Watchman

Watchman
Sentinel

Friday, January 30, 2009

"Our Lord....Has Abolished Death And Brought Life"

"----- Our Lord,...who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel...." (2 Timothy 1)
 
The Gospel of the Kingdom and the King, Jesus, is the Gospel of "life and immortality."  Luther said, "the body they may kill," persecutors, disease, old age notwithstanding, "His truth abideth still;" and so the truth of our text.  Jesus "abolished death and brought" the truth of the "life and immortality" which is in Him only, to all humanity.  But the "life" of which our text speaks is the Biblical "eternal life," life which not only knows no end, but never had a beginning.  Think about that and you will go on overload.
 
The "God-Breathed" Word is Truth, and Truth is constantly under attack.  But Truth does not need defending, only our pet theologies, trendy religion need that.  In recent generations, it has become vogue to speak of making the Gospel "relevant."  You don't make truth relevant.  Neither does Truth need "creative" ways to be communicated.  Truth is relevancy, and effectively communicates in any culture in any age.  Jesus asked the Father, "Sanctify them by Your truth (Remember, Jesus said,"I am the truth).  Your word is truth" (Revelation says, "His name is called the Word of God").  You and I are sanctified, set apart from the lies of the age, by reading, hearing, obeying, living and walking in the Truth, Jesus Christ.  And by refusing to listen to Olbermann and Maddow, you will overcome the onslaught on the Truth by the lies of this very wicked generation.  Truth always rules!  Or, as the kids would say------------- "Truth rocks!"
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You that I never have to wonder about Truth as long as I obey and submit to You and Your Word.  Amen.  
********************************************
Great Stuff at:    www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
 
 
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

Know Your Numbers: Get tips and tools to help you improve your credit score.
Posted by at

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Recent Devotions Have Been From My Quarterly Bible Reading Plan

"The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; surely nothing shall escape them." (Joel 2:3b)
 
I was in Germany in the 1970s.  There were still places where you could see significant damage from the Second War.  Even today you can still see the scars of that war.  I once met a German parliamentarian who is my age.  He said that he and Schroder were the generation which grew up and asked their parents, "What have you done?"  If you look at photos of many German towns and villages before the war, you see "land like the Garden of Eden."  Photos after the war reveal "a desolate wilderness."  The German rejected the Word of God for the solutions offered by a gifted orator  which dealt with the immediate problem--------------- not the root problem.  
Fast forward to modern America.  By the early twenty-first century, America had not had a foreign army on our soil for nearly 200 years.  But on September 11, 2001, the world came "home."  The world said to America, "The gig is up!  You are no longer invulnerable."  I had a friend who toured the Word Trade Center in the 1990s.  The guide told the group, "You are now at the financial center of the universe."  I came across an article this morning which reveals the root arrogance of this philosophy.  "The entire universe is a projection of consciousness. We experience the universe as a projection through us because each of us is a center of consciousness.  Therefore we are all centers of the universe.  There really is no here or there because everything is at one point where consciousness is.  We all do not exist in different places but are all present at one point.  The realty of here and there is all created and experienced within the singularity of consciousness itself.  Where you are is the center of the universe."  If this thinking continues, then America, which is for so many, "the Garden of Eden," will become "a desolate wilderness." 
 
If this is depressing to you, just remember that the Bible never leaves people in despair.  Just read further in Joel 2 and you are given a "what-to-do" and an encouragement which is just as relevant today as it was over 2 millennia ago.  "'Now, therefore,' says the LORD, 'Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.'  So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful....Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him." 
 
"Who knows," indeed!
 
Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to walk in fasting, weeping, and mourning, rending my heart, not as the religionists do, but as You purpose.  Amen.   
****************************
 
 
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

Know Your Numbers: Get tips and tools to help you improve your credit score.
Posted by at

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Where Do You Live?-- In The Mind Or "In The Spirit?"

"While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, 'Paul, you are out of your mind!  Your great learning is driving you mad.'" (Acts 26:24, NASB)

Festus was operating in the mind.  Paul was operating in the spirit. When he was at Mars Hill, Paul also ran into "mind dwellers."  The Message translation says, "At the phrase, 'raising him from the dead,'the listeners split:  Some laughed at him and walked off making jokes; others said, 'Let's do this again.  We want to hear more.'"  And here you have all of humanity.  If you are as Festus, you miss everything.  If you are as, "Let's do this again," then you will have Everything.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ does not primarily empower my mind.  It empowers my life.

I was sickened this morning when I heard of a man who murdered his wife and five children because both he and his wife had recently lost their jobs.  Later I saw a photo of the family-- what a beautiful family, what tragic loss.  Were they "mind dwellers?"  Did nothing make "sense" any more?  Was the Gospel of Jesus Christ something rational, something which made sense for a while, until everything went wrong?
And what about you and me?  As long as things "make sense," many of us are great worshippers, tithers, pray-ers.  But so many, when things don't seem to "add up," when life happens without any acceptable answer, say to us in Jesus Christ, "You are out of your mind."  

I have been asked over the years about our son, Stephen's, passing.  "How did you make it?"  The question should be, "How are you making it?"  I don't know.  But I can tell you the answer is not in my mind, or "my understanding."  It is in my spirit, in the Holy Spirit, in "the word of Christ," indeed, in Jesus Christ Himself.  If this is "madness," then all I can say is, "Blessed madness."

Father, in Jesus' Name, "Let the word of Christ dwell in [me] richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing in [my] heart.. to [You]."  Amen.
***************************************
You must see Netanyahu's speech at: www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com


"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2



**************
Know Your Numbers: Get tips and tools to help you improve your credit score. (http://www.walletpop.com/credit/credit-reports?ncid=emlcntuswall00000002)
Posted by at

"So Long As There Is This Book There Will Be No Peace In The World"

 
 
So long as there is this book there will be no peace in the world.

