Posted in christmas, messiah

Rejoice, Messiah has come!

Posted on by elizabethprata

Andrew and Simon Peter followed John the Baptist and when John pointed to Jesus and said to Andrew, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Andrew followed Jesus and brought his brother with him, saying–

“He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).”

In order to find something, you have to be looking for it. These two disciples were looking. They knew the Messiah was prophesied to come and they were waiting, praying, sacrificing, and hoping. They looked and they found. Seek and ye shall find … (Luke 11:9a).

The Greek word for ‘found’ as it’s used in John’s verse means, “I find, learn, discover, especially after searching.”

I pray you are searching for Messiah, too. Here are some of the precious names He is called in the bible:

King — “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:6)

God with us — “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Son of Man — “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him.” (Daniel 7:13-14). He is referred to by His own lips as that title about 80 times in the New Testament.

Star — “I see Him but not now, I behold Him but not near. A star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel.” (Numbers 24:17)

Good Shepherd — “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ” (John 10:11)

Redeemer — “‘A Redeemer will come to Zion. And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,’ declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 59:20)

Any study of Jesus, even if it’s simply a list, would be comprehensive and overwhelming. He is so great, we can study about Him forever. And glory to God in the Highest, we who have repented and are counted as justified and sanctified, CAN and WILL study Him forever–

“Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.” (Psalm 119:89)

Merry Christmas!

(adapted from John MacArthur’s sermon “The Perfect Mediator“)

Posted in doomsday, end time, jesus, Mayans, prophecy

What is the opposite of a Mayan doomsday? Jesus’s Peaceday

Posted on by elizabethprata

Mayan doomsday hysteria is overtaking people, towns, whole nations. According to an incorrect interpretation of the long count Mayan calendar, (Baktun) the world is supposed to end tomorrow. The fascination with this calendar and its prediction of global doom has apparently affected many, many people. Crimes are being committed. Deaths are occurring. Government decisions are being made.

O, would that they would do the same by taking the bible seriously! If people changed their lives, thought of their mortality, made decisions based on the truth and fact of a REAL doomsday that will come for every human who ever lived…what a world this would be. Alas, it is not.

But be that as it may, the troubles of the mind are bubbling to the surface. The intuitive fear that every human has is giving rise to actions that are caused by those fears.

And what are those fears? Follow me on the progressive thought: The bible says eternity is set in our hearts. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). It says that we are influenced by the general revelation of God in nature, (Romans 1:20; more here) and also that we have been influenced by special revelation which is the spoken Word, miracles, visions, dreams, and Jesus. And if we are influenced by God in those ways, we also intuitively feel the weight of our sins, (2 Timothy 3:6; Isaiah 1:4). Therefore we understand deep in the recesses of the darkest corner of our minds, that we are accountable for them. Each individual in the world at some point before their death, unless they were a babe or cognitively impaired, have pondered the eternal question- what happens after death? Is this all there is?

Not knowing the answer to that question bothers people. Of a mundane day to day living, the issue doesn’t come up so often. However if a person is confronted with a horrific event, such as the Newtown School massacre, they think about it. Or if they receive a dread diagnosis, they think about it. Or if they approach old age, they think about it. It’s natural to wonder.

Not having the answer, some people go more crazy and frantic when faced with a looming appointment with mortality. For many today, that looming appointment seems to them to be the Mayan end date and alleged pagan Apocalypse. People really are going crazy. See this news from around the world:

Almost 1,000 doomsday cult members arrested in China
Police in China have carried out further arrests of members of a doomsday cult for spreading rumours about the imminent end of the world, state media say.
State media terms Almighty God an “evil cult” – the same description it applies to the banned Falun Gong group.

As ‘Doomsday’ Looms, Serbs Cash In On Mystical Mountain
If doomsday really falls on Friday, the residents of this Serbian mountain region are cashing in while they can.  “We’re booked out December 20-23. We have a New Age convention and guests are coming because of the end of the world,” said Nebojsa Gajic, manager of the 160-bed, Communist-era Millennium Hotel on the slopes of Mount Rtanj.  The region is selling itself as the best place to survive the looming apocalypse–which will fall on December 21, according to mystics whose calculations depend on the ending of an era in the 5,125-year-old Mayan calendar.

