of Christ"
How many of us think about real purpose of  life? The questions about the purpose and our destiny are in so many of our minds. Most people  are just satisfied in achieving their own  goals  and enjoy only the present time.  Did God have any purpose in creating us if our goal was just to live that short life on earth and then die and be forgotten? Are we all scrod up? The answer is surely no.

 The Bible tells us clearly more  about  much greater things . It talks about our restoration, about the restoration of all things.
The creative purpose of God to redeem the mankind  was in the very beginning.
 It was all planned with wisdom before this present  creation. Jesus as the redeemer was  God's plan and all things came into being through him.
He  is the ultimate  expression of   God and His love for us. His plan was expressed in pieces  and parts in history, as people acted  and in prophecy, as people spoke.  The plan was being expressed  as Abraham set off to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, about which we read in the Old Testament.   In John 3;16 we read that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life." Then as Moses lifted up the serpent on the desert Old Testament) - so is the Son of Man  (Jesus) lifted up by God so whoever believes in Him has everlasting life.
We read in  the prophecy in the Isaiah that the Servant of God would be pierced for our transgressions, we read in Psalms about all he faced on the cross. No coincidence,  coming of Jesus was planned by God and He  foretold  him in so many ways throughout  Old Testament scriptures.  God   wasn't to surprise  anybody with  sending the savior as  if  He made up His mind to redeem us from our sin  in the middle of our life' history.   He clearly foretold him to us.   Christ is a real person with a real meaning.  We  can understand this important meaning  in our lives  by studying the scriptures about the  authority given him by God  both  in heaven and on earth.
He said " all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth" Matthew 28;18
"The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son. So that  all many honor  the Son  just  as they  honor the Father who sent him." John5;22-23
"The Father loves the Son, and  has given all things into His hand." John 3;35

In  the above verse  "He has given all judgement to the Son" , we see  that it will be Jesus Christ  who will judge all men and that thereby all men will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.
That is what we saw in Philippians  2;10-11
 "Every knee will bow down  and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord , to the glory of God the Father."
 Jesus Christ the one who was judged, condemned  and executed by men,  raised from the dead  seated at the right hand of God-will be the one to finally judge all men.

.Every person who has ever lived will be judged by him.  But there are 2 different  'finals'. Believers in Christ will be judged for what they have done in the body, but they are not the subject to God's condemnation.
"For we must all appear  before judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." 2 Cor 5;10
For those who trusted Jesus, the judgement is not for death and condemnation;
"Very truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word  and believes Him who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life." John 5;24
Those who listen to Him and trusted him, those who are born again are justified.
God didn't sent Jesus to die on the cross just in vain. He offered you and me the way out, to avoid God's wrath.
So all unrepentant people, all who don't want to know him, who rejected Him,they will be subject to God's wrath.
"(...) he who does not believe  the Son  shall not see life  but the wrath of God  abides on him. " John 3;36

John 12;48  " He who rejects  Me, and  does not receive My words, has that which judges him- the word that I have spoken  will judge him  in the last day."

More about Jesus as the judge we read in John 5;27-29;
v.25." I tell you the truth, a time is coming  and has now come  when the dead will hear the voice  of the Son of God and those who hear will live."
                                We see that it is Jesus Christ who will call people  to new  and everlasting life.
v.26." For as the father has life  in himself , so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself."
v.27 " And He has given Him authority  to execute judgement , because He is the Son of Man."

It will be Jesus Christ's voice all people will hear in their graves and it will be Him to decide who is to live  and who is to die;

v.21." For just as the father raises the dead  and gives them life , even so the Son  gives life to whom  He is pleased to give it."
v.28 " Do not be astonished at this, for the hour is coming  when all who are in their graves will hear  His voice."
v.29 " and will come out -those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."
This is what is commonly known as the resurrections of "the just" and "the unjust". The Bible clearly says that all people who have ever lived will get up  from the dead.

