Category: holy

Posted in God, holy, name, prophet

The power and comfort of the name of Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

This is about what the Lord does in times of apostasy and it is about why He does it.

There are false teachers out there, and they are not coming in singly anymore, but brazenly, in packs.

They are corrupting the precious faith, and with curling lips and sharp teeth, they are dragging off many an unwary person. For those of us who warn and cry out, seeing these captured ones fail to heed and become devoured prey is heartbreaking- and that word doesn’t even cover the spiritual sadness at knowing there are so many who fell, are falling and will fall to satan’s wiles.

However, despite there being so many false teachers we praise the Lord because He does not leave us without good teachers! He is always raising up someone to teach, preach, and exhort! God continues to call preachers and teachers and the Holy Spirit still empowers preachers and teachers to speak the Word to the sheep.

Look at the time of Isaiah. In 739 BC, King Uzziah died after having been King for 52 years. Isaiah was called to preach that same year. The LORD gave him a unique opportunity at the time of his call- a vision of Himself in the Holy Temple! Isaiah was devastated at this, seeing the glory of the LORD and his own sinfulness. But it’s an astoundingly tender moment, the angel cleansed Isaiah’s lips and he was pronounced clean, his sins atoned for. (Isaiah 6:6-7).

Tiepolo: The Prophet Isaiah

The LORD then gave Isaiah his commission; preach doom to the people. Preach their abandonment. Preach their judgment. Preach ruin.

Isaiah asked how long he was to do this. The LORD answered, “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste.” (Isaiah 6:11) In other words, until the end, until you die, for all your long life. Not so seeker friendly, is it?

However, the LORD left Isaiah with some hope, despite the difficulty of what He was called to do. God said a tenth would still remain in the Land.

God showed Isaiah what He was going to do amongst these people:

“Go, and say to this people:
“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9-10)

Matthew Henry’s commentary says of verse 9, “Many hear the sound of God’s word, but do not feel the power of it. God sometimes, in righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind, because they will not receive the truth in the love of it.”

This is called the wrath of abandonment. John MacArthur preached on this same notion, (here, here, and most recently, here) as seen not only in Isaiah 6 but in the NT book of Romans 1. At a certain point, God gives a nation or a vast populace over to their blindness and stubbornness.

Art by Borislav Sajtinac

Though seasons come and go where it seems the great amount of people believe and live according to His Word, there are also seasons of time that come where it seems that the great amount of the people do not believe in Jesus nor live His word. Those times are now. It is my opinion, that it is the last cycle of apostasy directly before the time leading to the Great Apostasy. (2Thessalonians 2:3). It’s hard.

Matthew Henry’s commentary reassures us over the wrath of abandonment, “Christians need not fear this awful doom, which is a spiritual judgment on those who will still hold fast their sins.”

But it’s no harder for us than it was for the first century Christians who lived in a time where everyone was apostate, being the only Christians on earth!

During this time of apostasy it stands to reason that some apostates will be teachers. Yes, there are many bad teachers. But God has raised up good teachers, as shown in the example of Isaiah himself. Even in a time of wrath and abandonment, He sent an anointed one to preach to the people, and in today’s time He has done the same. He raises up good teachers to edify us or in some cases, remind us of the wrath of God. Either way, God is faithful.

There are many reasons for this, but here is one reason God raises up good teachers even in a time of abandonment.

I find it in Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 2-3 God is raising up Ezekiel and calling him top prophesy. However the task would be hard, as it was for Isaiah. God told Ezekiel in Ezekiel 3:7,

“But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart.”

So why does God go through all that if He knows they will not listen, or even as in Isaiah, He has already turned them over to blindness and dullness?

“And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.” (Ezekiel 2:5)

On the Day, no one will be able to say ‘But, but, You didn’t tell us!’ They will know that He sent a prophet to be among them.

Even more glorious,

HE DOES THIS FOR THE SAKE OF HIS NAME!

As God said in Ezekiel 2, whether they hear or refuse to hear, they will know a prophet has been among them. You see, He not only sends prophets and teachers for our edification, but He does so on account of His OWN Holy name- so that they will be without excuse. He magnifies His holy name by being the living embodiment of faithfulness, holiness, and justice.

Read Acts and be stunned and overwhelmed by the number of times they mention THE NAME. Why? Because the overwhelming theme running through the entire book becomes clear when reading, it is all about THE NAME. Thirty times I read a verse where it was all about His name- the name, in His name, for the name; in verse 19:13 they even tried to co-opt His name. The acts of the apostles were to spread the good news that salvation is now here under the name of Jesus. Everything they said, did, and accomplished was for that purpose and empowered by that name.

In Acts 4:17 the aggravated Sanhedrin asked Peter and John about a man they’d healed. They asked, “By what power or what name did you do this?” 

