Category: God: The Father, the Son Jesus Christ, & the Holy Ghost

Closed Minds, Closed Hearts, Closed Book

Sunday, September 13, 2015

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14 KJV).

“Why do more people not see dispensational Bible study?” Today’s Scripture explains.

A few years ago, a Christian friend invited me to her house to give a Bible study for her friend stuck in a “Christian” cult. Others attended as well. It turned out to be almost three hours of teaching! (Search YouTube for three videos titled, “Intro to Pauline Dispensationalism.”) The woman was without excuse after hearing that clear Gospel of Grace and clear outline of the Bible dispensationally considered.

Sometime later, she told my friend, “I felt so sorry for you all. You are all so deceived.” (Strangely, she never told me that, never corrected anything I said, and never “blessed” the group with any of her “spiritual insight.” In fact, strangest of all, throughout the study, she smiled, cheerfully listening to the verses, and even declared, “I know JEHOVAH God is working here!” Despite her “compliments,” we have not seen her since!)

More recently, I had an online discussion with a Bible critic, atheist, and evolutionist. Several others soon joined in. Once I contrasted their “idle speculation and ever-changing hypotheses” with “the Bible’s clear testimony,” one individual grew ballistic: “The Bible’s plain and clear testimony?!” Even with a saint of the Most High God expounding the Bible for him, he still could not understand it. Why? The Spirit of God was there (with me), but the man did not “receive” the things of the Spirit of God. He was not willing to see. He was no different from the cult member mentioned earlier.

Lost people lack God’s indwelling Holy Spirit. They have no capacity to understand God’s Word. It is foolishness to them. What about genuine Holy-Spirit-indwelt Christians trapped in denominations? They too are guided by the flesh (church tradition perpetuated by lost people), hindering the Holy Spirit from working in them (1 Thessalonians 5:19). However, as Jesus Himself said, whenever they are willing to hear and see, “[they] shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17).

Where True Love is Found

Saturday, September 12, 2015

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 KJV).

Behold where true love is found!

Many people today seek “love” in all the wrong places—“pimping,” prostitution, homosexual unions, pedophilia, bestiality, necrophilia, and all sorts of other illicit acts. Even concerning “straight” couples (involving two humans), there is usually a very shallow understanding of what true love is. There is a lot of “take, take, take” from one or both sides, and a lot of “me, me, me” on one or both sides. There is very little, if any, altruism (“give, give, give”). Both people really seeking the other person’s best interest—the rarest of all!

Beloved, let us never, ever, ever place another human on a level he or she will never attain. We are all sinners. Mistakes will happen. Other people will disappoint us, as individuals have done before. Break-ups happen, divorces happen, infidelity happens, betrayal happens. Even though both sides try their very hardest, there is still heartache and heartbreak. (Then, there is one or both parties doing nothing to make the situation better, leading to the same dismal end.)

All the unlovely people we have met in our life, the horrible individuals who treated us as though we were utter scum, we need not be bitter against them. We need to pray for them. They have not got a clue what real love is, and were thus unable to show it to us. We should take a moment to remember today’s Scripture. If no one else loves us, if everyone else betrays us, if everyone else disappoints us, if everyone else abandons us, there is still Father God and His free gift offered to us. His only begotten Son shed His rich, royal blood, that He may pay our sin debt. He had nothing left to give! Jesus Christ was Father God’s most precious relationship, and He (yea, They) gave it up, that we sinners might enjoy that perfect relationship forever!

In no other Person but Jesus Christ will we find true love. Let us not search for it elsewhere. Such a search is a waste of time… and of true love.

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What about unmarried, divorced, and remarried men in the ministry?”

God’s Offer to the Nations

Friday, September 11, 2015

“…[T]hat God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is God’s offer to all the nations of the world today.

September 11, 2001 was a day that changed our nation forever. It was the worst terrorist attack in our two-century national history. Afterward, many Americans began to talk about “God Bless America” and “God Save the United States.” These phrases are not as commonplace as they used to be.