We can be sure His judgement is just as He is always doing God's will;
John 5;30 " I can do nothing  on my own, as I hear I judge, and my judgement is just, because I seek  to do not my own will  but the will of Him who sent me."
Because  Jesus Christ  works in perfect harmony  with his heavenly Father, there will be justice for all.
v.19." Jesus said to them;'Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing  on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing,  for what ever the Father does, the Son does likewise."

"Who do you say I am"?
Jesus of Nazareth put this question  to His followers nearly 2000 years ago, and  the question still hangs in the air, requesting the answer  from every person living now. But is it not just to know who He is in general but who He is for you. Your time on earth, your life now is to accept Him as your Lord and savior.  This the the only way out given by God  to avoid His judgement and not to be condemned but have new life.
It is not the life of limitations but the life of abundance.   " I have come that they may have life,, and that they may have it  more abundantly." John 10;10



Saturday, October 6, 2012

" I was found by those who did not seek Me"

 "I was found by those who did not seek Me"
This time I thought it would be good to write down my testimony. How did I came to know the Lord?
It all started about 18 years ago. All my high school I was mainly interested in sport and science that was my favorite thing to do, jogging, javelin throwing and all that fun that had to do with light athletics.  At that time no interest for God, besides knowing that some God exists but I wasn't really thinking about Him. So I did athletics in my free time and I decided I will be PE teacher. Physics seemed to hard to study but doing sport all your life seemed fun. But when it came to applying to the college in that specific area of sport- I wasn't accepted because I did not do  to well  in swimming and gymnastics. I  remember I got C  in that while there were people who got A in all the parts of the exam.  I had to find somebody to blame for that...I wondered why God wouldn't let me do something I really liked. I wasn't happy at all at that time I thought I would  have to wait one more year to apply again to that school, but meanwhile a friend told me about a new German college to which exams were  in September.Then a thought came to me; let's study German for a year - to 'kill' the waiting time-and then I will go back to my sport!
And my journey started. On the first day at the new college  we were  all waiting  to take the German exam.
You would see the nervous students  reading their notes  and a girl  next to me  reading the Bible...! Well, I was reading my notes all stressed up, while that girl completely relaxed reading her book...I asked her
 'Does it help?' Then I heard all the lecture about Jesus. I  though I had never met in my life a person that religious!   All her story didn't seem to be interesting to me- I even thought she was really weird- crazy religious!  Then she shared with me two Bible verses, I have never heard before.
 They completely disturbed my peace!
 "Not everyone who says  to Me;Lord Lord shall  enter the Kingdom of Heaven but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." Matthew 7;21
First of all I realized I might be one of those people since  I had  no clue whether I  was doing the will of the Father in heaven or not.
I  heard the right words  to notice that  a Christian is not about only attending a church once a while.
It is about doing God's will which is believing in the One He sent ( Jesus) and trusting His words. But because  God  seemed  so unknown  to me  at  that time  I thought  that living for Him was good  when  you are old  but not as a student who has completely different things on mind ..'How do you know when you will die?'  I heard the question. Then it will be too late. I  imagined myself  when  God is recalling  that day when I could   hear His words from the Bible  and I was rejecting them, I was rejecting Him and the life!
Then we read the following  verse;"He who rejects Me, and does not receive my words, has that which judges him,the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day." John 12;48
 I realized the words were telling the truth and if God says something it must be true.
How shocking it was for me to hear all these words, that I had to change my life, that Christian is a follower of Christ. It didn't seem  easy  'jumping' into ' following Christ' right away.
 I didn't want to. I had some other dreams  and thinking too much about God didn't seem too comfortable. I thought  God was too distant like  in church, with lots of pictures, statues, you pray but they never speak to you. Because I imagined God like that, I didn't have interest in thinking about Him
What was left it was  struggling with the thoughts 'I have to do God's will  to be saved'
 'Is reading the Bible for 15 minutes a day quite enough"?  I wandered. I was struggling like that  for half of the year, those 2 Bible verses  were following me everywhere.... my mind couldn't get rid of them. The only 'relief ' was giving lessons to the kids when I had to focus on teaching the language, but as soon as the lesson was over, the words from the Bible  came back and  the question' Have you made up your mind?"

