The Prophet and the Widow

Rehoboam (Solomon’s Son) and Jeroboam (one of the Head Craftsmen), faced off about the high taxes that the Israelites had to pay the to the Order of the Kingdom of Israel. This resulted in a disintegration of the kingdom of Israel, and 10 of the Tribes or family groups went with Jeroboam to form a splinter, a big splinter of the kingdom.

As we saw before Jeroboam was concerned more about his power than his people and set up idol worship as a means of controlling whether they should see what true worship is like in Jerusalem. After The Northern Kingdom went with Jeroboam, they had a series of bad kings with one rising up and taking the previous one down, or by inheritance.

Today, we go into the study of the kingship of Ahab and the Prophet of God during his reign, pulling out some key elements to display God’s Message.

1 Kings 17:1-12

Prior to 1 Kings 17 we know nothing about Elijah. Many people have speculated as to who he was and have come up with theories which cannot be proved or could be disputed. Some people believe that he was either God pre-incarnate or an angel in human form, but James 5:17 lays to rest either of those theories. Elijah is an example of faithfulness during a time of nationwide rejection of the truth.

We open up this study with a man appearing on the scene that we have no previous knowledge of, save that he was a Tishbite.

Now the name Tishbite, when broken down means sojourner, but could also refer to a location. Josephus refers to Elijah as being from Teshbon (a Country or Province in Gilead). The name Elijah means Jehovah is God and as the story ensues, Elijah’s life remains fairly close to the meaning of his name.

Ahab, was the son of a wicked king, who had done evil as had Jeroboam. The account we have before us says that Ahab was more evil than all who were before him. Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, who was a king of Sidon, and together they built an altar to Baal the Zidonian god, and Asherah the Zidonian goddess. Ethbaal was a priest-king of Baal, and his daughter Jezebel had picked up that spiritual power and transferred it into the worship in Israel. The name Jezebel itself means “where is the “Prince”? This is believed to be a direct reference to Baal who was a god of the underworld and their search for Spring and New Life! They believed that when Baal showed his face the crops and life itself flourished.

There is a few key points in verse 1 that we must not miss.

Elijah was addressing Ahab, that wicked king whose wife was a priestess of Baal, a god whose appearance was believed by them to bring New Life.

Elijah though facing a king who could have had his head, spoke the Word of The Lord.

Elijah stood before God, whose Message he brought to Ahab and Jezebel.

This drought that Elijah prophesied to the Israelites about had a previously issued warning in Deuteronomy 11:16,17 that when their hearts became deceived and they worshipped other gods, the wrath of God would fall on them and the heavens would issue no rain.

After meeting king Ahab in Samaria and giving him the warning about there being a drought, Elijah, under the command and provision of the Lord was told to escape Eastward and hide by the brook Cherith. Now Cherith was on the East side of the Jordan River, whereas Samaria was on the western side. God was preparing Elijah for a profound and miraculous ministry that required his complete trust in Jehovah. As Elijah lived by the brook, every morning and evening, ravens brought him bread and meat for his sustenance. “With God all things are possible.”

So where did these ravens get these tidbits of food the for the prophet to eat? I sincerely doubt these were leftover crumbs that some caravan discarded. Why do I feel this was not an option? Food was scarce, so if you had it; you didn’t waste it.

I figure that this was probably bread and meat from heaven that was specifically sent for the nourishment of God’s Prophet.

Now when there is a drought in a place, eventually the rivers and the creeks dry up and the avenue that God had provided for Elijah had left as the last drop of rain water evaporated into the air.

Elijah’s time of preparation was over and God wanted him to move onto the next phase of his ministry. Elijah was sent to Zarephath, a city in Sidon near the place where Jezebel, that wicked queen hailed from. This was a Gentile city, that was in the heart of idol worship, yet here is where the call of God sent Elijah.

We don’t know for sure if she was a believer before Elijah met up with her or even if she had ever heard of the True God, but it would seem likely that she had heard about God from someone. When Solomon built God’s Temple in Jerusalem, and through the wisdom that God had given him, one would sure think that news like that along with the glory of the kingdom of Israel would have made it that far North (about 100 Miles or so). We do know that news had reached into the Land of Sheba, either known as Ethiopia or South Africa.