In the 14 years that have passed since that awful day, it is a sad commentary that “God” is now the least of our nation’s concerns. With the redefining of marriage, controversial political arena, moral decay, skyrocketing national debt, and the uncertainty as to what constitutes a human life and what does not, obviously, the God of the Bible has been largely pushed out… until we need His help, and then we cry out to Him. Unless we need Him, we rather not think about anything He has to say.

While many argue that God is judging America today for its sins, the Bible does not support such an idea. Certainly, God dealt with Israel in that manner—“Do good and I will bless, but disobey and I will curse” (Leviticus chapter 26; Deuteronomy chapter 28)—but we have no relation to that Old Covenant of Law.

For the last 20 centuries, God has offered His grace to all the world’s nations, to have a right standing before Him by trusting Jesus Christ. People still die and go to hell, but today’s Scripture says that God is not judging nations for their sins. Through Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork, God offers reconciliation to sinners, whether here or around the world. However, that grace is exhaustible, and one day, it will be replaced with His wrath (Romans 2:1-16). Still, we believers are not appointed to God’s wrath; we are saved from all wrath through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:9).

The only hope for America—yea, for any nation—is faith in Jesus Christ alone!

*You can also see our 2011 Bible study commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11. It can watched here or read here.

For Students This is Safe

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

“Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:128 KJV).

As a new school year dawns, let us awake unto spiritual truth!

The autumnal equinox is a few weeks away here in the Northern Hemisphere, and summer is finally beginning to wind down for most of us. Students—with long faces and deep sighs—have returned or are beginning to return to school. (Thankfully, I am finished with school. Exactly a month ago I finished nine years of college, obtaining a master’s degree in geology!) As students return to the classroom, they need to be particularly mindful of the following.

Firstly, learning in and of itself is not a sin. Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). Luke was a medical doctor (Colossians 4:14). Daniel and his companions were skilled in science (Daniel 1:4). Adam was the first taxonomist (Genesis 2:19,20). The God of the Bible is never against learning new things—remember, He gave us His Holy Bible so we can have plenty to learn for all of eternity!

Secondly, what the God of the Bible opposes is when we believe/trust ideas that do not seek our best interests, that contradict the way He designed our lives to function. Certainly, we Christians should never go around believing anything and everything heard and seen. Just because the professor, preacher, pope, or president says it is true, that does not make it so. Scientific consensus has been wrong before, religion has been wrong before, politicians have been wrong before. Much of the ideas that permeate our world today are wrong.

Lastly, there are many wonderful, exciting ideas and concepts out there—medical advancements, technological breakthroughs, and so on—but there are equally detrimental ideas that will mess up your life—religious traditions, secular humanism, and other philosophies. Daily intake of the King James Bible rightly divided will cleanse our souls of the filth and foolishness that we hear and see day in and day out in this evil world system. We highly exalt God’s Word, we know it is right “concerning all things,” and we hate and ignore the error.

Have a wonderful school year in our Lord Jesus Christ! 🙂

Moses the Learned

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

“In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months: And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:20-22 KJV).

Was Moses some “backwards hick?” Oh, certainly not!

Bible critics have a great hatred for anything and everything in the Scriptures. That includes doubters within the ranks of Christendom’s “scholarship!” One of their many attacks on the Old Testament is to deny Moses as writer of Genesis through Deuteronomy. They claim Moses was nothing more than an unlearned, illiterate buffoon who herded sheep, so he could not have penned one sentence, let alone five books! On the contrary, the New Testament (today’s Scripture) reminds us of what the Old Testament already said about Moses.

Moses’ birth and childhood are briefly described in Exodus 2:1-10. Moses was born of Hebrew parents enslaved in Egypt. His mother hid him three months, before placing him in a basket in the river. When Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river to wash herself, she noticed the basket and sent a maid to fetch it. She opened the basket to see three-month-old Moses inside! Moses’ older sister Miriam watched nearby, and asked if she could return the child to his mother for nursing. Pharaoh’s daughter agreed.