Dec. 21, 2012: Fearful ‘end of world’ callers flood NASA
If there’s one government agency really looking forward to Dec. 22, it’s NASA.  The space agency said it has been flooded with calls and emails from people asking about the purported end of the world — which, as the doomsday myth goes, is apparently set to take place on Dec. 21, 2012. … NASA decided to do “everything in our power” to set the facts straight.  That effort included interviews with scientists posted online and a web page Brown said has drawn more than 4.6 million views. [italics mine]

School Districts Cancel Class Due To Doomsday Talk, Potential Threats
Thousands of students will have an extra long holiday break after school administrators in at least two Michigan counties decided to cancel classes because of talk surrounding the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and rumors connected to the Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world.  Five districts in Lapeer County and 20 districts in Genesee County posted announcements Wednesday evening cancelling classes Thursday and Friday. … Additionally, rumors connected to the Mayan calendar predicted end of the world on Friday have also surfaced,” a letter from Matt Wandrie, Superintendent of Lapeer Community Schools said.

Chinese police suspect man who stabbed 23 kids ‘influenced’ by doomsday rumor 
Chinese police said Monday that the man who stabbed 23 children in a rural Chinese elementary school just hours before the Newtown, Conn., massacre may have been “influenced” by doomsday predictions. A belief that the Mayan calendar predicts an apocalypse this Friday, Dec. 21, has gained peculiar currency here. And the knifing spree is the darkest manifestation yet of how end-of-the-world rumors have taken hold in China.

People are taking this thing seriously. Too bad they are all wrong. They are going crazy. And they do not need to.

Oh, the Lord may rapture His believers any day, and the last 7 years of doom on earth may begin. That last 7 years does include days of darkness as the Mayans “predict”, and asteroids and comets and other doomish happenings. But if it does occur it will not be because the Mayans said so, it will be because GOD said so.

However, the heartbreaking concepts in all this are two-fold. First, that people and governments are making decisions based on a false prediction from a lost cult of the Mayans. Their religion means nothing and it came to nothing. Chances are that naught untoward will happen tomorrow. Sadly, many people who have either committed suicide, or killed someone or went underground or sold all their stuff will sheepishly understand they made an eternal mistake based on false intel.

Secondly, what we’re seeing with all the hullabaloo is the roiling of usually placid waters of apparent unconcern with their eternal destiny. People hide or suppress the turmoil of fear and uncertainty underneath. (Romans 1:18). We don’t usually see a person’s turmoil. Big events stir up that inner turmoil. That is what we’re seeing today.

In this case it is the specter of doom in the form of an ancient pagan prediction. However, even the Newtown massacre prompted full churches and candlelight vigils in the search for meaning among the face-off with death and its eternal question.

Source

source

“Oh, the raging of many nations–they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples–they roar like the roaring of great waters!” (Isaiah 17:12) Isaiah likened the turmoil of nations with its endlessly raging peoples to the roaring seas. So did Luke:

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,” (Luke 21:25)

Isaiah’s use of roaring is from a Hebrew word hamah that means to ‘murmur, growl, roar, be boisterous’ and that is exactly what we see when a great many people across the world at once are forced to face mortality and confront their conscience with the question of “what happens after death?” Like a Mayan apocalypse. They murmur, growl, become boisterous, just like the raging sea.

One can be peaceful, placid, and avoid the roiling of waters by being in Jesus. HE brings peace, and only HE brings peace. Without Him, there is no peace. And no answers.

“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;” (Ephesians 2:14-15)

“To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:79).

The Apocalypse is coming. It is not the Mayan apocalypse, but the Jesus Apocalypse. Apocalypse literally is from the Greek word apokalýptō and Strong’s concordance defines it as:

“properly, uncover, revealing what is hidden (veiled, obstructed), especially its inner make-up; (figuratively) to make plain (manifest), particularly what is immaterial (invisible).”