No matter that we are in apostate times and growing worse each day. Take heart! He raises up men to preach His word! Even in the Tribulation when He has removed the Holy Spirit from His restraining ministry, He will send 144,000 to preach the word, (Revelation 7:1-4, Revelation 14:1-5) and He will send His angels to preach the Gospel to the whole world (Revelation 14:6). This is for the sake of His name.

What a comfort to know that He magnifies His own name. He is faithful to Himself and therefore will never falter. He will never fail.

Look at the fruit He bears for His name:

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9-10)

The LORD is mighty and He raises up men to speak His truths, He sends His spirit to regenerate new believers, He magnifies His holy name from heaven and throughout the earth. And we are a part of that. (Ephesians 1:4). We have His name, being adopted into the family of God.

“Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” (1 Peter 4:16)

Did you know that on the television show on cable channel A&E called Duck Dynasty, the family prays at the end of each episode over the family supper table. They also mention God in some in the middle of some of the shows, too. When it comes time for the prayer at the end, they begin the prayer to Heavenly Father of Good Father or just Father. They pray in Jesus name at the end, or they mention Jesus. Father and God are rarely edited out. Jesus is always edited out. Only two times did you hear the name of Jesus on the show. God is a powerful name and so is Father but it is the name of JESUS that sends the non-believer into a frenzy. Friends, mention the name of Jesus whenever you can.

So never fear. He raises up good men to preach, This magnifies His name. If we are in His name, we can magnify Him. “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.”

He will not abandon us because He will not abandon His name. Magnify Him, trust Him, honor Him. His name, Jesus. THE NAME. There is no other.

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”” (Acts 4:12)

Source

Posted in evil, God, holy, minnesota, nazi

The Stranger: Nazi officer discovered in Minnesota

Posted on by elizabethprata

A few days ago, I read an interesting article about a man who had been living in Minnesota for decades was really a WWII SS Nazi Commander. For him to have been a commander in WWII, he’d have to be really old by now, and the story says he is 94 years of age.

I thought that was an interesting coincidence because I’d just watched a movie called “The Stranger”. This is a fictional 1946 movie about a Nazi who had masterminded the genocide of the Jews and when the war was over managed to flee Germany to the United States. He settled in a small village in New Hampshire, obtained a teaching position at an academy, and married the town scion’s daughter. It starred Orson Welles as the Nazi, Edward G. Robinson as the FBI man chasing him, and Loretta Young as the wife who married the Nazi.

The movie built its suspense, making the conclusion a sneak attack of horror. Its chosen location was a burb so guileless that patrons of the General Store helped themselves to pouring the ever-percolating pot of coffee behind the counter while the genial proprietor sat playing checkers near the woodstove with anyone who’d take him on for a quarter. There were happy teens running track, a well-attended church, and a luminous bride chirping about her white wedding.

Harper, NH is a kind of town every person could admire, life there is what we hope for, and wants life to be like. A town that’s safe, pretty, innocent, and upright.

Its stomach-turning, gasping horror was due to the juxtaposition of the clean-cut innocence of the town being gradually overcome with the stain of the evil heart of the Nazi. It was like watching a baby just out of the bath being approached by a rabid, drooling, mangy dog ready to devour it.

The movie gradually descended you into the mind of the Nazi, but the resistance of our mind to recognizing such horror is strong, especially by the young wife who had just married the evil man masked as a thoughtful teacher. In response to her father’s question about walking home after dark, she had said, “In Harper, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

The fictional town of Harper, NH where the Nazi had come to live

The wife resisted the clear implications of her husband being a murderous Nazi, even after he confessed to two killings. He had (made up) a good reason, after all. She resisted facing the truth to the point where Robinson had to show her film of a recently liberated Concentration Camp, complete with wasted skeletons of people weakly and pitifully thanking their liberators, right down to close-ups of the skeletons in the ovens. The Stranger is said to be be the first to show actual footage of the German camps.

Loretta Young’s character had a problem facing such evil, because one would surely be able to spot it? Something about the person would set him apart from all the other people who are not so evil, surely? We as rational, innocent, good people, would be able to distinguish ourselves from the Nazis who harbored such hellish minds and dark hearts? Surely we would not … marry a person like this?

Loretta Young’s character finally broke down and faced the truth. The movie is called The Stranger and the title is apt. The stranger is not the man who came to town with all his WWII evil hidden away, the stranger is the evil that is in all of us, a potential that waits coiled up like a snake at the base of our hearts, waiting to be fed.

So having just seen the movie the night prior and then reading the article about the Minnesota man, was interesting to say the least.