When Moses was weaned, perhaps as old as four or five years old, he was returned to Pharaoh’s daughter. For the first few years of his life, his mother Jochebed had instructed him in Jewish culture and the Hebrew language. Pharaoh’s daughter later adopted him, and he grew up as an Egyptian prince. As a member of the royal family, Moses was trained in history, literature, grammar, music, geography, philosophy, and particularly Egyptian hieroglyphics (word pictures). See today’s Scripture.

JEHOVAH God used Moses’ education to enable him to write down His words, Genesis through Deuteronomy, on papyrus, a rough paper used in Egypt. Using God’s wisdom, Moses was able to lead his people Israel into fulfilling God’s plan for them. And as they say, “the rest is history!” 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Was John the Baptist really Elijah?”

The Thing Which is Good

Monday, September 7, 2015

“Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephesians 4:28 KJV).

On this Labor Day, we talk about work, “the thing which is good.”

In this day and age of increasing “government assistance,” people are becoming less and less aware of our hard work being the Lord Jesus’ preferred method of the source of our incomes. While the physically and mentally disabled are obvious exceptions, the God of the Bible expects all of us to contribute labor in order to provide for ourselves. For children and young adults, even being a student in school is work enough!

Observe the doctrine being communicated in today’s Scripture. The grace life does not merely teach us to quit doing bad things, but it also instructs us to start doing good things (Titus 2:11,12). Once a thief trusts the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished crosswork as sufficient payment for his sins, then God expects that thief to quit stealing and find a job so he can provide for his needs!

The God of creation calls work “the thing which is good” (today’s Scripture). Work is not something to be avoided; it is something to be embraced for the Lord’s glory!

When the Lord Jesus Christ put the first man, Adam, on earth, that man had a divine commission. Adam was not to simply loaf around and do nothing: “And the LORD God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Adam was to protect that garden, to till its ground, to prepare it for Jesus Christ to come down and dwell in with he and Eve (because of sin, that earthly kingdom over which Jesus Christ will rule is still awaiting fulfillment!).

Saints, may we work to provide for our families (1 Timothy 5:8), and may we work to help those who truly are needy (today’s Scripture). In the words of God the Holy Spirit, that is “good!” 🙂

God is Not a Recluse

Sunday, September 6, 2015

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6 KJV)

Is God a “recluse?” Certainly not, beloved!

Watching television, reading a newspaper, and/or scanning social media websites, you immediately recognize abundant negativity and distress. People immaturely bickering about stupid topics, calling others names to no purpose. Individuals harming others (robberies, murders, kidnappings, and so on). Trouble brewing at a local church once known for its loving atmosphere. A dysfunctional family waxing worse and worse. Economic, political, environmental, healthcare, and social woes. No matter the country, what a depressing state of affairs!

I recently read online, “The more I deal with people, the more I sympathize with recluses.” (And this complaint came from someone who was not God, someone who had not dealt with 15+ billion sinners and their every sinful deed and their every sinful thought every single moment for the last 6,000 years!) With every passing day, it should constantly amaze us that Father God allows it to continue. Remember, God will not fix just one little problem. If He is to take care of one issue, He must take care of them all. It is not yet time for Him to take care of one issue, so all of these depressing issues still remain unresolved in our world!

What we need to be most thankful for is that Father God knew all this trouble that was coming, long before Genesis 1:1, and He devised a plan to make it right (today’s Scripture). Imagine if you will, knowing full well the colossal mess that would result because of sinful man. Would you create the heaven and the earth still? Let me just say I would spare myself all the headache and heartbreak!

The God of the Bible could have just stayed in heaven. He could have been a recluse, having nothing to do with man. He could have let man stay lost in his sin. There was no obligation for God to do anything. Oh, but praise Him, He was not a recluse, but rather died for the people who had caused Him such grief! Yea, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (today’s Scripture).

In the Beginning

Saturday, September 5, 2015

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 KJV).

Have you ever wondered about those first three words of the Bible?

