Posted in precious, street of gold

Gold is not so precious

Posted on by elizabethprata

The bible discusses gold and treasure quite often. God is a precious metal to us here on earth. It has been since the beginning and it still is today. Subsequently, men become foolish for gold (and other treasure) and store it up. There are lots of warnings about why not to store it up. For example,

“Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.” (James 5:3).

Also, gold and other treasure are destroyed by moths and rust. (Matthew 6:19). It can get stolen. (Matthew 6:20).

1 Peter 1:7 says that gold is destroyed. 1 Peter 1:18 said that gold is perishable. Lamentations 4:1 says that gold tarnishes. Matthew 23:17 says that the temple is infinitely more valuable than the gold in the temple. “You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?”

Gold is called a precious metal, but is it really precious? Most couples have a gold wedding band. Women have gold necklaces or earrings. Men have gold tie clips or cufflinks. A gold watch can be bought for $110. There is gold in every computer’s circuit board. Some people use gold for teeth! Does that sound precious to you?

We think of gold as a precious metal but here on earth it’s not really. In the heavenly eternal state, it’s really not precious.

Typically we think of the gold street as something of beauty that the Lord has adorned His holy city for His bride. (Revelation 21:2). And that is true. But here is an opposite thought just to ponder:

Something that is precious is rare. It is even unique. Faith in Jesus is really the only precious thing there is. (1 Peter 1:7). There is only ONE Jesus! Now, that’s precious! The New Jerusalem even has no temple because God and Jesus is the temple (Rev 21:22).

As Pastor Jordan Hall said, “The traditional thought on these streets of gold (Revelation 21:21b) is that God is demonstrating the worth of Heaven. Could it be instead that God is demonstrating the worthlessness of gold?”

With such a precious treasure before our eyes, what is gold, then? In heaven, it is a common material that we will tread upon with our feet. Did God place the gold underfoot for all eternity to continually remind us of how we were warned not to set our eyes upon what we previously thought of as precious?

In heaven’s economy, gold seems to be the same as asphalt is to us today. Today on earth would we strew around in our home all our gold necklaces and earrings and platters and rings and walk on them? No. But we will in heaven. For the believers who believe by faith, it is an eternally wonderful trade, a faith in Him who is more precious than gold.

Posted in iran, isfahan, nuclear

Has there been a nuclear accident at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site?

Posted on by elizabethprata

The BBC and Washington Beacon report tonight that 1.5 million Iranians have been told to evacuate an area near Isfahan via a government-issued edict. The Beacon reports

“Iranian officials have instructed residents of Isfahan to leave the city, renewing concerns that a nearby nuclear site could be leaking radioactive material. An edict issued Wednesday by Iranian authorities orders Isfahan’s one-and-a-half million people to leave the city “because pollution has now reached emergency levels,” the BBC reported. However, outside observers suspect that the evacuation order may corroborate previous reports indicating that a uranium enrichment facility near Isfahan had been leaking radioactive material. Tehran went to great lengths in December to deny these reports, telling state-run media outlets that “the rumors about leaking and contamination at Isfahan’s [Uranium Conversion Facility] are not true at all.”

… “Mass evacuations suggest a far more serious problem,” [Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq] Rubin explained. “There are two possibilities here: There is a radiation leak and the regime is lying or there is really bad pollution and no one believes the regime’s explanations.”

Please stay tuned to developments in the Middle East. I’ll update if/when conformed items become available.

Posted in back to basics, blood

Back to Basics: What is "The Lamb"?

Posted on by elizabethprata
Hindrick S

During this Christmas season just past, we often hear of ‘The Lamb’. Most Christians know what that means, no matter if you’re a babe in the faith or mature in the faith. However, the practice of study (in my opinion) means constantly asking questions. I ask myself, ‘what does this mean?’ ‘How can I go deeper?’ ‘What does the Greek say?’ ‘Why is this reference here, at this moment in the narrative, and not earlier in the chapter or later?’ Isn’t this the fifth time this particular reference has been made…so why is that?’ What did the Lord want us to know here?’