This became  a really heavy burden on my heart; how much is it enough to be a Christian? What is His will every day? How can I be sure I am saved? How much of reading  the Bible is enough to be called a Christian? Then I spontaneously prayed to God simply saying that I was tired of that burden that  I didn't know what His will was  but I wanted to do it and that  and that I wanted Him to be my Lord!
That was very unusual because after that simple prayer at home I started to have peace in my heart that I haven't had for a long time. Such a relief as if somebody took of a big load of something from my heart. It seemed to me like Somebody there above heard me!
I started testing myself, even saying that I was not interested in reading ' boring Bible' didn't take away my peace. Then I realized I actually have an interest to read it. As I read that day I came across these words; John 14;27 " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  Wow, that's exactly as if I was reading about myself; I just experienced  that peace! I  knew  the Bible is true, the words are telling the truth! God is real!
I felt like being born again, seeing everything in a new light, God didn't seem distant and unknown any more. My heart wasn't accusing me .Each time I read the Bible  it was confirming everything what I experienced. Jesus said;" You search the scriptures, for in them you think  you have eternal life; and these are they that testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me  that you may have life." John 5;39-40
So it was the same with me, reading  the Bible without coming to God didn't mean anything, I thought that  just by reading I would be a real believer  but  that wasn't giving me any peace until I prayed.  I decided to come to God like the above verse says. That is when God responded and I knew  I was saved. My favorite verse became John 5;24 " Most assuredly I say to you , he who hears my word and  and believes in Him who sent Me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement, but has passed from death into life."  We have forgiveness of sin in Jesus, that's why by trusting Him we can have peace in our heart.
Now it is hard to imagine living without God.  "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10;10 That is what it means to live with God and have Him as your Lord. Second you have promise that you have eternal life. " I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live." John 11;25
The Bible is full of so many great promises but if we don't have any access to them  or we decide to ignore them,we  choose to live a hopeless life. As it is said;" Man shall not live  by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
I finished my German college, I didn't care too much about coming back to sport, my interests changed and I went to the Bible school in Hungary  for 2 years. I remember my friends saying' I would find no job if I didn't finish my German degree( because I went to the Bible school) and then after I finished my Bible school - the job 'called me' offering the  job  as a teacher in one of the private language schools. So  meanwhile I  also finished my last 2 years of German to get my final degree. My worries weren't needed, God was in control;
 " Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all the things shall be added unto you." I 'experience' it all the time.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Christ- the One in charge