Report: Former Nazi SS Officer Living In Minnesota
A 94-year-old man who allegedly was a top commander of a Nazi SS unit responsible for the massacre of civilians during World War II is reportedly living quietly in Minnesota, according to an exclusive report by The Associated Press. The news agency says it obtained records through the Freedom of Information Act that show Michael Karkoc

“A June 3, 1944, photo provided by the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
shows SS chief Heinrich Himmler (center) as he reviews troops
of the Galician SS-Volunteer Infantry Division.” Source

lied to officials in 1949 about his past in order to immigrate to the United States. According to the AP, Karkoc concealed his military service during World War II as an officer and founding member of the SS-led Ukraine Self Defense Legion and later as an officer of the SS Galician Division. “The Galician Division and a Ukrainian nationalist organization he served in were both on a secret American government blacklist of organizations whose members were forbidden from entering the United States at the time,” the AP reports.”

Michael Karkoc Revelations: Nazi Unit Leader’s Minneapolis Life Prompts Shock
“The revelation Friday that a former commander of a Nazi SS-led military unit has lived quietly in Minneapolis for the past six decades came as a shock to people who knew him, prompted harsh condemnations from World War II survivors in the U.S. and Europe, and led prosecutors in Poland to say they would investigate. … “I know him personally. We talk, laugh. He takes care of his yard and walks with his wife,” his next-door neighbor, Gordon Gnasdoskey, said Friday. Gnasdoskey, the grandson of a Ukrainian immigrant himself, said he was disturbed by the revelations about his longtime neighbor.”

St. Michael’s and St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Karkoc is a member of the St. Michael’s and St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, seen at right, and is a member in good standing, said his pastor. The implication being, how could such a quiet man, who the day before had been seen doing normal suburban things such as cleaning his gutters, have participated in brutal and evil crimes against humanity?

Paul Washer has the answer.

“Hitler was not an anomaly. Hitler was not a phenomenon. Hitler was what everyone in this room has the potential of being. Not only that, you need to understand that even in all the wickedness of Hitler, he was still restrained by the common grace of God. And you need to know this, that if it were not for the common grace of God, restraining you in your unconverted state, you would make Hitler look like a choirboy.” Paul Washer.

The “shock” is not that there is a Nazi living among us. The shock is, that any one of us could be a Nazi.

When we come to grips with our own terrible evil, evil we use and wield against God every day, we come to better grips with His love for us. His holiness is so pure, so strong and majestic, so piercing, that even a glimpse of it terrifies the common man.

“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.” (Exodus 34:29-30).

His perfection and holiness puts fear into us. That is because we recognize how depraved and evil we are.

Isaiah saw immediately how depraved he was, when confronted by the holiness of God. “And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

The delusion satan brings is that we are good, we are innocent, we are pure. Or, at least to the slightly more honest among us, we’re not so bad.  “We’re not like HIM” our minds cry out when we discover that our neighbor is a Nazi. We use each other as a benchmark of progress in the goodness department, when the true standard is God. Our minds want to shrink from using Him as a benchmark because deep down we know what we are:

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5).

Do you see how complete that statement is, “so great”, “every intention”, “continually”? We are saturated with sin, permeated down to the last molecule. Washer is right, “All men are born evil.”

Washer is right to say that Hitler was restrained from worse. The restrainer is holding back the full potential of sin in the human heart, and so we enjoy His common grace. But once the restrainer is out of the way,

“Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, … The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders…” (2 Thessalonians 2:7b, 8a, 9).

In other words, watch out! ‘Satan with all power’. Everyone on earth except those who believe in Jesus after the rapture will make Hitler look like a choirboy. God’s common grace will have been removed- which will reveal the undeniable fact that everyone is not just a Hitler, but is an antichrist.

Once we understand this, the shock shifts. We are no longer shocked by the Nazi man puttering in his garden, because we see ourselves as having the same potential. The shock is, GOD LOVES US ANYWAY.

We can have a higher and deeper awe and love for Holy God because he loved each and every little Hitler on earth. Our precious Jesus died and shed His blood to save us!

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8).

If the Nazi in the camp had turned from the ovens and bent down and asked the Lord to forgive his sins, Jesus would have, and the Nazi would go to heaven and the Jewish man on the slab about to be put into the oven would go to hell. His infinite love forgives any sin- except the sin of rejecting Him. His love is eternal, infinite, unstoppable, and would blanket you in glory in an instant,

“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9).

The Lord will unhesitatingly save you, and change your evil heart to a holy heart.

Posted in bible, God, holy, salvation

We are to be holy because He is holy

Posted on by elizabethprata

Last night at Wednesday night bible study, we were approaching 1 Peter 1:10 toward the end of the lesson: (“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully”)

and the next section in 1 Peter 1 is titled “Called to be holy.” In vv. 10, & 13-21, it reminded me of the study I’m personally doing in Zechariah. This blog entry is about sharing my thoughts of the parallels between 1 Peter 1:1-21 and Zechariah 3. Chapter 3 in Zechariah is a tremendous passage in a tremendous book that really stopped me in my tracks this week.

Perhaps the reference Peter makes to the prophets of old prophesying about the grace of God can be seen in view here in Zech 3:1-5. Let’s see.

“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 2The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” 3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.” 5Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.”

