I love northeast Georgia. It is so beautiful in spring. How can a person look at the cycles of the seasons, the new life of plants, trees and animals, and not see God orchestrating it all?
And one of my kitties, Bert!
Look! The fig tree is budding! What can it mean?
Lol, it means the seasons are changing!
The fig tree is in my yard, and it is pretty large. It produces many figs for us each year. I love it.
“For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance.” (Song of Solomon 2:11-13a)
“And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.” (Genesis 1:14)
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)
“Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field.” (Zechariah 10:1)
“For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.” (Psalm 135:5-7)
I am going to speak plainly, not theologically.
I was not saved by the Lord’s grace until I was 43 years old. Before that, I lived in New England and lived a very liberal life. I’m grateful to my patient and loving Savior who elected me, drew me, and lifted me from the pit of sin in which I was living.
Until that time, during my adult life, I could not understand the phenomenon of Jesus. Oh, I understood it to be a phenomenon, all right. No one can dismiss Him, least of all the unsaved. He is a pervasive presence that simply does not go away. I used to actively wonder about His staying power. Buddha comes and goes as a fad, Allah wasn’t even around until 600 AD and wasn’t popular for a long time after that. Pele the volcano goddess waned and Ra the sun god is passe. And whatever happened to Aphrodite and Mars? But Jesus never waned and He is worshiped in every culture throughout every era.
So anyone with a brain would wonder, why Jesus?
When I thought more deeply about it, which was rare, I’d think that God wasn’t all that much to talk about, either. I mean, He sent the two humans to the Garden, supposedly, and then kicked them out of the garden
for one little mistake. He messed up again by allowing things to get out of hand and had to do an etch-a-sketch erase by sending the Flood. And He messed up again by picking the Jews, who continually messed things up throughout the Old Testament, and God had to send Jesus to do a do-over. And if the Christians were to be believed (not that I actually knew any), things would deteriorate once again and God would have to wipe out the earth and start again. I thought God was an ineffective bumbler, didn’t know what He was doing, and Jesus was just some spaghetti thrown on the wall to see if God’s latest band-aid approach would work.
Of course I was completely wrong. The depraved mind cannot even think straight. The unsanctified mind cannot know the things of God. I was a classic example of 1 Corinthians 2:14-
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
And of Ephesians 4:18-
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
One of the things I glory in knowing now, on the other side of the veil, is that Jesus wasn’t a piece of spaghetti God threw against the wall to see if it would stick. It is of enormous comfort to know that God ordained His plan since the foundation of the world. (Rev 13:8). That Jesus was with God since the beginning, and that Jesus IS God (John 1:1-5).
Jesus willingly gave up His life. Let that sink in. He did it out of love, and volunteered for the cross.
It is written, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 10:18)
As John 10:15 says, “he lays down His life for the sheep. Luke 23:46 says in the KJV, where the Holy Spirit used to be called the Holy Ghost,
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
It doesn’t say “the Ghost departed from Him.” It doesn’t say “He died and the Ghost left Him”. HE GAVE IT UP. He was in total control of His life until the moment of His death and beyond.
What a beautiful moment. He knew when scripture was fulfilled and when the moment came, He gave up His life for us, in obedience to the Father.
Now next, if that wasn’t enough, think of His sacrificial death. It was monumental, even as the God-man.
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| The Incredulity of Thomas, by Caravaggio, 1602 |
But wait, there’s more. After He was resurrected, He remained in His body He had taken on as a flesh-born babe. He showed Thomas the nail holes in His hand and His pierced side. (John 20:27). He ate with the disciples on the beach. (John 21:13). He walked and was visible to people. There is no reason to think He is not in His glorified body.
Philippians 3:20-21 says,
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
It staggers the mind tho think He descended from pure, holy glory to live in the pigpen that is earth, just because He loves us. It is stupefying to know He dwelled in human form and in obedience to the Father for 33 years. Think on this: He poured Himself into the form of a man, lived and died. Wow. He is still in that form and will be forever!!