Never assume you know the full answer, because we don’t. Never assume we can’t learn more, because God is infinite. He always has things to teach us. So what is “The Lamb”? For many of us in this industrialized world, we may never see a lamb or a grown sheep. We are not agricultural and the metaphors that were immediately understood by the agrarian society in which Jesus preached are lost to us today in terms of daily experience. So we study it.

We are introduced to Jesus as the Lamb when John the Baptist saw Him arrive at the banks of the Jordan. This moment was the one God intended for Jesus to be baptized and begin His earthly ministry as the God-Man.

John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

EssJayNZ

Going back in time now, God had told the Israelites that they must sacrifice a year-old lamb twice a day. (Numbers 28:3-4). This act was to shed the blood of a young, perfect animal so that the person’s sins would be atoned for. It goes without explanation that we understand every person on earth is born with a sin nature, and is an enemy of the Lord, at war with Him, and in need of reconciliation. Without atonement, we cannot commune with God.

The sacrifice of the lambs were a temporary covering of those sins that must be repented of and atoned for. A person’s sins are so deep and so tall that a blood covering from one lamb one time certainly would not fulfill the debt to the Lord that the sin’s existence created. People wrongly think, “I lied once, but that’s over and I haven’t lied since, so my sin is gone.” The lie is an offense against God, and that offense remains forever reverberating in the strings of the Milky Way, as a clang against His holy being in the harmonious temple, and as a blight in His sight for all His days. It stays. This stain can never be removed. A sin doesn’t vanish into thin air. You may have forgotten it, but God has not.

Therefore, any sin has an eternal existence and so would need an eternal sacrifice to atone for it. So God set it up that the Law would be delivered at Mt. Sinai, and He ordained that the blood from twice-daily slaughtered lambs would be the covering. Though God made known the Law to the Israelites, the blood covering had been ordained since Genesis 4:4 when Abel brought the first fatlings of his flock as a sacrifice to the LORD.

What about lambs, and sheep in general? What are they like?

Ferran Jorda

Well, when shepherds brought their flocks together to the troughs to drink, the sheep all mixed and mingled. How would the shepherds ever get them sorted out?! Sheep are not branded like cows are. It’s easy- the shepherd calls them. Sheep know the voice of the one who cares for them, and they follow him without making a mistake.

When Jesus said “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27) his hearers knew exactly what He was talking about. And the lambs followed the mother sheep, who followed the shepherd.

Sheep are not fighters. They may struggle for a moment when caught for shearing, but when they sense they are held firmly in the grip of the shepherd, they give up entirely and become docile.

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7; Mark 15:5).

This is true of sheep and lambs even if they are headed to the slaughter and not just for shearing.

Sheep are flocking animals and have a natural tendency to follow a dominant one to greener pastures.

“The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” (John 10:3)

Chris Gin

“I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.” (Ezekiel 34:14)

Lambs are prey animals (grown sheep are too). Wolves stalk them. Lions do too. Jesus was surrounded by wolves many times:

“And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.” (Luke 4:29).

Jesus sent the disciples, saying “Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” (Luke 10:3).

These disciple lambs were innocent, vulnerable, put amidst the cruel schemes of malicious men, just as Jesus was. Some indeed were slaughtered. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is thick.

Jesus was the prototype for that innocent, gentle obedience that He told us to employ now, as His flock.

His death on the cross was as a silent lamb to the heinous slaughter. But His blood is eternal. His perfect life and His holy blood was the fulfillment of the payment to God for the wrath He held against sin and sinners.

Source

Lambs are gentle, vulnerable-looking innocent, and obedient. Make no mistake, the babe grew up. As far as unbelievers go, the lamb was slain. The one who is coming the second time is not the Lamb but is the Holy Righteous One, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, full of wrath and meting it out in perfect precision unto every sinner on the earth.

Yet, for the believer, the Lamb is still the Lamb. It is one aspect of His work on earth that will never be diminished or forgotten. (Revelation 5:13)

The Lamb is in heaven, with God:

“And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6a)

The Lamb opens the scroll containing the seals. Lo, He judges:

“Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!”” (Revelation 6:1)

And the Lamb becomes the Shepherd!