My understanding is that Joshua the High Priest here is a picture of all Israel, called to be a holy (priestly) people before God and a light to the Gentiles. Now, I don’t want to spiritualize this passage or make it be about the Church. In this vision, God was giving direct comfort and an explicit message to Israel, but there is a wider view that I think I as a NT believer after the cross can safely take in seeing the character of satan in this scenes and the character of God, because those things don’t change.

In looking at the nature of the uncleanliness of Israel in their sin … the words used here refer to their uncleanness as human waste of the filthiest kind. That is what “Joshua”/Israel was covered in. That is how God looks at sin. This is always instructive to see. Sin is not just ugly, but it is the worst sort of pollution.

The thought of standing before God in my own waste is a jarring enough picture. Satan is right to accuse Israel, they were filthy. They were idolatrous, blasphemous, and sinning upon sin. How does that old adage go? “when satan talks to us he lies but when he talks to God he tells the truth”. He is truthfully pointing out the sin staining Israel.

Satan accuses us New Testament believers also, including me. (Rev 12:10). I can imagine him standing next to Jesus saying, “Did you see that? She is filthy with sin!” Ow!

But the wondrous part is when I read in Zechariah that the LORD rebuked satan for pointing it out and making the accusation!! He reminds satan that He has pulled Israel out of the fire (and us too, after the cross, 1 John 2:1). How great is His mercy that despite our filth, He loves His chosen people (and by extension, us)! It is a tremendous, tremendous scene.

And then His mercy deepens by His decision to place clean garments on Israel. They truly are a people close to His heart aren’t they! And His Holy, Merciful nature is that He also put clean garments on us when we become justified. Perhaps I can say that as Peter says in verse 7, the faith that is “more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire” is this garment of salvation! The clean garments he places on us, and it is an amazing thing. Faith in His word He’ll cleanse us of our sin and have it remain so, forever, despite satan’s accusations.

As Zechariah closes out the section saying that the LORD ordered that a clean turban be put on the High Priest’s head, we read in Exodus 28:36 that the turban had an engraving on it that said “HOLY TO THE LORD”.

Replacing Israel’s filth stained garments, and after the cross, replacing the Church age believer’s filth stained garments, is to me the most incredible act in the entire universe. Is this what the angels think also, and is why they long to look into such things? (1 Peter 1:12). I dare to speculate perhaps so.

As we read further in the 1 Peter 1 chapter, the upcoming verses 13-15, the call of Peter for us to be holy is contrasted by this scene in Zechariah of the grace and mercy of God, who cleans His children of our own excrement, calls us holy, and gives us the garments to prove it so. Though the scene in Zechariah is discrete to Israel, I can use that picture to extend it through the cross to understand that He rebukes my accuser, cleans me of my filth, places on my head His name, and ordains over me the call to be Holy. We are to be holy because He is holy (Lev 11:44).

Understanding where I came from and what God has done for me through Jesus, and seeing the scene described so graphically in Zechariah helps me want to adhere fervently to the call of Peter to be holy for His sake- and not mine.

God is so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted in anger, holy, righteous anger, wrath

Where is the righteous indignation? The holy anger?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Most sane people, until recently at least, would agree that child abuse is heinous. It is something that arouses in people an anger and feelings of severe indignation, in some cases, even violence. The very notion of an innocent and vulnerable child being abused by a horrid man or woman is beyond comprehension. The notion of baby abuse is even worse. Most people, including myself, refuse to even think about that because of the dread feelings abuse against children or babies breeds in the heart.

Though most sane people who become righteously angry at the notion of a child being abused will not enter into violence. Most will hanker for justice. They will vigorously pursue a due punishment for that abuser through all appropriate channels – to the utmost.

They will pursue justice through the court system. Of the abusing priests, they pursue justice through the Vatican. Some dedicate their lives to protecting abused children. Others dedicate their profession through a lifetime to obtaining justice for these kids.

All believers are children of God. To God, we are His kids. We feel grown-up, mature, and in earthly terms, we may be. But we are children.

  • Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
  • John 1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–
  • Romans 8:14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

Even if we have been a believer for 50 years, we are still a kid to the LORD. We are his sheep, dumb, helpless, and shivering at the wolves who prey on us.

“The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not

bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.”

“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. (Ezekiel 34:4-10)

We can see from the above verses that the sheep can be prey for the wolves in many different ways. When a worthless shepherd throws them to the wolves and feeds himself instead, it is a very bad thing- for the anger of the LORD burns in His chest.

What He is describing is spiritual abuse. This occurs against the children of God by those in positions of trust. We are enduring a flood of worthless shepherds these days, as well as worthless prophets, false teachers, and unregenerated “believers”.