There was a widow in the city of Zarephath that God had prepared for this occasion and Elijah was sent to her, not so much for his benefit, but for hers. This widow, a citizen of that Gentile city was preparing to make her last meal and then she and her son would starve.

God’s people were forsaking him, yet among the Gentiles, there was a heart that was ripe for the Gospel Message, So God was moving in her heart and Elijah’s heart as they both were prepared for the meeting that was God ordained.

How far widespread was this drought? The rejection that Israel chose to send God’s way created a traumatic situation, not only for them but the neighboring countries around them. We notice that as far away as Sidon, their food supply was running out. The widow in our lesson shows us just how desperate things were for them as well as the Israelites.

Over and over again, God has displayed His mercy to a person who has humbled themselves before Him, no matter what background they come from. It had seemed clear, that the Israelites were God’s Chosen people, but once again, the popular belief was pushed aside so yet another soul could enter into God’s Kingdom. This was made available through the rejection of God’s Chosen People refusing to acknowledge Him as their Lord.

This widow’s obedience is amazing! She had no reason to trust Elijah and his God, but then what did she have to lose. Her whole life had been predicated on the lie that her god and goddess would bring the fruit from the ground, but when the time had come for a harvest these last 3 years; but alas, there was none.

As Elijah instructed her to bring him a cake first, she makes an interesting statement. She said, “As the Lord thy God Liveth”. First off, She is recognizing, There is a Living God. Secondly, she is recognizing Elijah as his Prophet. Thirdly, that she doesn’t know Him.

Elijah’s prophecy about her barrel of meal and cruse of oil came true and she began to warm up to the prophet and his God, the Living God who could create meal and oil from nothing. No matter how she scraped her barrel and cruse out, there was always some there the next time she needed it.

God’s provision for her, had brought her to the place of believing in Him.

The next step in this plan that God had for her and Elijah was one that had never been done before. Though it hadn’t been done before, Abraham had believed that God could do it for his son Isaac after he had sacrificed him. Hebrews 11:17-19

This widow, having lost her husband beforehand, now had he only child, a son, become sick and die. She immediately assumed that the grace of God was no longer on her head due to the entrenched ideologies that were ingrained into her belief system.

God understands the fears and confusions of our hearts. This woman was grief-stricken, and out of her grief, she spoke hastily. We, to speak hastily to the Lord at times when we don’t understand what is going on in our lives. We say things like “Why me Lord?”

We so easily forget the blessings of the Lord as soon as hardship comes. The Children of Israel forget the blessings of the Lord whether things were going good or badly for them. God is a Patient God and He was displaying His longsuffering nature to her so that she would understand more in depth who He is.

We may criticize this lady for accusing Elijah of bringing her son’s death upon her, but she was outside God’s chosen people. True she was serving the Lord now, and serving His Prophet, but how could she know that at some point her sins wouldn’t come back to haunt her? This was a legitimate fear for her. As a Gentile, she did not have the same rights before God as a born Jew would have, and any proselytized Gentile would have felt that. Today, through Jesus, all Gentiles have an open relationship with God, even to a greater degree than what the Old Testament Jews would have been able to have.

Sometimes when we experience traumatic incidents, we immediately assume that God has left us because of our unrighteousness. While that may be the case on occasion, God may actually be closer than we think. In the story we have before us, God had prepared this situation, not that He wanted her to experience her son dying, but that He wanted her to experience her son becoming alive again!

The purpose of this was to prove that He alone is God and that He creates Life!

The widow’s last testimony we read of is “I know that thou art a man of God, and the Word of the Lord in your mouth is truth”. She no longer is calling God Elijah’s God, but the grammatical sense is denoting ownership of God. In other words, she now was a personal believer in God.

‪#‎Godcreateslife‬ ‪#‎believerinGod‬ ‪#‎widowinZarephath‬ ‪#‎testimonyoflife‬

Defining Moments of a King!

Defining Moments of A King!
1 Kings 3

King Solomon was a young king over a people group that was without number. The background for this study begins in the first chapter of 1 Kings.