When He was resurrected, He remained in the form of a man, in flesh. Glorified flesh, but flesh! THAT is a sacrifice. To dwell for all eternity in the likeness of the Last Adam, as a permanent reminder to the Father of His obedience and bringing many sons to His glory. He is glorious not just in taking on our human nature but in remaining our brother (Hebrews 2:10-11, 17) and continuing as the visible “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).
He voluntarily poured Himself into flesh, lived a sinless life to fulfill the scriptures, died an agonizing death – in our place – so as to exhaust God’s wrath, and was resurrected bodily forever to be in body as our brother, friend, and Lord.
My heart melts within me at this love! I faint from its strength! I bend my knee to its holiness! Praise our precious, loving Lord! Worship Him as He richly deserves!
The weather’s “historic” records have been tumbling quite quickly these days. It isn’t even months between catastrophic events any more, but weeks. Superstorm Sandy became the largest hurricane on record as it devastated New Jersey and New York in October 2012. In November 2012, a dangerous nor’easter hit NY and New England. Christmas Day 2012 will not be forgotten by those in the Midwest. That storm will go down as producing the most tornadoes ever recorded on Christmas Day in the United States since record keeping began, writes the meteorologists at EarthSky. In January 2013, the South received a rare and historic tornado outbreak. Now the blizzard of February 2013 for New England.
Nemo: mammoth blizzard turns fatal
“The Boston Fire Department says an 11-year-old boy has died of carbon monoxide poisoning after being overcome as he sat in a running car to keep warm while his father was shovelling snow. This is the third reported death related to the record-breaking blizzard named Nemo striking the US northeast in which 700,000 homes and businesses have lost power. Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the boy was helping his father shovel the snow Saturday, but got cold, so his father started the car and the boy got inside. MacDonald said the car exhaust was covered by a snow bank, causing the fumes to collect inside the vehicle. When the boy was overcome by the fumes, the father went into respiratory arrest, and emergency workers took both to a hospital. The boy was pronounced dead there. No names were released. The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast dumped more than 90cm (35.4in) of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather Service said. Blizzard and flood warnings were in effect for the coast.”“In Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a heavy snowfall, with rates of 12.5cm an hour at times overnight, he told local WTNH television. “Even the plows are getting stuck,” Harkins said. The storm concentrated its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the top snowfall 95cm in Milford, Connecticut. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee banned all travel on roads in order to aid snow plow crews. He told CNN that National Guard troops were rescuing stranded motorists, especially at uncleared on-ramps. The mammoth storm dumped 73.2cm (28in) of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record, and the weather service said there is more on the way.”
What of weather and the bible? On Blogos, I read about weather and how it is a living metaphor for how damaging our sin is. “All creation groans… When Adam and Eve ate that fruit and got kicked out of paradise, God cursed the Earth (Genesis 3:17). When the people grew so wicked that God had to wipe them out with a flood, He cursed it again. (How? One moment it was a planet where people didn’t eat meat and lived to over 900 years, and the next it was this place.)”
Further, “In much the same way that God allows evil people to commit evil acts, God allows the earth to reflect the consequences sin has had on creation. Romans 8:19-21 tells us, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The fall of humanity into sin had effects on everything, including the world we inhabit. Everything in creation is subject to “frustration” and “decay.” Sin is the ultimate cause of natural disasters just as it is the cause of death, disease, and suffering.” (source)
MSNBC reported a couple of months ago, after Superstorm Sandy, “The January-to-November period in the United States this year was the warmest first 11 months of any year on record for the contiguous states. And 2012 will likely surpass 1998 as the warmest year on record for the nation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration….” But in seeking a reason as to why these storms are appearing so frequently and intensely, they also reported “nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of white evangelical Protestants say they think the storms are evidence of the “end times” as predicted by the Bible” which I am sure drove them crazy.
The earth is decaying under the weight of creation’s sin. Romans 8:21 says “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Since the Fall, the earth and its people have been on a downward trajectory of decay.