“A steady stream of false teaching has been cumulative so that it is wider and deeper now than it has ever been in human history. False teaching about God, about Christ, about the Bible, about spiritual reality is pandemic. (source)

Pastors who plagiarize are abusing the sheep because they are giving voice to satan and turning the pulpit over to the kingdom of darkness. Teachers who introduce destructive heresies ruin the people who listen to it. (2 Timothy 2:14). False prophets who speak a dream they’ve made up dilute the word.

So my question is, when a pastor or leader or teacher abuses the flock, why don’t we become as righteously angry as we do with secular child abusers? Why, so often, is there more focus on the victimizer than the victims? His feelings? His reputation? His restoration? Why do we not get more righteously angry about spiritual child abuse? Their feelings? Their restoration? Their needs in the face of recovery?

Look at how harshly Paul dealt with those whom the Spirit commanded to be turned over to judgment.

“This command I commit unto thee son, Timothy, according to the prophecies which pointed to thee that thou by them mightest war a noble warfare; holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away have made shipwreck concerning the faith; of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (2 Timothy 2:14-19).

There is a place for righteous anger in a holy setting. We’re commanded to limit it, but it is OK to feel it.

“Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” (Ephesians 4:26). Here is what

Dr. John MacArthur says about righteous anger:

“You have a right to be angry about some things.

Psalm 97:10 says: “Ye that love the Lord hate evil.” And Psalm 69:9 David says: “Zeal for Thine house is eating me up. The reproaches that are falling on Thee are falling on me.” He’s saying, God, I can’t tolerate what people do to Your name. It infuriates me.

Now I admit I get angry sometimes. I hope to God I never get angry about what happens to John MacArthur, I hope I always get angry about what happens to God’s holy name. And I hope I never stop getting angry about that. We should have a basic, built in, – that is a programmed anger over sin, a programmed anger over evil, that puts us in a beatitude mentality so that whenever I see sin be it in you or be it in me, I mourn in my spirit. That kind of anger is the sinew of the soul.

F. W. Robertson, a great saint, tells in one of his letters that one time he met a certain man who he knew was trying to lure a young girl into prostitution. And he was so angry he bit his lip until it split open and bled.

The anger that is selfish, passionate, undisciplined, uncontrolled is sinful, useless, hurtful. It must be banished from the Christian life. But the disciplined anger that seeks the rightful place of a righteous God is pure and selfless and dynamic.

This sermon goes on to offer practical ways to allow holy anger to rise to the surface but not to let it consume you.

“anger that is unselfish and is based on love for God and concern for others not only is permissible but commanded. Genuine love cannot help being angered at that which injures the object of that love.

“But even righteous anger can easily turn to bitterness, resentment, and self–righteousness. Consequently, Paul goes on to say, do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. Even the best motivated anger can sour, and we are therefore to put it aside at the end of the day. Taken to bed, it is likely to give the devil an opportunity to use it for his purposes. If anger is prolonged, one may begin to seek vengeance and thereby violate the principle taught in Romans 12:17–21…”

In Psalm 4, David shows us what to do with our righteous anger and it’s consistent with what Paul said, “Be angry, and do not sin!” (From Bible.org)-

Twice in this very short psalm (Psalm 4) David refers to his bed. In verse 4, David speaks of being still, of not taking action himself. Apparently David has done all that he could, in the rebuke of his enemies as recorded in verses 2 and 3. Now, he remains still on his bed, not mulling over the sins of his enemies, or plotting their demise, but rather meditating on the virtues of his God.

Get angry if the sheep are abused. Spiritual abuse is terrible and ruins lives and souls. Be angry! But do not sin. You have a right to be angry about some things. You have a command to be angry about some things! However we should not let that righteous anger linger because it would turn to sour bitterness. If we are angry about what angers God and not angry over ourselves, it is a righteous anger. Keep your eyes on God, even when you are praying for justice for the abused sheep.

Posted in body, glory, God, holy, resurrection

Jesus: The permanent God-man

Posted on by elizabethprata

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.

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).

Jesus was resurrected bodily and He is still in that body

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!

Posted in adam, discernment, Eve, Garden, holy, sin

Discernment lesson- A rabbi’s new twist to the Adam and Eve story

Posted on by elizabethprata

The attack on Genesis 3 is an old attack and that is for a reason. It is the basis for everything, it is the foundation for all that comes after. It is the beginning of sin, rebellion, and God’s interaction with man. Humans want to deny their culpability in their rebellion against God, so they twist and deny and slyly change the bible’s foundational doctrine…like this rabbi does.

In discernment, first and foremost, any religious person who says that have a “new twist” on the ancient word is lying. In essence, they are saying, ‘I, and I alone, have found the one and only interpretation that escaped everyone else for 3 thousand years.’ Not.

But here is Rabbi Manis Friedman telling his story in an essay titled
A New Twist to the Adam and Eve Story

Right away, discernment bells should go off in your mind.