“Christ- the One in charge”
As` we study the Bible we  read that Jesus Christ is the subject of  this book  from Genesis 3;15 to Revelation 22;21
This Jesus of Nazareth has been the object of more speculation than any other person in the history of man. The name of Jesus Christ  springs spontaneously  from the lips of all kind of people, from the priest to the any upset person that is using His name to curse. “Even when Jesus is rejected as an object of faith, he is chosen as an object of derision.”
Why it is like that?
The battle is truly spiritual – it is about discovering or suppressing  His true identity. The battle with high stakes for mankind. Finding His true identity allows us to come to Him and trust Him and acknowledge Him as our Lord, which results in being saved from God’s judgement. Having  His false identity  -will keep us away from Him and His word  and  from trusting Him  It will keep us away from receiving His forgiveness and the truth that we can be saved.  ” Most assuredly I say to you , he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me, has everlasting life, and shall  not come  into judgement , but has passed from death into life.”
It is a great promise but by many  Jesus is  still  under appreciated. A  man that died on the cross and that is the end of the story. No power no meaning for your life.  But He is much more than this. We will find out in this study- what the Bible says  He is  and what does it mean to know His true  identity. How much do we know Him and realize all the greatness? Are you able to see Him for whom he is? Let your knowledge about Jesus Christ not limit itself only  to His earthly life. We should  also be aware  of  His glorious exaltation by God and the authority over all things  that Father gave Him.
Let’s have a  quick Bible’s overlook;
Jesus Christ as the One in charge over everything;
“Jesus came and spoke to them; All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Matthew 28;18
The Bible says that  Father  put Jesus in charge over everything. That means all what the Father would be doing, Jesus is in charge doing.
He gave Him authority  as a judge;
 John 5;22 ” For the Father judges no one but committed all  judgement to the Son.”  v.27 “  And has given Him authority to execute judgement also because He is the Son of Man.”
The only mediator to God, the way of communication with God; ultimate representative of God;
Hebrews 1;1-2a “God spoke at various times  and  in various ways to the fathers  by the prophets, has in the last days spoken to us by His Son.”
People wish they would see God, but it is not about seeing how He looks like, the same way it is not enough to know somebody by seeing only his/her picture.  God wants us to  know His character, His heart and nature, and that nature was manifested  all in His Son. God’s heart and will was manifested  in his Son’s life in everything  that He  said  and did.  He was saying and doing what God himself would be saying or doing, that way ( when one of his disciples said; ‘show us the Father’) Jesus  could say; Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father.” John 14;9
He could also say the following;
” The Father who dwells in Me does His works”  John 14;10
” All that the Father has is mine”   John 12;45
” Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself , but what He sees the Father doing,  for whatever He does, the Son also does in likewise.” John 5;19
He has the authority to be honored as the Father;  John 5;23
” That all should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father.”
The One who has the power to raise the dead ones; John 5; 21
“For as the Father raises the dead  and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.”
v.28  ” (…) for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves  will hear His voice.”
John 6.44 “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6;47″  Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, has everlasting life.”
The only way to God:  John 6;45
“It is written in the prophets ‘ And they shall all be taught by God’ . Therefore everyone who has heard  and learned from the Father, comes to Me.”
John 14;6 ” I am the way, the true and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.”
The One with the authority to forgive  sin;  Luke 5;24
“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, He said to the man who was paralyzed ; ‘ I say to you , arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”
The One as the image of the invisible God; Colossians 1;15
Hebrews 1;3a ” The Son is reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint  of God’s very  being and He sustains all things by his powerful word.”
Exalted above all name;
Philippians 2;9  “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name  which is above every name.”
Authority to be worshiped  ” That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,and that every tongue should confess  that Jesus Christ is  Lord to the glory of God the Father.”  
Heir of all things, all things created through Him and for Him;
(..) whom He has appointed as heir of all things, through whom  also He made the worlds.” Hebrews 1;2
“For by Him all things were created  that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones  or dominions or principalities  or powers.
All things were created through Him  and for Him.” Colossians1;16   
Jesus wanted people to find His true identity by coming to God. He wasn’t yelling  out; Do you know who I am? I am a Son of God! This was not the way to know Him.  To truly know Him always depended on coming to God, so that God Himself would reveal Jesus  to us.
One time Jesus asked His disciples; “And who do  believe I am?” and Peter  said ” You are the Son of the living God.”  Not only was it a correct answer but Jesus also said that it  is the Father in heaven  who revealed it to Peter.”
And who  is Jesus   for you?
And if you think that people can use His name as a curse and keep rejecting Him and get away with it; the Bible has the answer to that.
John 12;48 ” He who rejects Me, and does nor receive my words, has that which judges him, the word that I have spoken  will judge him in the last day.”
You can choose to serve the great Lord and have everlasting life in Him.  The battle is spiritual, you can win it- by accepting  Jesus as your Lord and Savior! He doesn’t have to be an unknown historical hero but your real mighty Lord.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Off guilt

 "Off guilt"