“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:17)

Jesus was and is and is to come. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

photo credit: Hindrik S via photopin cc
photo credit: EssjayNZ via photopin cc
photo credit: Ferran. via photopin cc
photo credit: Chris Gin via photopin cc

Posted in economy, israel, prophecy

Israel’s economy in 2012: did the recession affect her?

Posted on by elizabethprata

A few days ago, a reader asked me to look into the Israeli economy, to see if this past year had impacted it more than other countries. Of all the world’s nations, Israel had been consistently in the top echelon of nations that were growing in many different sectors, irrespective of the downtown. 2012, especially the latter half, saw a slight change in that.

The Israeli economy is slowing, but not as much as the rest of the world. Here is the news from the last week:

 CBS report: Israeli economy declining
Gad Lior, Published: 12.26.12, 15:16 / Israel Business
Figures released by Central Bureau of Statistics point to slowdown in nearly all industries in August through October. Bank of Israel sees similar trend

“The Central Bureau of Statistics has released a negative report pointing to a decline in the Israeli economy. The few positive figures included in the report are still worse than in previous months. The figures reveal that the total export of services fell by 4.5% in October, amounting to just $2.2 billion, following a lower drop of 1.8% in September. The export of business services dropped 8.4% compared to the previous month, with revenues from tourism falling by 2.5%. It should be noted that the data are seasonally adjusted, considering the fact that some of the High Holidays took place in October. Without the seasonal adjustment, the declines would have been sharper. A 2.9% drop was recorded in industrial production in August through October, excluding the high-tech industry. The entire industry, including high-tech, registered a 3.5% increase.”

“A sharp 4.6% decline was recorded in the proceeds from sales to the local market of Israel’s industrial factories. The same period also saw a 0.4% drop in the number of hired workers’ jobs in the manufacturing industry and a sharp 2.7% drop in the number of working hours in industrial factories. Things are not looking good in terms of the proceeds of all industries either. Although August through October saw a 3.3% increase in the income according to an annual calculation, May to July recorded a double increase of 6.5%.”

—————————

GDP expanded 3.3% last year in slowest annual pace since 2009

The Israeli economy grew in 2012 at its lowest rate since the economic crisis of 2009, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday, citing preliminary figures.

“Israeli GDP grew only 3.3% in 2012, after two years of higher growth: 4.6% in 2011 and 5% in 2010. In 2009, which was a difficult year for the global economy, Israeli GDP grew only 1.1%”

The article above presents a graph, and you know how much I love graphs, but they also can be used to skew the data or alter the reader’s perception. Here is the graph:

GDP low rate growth

Though the tag “Netanyahu’s government” makes the graph seem like the blip in the economy is his fault, I think recovery in 2009 from the negative to ABOVE where the economy was in 2005 is astounding. We’ve all become used to the downturn, recession whatever the economists are calling it today. But the fact is, the 2008 crash was a global failure that tanked whole nation’s economies (Iceland…Ireland…).

Germany is called the engine of the European Union’s economy. So let’s compare Germany’s GDP before the crash and afterwards to Israel’s. Click to enlarge–

You can clearly see Israel is far ahead, even in these dark days.

However, the prophecies indicate that no matter what happens in the near term, Israel will be abundantly rich in the future. So rich, the alliance recorded in Ezekiel 38-39 makes Israel’s further neighbors jealous. (Ezekiel 38:13).

In recent years, Israel has discovered huge oil, shale, gold, and gas reserves. It won’t take long for Israel to begin extracting, producing and then exporting. I wrote about some of that, here.

I’d said,

“Remember this promise of blessing from Deuteronomy 33:19 -“They will summon peoples to the mountain and there offer sacrifices of righteousness; they will feast on the abundance of the seas, on the treasures hidden in the sand.” God gave Israel treasures, among them, riches under the sea and under the sand. Matthew Henry Commentary says that this prayer is a prophecy, that they would keep His favor and that the tribes shall always receive the earthly blessings that the Lord had bestowed on them: including what was under the sea and under the sand.”