Solomon’s father David has had declining health and will eventually turn the kingdom over to his successor. Meanwhile David’s fourth son, Adonijah, has seized the moment and gained notoriety among David’s former colleagues and has set himself up as king. God had promised before hand that Solomon would be taking on that role and so right from the start Solomon walks right into a conflict that is left over from his father’s mistakes/sins. As David found out that Adonijah had set himself up as his father’s successor, David moved quickly then with the Prophet of God to instate Solomon as a God-ordained King. The reality of this situation is there is two coronation ceremonies going on within the same family to rule over the same people.

As Adonijah understood that he had a rival that was ordained by God and his father, he ran to the tabernacle and grabbed onto the horns of the altar in desperation begging for his life. Solomon left him live under the order that he was to show himself a worthy man. Adonijah bowed himself before his brother indicating his allegiance to him.

Eventually Solomon has Adonijah put to death because he asked a favor of Solomon regarding the woman that had been David’s servant to keep him warm as he aged. That was too much for Solomon and he ordered Adonijah killed.

For the sake of national security Solomon was ordered by David to carry out the judgment for various offenders of David’s that he hadn’t dealt with.

The Quest for Wisdom

To begin with, I would like to look at the Laws that were given by Moses for when Israel would receive a king. Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Now as we come to the text of our study 1 Kings 3, we see Solomon as an established, though young king. From the start of his reign he gets mixed up with foreign women, largely due to the various affinities he made with various kings.

It is here that he begins to go wrong. In order to see what was controlling his heart, let’s dissect this account together and see where Solomon’s heart was.

First of all, what is an affinity? According to the Strong’s Concordance, affinity is to give a daughter away in marriage, to contract affinity by marriage. So then what is an affinity? It is a relationship that is bonded through a marriage. The modern definition of this is forming a treaty through a marriage.

Solomon began his reign by creating a relationship with the king of Egypt through the marriage of Pharaoh’s daughter. What did this affinity mean for the kingdom of Israel? Egypt and Israel were both powerful nations at this point and basically this maneuver was creating an alliance between them similar to the alliance between Great Britain and the U.S.. 2 Corinthians 6:15 This type of alliance between Egypt and Israel was different though in the sense that Israel was designated a nation of God’s People, who were holy. Egypt, however was on a cultural path of destruction, through their idolatry, and ignorance of God. So as this plays out, we have a people set aside to be holy; whose king makes an alliance with a people who is unholy. Can this end anywhere but in a mess? 1 Corinthians 15:33

I see this episode, as a lack of trust on Solomon’s part. As an ally, they were bound to each other to stand in for each other in battle.

What do you have an affinity with? In Genesis 6 this gets played out in the spiritual realm as the sons of God saw the daughters of men and married them and through that alliance, giants were born. Today, if we allow the alliance between ourselves as holy children of God and the spirits of this world, the inevitable will happen and giants will be born within our soul.

The worship experience of Israel in those days was to worship in high places. The tabernacle was the original designated place of worship and at this point it was located in Gibeon. Even though the Tabernacle was in Gibeon, the ark of the Covenant (which represented God’s Presence) was in Jerusalem. For some reason God blessed Solomon’s worship in the high place at Gibeon even though it was still set up as a high place. This worship in high places was more than just building an altar such as Abraham, Samuel, and David had done; but was a complete worship center with groves, and whatever else was common in those types of settings. This was not true worship for it was forbidden by God, and was a form of idolatry.

What are our high places? Can we set up a spiritual high place, where by appearance we are worshipping God, but we are doing so in disobedience, and have set up our place of worship whether physical or spiritual as an idol before the Lord. Isaiah 29:13/Matthew 15:8 Are we following the practices of the heathen around us when we worship the Lord?

Now, after all this, Solomon goes to worship the Lord in Gibeon where the tabernacle is residing. This is the official place to meet the Lord for the Israelites. It is here in Gibeon, that God meets Solomon and offers him; no strings attached, whatever he wants.

Note that though Solomon loved the Lord, his devotion to the Lord was not his full devotion. He was distracted from giving the Lord his full devotion.