Imagine yourself having somebody who payed off all your debt. That mainly includes your  high house credit and whatever we bought on credit and owe to the seller every month. Imagine a person sending you a note that everything  has been paid off and you don't owe anything to anybody, nothing you need to pay  back, nothing to worry about. How great that would be? That sounds like a fairy tale if it ever happened to somebody. A reach dad may be paying off his son's or daughter's debt but that is not all.
 There is some other debt no human can ever pay off. The real debt we all have is present in our spiritual life. It relates to our life with God before whom we all are guilty of sin ( smaller or bigger) for which  we are awaiting high payment which is death. And the Bible says no human can pay God any price to pay off our sinful and ignorant  life  except Son of God who paid for us with His own blood. How is that important? That means with  accepting Jesus as our savior we are free of guilt before God, but rejecting Jesus we are under God's wrath.
 Doesn't it sound foolish to not to accept that great  payment?  It is available to us while we are alive and if somebody thinks they don't need Jesus they are loosing their 'rescue plan'. There is nothing else  that can save us, no good deeds, no religious life, no other person, no communion, no rituals- it is only one Person  Jesus Christ that God sent us for that reason.  But some people still struggle with accepting Him, why?  Problems  in believing the gospel is true? Jesus said, you can believe Him  even for the sake of the works He was doing, because nobody has ever done any works like He did. They testify that He is the Son of God. You could worry  and say, oh, we all  will die no matter what, but let's look at Jesus. Was anything impossible for Him to do? Can't you trust the one who was able to raise Lazarus from the dead after 4 days being in the grave? The one who rose again after being crucified?

Is anything difficult for God to do?  Jesus said that eternal life is only in Him, that He is the one who can wipe off  any  of your sin, that He is the light of the world, He is the way, the truth and the life, the only way to God. The only mediator, the only bread of life  the only living water. Coming to Him your life gets  the new meaning and by understanding that He died for you, you know you have eternal life and forgiveness of sin. Your debt is paid off! What a great thing! Don't pick up a misery by rejecting Him!
 Try Him out, He said
"I am the bread of life . He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6;35,      v. 47 " Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life."

Friday, August 31, 2012

Creation contra evolution

Creation contra evolution
Someone once said' "  If you believe in the evolution , you have to accept that your great , great , great.......grandpa was a ...ROCK!! or a piece of DUST"- that is based on the belief that everything came out of dust. You would say that it  is weird, but that is what evolution actually  allows to believe!

According to evolutionary theory, all matter came into existence by itself. At a later time on our planet' living creatures quite literally  " made themselves". Such views  sound like Greek myths. And nobody is asking the question where did all the laws of nature come from? There are variety of very complicated natural laws.How did these come into existence? People assume that they too just sprung up spontaneously.Common sense combined with scientific
facts  will always tear the theory of evolution to pieces.
Evolutionary theory is built on two foundational pillars. But there are two laws that crush those pillars to powder.
 Evolution teaches that matter is not conservative but self- originating, it can arise from nothing and increase. The First Law of Thermodynamics annihilates  this error.
Evolution teaches that matter and living things keep becoming more complex and continually evolve  toward greater perfection. The Second Law of Thermodynamics devastates this theory..

 In our civilizations, we find  that  it is  highly intelligent people who design  the machinery  and make laws that govern the nation. Because of our limitations, we spend so much time and research  to improve man-made mechanical designs and rewriting human laws. But in nature we find the perfection in design
and laws which human cannot achieve! How is that possible?  Every bird  and animal is perfectly designed and fossil evidence indicates that each one has  had the same  design all  the way back  to its first  appearance  in the fossil record. The laws of nature are perfect also. If we need evidence  about the  perfection  of natural laws, now and in the past, all we need do is gaze upon the planets , moons, stars, and galactic systems. The perfect balancing of their rotations on their  axes  and orbits  around still larger spheres or star complexes is astounding.The laws are operating with total precision.
We don't realize that any aberration of those  laws in the past would have brought  the suns and the stars and systems- and our own world- crashing in upon each other. The evidence is clear that,  from the most distant past, the laws of nature have operated accurately.
There is no way that universe  would just come into existence and found  a complete system  of  physical  laws  waiting  to be obeyed.
We`all can agree with the saying that every product has to have a maker. Imagine  I am leading you into my room with lots of robots and computers sitting around. You ask me where did you get it from ? I would say, from nowhere. They all just evolved. The room was had been closed here for billions of years with all the metal scrapes, a bit of water, some explosives  and just decided so organize itself. It took them billions of years and here we have perfectly working computers and robots. You would say that' s
nonsense.  You would never believe the scrapes of metal would get together to make an use of themselves even over a billion of years. But you would believe the whole universe  with all the living creatures did?
It is so obvious that every product needs a makes and a designer. And designer and the maker has to be  more intelligent  than a product and far more intelligent than  the production methods used to make it.