The last book of the bible is Revelation and it reveals the things of the last days. It reveals to one and all the terrible wrath of God leveled upon the world for their sins. He reveals what He will do.

In Amos 3:7 it is written, “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets”

and in this case He revealed His intentions to John, who was also instructed to write it down and thereby it becomes instructive to us in this generation.

“The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. … Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” (Revelation 1:1-3, 11)

We are meant to read the book and to understand the price that pride and sin and rejection of Jesus brings. Surely the LORD does nothing without revealing it…and He has. The Mayans have not.

You have been warned, as every generation has been warned since the generation of John and the closing of the bible with the words of Revelation He ordained John to write.

Wrath is coming. But the Peace that passes all understanding is also revealed. (Philippians 4:7). That also, is yours for the choosing. I beg and plead with you who do not believe, I entreat and urge those who do believe but are falling away. I am not so proud that I would not beg you in abject tears to heed the words of Jesus the Christ who is and who was and who is to come again.

It may be today. It may be tomorrow. It may be next month. Or your very death may cause you to slide in due time toward the eternal destiny He has set before us. (Deuteronomy 32:35). There are only two destines for every person who ever lives: eternity in hell away from Him, and eternity in heaven with Him.

As Paul wrote in the great book of Romans,

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”. (Romans 12:1-2).

What is the will of God, you ask?

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)

Believe on Jesus, the resurrected God-man who was slain for the sins of the world, and who took YOUR wrath as the substitute. Repent and believe. And then you will no longer wonder about your appointment with mortality. You will KNOW.  You will never worry about anything so foolish as a Mayan apocalypse again. It is His delighted pleasure to reveal to you your destiny which is peace and glory and perfection and joy. His peace is amazing. Jesus is amazing. Come join us in His peace, I beg you.


Posted in theology

Milestone upcoming

Posted on by elizabethprata

Less than 10,000 views and I hit 2 million! What can I say, I’m a sucka for stats…

But what it really means is Jesus proclaimed 2M times. I am grateful have an eternity to proclaim Him 2 google-gazillion more

Posted in evil, God, good, tragedy

Why does God allow evil?

Posted on by elizabethprata

God doesn’t cause tragedy. But God allows it. Why?

Todd Friel of Wretched TV answered this in a very good and biblical way. It is 7 minutes long and I recommend listening. The video is below. Here is a short, written summary of what Mr Friel said-

The bible makes sense to help us understand what appears to be senseless. We need to be proclaiming the reasons for evil the bible gives generally so that individuals can apply them specifically. We can’t point fingers and say that ‘this is the reason that happened to YOU,’ but if we share the general principles of why God allows evil it may help someone understand and apply it to their own situation. God is always doing something for everyone involved in a tragedy. God uses sin sinlessly. He is always at work to the Good.

1. The Gospel
If there was not sin in the world we would not need Jesus as Savior and not know how amazingly kind God is to send Him to us. Without sin there is no Gospel.

2. Magnify His Goodness
When God’s kindness is portrayed against the backdrop of evil His goodness is even brighter.

3. Repent
In Luke 13:1-5, in a sermon on the need for individual repentance for sin, Jesus talks about to 18 who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them. They were innocent victims of a calamity which was due to no fault of those killed. Are we less sinful than those who were killed? No. We don’t know the day or hour of our appointment with death, therefore the need to repent NOW is even greater.

4. Jesus loves children
He loves them. Maybe He wanted them with Him today. Let that comfort you.

5. Make us long for Him
The churches were packed after the tragedy and the candlelight vigils were frequent. We long for Him and rush to Him when under such duress and heavy weight.

6. Draws us to Himself
See above

7. Equips us to comfort
We can comfort someone else.

8. Prepare us for service
He uses sin sinlessly by increasing our gratitude today for service tomorrow. He uses something really hard to do some and to equip us for something in the future to empathize with others going through a similar thing, or for us to be able to endure something in the future.

