The cost of Faith!

Bearing Witness?

All believers will be challenged about our faith in Jesus, about truth, honesty and integrity and we have both a testimony and a knowledge of God and what He is doing for us!

When we think of Stephen the first martyr of the Ekklesia, we see a man who could not be out done and so out of spite and jealousy free slaves handed him over to the religious men of the day to have him stoned to death.

Many believers around the world today are being murdered for the name of Jesus, wither they practice or not, they bear the name Christian and Islam is one of the most hostile followed by all atheism nations who make excuses for truths they cannot bear to hear?

Matthew 10:15, Mark 13:9, Luke 21:13, John 15:26, Revelation 6:9-11.

Creationism!

The Genesis Factor?

The debate in the world continues over creationism and Darwinian theory as too evolution only from a scientific point of view, that always discounts the facts of the Holy Bible and yet here in the scriptures we have the simple answers to complex questions!

In recent years climate change or global warming are at the of the agenda of humanity and one would think why are we not racing to save our planet?

Biblical truth points to our world created out of water and the first world destroyed by it because of evil, but this second world is to be destroyed by fire and it will become dry and parched!

Genesis 1:6, 9, 9:15, Hebrews 11:3, 2 Peter 3:5-7.

Bear Fruit!

For God.

We all who believe have been set free and thus we are told in the book of the Romans, that our purpose is to bear fruit for our Father.

But in this context Paul is not writing in relation directly to winning souls, but to that of improving our character, that we are more Holy towards God and able to cope with the hostility that is around us.

We are precious to God and He wants the best for us, since we would be enabled to not get angry or slack in our service to Him, we would be stronger to counter the silly arguments at times the world try to throw at us?

Romans 7:11, (6:22), 2 Corinthians 10:5, Galatians 5:22, Ephesians 5:9.

Blessing God!

Many believers only see it the other way?

But in the New Testament we find two passages in the Gospels in relation to two men blessing God, one in relation to John the Baptizer and the other in the Temple at Jesus’ circumcision. Luke 1:64 and 2:28 respectively.

Zechariah could speak and Simeon had lived long enough to see this day of both the last and greatest prophet John and the Messiah.

Many people today are living a long time again and some believers will live long enough to see our Lord returning on the clouds of glory, but even more so since we live the this time of Spirit and truth John 4:23-24, we should bless the Lord everyday both in prayer and in worship!

Pentecost!

A gap between the Jews and the Gentiles?

Most believers just accept that the Holy Spirit was poured out on all in Jerusalem, ten days after Jesus ascended into Heaven!

But when we read the book of Acts we will discover that this is not true and there is a substantial gap, letting us know that it was the believing Jews who first received and then much later the Gentiles through the work of the Apostle Peter.

This theme runs right through the New Testament in Revelation the tribulation will come to the Jews first, then to the rest of the world.

Acts 2:1-6, 10:44-46. 11:1.

The message we tend to Forget?

After the big rush of Easter.

These three verses are more associated with Christmas and the birth of the Jewish Messiah Jesus, they are hardly mentioned even in passing to the whole picture of the story, mostly because of the fulfilment of Jewish law of both prophetic revelation and Jesus circumcision on the eight day?

But this week we want to keep in focus the light to the Gentiles and the Light of Jesus that is constantly shining out into our dead world, that will bring hope to all in despair from conflicts, wars and social-economic woes, since God will meet with us where and what ever circumstances we may find ourselves in!

Luke 2:29-32, Psalm 98:2, John 8:12, Acts13:47,26:23.

Pro-Israel Christians pulling Back?

Israel’s right-wing anti-Christian Laws!

The problem with U.S. Ekklesia is that they do not know enough of their Bibles in relation to Eschatology and the end times, when Israel will not want, what it considers to be anti-Semitic to its culture?

Judaism is legalistic and it only sees Islam as being more close to what it believes in relation to a shared ancestor Abraham, while Jesus/Yeshua known to us is an imposter and they want nothing of Him!

The other reason is that Israel sees the Christian community as pro-Palestinian and hypocritical when it comes to the word of the Tanakh or our Old Testament that Elohim commands Israel to rid the land of these peoples?

In the book of Romans the Apostle Paul tells us that, ‘the Jews have been blinded, so that the gentiles can come into the commonwealth of Israel or that should rather be the Kingdom (Basilia).

Since they are blinded to the truth, they will want to restore the temple in the area of the Dome of the Rock or Mount Moriah and thus we learn from Daniel and from 2 Thessalonians this will be the place of the desolation and bring on the return of the real Messiah Yeshua/Jesus for us, but for them Ha ‘Moshia/Anti-Christ.

For many believers reading this world-wide, you encompass the Holy Bible and praise the Lord for that, but in the west to much doctrines and replacement theology has blinded many from the truth!

John 12:40, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 John 2:11.

Easter. One.

Purchased from the curse of the Law!

Sometimes the message of Easter can be too focused on the Cross and all other events, but not on some of the essential doctrines of the full meaning of the work that Jesus undertook for us by his sacrifice and the importance of that?

The Old Testament is full of being redeemed, since this was both a business transaction and that of keeping a family together, the Hebrew sense of the word Ga’al Strongs H1350 is that of buying back, while in the New Testament the Greek Agorazo Strongs G59 is purchase.

But the work of Jesus on the stake/cross/tree was also to set us free from the curse of the law and for more so the Gentiles to receive the Holy Spirit, that would break the animosity with the Jews, sadly this remains an allusive condition that is yet to be resolved?

Galatians 3:13-14, 4:5-6, Deuteronomy 21:33, Luke 23:39.

Humanity Gathered!

End of the Heavens?

This is another interesting area for discussion in relation to what it might mean in that people with faith before the flood and the days of Noah are being gathered for the Lord Day.

This may answer the question as to why God confused humanity at Babel in relation to the tower that they were constructing into the heaven, something that they once had to cross space possibly to other human habitation in the Universe and God was not going to allow those in the heavens to be spoiled anymore by the violent sin of Tubal-Cain?

This does not mean that humans in other places are without sin, we do understand from the Holy scriptures that the universe as we know it is in decay, it has fallen too with that of the sin of Eve!

Mark 13:27b, (24-27), Genesis 11:1-4, Deuteronomy 1:28, 4:32, 30:4, Job 8:8, (Matthew 24:26-31, Luke 21{25-28).

Nations Shaken!

We must never think that God will excuse Sin?

As believers we are being saved into the age of Grace and it would seem to many people it is easy to believe that God can be undermined about the sins of deviance and same sex sins, without Him pouring out His wrath?

Our world and societies are in a mess, when feelings have replace truth and reality and many people old and young are being fooled by the roaming’s of Satan to delude us from the truth as he did eve in the garden!

Turkiye and Syria have this month seen horrendous destruction from at least four major earthquakes on a NE-SW fault line that runs for hundreds of miles and the death toll could rise to one hundred thousand?

We are small to the plight of nature and so everything is small in the universe, in the created order to God, yet the Bible tells us the conditions of God coming close to His creation and we need to step back and take a check on ourselves to meet more of His criteria?

Hebrew 12:25-29, Exodus 19:18, Haggai 2:6-8, 20-22.