Let's look now at the two main laws that are completely in contradiction with what the evolution is teaching.
The First Law of Thermodynamics says  that  'the energy  cannot  by itself be created nor destroyed. Energy may be changed  from one form  into another, but the total amount remains unchanged.'
Einstein showed  that matter is but another form of energy, as expressed in the equation ;
 E= MC{ square}
This is the most important and best proved laws in science. Countless experiments  have verified this. A corollary of the First Law is that  natural  processes cannot  create  energy. Consequently energy must have been created in the past  by some  power  outside of and independent of the natural universe.. Furthermore, if natural processes cannot produce the relatively simple inorganic portion of the universe
(cannot produce energy) then it is even less likely that  natural  processes can explain the much more complex living portion of the universe and its.
 perfection that testify about a very advanced mathematics and intelligence in order to come into being.
Now, let's see the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It predicts that a system  left to itself will, in the course of time, go toward  greater  disorder, become totally random and disorganized.
All science ' bows low' before the Second Law which points mankind  to its  Creator.
The Second Law testifies that to the fact that there was a beginning  to everything, and therefore the Beginner.
You would see that the evolution is actually a variant form of atheism. It doesn't want to acknowledge the Creator as a Beginner, it would rather acknowledge Nothing as a Beginner, the Big Bang out of  Nothing.Big explosion out of Nothing!
It would believe that energy or matter is self-originating ( contradicting First and Second Law of physics).
The belief that cannot accept God because it has no explanation how is God originating, but instead of would accept self-originating matter, self organizing perfection of the laws and all the life!
It does not want to accept the  One who stands above  and beyond all of this. One who made it all, who is thoughtful of the needs of the  universe and cares for His own.

If you are looking for the truth, you will surely find it. Don't be  satisfied with what others say or claim that they know unless you have a close look into it yourself. If you open a typical science book on astronomy, you will be bombarded  with paintings  of gas clouds and protostars, here you will find theories about the origin  of the universe and stars stated with great certainty.
But if you attend a closed -door  conference, such as the Nice-Symposium, you will find worried men, desperate theories, scientific facts which condemn those theories, a lack of alternative explanations, an atmosphere of hopeless despair in the face of unproven  and unprovable ideas, and no solutions or scientific experiments able to alleviate the situation.
Just to list all the things the  evolutionists have no answer to, would fill many books.
 How it is that Uranus and Venus are rotating backwards? How to explain origin of such complex DNA working as a computer?  How to explain  the perfect balance in forces keeping the atoms together, or the fact that our world would not be 'visible' to us  if our brain would not  know how to 'read'  the specific light  frequencies. You can amaze at  the  thing  how is the whole world seen in colors-  which are the different frequencies of light that the object is reflecting  and then that specific frequency is  going   through our eye and is 'red' by your brain as a specific color? Could that all just simply happen????? How did our brain 'learn' to 'translate' it as a red or green color?
Look at all the tropical  fish' variety and see how they are colorful.  Lots of them have a specific patters like stripes along the edges of their fins as if somebody colored them. No chaos of colors, the light is not reflected in a chaos so we  don't see a  mixture of colors as if a kid took all paints and messed it up. Instead of we see perfectly designed patterns. Would the fish just decide  'let me have my fins striped at the edges so that I look nice so these human beings who are watching me in an aquarium would be amazed by my beauty?'

Even though  you might reject that there is a Creator  and still believe that  all the world just happened, you are giving the  'nature' the attributes of a person or creator. People would rather say;" nature made it so perfectly".. instead of saying God made it, they would say; "nature  has got  some intelligence and wisdom in  creating this"  instead of saying  it needed God  with all the wisdom  and  high intelligence  to create such thing.

All the 'universe perfection' should point us to the one living God who made it all so we could  learn to trust Him by seeing that all His works are  so excellent
It should point you to the Bible so that you could read about His plan for you. It should point you to the Savior  in Jesus Christ  in which you have forgiveness of sin and promise of eternal life rather than dying in your sin.
John 6;47 Jesus said ; " Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, has everlasting life."