Additionally, I will make a comment that is sure to rankle some. Our friends, the Jewish scholars and Jewish people, are not saved. They are not under the covering of blood that saves them from the wrath of Gods and are not brethren as defined in the bible (Matthew 12:50). They may be expert in the history of the Jewish people, but they do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit in them because they have not believed on Jesus’s death and resurrection as the Messiah and become saved. Therefore it is easier for satan to work in them. We pray for all the lost, and we know that God is not finished with His people the Jews and His nation Israel, they will come to national salvation at the end of the Tribulation. (Zechariah 12:10, Revelation 7:1-8). But unless a person is a Messianic Jew, they are not saved and therefore have no clue about the whole plan of God in the Old Testament to the New.

I want to link to and excerpt some part from the Rabbi’s piece in the Huffington Post today. He made some statements that a careful reading will show what he is about.

He begins by restating the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. So far, so good. He does say that “within an hour of those explicit instructions,” that they ate the fruit but the bible does not say how long of an interval occurred between God delivering the instructions and the time they ate of the fruit of the tree. It could have been long and it could have been short, as little as a day. Butthe bible does not say it was an hour. So he took a liberty there.

Then he asks, ‘Hasn’t it ever struck you as a bit odd? Why would G-d choose to start the Torah with such a horrible story?”

He didn’t. He started the Torah with the book of Bereishit, which we know as Genesis 1, and the Creation. He began by revealing His power.

Now, asking questions of the bible is good. I ask all the time, not to doubt (like Zacharias) but to wonder (like Mary) ,(Luke 1:5-17) My questions are like, “Wow, I wonder why He did that? I want to study that more!”

But the question the rabbi asked about beginning the story of human history seems more like Zacharias’s question to me, “hath God really said…” More of a doubting nature, questioning the event itself. God began the story there because that is where the story began. Period.

Then the rabbi says the Garden was “a place where the evil inclination cannot even exist, and after being given just one simple commandment they break it within the hour.”

First, he is obviously wrong. Evil inclination did exist, because satan was there. He had already fallen and he was evil through and through. (Ezekiel 28:15). Unless the rabbi does not believe that the serpent speaking to Adam and Eve was satan, which he was.

And there is that ‘one hour’ thing again. The rabbi makes it sound that because Adam and Eve disobeyed so quickly, something else must have been going on. ‘They couldn’t have been so weak as to be unable to resist one ‘simple’ command… Come on….’ However the rabbi’s sly approach denies the strength of the sin nature, which is exactly what God was showing us here.

And then his sly work deepens. He writes, “And if there is no evil inclination in the Garden of Eden, how could they have transgressed this one commandment, and so soon?! If G-d Himself told us to eat from any tree that we wanted, except for one, wouldn’t we listen?”

The rabbi builds upon his false premise that evil couldn’t have existed in the Garden, and cements his proposition that because it happened so quickly something else was happening. He is essentially saying that man has the internal strength to resist sin and to perfectly listen to God on our own. Now his essay is really getting deep into treacherous waters of non-belief in the meaning of the plain text.

Rabbi: “But when He asks Adam to refrain from eating from a tree, Adam’s response is, “I’ll try”? That can’t be; it’s not possible.”

Where has the rabbi been for all of human history? Why does he not take the example from his own people’s history, one of continuous disobedience to what God said not to do?! It’s not possible? Of course it’s possible, it happened over and over! But he is chipping away at the authority of God’s word by denying the fact that we succumb to sin so easily when tempted.

Then the rabbi says that God is a bad psychologist. “It is also bad psychology. When you tell a child, “Don’t touch that crystal vase,” you do not add, “if you do…” What do you mean “if you do”? You don’t! You never introduce the possibility that they will break your rules. When you say, “If you do…” you’re in effect saying that it’s possible that they will touch that vase.”

So God is never to tell us not to do anything against His wishes because we’re children and He knows we will disobey anyway? Doesn’t that make God into a slave to OUR sin-nature?

Rabbi: “And where did Adam learn to blame someone else? His automatic response to G-d’s query was that Eve had forced him to eat the fruit. This man was only a few hours old, having been created just that morning, and he’s already blaming others?”

If the rabbi read Genesis 3:7 he would know that after they disobeyed, a sin nature came alive into them, their eyes were opened, and they knew shame. Before the Fall, they did not know shame (Genesis 2:25) After the Fall, they did. And blame, too, obviously. “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:7).

Adam did not remain sinless/righteous after he disobeyed. He then knew the full pantheon of good and evil, just as God had told Adam would happen when He said not to eat the fruit. (Genesis 2:16)

Rabbi: “The whole story as we know it appears quite problematic. But the main problem is, if you would want to start teaching your child the Torah, would you start with this story? Even if it did happen, why talk about it? And right in the beginning of the book? Maybe the story isn’t all that simple.”

Here it comes. Wait for it…

“Adam and Eve consciously remembered being in heaven when they were informed that their souls would have a special spiritual mission to fulfill in a physical world.”

Really? I can’t find that in my bible.