9. Remind us of the battle
He uses sin to remind us of the battle in the spiritual realms for the souls of men, and to refocus our priorities.

10. Genuine decisions can be evil
He allows us to make decisions and sometimes those decisions can be downright evil

11. Reaping and sowing
Is it possible a nation is reaping what it has been sowing?

12. Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Some things are too high for us to know, or too burdensome. Would you tell your five year old the adult things we know of? They would either not understand or be able to handle it. Sometimes God reveals things to us later, or in heaven, when we can handle it.

Posted in giant fish, jonah

Jonah as a type of Christ

Posted on by elizabethprata

I am fascinated with Jonah. Four short chapters, concise and not a word wasted, but packs a powerful punch.

Isaiah was beloved. He saw God and was cleansed in the holy heavenly temple. Elijah is revered- and is to come again. So fervently do they look for Elijah that Jews set a place for him at the Passover table. Daniel was noted by God to be a righteous one among men. (Ezekiel 14:14). But Jonah? The disobedient one? Not so much.

Yet … through Jonah’s preaching God converted the largest city on earth. Jonah’s story carries with it fantastical but true elements of runaway prophet, giant fish, death or near-death experiences, raging storms, begrudging task completion, a small worm and a withering shade tree. So many miracles pack Jonah it boggles the mind- ten of them in four short chapters.

And most amazingly, of all the prophets God sent, Jesus identified himself not with powerful Elijah, not with beloved Isaiah, not with righteous Daniel- but with runaway Jonah.

It has been said that Jonah is a type of Christ. To me, this is an interesting juxtaposition. After all, Jesus was the only human on earth to be perfect, sinless, and in complete obedience with the Father. So how or why is Jonah a type of Christ?

I’ll tell you before we go on that I don’t know the answer to that question. The why, anyway. But here is what my research uncovered on how Jonah as a type of Christ can be compared to THE Christ.

First, here is what Jesus said when referring to Jonah:

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:39-41).

What did Jesus mean that He would give no such sign? Perhaps that He would give one that should be as satisfactory proof to them that he was from God, as the miraculous preservation of Jonah was to the Ninevites that he was divinely commissioned. I mean, how many miracles do they need?

The Ninevites, pagans after all, recognized God’s work on first preaching. The Pharisees and unbelieving Jewish generation required miracle after miracle and still they refused to repent. That’s why the Ninevites’ example condemns the Pharisees and Jewish unbelievers.

To this day the tradition of what Jonah did at Nineveh remains. The city fell into ruin eventually and was covered over by desert sands for many generations. The city was not re-discovered until the 1800s. Yet throughout the entire time, the power of God through Jonah stayed. The area was always called and referred to by locals as Tell Nabi Yunus. A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides. (Wiki). Nabi is Hebrew for Prophet. Yunus, swapping the J for a Y is a transliteration of Jonah. In Greek it is Ionas.

So the ruins of Nineveh, near Mosul Iraq, means ‘ruin of the Prophet Jonah’. The work that God did there was known and understood and remembered to be a great work of God.

There are several other parallels to the Jonah-Jesus story. Jonah’s name means ‘dove’ by the way. Both were from Galilee. Though the Pharisees said no prophet comes from Galilee, they were so desperate to discredit Jesus that they forgot that Jonah was from Galilee. (John 7:52).

Both Jonah and Jesus were sent first to Jews and then the Gentiles.

They were both wiling to die for their people. Jonah first by perhaps expecting to be slain for disobeying God (as the example in 1 Kings 13:23 indicates happens to disobedient prophets) and then when Jonah urged the sailors to throw him overboard. We already know Jesus died as the sacrifice for all people.

They both preached and the Jews refused but the Gentiles accepted.

They both slept in a boat in a storm.

When the storm got worse, both sets of sailors asked the same question of Jonah and of Jesus: ‘How can you sleep? Can’t you see we’re perishing?’