As anyone who plays Jenga knows, there is a tipping point and then suddenly the whole things comes crashing down. The crash-down is not chaos, because God is in control. At His designated moment, He will call His Bride home, recall His Spirit from His retraining ministry, and let it all go to the full measure of sin and His full cup of wrath. (Daniel 9:24, Genesis 15:16, Romans 2:5-8).
Right now we are living in a home of unrighteousness. Jesus in us is perfectly righteous, and that is why we are not of this world. This place is of unrighteous and of the darkness, while God has made us righteous by installing His Spirit in His children. However, 2 Peter 3:13 reminds us of His promise, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”
Meanwhile, I hope that the shaking of the world by our Creator God reminds the lost to repent and the saved to revere His power. (Haggai 2:6; Hebrews 12:26)
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,” (Job 38:22)
“He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;” (Psalm 78:26)
Now, for some fun. As the blizzard progressed, the obligatory snow-door shots appeared on Twitter. I noticed a trend.
The Daily Mail has the story, along with their typically fantastic photos
Nine people killed as freak hailstorm rains massive boulders down on Indian villages
Hailstones the size of boulders have rained down on villages in southern India.
“At least nine people were killed when the violent weather hit several villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The hailstorm which lasted for almost 20 minutes, destroyed crops, houses and live stock, causing devastating financial implications for residents. It was once-in-lifetime experience for people living in seven villages in Chevella, Moinabad and Shankarpally. The hailstones started falling from the sky on Tuesday night and covered the entire villages under the snow-like blanket.”
This area in India which received the hail is prone to huge hailstorms. The Weather Underground reports,
“The deadliest hailstorms, and perhaps the largest hailstones, in the world occur on the Deccan Plateau of northern India and in Bangladesh. The heaviest authenticated hailstone ever measured was one of 2.25 pounds that fell in the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh on April 14, 1986. The stones size was not measured although anecdotal reports claimed the stones were the size of “pumpkins”. Ninety-two people perished as a result of the storm although how many of these can be attributed to the hail is uncertain. A hailstorm in the Moradabad and Beheri districts of India killed 246 people on April 30, 1888, the deadliest hailstorm on record in modern history.”
But even this storm has the Meteorological Office scratching their heads.
“HYDERABAD: Two days after a severe hailstorm lashed parts of Chevella mandal in Rangareddy district, a two-member team of meteorologists from the Indian Meteorology Department (IMD) visited the affected areas, but were clueless as to what caused the unusual phenomena and were only able to give textbook answers. … Officials said that hailstorm normally occurs during summer months but not in January. … When asked if the hailstorm of such a scale as the one witnessed on Wednesday ever occurred, Rao said that there was no record and did not rule out such a possibility.”
Here is a gentle reminder:
God controls the weather. He either sent the storm or He allowed satan some latitude to cause it. (Job 1:9-12, 19; Isaiah 30:30).
The other reminder is that He will send 100lb hailstones in the Tribulation.
“And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.” (Revelation 16:21)
You notice the verses ‘they cursed God for the hail’. The people by that time will know it is God sending these things as plagues, or judgments. It is better to know it now, before the judgment comes.
Do you acknowledge God is King (Psalm 29:10)? Do you understand that you are a sinner, that He sent His Son as the sacrifice to die for your sins, and God accepted the sacrifice by raising His Son from the dead to reign in heaven, and who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead? That’s the Gospel. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)
Awesome photo! Whether it is the Aurora Borealis with beach dinoflagellates photo I’d put up a few days ago, or this undersea fish tornado, the earth and the universe constantly amaze me. Our Creator is to be praised, for His intellect, creativity, and beauty. That He created man to have communion with Him and to be the worker of His garden (Genesis 2:15) is such a gift.
EarthSky.org reports, “Photographer and marine biologist Octavio Aburto captured this amazing photo of the at Cabo Pulmo National Park in Mexico, in the course of studying the courtship behavior of a species of Jack fish. He titled it “David and Goliath.”
The photo has left many in disbelief, though the sheer magnitude of its wonder. So Octavio Aburto has released the video of the jackfish courtship behavior to satisfy the curious and the skeptical.