No matter what the economic forecasters say, this is what God has said about Israel:

“Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.” . . . Listen to Me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness: I bring My righteousness near, it shall not be far off; My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory.” (Isaiah 46:9-10, 12-13).

No matter what, God has blessed Israel with the promise of salvation. There is no greater treasure.

Posted in sanctification

I don’t make resolutions

Posted on by elizabethprata

But I do resolve to push ever forward to the goal: I want 2013 to be a year in which I aim my life even more to live for the glory of God.

I cringe that some days I forget that. Sometimes I hate that I live for myself. In quiet times, I think back in reflection and I know that things I say or do besmirch His glory, and I mourn. The only reason I am on earth is to bring glory to Him, who loved me first. I love Him deeply, and the only thing that matters in life is His glory. I want to grow this year so that even more weeks, days, minutes, seconds are lived for Him in His Christ-likeness, than the weeks, days, minutes, seconds before. Lord, sanctify me in growth toward the goal.

“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 13b-14)

For more information on this goal, listen to John MacArthur’s From glory to glory.

Meanwhile, I am resolved.

Posted in encouragement

Encouragement for the New Year

Posted on by elizabethprata

These essays are wonderfully encouraging. Happy New Year! His grace abounds, His love is steadfast.

2013: A Year Of The Encourager
“As I read through various blogs and facebook pages I see many people are hoping to have a good new year. It is natural for us to desire to have a better year than what we just experienced, desiring peace and prosperity. But I want to challenge you on something as we stare into the dark abyss of this mysterious brand new year. I challenge you to be determined not to look to what you desire in the new year but instead to desire to make it a good year for other people. I challenge you to be an encourager this year…”

When the Perfect Comes . . .
“Another year is passing away. Thank God. Not only for the massive amounts of unquantifiable grace we have received from him, but also because we are one year closer to the passing away of this partial age and all of its incumbent sorrow and weariness. “When the perfect comes.” Those inspired words stir up deep longings for a time we have never known and yet desperately want.”

23 Reasons to Be Joyful (Philippians)
“I am asking the Lord to train me in a pattern of joy. Perhaps this is an area where Christlike growth is needed in your heart and life too. Toward the goal of re-training our hearts, consider the following reasons to be joyful. Let this list be a starting point for you to meditate on the Word of God…”

Enjoy this verse:

“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.” (Philippians 3:20-21)

May 2013 be the year.

Posted in earthquake, prophecy

Earthquake update: how was 2012 compared to previous years?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Now that the last day of 2012 is here, I updated the earthquake chart I’d posted on Dec. 23 to see how many we have had this year, in comparison to previous years. 2012 surprised us by being the first year after three straight years in which the number of quakes in  magnitude categories had exceeded the average number set by the USGS. See for yourself (you can click to enlarge):

You can see that the average number of quakes in the magnitude 5 range far exceeded the United States Geological Survey annual average. The number in the 8 range surpassed the annual average expected quakes for that magnitude. And the number of quakes in the 7 range came close but did not surpass the annual average. And the number of quakes in the 6 range did not come close at all. Data from USGS.

An earthquake shall precede the Great and Terrible Day of the LORD:

“And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. (Zechariah 14:4)

Here is some other earthquake news which indicates some heavy earthquake activity in localized areas of the world:

Over 3,000 Noticeable Quakes Hit Japan In 2012
“Quoting the Japan Meteorological Agency, the NHK broadcaster reported that a total of 3,134 quakes had been felt across Japan until Sunday (December 30) which is about 1,000 more than the annual average from 2001 to 2010.”

The article goes on to show that even though Japan endured many quakes in 2012, there was a noticeable decrease in number of quakes from the year prior (when there were 10,000).

Earthquakes are visible tokens of the LORD’S power over the earth and heavens:

“Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.” (Hebrews 12:26)

Costa Rica saw most seismic activity in past 62 years during 2012
“According to the Costa Rican Volcanology and Seismology Observatory (OVSICORI), after the magnitude 7.6 earthquake which occurred on September 5th, 2012, the country registered the highest level of earthquake activity it has seen in 62 years.”