In order to create a new doctrine, and that is what the Rabbi is doing here, you need to stray off the path. But false teachers don’t grab you by the hand and yank you off the path, They lead you gently. He has brought us to the edge of the path with his questions and false premises and building on those premises as if they were true. Sly questions incrementally drift us to the edge of the narrow road God set before us. Hebrews 2:1 says we must pay careful attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away. Illegitimate questions nudge us off the way and soon we are drifting to the edge. Eventually, the false teachers leave the left foot on the path but take their right foot off it into new territory. It doesn’t feel totally unfamiliar to you because one foot is still on familiar terrain. This is to get you to feel comfortable with the new terrain before he leads you totally off it. Now we take one foot off the path on our veering away into new doctrinal territory.

He sets up quite an argument, beautiful in its false logic, superficially logical in all its evil. Read it. I will post the summary statement here–

“Adam wanted to ensure that his children would all remain righteous. How do you do that? Don’t eat from the tree. If you don’t eat from the tree then you’ll stay in the Garden of Eden, you’ll never die, there will be no sins, and all of your children will be pious. Eve didn’t want that. She wanted her children to be forced to struggle, to have to repent for their inevitable shortcomings. She eventually convinced Adam that one who must struggle to find G-d is worthier than a naturally righteous man.”

Yeah, because who wants that. Perfect obedience to God and living a perfect, righteous life in perfect fellowship with Him? Nah.

Rabbi Friedman says that when God asked Adam if he had eaten the fruit, God was not angry. He was smiling, happy that the humans had figured it out. God is a riddler and woman is clever.

What the rabbi is saying in his piece are several things:

1. God tricked humans with a double-back command
2. Adam was too dumb to figure it out
3. Eve was smart and led the man to the right conclusion, (incidentally paving the way for feminism)
4. A typically Pharisaical hierarchy is cemented by this doctrine, that all Jews are equal, but some (struggling righteous Jews) are more equal that others (naturally righteous Jews). (HT to Animal Farm by George Orwell)
5. Some men are naturally righteous (not so says Romans 3:10)
6. Pure, unadulterated grace is less desirable than man’s self-effort at righteousness

Let’s get back to the beginning for a moment. The Rabbi had asked, ‘is it really that simple’? And proceeded to confuse things. But it is that simple. God said not to do something. They did it. He was angry. He proved He was angry by punishing them with departure from the garden and cursing all participants. He told them they were lost by promising them a savior. It is so very clear.

Back to the Rabbi: “Eating from the tree was not an act of rebellion against G-d, nor was it succumbing to their appetite, for they had no desires other than to serve G-d. The choice they had was between one holiness and another. Their motivation came from their G-dly souls. It is known as the “sin” of the tree for sin means stepping down from an innocent place to a lower place, and they certainly did — not out of weakness but out of devotion to their mission.”

Of course they had desires other than to serve God, The verse in Genesis 3:6 says so.

And in another HT to Orwell, the rabbi’s treatise on the “new” way to see the story of Adam and Eve is typical doublespeak. The rabbi’s evil conclusion- Rebelling against God is holy.

Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. For example, in Orwell’s book 1984, we learn that in the dystopian, atheistic world of Orwell’s future, War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.

In Rabbi Friedman’s world, Sin is Holy.

Hath God really said…?

Posted in end time, holy, prophecy

The enlarging scale of the disasters, sinners in the hands of an angry God

Posted on by elizabethprata

It is clear from my last post, that the scale of the disasters about to be unleashed upon us are outside the human capacity to comprehend them. As stated in the previous entry, “Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi” just so the human heart and mind cannot contain the images of the coming destruction wrought from a Holy God.

Images of things that could happen:

“gas gusher will surge upwards through miles of ancient sedimentary rock—layer after layer—past the oil reservoir. It will explode upwards propelled by 50 tons psi, burst through the cracks and fissures of the compromised sea floor, and rupture miles of ocean bottom with one titanic explosion. The burgeoning toxic gas cloud will surface, killing everything it touches, and set off a supersonic tsunami with the wave traveling somewhere between 400 to 600 miles per hour.”

Images that WILL happen like this:

“In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ ” (Ezekiel 38:19-23)

and like this:

“Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done’, And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. (75 pounds) Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.” (Rev. 16:17-21)

But before you tune out, saying “I can’t handle this anymore,” I offer two thoughts. First, is that we are Sinners in the time of an Angry God. That God is making Himself visible and present on the world is becoming obvious to most. That the scale of current disasters are reaching beyond our ability to respond to them is also obvious. That the potential for imminent destructive problems that also stretch beyond our ability to solve them, or even react, is obvious. We are in the Time when He is beginning to “show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36 23)

He will show Himself holy before the people in the Gog Magog war and He is that process is now visible. Of course it is difficult to comprehend the times. In our flesh, even saved and sanctified, we can’t comprehend a Holy God. Isaiah 6:5 in the Throne room, “And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.Then I said “Woe is me, for I am ruined Because I am a man of unclean lips And I live among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” He immediately fell down in despair! The word ruined (or ‘undone’ in other translations) means utterly devastated, brought to silence, cut off. One glimpse and he was in the throes of woe! No wonder in our tiny glimpses of His Holiness as He makes Himself visible on earth, we are also undone!