The photographer hopes that your wonder at seeing “Goliath” will spark you to think more about the environment, and that is all well and good. I hope it will spark you to think more about the Creator, and His magnificent hand which created ALL that exists. And He did it in 6 days. Praise His mighty name!
From Spaceweather.com this morning:
CME IMPACT + MICROBIAL LIGHTS: A coronal mass ejection hit Earth’s magnetic field on Jan. 19th at approximately 17:15 UT. The weak impact did not trigger a full-fledged geomagnetic storm, but it did illuminate the Arctic Circle with auroras. Frank Olsen photographed the display from a beach in Sortland, Norway; scroll past his picture to learn about the glittering lights in the sand:
“The lights in the sand are bioluminescent dinoflagellates, a type of naturally glowing microbe. “To my surprise, I found these guys floating around on the beach tonight,” says Olsen. “They looked great together with the auroras in the sky.”
“There is an interesting link between the auroras and the dinoflagellates. Both use oxygen to create their glow. In the case of the marine organism, a chemical pigment (luciferin) reacts with oxygen to create light. Meanwhile up in the sky, charged particles from the solar wind rain down on the atmosphere, colliding with oxygen molecules to create the telltale green hue of auroras.”
Don’t you just love how it looks like the dinoflagellates are a reflection of the stars and auroras? The symmetry and beauty of the earth and heavens is always astonishing! God fills the heaven and the earth! (Jeremiah 23:24)
“For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.” (Psalms 103:11)
Add
The preaching of the true word of God always pierces hearts.
“So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41)
Subtract
However, taking away from that word will bring condemnation to those who subtract from it:
“and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:19)
Multiply
We love God’s word so much we share it, not sparingly but liberally. To His own glory, the Lord multiplies what is needed in the sower so they can return and multiply their doing good again and again–
“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 9:10)
Barnes Notes explains, “Multiply your seed sown – Greatly increase your means of doing good; make the result of all your benefactions so to abound that you may have the means of doing good again, and on a larger scale, as the seed sown in the earth is so increased that the farmer may have the means of sowing more abundantly again.”
Divide
But make no mistake, proclamation of, living by, and protecting the word will bring division. Doctrine DOES divide.
“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51)
In efforts not to have “division” but a (false) unity based on a watered down version of the Gospel, you really have nothing. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing, said Billy Preston.
John MacArthur on doctrine dividing, from his sermon A Call for Discernment: “When you don’t even lay down clear doctrine at the level of the Gospel, where are you going to go from there? And the cry is, as one man said to me when my book on The Gospel According to Jesus came out, he said, “Your book is divisive!” You want to know something? He’s right. He’s right. Want to know something else? Doctrine divides. People say, “Oh doctrine divides … doctrine divides.” I say, “Amen, preach it, doctrine divides.” You know what it does? It confronts error. It separates true from false. It makes judgments. Today’s climate, however, of unity in the priority of relationships, that’s not tolerable.”
Yes, but many are tolerating it. And this is what he said will happen–
“You know, I believe…I believe that when evangelicals are willing to depreciate doctrine and when they’re willing to set aside unpopular convictions, and when they’re willing to stay silent on biblical teaching that offends people in error and sin, opposition will disappear and we could all get together. I believe that. I could start a unity movement…eliminate doctrine, set aside unpopular convictions, don’t say anything that offends and we’ll all get together. That isn’t any surprise. But you know some other things are going to disappear too along with doctrine, like truth, conviction, discernment, righteousness, holiness, discipline, true love and spiritual maturity. They’re all gone too and then God will disappear, Ichabod. That price is too high. That will produce a church victimized by hell’s deceptions.”
He preached that 21 years ago and it has come to pass. People too afraid of division fail to add to and multiply God’s love.
I pray you are not in a church victimized by hell’s deceptions, but are in a church that adds to its numbers because of faithful hearts multiplying His love in fellowship.