Given the numbers of quakes for the last three years reported in the article above, a graph of them would look like this:

Revelation records that in the time of the Tribulation there will be some major, MAJOR quakes. The word in the Greek is mega seismos and you can tell even without using a translator that they are big ones.

Revelation 6:12, Revelation 8:5, Revelation 11:13, Revelation 11:19, Revelation 16:18 record future quakes. The verse in Revelation 16 says that it was a quake such has never been seen on the earth before by man, ‘so great was that quake’.

The Guardian Las Vegas reports,  
Don’t panic! Preliminary data suggests earthquakes are indeed increasing worldwide
“Earthquakes and Volcanic eruptions have always been closely related. For instance, if you look at a map of quakes worldwide and compare it to a map of volcanoes, you’ll find that they match closely. … In recent weeks, earthquakes have exponentially increased in magnitude worldwide, worrying some researchers as they provide the fuse that ignites volcanoes. … In recent weeks, worldwide earthquake data indicates an increase in the magnitude and a significant increase in the frequency (magnitude > 5.5) of earthquakes.”

The bible says that earthquakes are often accompanied by volcanic eruptions:

“He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.” (Psalms 104:32)

So that is your final 2012 earthquake update! (Unless  something happens in the next 5 hours, which I hope it doesn’t!)

Posted in false doctrine, therapeutic gospel, trevin wax

Summary of the Therapeutic Gospel: Trevin Wax’s "Counterfeit Gospels"

Posted on by elizabethprata

In listening to Todd Friel’s Drive By Discernment, lecture 55 and 55 today, I was introduced to Pastor Trevin Wax. He has written two books, one is called Holy Subversion and the other is called The Counterfeit Gospels. The two lectures in Drive By Discernment are on one of the six kinds of false gospels Wax writes about. It is called The Therapeutic Gospel.

Here is Pr. Wax being interviewed by Christianity.com on his book. Its short explanation offers an overview of the 6 false Gospels Wax identifies in his book. The 6 are,

1. The Judgment-less Gospel
2. Therapeutic Gospel
3. Moralist Gospel
4. Quietist Gospel
5. Activist Gospel
6. Churchless Gospel

Here is a chart summarizing the 6 false Gospels Wax writes about-

Source, The Gospel Coalition

In a session of the discernment series Drive By Discernment, Trevin explained “The Therapeutic Gospel”. We hear much of this Gospel today. It is all about us. It is about our self-esteem. our feelings. What God can do for us to make us happier.

I’ve included extended excerpts below, but understand that his 2 lectures totaling 30 minutes was tight, well-articulated, and built to a powerful point. It was hard to extract segments and have them make as much sense on their own than the entire lecture did. Even extended excerpts cannot do it justice. But here is a bit of what Pastor Wax said:

The Therapeutic Gospel at its root confuses spiritual symptoms with spiritual disease. Whatever it may be, a troubled marriage, maybe it’s anxiety, maybe it’s anger issues, perhaps an addiction, we take these symptoms and we confuse the symptoms with the disease – which is sin. Our own evil. Our rebellion. And because the diagnosis is superficial, the treatment is superficial as well.

So what are some of the superficial diagnoses we see in our world? Well here’s a few we can spot. One is the Happy Meal Gospel. … [He talks of his young son here] We realized fairly rapidly that it wasn’t the soggy McNuggets and the French fries that our son liked so much but it was enjoying but the happy meal toy and the playground. That’s what captures the heart of a child- promise the toy.

I’m concerned that we package the Gospel in a way that makes God out to be a Ronald McDonald type who wants to give kids a Happy Meal. … When ‘God wants me to be happy’ becomes the measuring stick for making our decisions, we have fallen for a counterfeit.

Here is the irony in all this- God does want us to be happy. The Therapeutic Gospel takes the right words and puts it in the wrong context. God does want our joy and happiness, but to be found in Him- not in a way that’s defined by 21st century American culture. God’s desire for our joy goes beyond the Happy Meal.