- Jan 24, 2009
Jihad Watch

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) was Prime Minister of Great Britain four times: 1868–74, 1880–85, 1886 and 1892–94. He called the Qur'an an "accursed book" and once held it up during a session of Parliament, declaring: "So long as there is this book there will be no peace in the world."

Times have changed a great deal. Now the votaries of the book he saw as such an impediment to peace have triumphed: an Islamic reading room is being set up at the library Gladstone founded near his home in North Wales. In this BBC audio report (thanks to Andrew), Gladstone's great grandson Christopher Parish and Professor Richard Aldous, head of history at University College Dublin, tie themselves into knots trying to come up with a reason why Gladstone would have approved of this reading room. Gladstone, you see, was a man of his time, but he actually made favorable comments about Muhammad in the margins of a biography of the founder of Islam, and his remarks weren't as extreme as those of some of his contemporaries...

It doesn't add up. The text of the Qur'an has not changed from the late 19th century to the early 21st. What has changed is the prevailing attitude toward the book. Now it has become a manifestation of bigotry and hatred to see in the Islamic holy book anything but peace and tolerance.

But the text of the book remains the same. If it was an impediment to peace in Gladstone's day, it is now. If it is an uplifting exhortation to peace and tolerance now, then it was in Gladstone's day as well.

Yesterday Geert Wilders said: "I view Islam not as a religion, but as a dangerous, totalitarian ideology - equal to communism and fascism. Aren't I allowed to say so?"

No, he isn't allowed to say so. If he had been born two hundred years ago, he might have become Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Instead, he is a hunted man. Likewise Gladstone, were he miraculously transported to the House of Commons in 2009, would be excoriated for "hate speech" if he dared to repeat his view of the Qur'an today.

But the Qur'an remains the same. Eventually, Europe and America are going to deal with the implications of that fact, one way or another.
 
 
 
 
 
 
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

Know Your Numbers: Get tips and tools to help you improve your credit score.
Posted by at

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

"THIS IS JESUS"--- Enough Said!

"And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS." (Matthew 27:37-- the capital letters are in the text)
 
The word for, "accusation," in our text comes from a root word for, "crime."  Matthew realized that what Pilate had written was the declaration of a crime "against Him."  And, as far as I can research, the word translated, "Jews," in our text encompasses more than just individuals.  It describes the nation, the Land.  It could read, "THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF JUDEA," or, "THE KING OF THE LAND OF ISRAEL."  Do you see the gravity of "the accusation against Him?"  Jesus, not Caesar, is "KING OF THE JEWS," KING OF THE LAND, KING OF THE EMPIRE!  It must have mocked the Jews crying, "We have no king but Caesar."  Johns' Gospel reveals that the Jews even argued with Pilate over the wording.  And poor Pilate, he had no idea of the extent of his declaration----but Father did.  "THIS IS JESUS;" and whether the Jews or any other people group acknowledge Him as King, He is still, "JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS," King of the City, the earth-------- the universe. 
 
Some years ago I was prayer pastor in an interracial congregation in Pittsburgh.  One Sunday I was asked to preach.  I read all of Matthew 27. We had sung "Holy, Holy, Holy" in the first service, and between the services I asked the music minister if I could read the text first, then sing the hymn.  It was very powerful worship for me------- "They led him away to crucify him....Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour...And Jesus cried with a loud voice,...'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'...And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split; the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints...were raised....When the centurion and those who were with him...saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"  
 
"Holy, Holy, Holy."  Amen.  
*********************************
Do you want informed?    www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com 
 
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

Know Your Numbers: Get tips and tools to help you improve your credit score.
Posted by at

Monday, January 26, 2009

Take Special Note of "What This Woman Has Done"

"Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."  (Matthew 26:13)
 
"Preached," not in every sermon, but in the life of the Covenant Community.  The same adoration of the woman in our text should be expressed in songs of love, honor and worship to Jesus in the Church.  The liberal theologians among the disciples reprimanded her because, as they explained to her, care for the poor was more important.  Jesus intervened.  "You have the poor with you always," and you will have constant opportunity to serve them.  The argument and identity of liberals and evangelicals over the years that one is "big" on the "born again" message and worship, and the other is big on caring for the poor, is just plain stupid and misrepresents Jesus Christ.  There is no such emphasis or differentiation in the "God-Breathed" Word.  That is man-centered, Tower of Babel thinking and living.   
 
It is interesting to note that the woman's love expression came just before Jesus shared His "Last Supper" with the disciples.  Luke records that Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of Me."  The word translated, "remembrance," means, "recall to mind," a "call to recollection."  In other words, Church, keep the suffering, the shed Blood, and death of Jesus ever before you.  1 Corinthians 10:16 describes worship at "The Lord's Table."  Let me give you a literal translation--- "The content of the cup which is the Blood of Jesus, and which we adore and bless, is it not partnership, participation, and interaction in the Blood of Christ?"!?  This is Biblical communion, koinonia, fellowship and worship.  This is participation in the "fragrant oil," the adoration and blessing of Jesus.  
 
I have never found a greater expression of all of this than the song of 17th century German Jesuits put to music of a Crusader hymn.        
        "Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,
        O Thou of God and man the son,
        Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
        Thou my soul's glory, joy, and crown.
 
        Beautiful Savior!  Lord of all the nations!
        Son of God and Son of Man!
        Glory, and honor, praise, adoration
        Now and forevermore be thine."
        
 Amen.
*******************************************
If you want to be informed:    www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
 
 
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
 

Know Your Numbers: Get tips and tools to help you improve your credit score.
Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Blog Archive