Jonah 1:6- “So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

Mark 4:38- “But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The sailors asked God not to hold it against them as a sin that they shed innocent blood, and Judas told God he knew he had shed innocent blood.

Jonah 1:14- “Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.”’

Matthew 27:4a- “saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

And yet a startling difference, that couldn’t be more apparent, is that Jonah had no compassion for the Gentiles and was disobedient.Jesus is perfect. Huh.

Below is a chart I’d made when pondering these things. It was the boat in a storm that made me start comparing. If  you are reading along and you’re reminded of an incident or a verse in another part of the bible, turn to it. Slowly examine it, looking carefully at the language. That is how I found the perishing language and the innocent blood language. Then read credible commentaries and/or listen to sermons from good expositors. The bible will become more deep to you. It is how the Spirit applies truths to our hearts.

I just started jotting them down and then, being visual, I put them into a chart so I could see them side by side. I love the Old Testament for painting pictures for us that in the New Testament become principles. Brethren, don’t forsake the OT. There is so much there, and it is a joy always to discover more in God’s word.

I don’t know the answer to why Jonah & Jesus slept, or how Jonah is a type of Christ, but I sure did have fun exploring. My faith is such that I know the Spirit will show me more in His timing, either on this side of the veil or surely in the next.

This side: “But God hath revealed them< unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (1 Corinthians 2:10).

Other side: “For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Thanks for reading. 🙂

Posted in God, israel, jerusalem, military

Not by might, says God to Israel, but by My Spirit

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel is noted by the nations as one of the most advanced military and technological nations in the world. Their successive wins at various wars have given them confidence in their strategies and protocols. The recent success of Pillar of Cloud in the Gaza Strip with Iron Dome and now David’s Sling missile busters coming online have added to that feeling of confidence in their abilities. This feeling will nearly prove their undoing. Why?

They need to rely on God. But they don’t.

I’ve mentioned this before. In the blog entry titled “Israel, Iran, and Heavenly intervention,” I’d written-

“Of course, we would love to see some heavenly intervention that will stop them, to wake up some morning and learn that they’ve given up on their nuclear intentions,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday during a joint press conference with Leon Panetta, his American counterpart.”

I had mentioned yesterday that Israel’s current military success is a wonderful thing, culturally, in that the citizens of the nation have a bit more reassurance that they can live through the day without a terrorist rocket falling on them. But in the long run it is actually counterproductive spiritually, because as long as they rely on themselves they will not rely on the Holy God of Israel. You see the Defense Minister’s next statement:

“You cannot build a strategy based on these wishes or prayers.”

Oh yes you can. Elisha did.

A week later in a blog entry titled Mysterious site 911 raises eyebrows, I’d repeated the mantra that over-reliance on one’s military and under-reliance on God is a bad thing-

“Israel is becoming more security conscious every day. Their reliance on their military is a good thing, otherwise I’m sure that as a nation they would have been obliterated by now. And, after all, it is God who allowed their successes so far.

However, there is such a thing as over-reliance. … Their continued run of success will only make them ever more reliant on their military and further from remembering that God is behind it. As a matter of fact the Israel Defense Force tweeted, “Our job is to minimize the need for a miracle, even in Hanukkah. We must always be ready.”

Minimizing the need for a miracle, which only comes from God, is really saying they minimize the need for God.

The Israelites of today will drift further and further from Him, until He uses Russia-Turkey-Iran’s military might to draw them back to Himself. That alliance is prophesied to attack Isrel in the last days…ans almost win. It is God who saves Israel.

“I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the Lord am the Holy One in Israel.” (Ezekiel 39:7)

Now finally someone of Israel is urging Israel to turn to God and not their military for confidence. Rabbi Dan Dorsch, the Assistant Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston, New Jersey, wrote this on Sunday in Haaretz. Here is an excerpt:

From Pillar of Defense to Hanukkah: Why Jews mustn’t glorify military might
Why isn’t Hanukkah in the Torah? Perhaps because the sages did not condone military prowess divorced from God’s presence.