John, when shown the throne room in Revelation 5:1-4, “When I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” When John says he wept “much” the Greek word is abundantly and long and earnestly and greatly.

We are watching the rumblings of the Holy God making Himself known and it is a great and humbling and awesome thing. “For [when] the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:17 italics mine) Be awed. Do not be scared. If you are saved by the blood of Jesus, He sees you equal in His eyes, Co-heir to all creation. He will bring us out and we will be glorified and then we will be able to comprehend His Mightiness as He continues to hold the world’s sinners in His Angry Hands.

But what of the unsaved? Here is the second thought: if a crashing helicopter was about fall on your friend, wouldn’t you scream for him to move him? If a train was about to run into a car, wouldn’t you be honking your horn in a frenzy? The video of the unsuspecting tsunami guy shows the people taking the video screamed their lungs out to alert the man, who was, moments later, swept away by a wave he never saw coming. But they tried. They tried. Are you trying to alert people as to the wave that is coming?

Tell the Gospel for all you’re worth, Christian! Sinners falling into the hands of an angry God is an eternal, everlastingly painful thing. We see what’s coming, TELL OTHERS. And fear not. He is Holy and He is coming!

Posted in end time, holy, prophecy, repent

Holy is a word you don’t hear much these days

Posted on by elizabethprata

And that’s a shame, because it is the central point of all of the story of Redemption. God is Holy. That means He is perfect, sinless, well, Holy.

And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)

Humans are not holy. We were originally created sinless, perfect, but through free will, Adam and Eve in the garden decided to follow Lucifer’s suggestion to eat the forbidden fruit, and in doing so, directly disobeyed a command from God. That is what sin IS, disobeying God. I tell my children in the Good News Club, an after school bible club, that “sin is “anything we think, say, or do that displeases God.” Since we have thoughts, words and actions that displease God all the time, and couldn’t stop if we tried, it means we are sinners with a sin nature. Paul refers to our sinful nature in Galatians:

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8)

Even if you do not believe in Adam and Eve and the garden and the forbidden fruit, you know deep down, that you are a craven person who does wrong things. Even if you ever said one lie to spare a person’s feelings (“Yes, that dress looks great on you!”) you are disqualified from being with God in heaven. Why? His Holiness is eternal. So is that lie. Sin is eternal, too. It doesn’t go away after you say it or do it or think it. It remains. And your sin and His holiness shall never meet.

Why would a liar think he is qualified for heaven? A cheater? As self-admitted liars and cheats and adulterers, and gossips and lusty people, why do we think we are “a basically a good person” and therefore qualified to dwell forever with a Holy God? We aren’t.

However, God so desires a relationship with us, that He made a way. He sent Jesus to us. I used to think that Jesus first came to us at Bethlehem on Christmas. But that is not so. He has been with God since the beginning. Genesis 1:1-26 shows that the Father God, Jesus and the Spirit were all involved in the Creation. And just in case there is confusion on this point, John 1:1-3 says

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

At one point known only to God, God said

“I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.(Psalm 2:7)

And God’s Plan to send a Holy One to redeem us was enacted, as reiterated by Paul in Acts 13:33:

that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’

So if we’ve all been sinners since Adam and Eve and He is Holy and cannot dwell with us, that’s it, then, isn’t it? Not quite! We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19) He loves us SO MUCH! He sent Jesus to us to minister and preach and heal, so that our only, ONLY call to the road to heaven is “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (John 6:29b)

It is very simple. Believe. All other verses are spokes stemming that central truth: for example, believing in “the One” means believing in the Messiah. Why was He sent? To seek and save the lost. Why are we lost? We sin. Why is He Messiah? Because He is the ONLY one who is qualified to forgive our sins, being sinless. Why would we confess? Because He came to seek and save us from our sins, therefore it makes sense that we would acknowledge those sins through our stated belief in Him.

Many people believe in God. Believing in Jesus is a huge leap because the gulf between (Jesus and us) and (God and us) is sin. If you believe in Jesus you believe you are a sinner, like the thief on the cross did, because a person is finally recognizing his OWN sin in the face of the obviously Sinless one. Many people believe in God without believing they themselves are sinners and they leave Jesus out of the equation completely.

Because God is HOLY, and we sin, man must “reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. (Jeremiah 26:13)”

Believe, and turn from your sin. Repent and be dwelling in perfect love for all eternity! Love, love, love, we love because HE FIRST LOVED US! He is wonderful and a holy God like no other. “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple,” that is how holy He is. Yet for all His holiness, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16) He is waiting there for you with open arms.