[In the emphasis on our feelings and the craze for preaching on self-esteem] Notice what has taken place. Instead of understanding that sin may lead to a lack of self esteem, sin has been re-defined as a lack of self esteem. See the difference? It’s subtle, but all counterfeits are subtle. It is a confusion of symptom as the real problem. … Scripture is clear, our biggest problem is not that we feel guilty- it is that we are guilty. We don’t have empty hearts in need of fill-up, we have deceitful hearts in need of replacement.

If low self esteem is the problem, then therapy is the solution. But the question for us as Christians is why does this version of Christianity need Jesus? Why is a bloody cross at the center of our faith? If our biggest need is for someone to tell us we’re all right, he could have sent Oprah. If our biggest need is to have peace in our family, then God would have done fine sending Dr Phil. No, God sent His son to die a brutal, horrifying death as a payment for human sin. Surely that is the sign that our sin is much more heinous than just, “We feel empty inside.” The Therapeutic Gospel can never deliver what it promises because it doesn’t recognize the severity of the problem.

The Therapeutic Gospel does something else that’s devastating. It leads us to believe that it is our worth that motivates God’s action to save us. The thinking is, Jesus came to save us because we are so valuable to God. There is some truth in this. We have an inherent dignity, because we’re created in His image. It is a true concept that has a gradual drift. It is more Gnostic than anything else. A good example comes from comparing two parables. [see below]

The true Gospel is Christ centered. The Therapeutic Gospel ultimately fails to satisfy because it switches out the great reward of knowing God for the lesser reward of receiving something from God.

Pastor Wax compares the subtle shift in a counterfeit Gospel from being Christ-centered to man-centered, by comparing the parable of the sheep as they are presented in Luke and in the false Gospel of Thomas. Here is the Gospel of Luke:

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:4-7)

The other is from the non-canonical, false Gospel of Thomas.

“Jesus said, “The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine sheep and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, ‘I care for you more than the ninety-nine.'” (FALSE, NON-CANONICAL “Gospel of Thomas”)

What has happened here, said Pr. Wax, is that in the counterfeit Gnostic gospel the writer has shifted the emphasis. The point of the parable in the counterfeit is about the worth of the sheep, instead of the work of the Shepherd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christ is the ultimate possession. Nothing that the Therapeutic Gospel offers can ever satisfy. Anyway, consider this blog entry a kind of whetting your appetite for being on the alert for false Gospels. I’ve written and written about staying in the Word. Knowing His word in the bible is the best defense for spotting a false Gospel. Make sure you know the real thing!

Trevin Wax’s book is called Counterfeit Gospels.

Here is Tim Challies’ review of The Counterfeit Gospels.

Todd Friel’s Drive By Discernment is available on instant download, for $19.99. It contains 72 lectures that are under 15 minutes each.

Don’t fall for a therapeutic Gospel. Resolve to keep Jesus as the center of everything this year. With Jesus as your glory and your hope, it is the best start for the New Year and every year thereafter. Thanks to God’s grace, there will be an eternity of them for the believer.

Posted in john the baptist, messiah, miracle

John the Baptist did no miracles: the Truth is the miracle

Posted on by elizabethprata
File:Mathis Gothart Grünewald 024.jpg

Do you realize that? John the Baptist performed not one miracle. As a matter of fact, until Jesus came and changed the water into wine at Cana, no miracle had been performed in Israel for 800 years! Not since the time of Elijah and Elisha. No prophet had spoken to Israel as the messenger of God for 400 years, not since Malachi! No angel had appeared to the people (as far as we know) for 500 years!

So why was the greatest man who was born of woman until his time, (Mathew 11:11) and who was one of the greatest (and most successful) Old Testament prophets never been given the power to perform one miracle?

Above, Matthias Grünewald, detail of the Isenheim Altarpiece, “He must become greater and I must become less“.

I have no great insight, no commentary I’ve used, and no sermon I can point you to. I just want to focus on the holy Word of God and its effect on hungry, despairing hearts.