Having arrived at Hanukkah following Operation Pillar of Defense, I believe the words of our sages still speak to the nature of modern military conflict. Like myself, I believe our sages would be proud to be associated with the fine, dedicated, brave modern Maccabees of the Israel Defense Forces, who protect and defend our Jewish state. Yet, as the State of Israel and the Jewish people move forward proudly from that operation into Hanukkah, I believe our sages might also take care to remind us that triumph in battle can never be a true Jewish path toward holiness. Instead, they would probably remind us that the very Hebrew name of the operation, Amud Anan – which refers to God’s protective “pillar of cloud” as He led the Jewish people out of Egypt through the desert — reminds us that a Jew must ultimately never draw his or her strength from might or power, but from God’s spirit.

Hanukkah reminds us that in ancient times, armies fought brutal campaigns and crusades falsely in the name of God and glory. But, as Jews, we only fight as a last resort because it is necessary to live, and so that we may spend our days drawing closer to God in peace.

For Jews, our true path toward holiness must be drawn from the wellsprings of our faith. We may celebrate victory but must never glorify military might. Instead, we must long for the day when all of the peoples of the world will finally put down their arms and live in peace.

They do long for peace, and well they should. However, that day of peace will only come when the Lord returns to establish His Kingdom. However, the Rabbi’s yearning for the peace that is promised is a good thing, because we all must pray for the peace of Jerusalem. (Psalm 122:6)

Meanwhile, here is a verse that the Rabbi quoted-

“Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6).

Posted in childlike faith, newtown, sandy hook school, shooting

Putting Newtown behind and Jesus ahead, we ask ‘Why the children?’

Posted on by elizabethprata

Children are important to Jesus. That is why satan seeks to kill them.

Did you know that on the same day as the horrific Newtown killings, a deranged man stabbed 22 young children at a Chinese elementary school? And that it was the third such type of stabbing attack at a school within the last two years?

Why the children? Here is why–

“and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:16).

Jesus said this in response to the following in the verse prior, and note carefully!

“But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant”

The children were shouting hosannas!

The Pharisees were indignant over the children’s joy in recognizing Him!

In Gill’s Exposition it says, “This owing to God’s disposing them hereunto, putting it into their mouths, and strengthening them to declare it in a very strong and powerful manner; so that his strength was made perfect in their weakness, and his praise the more glorious.”

Do not overlook the children in their clear praise and strength of faith in one Jesus the Christ. Children are Christ’s answer to pure faith, and a rebuke to all who would squash a religious child’s enthusiasm for proclaiming Him. Woe to those who squash it! Woe!

“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:17)

“But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14).

Jesus sets a great store on children, and uses them for praise to Himself and as a warning to adults to follow their faith example.

Why were the children killed? Why? We cry. I believe it is because children are the last segment of the population to be attacked by satan.

Satan has the mothers via the corruption and eternal discontent of feminism. He has the fathers through pornography and adultery and abandonment. He has the youths through drugs and the narcoleptic spellbinder of technology. He has the institutions of government, entertainment, and even religion. What’s left for him to freshly attack?

Children.

For example, abortion. Child molestation is another way satan has attacked the children. The hidden shame of child trafficking in America (and in the rest of the world) is a scourge on us all. But those and other methods of attacking children are indirect. So Satan had a thought- why not kill them directly?

There is nothing to make a nation, even a world, weep and mourn as much as a child massacre. Just the thought of vulnerable little bodies strewn bloody on the floor is enough to make the world stop and take a collective gasp.

Jesus indicated this when He spoke of the abomination of desolation during the tribulation- “And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!“

As Gill explained, “whose tender affection to their infants will not suffer them to leave them behind them; and yet such their weakness, that they will not be able to carry them with them; at least, they must be great hindrances to their speedy flight.”