Someone recently asked me, “‘In the beginning?’ God had a beginning?!” Oh no, dear friends, the Bible’s opening words “in the beginning” do not refer to God Himself. Rather, they define a point in time when He began to labor to construct creation from nothing. Let us think about some verses.

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalm 90:2). Before creation, there was nothing but God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. There were no people or angels, no animals or plants, no rocks or minerals, no bodies of water, no oxygen and other gases, no sun, moon, stars, planets—nothing. All matter was non-existent. Our feeble, little minds cannot comprehend it but ‘tis true. “He that built all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4b).

No, the universe is not eternal, as some claim. It had a definite beginning. It was Genesis 1:1. Some people do not like that, and they do not have to like it, but whether they are for it or against it, does not change what Genesis 1:1 says… both in Hebrew and in English! No, the universe is not self-sustaining. It needed the triune Godhead to bring it into existence just as Genesis 1:1 says, and a universe left to operate without a holy Creator God would be far worse off than it is today!

If God had a beginning, He would not be God, for that which existed before Him would be God. (So, when atheists and agnostics haughtily ask us, “Where did God come from?,” we can simply reply with confidence, “It is as you say, He most definitely is God,” and let them figure out what it means!) The heaven and the earth had a beginning: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. All things were made by him [the Lord Jesus Christ]; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1,3). 🙂

You may enjoy our related study, “Was God ‘bored’ before creation?”

What the Bible Writers Knew

Friday, September 4, 2015

“Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD” (Isaiah 30:8,9 KJV).

Did the Bible writers know that their writings were divinely-inspired and perpetual? Yes!

A superficially clever—but actually ridiculous—defense used to try to deny the Bible’s constant authority, is to claim that none of the Bible writers knew we would read (or intended us to read) their books thousands of years later. (Oddly, the same people who use that argument still quote “2,000-plus-year-old” verses to support their denominational biases and they also cite the many-centuries-old writings of the “church fathers” who “also” did not intend for us to use their works centuries later!)

The Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry never said, “Hey, men of Israel, Moses never expected you to read his writings these 15 centuries later! They were only applicable back then so you can just throw away that old Torah!” (Imagine such rubbish anyway!)

Stop and think about today’s Scripture. The LORD is telling Isaiah to write down some words that will last forever and ever. In fact, we are reading those very words right now… some 2,700 years later! Isaiah knew exactly how long his divinely-inspired book would last because God Himself told him. People would read it for a literal eternity. In fact, we have 66 books of the eternal Bible today… amazingly, the same number of chapters in Isaiah’s eternal book!

David wrote, “The spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2). Paul recognized he wrote “the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37). And we know the word of the Lord lasts forever, Isaiah 40:6-8 says (cf. 1 Peter 1:23-25). As Isaiah realized, “And in that day [the Millennial Kingdom beyond our present-day] shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness” (29:18). 🙂

Ever-Learning Athenians

Thursday, September 3, 2015

“And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)” (Acts 17:19-21 KJV).

Athens was the chief intellectual city of the ancient world. What will its citizens do with God’s Word, true wisdom?

Recently, while reading a world history book, I came across the following statement: “The Athenians believed that life was empty unless people tried to gain new knowledge and live freely.” Today’s Scripture came to mind. See, dear friends, when the Bible speaks of history, it speaks with accuracy!

While Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy (verse 15), he was deeply affected to see Athens “wholly given to idolatry” (verse 16). After disputing with the Jews in the synagogue, and the religious people, and in the market daily with people who met him (verse 17), “Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection” (verse 18).

As the Bible and history affirm, the Athenians were always eager to hear of something new. Yet, there was something odd about Paul’s “new” message. They saw him as a “babbler,” someone who had picked up secondhand tales and was now passing them along. After Paul’s extensive Gospel sermon (Acts 17:22-31), “when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter” (verse 32). Verse 33 says Paul left them, with certain men joining him and believing those words of eternal life. Still, the majority of Athenians were “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). When it came time to receive “some new thing” that was also something eternally significant, the vast majority could not care less. Saints, let us not be discouraged when people act the same way toward us today! 🙂