John the Baptist was a forerunner to the Messiah, one who was prophesied to come and who did come. (Isaiah 40:3-5; John 1:23). He had one message and one message only: repent and be saved. (Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:4). One would not think that a man with a singular message of sin, sinners, repentance and baptism would be popular. Men who preach that are not popular today. But John the Baptist had throngs of followers who listened to him. He had throngs who followed his preaching with a life choice to become baptised in water, in preparation for the Messiah’s coming when they would be baptised by fire. Even King Herod liked to listen to John, even though John was no shirker of his responsibility to point out to the King his sinful actions! (John 6:18).

Giovanni Tiepolo: John the Baptist preaching

“Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” (Matthew 3:5-6).

Of course, some undoubtedly followed John because they loved hearing him charge the religious leaders of the day with hypocrisy. Some undoubtedly followed John because he was the most interesting thing going on. Some undoubtedly were excited to think of their Messiah coming in all glory to rip the Romans from the death-grip they had on the land. But those were likely in the minority.

The fact is, John was filled with the Holy Spirit at birth, and a man speaking truth about the Messiah from a pure, Holy Spirit-filled heart is the most powerful miracle there is.

You can read about how demon-drenched the place was. (Luke 6:17-19). No prophet had spoken. No angel had come. No miracle had occurred. The religious services were saturated with hypocrisy, filthy lucre, and idolatry thanks to the failure of the leaders of the day and the years before and the generations preceding. The people were tired of sin- their own and others’. The whole land was crawling with demons.

St John the Baptist Preaching, Gaulli

So they listened.

In my opinion, John’s ministry was miraculous in the way that it shows us what preaching the word does to weary hearts. Weary hearts want the word. They want to hear about the Messiah. They want hope of His coming to enter their hearts and fill them with knowledge of His glory.

Their hearts were hungry for message of hope, and even for a message of hard truths; a message of their sins and the hope of the coming of the Perfect who would deliver them.

You can imagine how hungry hearts are today. And as it was true then, it is true now: the preaching of repentance and the coming of the Messiah prepares us for Him

Though our generations will not be blessed with national revival, but instead be cursed with global apostasy, (Revelation 2:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Timothy 4:3-4), we know that individual hearts are still hungry. Individual hearts still thirst for the Living Water and we still need to proclaim it.

My New Year’s wish for us all is that we resolve to cling to the Holy Word by diligent study, knowledge of, and living it out. I pray for us that we resolve to speak it, proclaim it, contend for it. His word, the holy bible, is now the miracle that sustains us and is His sign that He is living and active. (Hebrews 4:21).

Can we resolve to focus on the coming Messiah? Can we dedicate our lives to serving Him? Can we devote ourselves to proclaiming the only message worth sharing? The power of the holy Word has been demonstrated throughout the record of the bible. It has demonstrated itself through its staying power throughout the centuries. It has shown itself powerful by its ability to penetrate hard hearts and claim souls.

Do you know  it? Do you read it? Do you hide it in your heart for the moment the Spirit might prompt you to share a message of sin and repentance?

In most artistic renderings of John, he is shown with a hand or a finger pointing up toward heaven. My New Year’s resolution for myself and my hope for all Christians everywhere is that we follow the example of John in pointing our lives toward Jesus. Do not seek after signs and manifestations, but rely on the sure word.

Left, John the Baptist, by Preti, MetMusum. “Saint John the Baptist is shown seated in the wilderness exhorting the viewer to repentance, his right hand pointing heavenwards, his skin tanned through years in the desert. The lamb stands for Christ, the “lamb of God.”

Isaiah said that one like John would come–

“A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)

John did come.

“He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:23).

As we view 2013 ahead, we all feel like we are each in the wilderness as John was. I know many of us feel that we try and try but no one is listening. We know from the Word that as each year passes it won’t get better, it will get worse. But the truth does have an effect. It does penetrate hearts. Maybe you don’t see it right away but the fruits will become visible someday. That’s why we can’t lose heart and we have to stay true to Him. The Proverbs say for us-

“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:6)
“The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight,” (Proverbs 11:5a)

Keep on the straight and narrow, and always point to Christ. Here is a wonderful New Year’s gift to us all:

“And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:16-17)