What defeats a family more, or crumbles their faith more, than losing a child to senseless violence? Not only would satan delight in the fact that a precious one’s childlike faith has been snuffed out, and that they can no longer praise Jesus in purity and trust, but he will also delight in the family’s grief and difficulty traversing the mountain of sorrow back to firm faith in Jesus again- if they ever do. Those of no faith will be unlikely to ever turn to Jesus. That likelihood diminishes with each bullet sent from a gun to slay a babe.

Satan is not overlooking the children in his attacks. But neither is Jesus. He ordained praise from babes. He taught us all to have childlike faith and trust in Him. He said that the little children should not be hindered from coming to Him. They were among the first before religious adults to recognize who He was on earth and they sang with joy.

I personally believe that the children who were killed in CT were young enough to see the angels God sent to minister to them as they hid in closets. “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10). It’s something to imagine anyway.

Right now we trust in Him to create something good out of man’s horror. If you are finding it hard to move on to the solid rock of trust in a Good and Holy Savior, then ask the Spirit to increase your faith. (Luke 17:5). He surely does equip us to handle what comes in this world, a world I remind us all, is not our home.

As heavy as this affliction is, it is but a light affliction. (2 Corinthians 4:17). The children sang hosannas at the temple, and so should we. Though we cannot see the mercies and the glory that will emerge from this atrocity, we should have a childlike faith that something merciful and good will. If you don’t have that kind of faith, then at least do it for the children.

Posted in children, jesus, newtown

Jesus and children (thoughts of Newtown)

Posted on by elizabethprata

On Thursday, the day before the Newton Elementary School shootings, in which an entire kindergarten class of five years olds was massacred by a 20 year old boy, the Lord was preparing me to write about children. He was bringing to mind two precious incidents that had occurred in my life regarding children and the purity of their belief in Jesus. I prayed,  I cherished the memories, and I wrote the draft. Then I waited. Little did I know that a horrible massacre would punctuate and underscore these memories, imbuing their specialness by the heartbreaking loss of innocent life in Connecticut. I wrote more about it yesterday, the day it happened, and used scripture, here.

Jesus loves the children. They are precious to Him. Unlike in many societies where the children are not even named until age five because of the death rate, or in other societies where they are chattel, or still in others where the girls are left exposed to elements because they are an undesirable gender, Jesus cared for them uniquely as precious members of society and urged His believers to do the same.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” (Psalm 127:3)

God personally makes every child that ever was or is to be:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:13-16).

The LORD sends angels to minister to the little ones:

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10)

There is a place Jesus is preparing where all the children will be safe from dangers:

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6).

At times like these, many Christians wonder if children who have not professed Jesus go to heaven upon their death. The biblical evidence, though implicit and not explicit, seems to say yes. In Deuteronomy and other places in the Old Testament, the word innocent is applied to children. Not that they are not guilty of sin, because we emerge from the womb as such. But that their guilt has not yet been applied to them because they cannot cognitively understand their sin via two revelations God gives us: conscience and His holiness and our sinfulness as revealed in nature. Here is an essay about it-

Do babies and others incapable of professing faith in Christ automatically go to heaven?

Two incidents in my life with children after I’d come to know Jesus stand out to me. Rather than the world’s claim that children are browbeaten and brainwashed into believing in Jesus, it is actually the adults who are brainwashed and browbeaten into NOT believing in Jesus. Belief in Jesus is intuitive and pure in the children who do profess.

I work in a kindergarten as a teacher’s aide. A few years ago at Christmastime, the teacher was teaching a unit on the customs of Christmas from around the world. There were two five-year-olds who had professed Christ and any believer could immediately see the difference in their behavior and their spirit compared to the kids who had not professed. Anyway, they were sitting on the rug watching a short video on the Nativity. The kids saw the part where the angel led the three wise men to the boy Jesus, and some kids began a quiet but fervent discussion about what the light actually was. Some said a star. Others said a comet. Others said a planet. The two saved children said,

“It was an angel. The angel had the light from heaven wrapped around him and the light led the wise men.” All discussion stopped cold for a good ten seconds. Then it resumed, with denials of the angel idea from all the unsaved kids. The two saved kids just looked at each other from across the carpet, smiled peacefully, and put a thumbs up, nodding their belief to each other.