But here is the new math of God’s kingdom: His infinitely extravagant grace! There is no counting it and no end to it. Praise the Lord that His grace and mercies fall on us every day. I can’t add the number of times I’ve been a grateful recipient of it.
“Our Lord is great, vast in power; His understanding is infinite.” (Psalm 147:5)
“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8)
I am reading John MacArthur’s sermon on Revelation 15:3-8. It is a tremendous picture of God’s wrath and His holiness. It is a beautiful exegesis of the verses. Here are a few quotes that moved me. Of course they are better read in context, and better still, heard as the sermon it is. I encourage you to listen to “The Final Wrath of God, Part 1 and Part 2.” These are from Part 2.
“In Job chapter 21 and verse 30 it says, “The wicked is reserved for the day of destruction. They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.” God’s final wrath is coming.”
“God’s plan is holiness. God’s plan is peace. God’s plan is perfection. God’s plan is joy. That’s indicated to us, as we shall see, when we get to chapter 21 and read of the magnificence of the eternal state. And the One who lives forever and the One who promises eternal joy and eternal peace is not going to allow sin to live forever.”
“Those who refuse to drink the cup of salvation will drown in the bowls of wrath.” (Revelation 15:3-8; Psalm 116:13)
“And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. … “The glory cloud will stay until the earth is completely purged and cleansed and prepared for the King and His Kingdom.”
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| “God’s Grace”, Source |
“Once the wrath of God was placed on Jesus Christ because of what He was doing for sinners. In the future, the wrath of God will be placed on sinners because of what they are doing to Jesus Christ.”
“After the judgment or the righteous acts of God have been revealed, the elect from all nations will enter the Kingdom to worship the King.”
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| Worship, Source |
photo credit: Rennett Stowe via photopin cc
photo credit: dtcchc via photopin cc
God doesn’t cause tragedy. But God allows it. Why?
Todd Friel of Wretched TV answered this in a very good and biblical way. It is 7 minutes long and I recommend listening. The video is below. Here is a short, written summary of what Mr Friel said-
The bible makes sense to help us understand what appears to be senseless. We need to be proclaiming the reasons for evil the bible gives generally so that individuals can apply them specifically. We can’t point fingers and say that ‘this is the reason that happened to YOU,’ but if we share the general principles of why God allows evil it may help someone understand and apply it to their own situation. God is always doing something for everyone involved in a tragedy. God uses sin sinlessly. He is always at work to the Good.
1. The Gospel
If there was not sin in the world we would not need Jesus as Savior and not know how amazingly kind God is to send Him to us. Without sin there is no Gospel.
2. Magnify His Goodness
When God’s kindness is portrayed against the backdrop of evil His goodness is even brighter.
3. Repent
In Luke 13:1-5, in a sermon on the need for individual repentance for sin, Jesus talks about to 18 who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them. They were innocent victims of a calamity which was due to no fault of those killed. Are we less sinful than those who were killed? No. We don’t know the day or hour of our appointment with death, therefore the need to repent NOW is even greater.
4. Jesus loves children
He loves them. Maybe He wanted them with Him today. Let that comfort you.
5. Make us long for Him
The churches were packed after the tragedy and the candlelight vigils were frequent. We long for Him and rush to Him when under such duress and heavy weight.
6. Draws us to Himself
See above
7. Equips us to comfort
We can comfort someone else.
8. Prepare us for service
He uses sin sinlessly by increasing our gratitude today for service tomorrow. He uses something really hard to do some and to equip us for something in the future to empathize with others going through a similar thing, or for us to be able to endure something in the future.
9. Remind us of the battle
He uses sin to remind us of the battle in the spiritual realms for the souls of men, and to refocus our priorities.
10. Genuine decisions can be evil
He allows us to make decisions and sometimes those decisions can be downright evil
11. Reaping and sowing
Is it possible a nation is reaping what it has been sowing?
12. Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Some things are too high for us to know, or too burdensome. Would you tell your five year old the adult things we know of? They would either not understand or be able to handle it. Sometimes God reveals things to us later, or in heaven, when we can handle it.
the-end-time.org 