How many times are we told in the bible to act just that way? To tell the truth in love, gently and with meekness, fellowship with each other, not to argue, and to share the love of Jesus in peace and goodwill to men? They did, and in addition, their perception was amazing. An angel?! Why didn’t I think of that? And a little child shall lead them…

In another case, I was teaching bible study to 6-to-8-year-olds at church. I always encouraged the kids to bring their bible with them. When I taught the passage we always opened the bible and read from the bible and not just the curriculum. I wanted them to get into a habit of being responsible for handling their bible in church, and in reading the actual verses for themselves (mini-Bereans).

LOL, they were young and it took a long time for us three teachers in the room to get them all opened to the same page. It was hard for them at first to find the verse and then to not lose their place while the other kids found it. But you would not believe how much zeal they exhibited in wanting to bring their bible and delighting in reading the verses for themselves. The eight year olds had an easier time of it than the six year olds. This particular evening we were studying Psalm 100.

There was one 8 year old boy sitting in front of me on the floor. He had opened verse Psalm 100:1 and he began reading it while the others were getting settled. He whispered,

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.”

He stopped reading. He looked aside, and paused. Then he whispered to himself, “I like that. I don’t know why I like it, but I do.”

This is a miracle.

We don’t get to see Jesus create fish and bread for thousands. We don’t see Him restoring sight and making the lame to walk. We do not see Him walk on the raging sea or change water to wine. But nowadays we have the Holy Spirit. The miracle in this day and age is regeneration. The Holy Spirit is invisible, but His work is not. Seeing and hearing a boy apply truth to his heart is a wondrous thing. Watching the joy he received from reading truth in beauty while acknowledging it and honoring it, is a visible evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in a person.

Do we eagerly read, then pause? Ponder and consider? Understand and accept the Word’s beauty without first having to construct intellectual reasons why? Do we accept the Spirit’s work in us and proclaim it aloud? Do we accept the miracle of His living word into our hearts with peace and joy?

And a little child shall lead them.

I believe the children killed in Newtown CT are in heaven right now. As John MacArthur says, “instant heaven.” As we mourn them on earth, what is Jesus saying to those children in heaven? I don’t know, but perhaps the scene looks like this-

Children Coming to Jesus, by John Lautermilch
“Come my children! You must have been so scared. You’re safe now. I have so much to show you!”
Posted in massacre, newtown, school shooting

A pastor’s response to the Newtown School shootings

Posted on by elizabethprata

My friend Pastor Phil Andrukaitis of the First Baptist of South Portland Maine wrote this essay in response to the massacre of children in an elementary school that occurred yesterday in Newtown CT. I hope it blesses you as it did me:

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

“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 3:18). The same bitter weeping for the twenty children and six adults of Sandy Hook Elementary School is being heard all over our country this evening.

It sickens our hearts to realize young innocent lives were violently murdered in the city of Bethlehem when Jesus was a toddler, but also during this 2012 Christmas season as Christians prepare to celebrate God’s greatest gift, the birth of Christ The Savior.

Christians, let us not lose heart in the midst of this awful tragedy, perpetrated by a wicked person. No doubt, many individuals may point to this incident as evidence that God is not all-powerful or all loving. They will ask with an accusatory tone, “Why didn’t You stop this twenty-year-old man who was hell-bent on fulfilling his evil plans?” Perhaps the best response to their question is answered with passionate prayers and compassionate deeds because our hope is in God.

God answered this evil deed and every evil deed committed against man when He sacrificed His Son on the cross for our sins and raised Him from the grave. The cross is the ultimate expression of God’s love and compassion and the resurrection is the ultimate display of God’s power over death and evil.

Let us continue to pray for these grieving families, teachers, students, and all the authorities God has appointed over us to restrain evil. Mourn with those who mourn. And let us believe that God will bring good and glory out of this horrific event, just as He did on Mount Calvary.

And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.