Solomon’s heart is toward the Lord at this point, and he knew that the job he had been called to do was bigger than he was. He was young, and inexperienced needing God’s wisdom for this undaunting task of leading God’s people on the right way. James 1:5

What is the difference between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God? The wisdom of this world is often viewed as philosophy including a wide spectrum of circumstances, and scientific theories; while the wisdom of God is having the understanding of life from God’s perspective. The only true way to understand life is through the wisdom of God, for God gives life, and He gives life meaning. If you try to understand life with a worldly wisdom, there are many areas in life when answers will fail you and life will cease to have meaning, judgments will be narrow sighted, and the future will be bleak.

Proverbs 3:7-26

John 15:16 We do have the same opportunity to ask God for whatever we will, but with one stipulation though. We need to ask in Jesus name. What does that mean? When Jesus abides in us, and the spirit of God moves through us, our request is not selfish, but for the good of the Kingdom of God. As a child of God, in whom the Spirit of God dwells, our greatest goal is to want God’s for ourselves and others what God has designed for us.

Solomon’s heart was distracted from giving God his full devotion. What about us? Are we distracted in our devotion to the Lord. Is our Faith radical? Have we given our complete trust to the Lord?

We have been given the position to lead in one way or another. Are we asking humbly God for wisdom to lead in the area we have been called?

Solomon’s request to God was also for an understanding heart. An understanding heart is one that hears, not just in passing or as one who is distracted when someone else is talking but one who really hears. Solomon wanted a heart that would really hear God when He was talking. A comparison to this spiritually would be in Ephesians 1:18.

The Gift of Wisdom

The speech pleased the Lord! What about Solomon’s speech pleased the Lord? Solomon had humbled his heart before the Lord, and a broken or humble spirit God will not turn away. God promised Solomon that he would be given wisdom and an understanding heart. 1 Corinthians 13:2 says that if a man understand all mysteries and doesn’t have love, he is nothing.

While on one hand Solomon had humbled himself and God had promised him wisdom and an understanding heart, Solomon was still living in disobedience to the Lord through his allegiance to Egypt through his marriage, and his continued worship in the various high places. The wisdom and understanding had proved to be disregarded in his personal life while at the same time he enabled others to benefit from it.

As part of Solomon’s blessing for choosing wisdom and understanding, God also blessed him with riches and honor. The Old Covenant was a physical covenant in which many times the faithful were rewarded physically as well. Many of the faithful under the Old Covenant received riches and honor as a blessing from God for their faithfulness. Under the New Covenant, however, which is spiritual, the blessing may not necessarily be physical. The faithful under the New Covenant will be rewarded with spiritual riches and when the day arrives when God calls his servants home, their reward will be so much greater than anything physical could possibly be.

After Solomon awake from his vision, and realized all that God had promised him, he went and stood before the Ark of the Covenant and offered up burnt offerings, worshiping God, and offering Peace offerings. Solomon was, as it were, standing in the throneroom of God before the mercy seat of the Almighty in humble submission.

The Results of Wisdom

I have often wondered what woman would be so hard as to say to cut a child to pieces. I mean you could see the child, yet that is what happened in this account. Solomon was able to see through her pretentious fascade and chose to use the method of threatening to do this as a means of determining who the real mother was. I can’t go on from here without saying that many of today’s mothers are doing exactly that. They are taking the place of that second woman and are having their unborn child torn apart or drugged so they die. Many real mothers and fathers are MIA (missing in action) when it comes to being there for their children.

In this case, though, the real mother’s heart yearned for her child and she couldn’t bear to see it destroyed. Isaiah 49:15.

Solomon’s wisdom that he showed in this case further solidified his place as a worthy ruler and his subjects were slow to disobey him because of his discernment. In the same way, when we trust the Lord, and do righteously, many people will respect us for it.

The contrast that came before Solomon was selfishness and compassion. This is what Solomon was choosing between.

The original plan for Israel was to be a nation of priests which would draw the world to God. Israel was located strategically between two major civilizations and would be right on the trade route. If Israel could maintain their spirituality, God would continue to bless them physically and nations would be in awe of them. Today as people of the New Covenant, God has blessed us not necessarily with physical things, but spiritual; and if we continue to live in faith the people of the world will be drawn to God through us. This will not be an automatic wave of people coming to God, but nevertheless, people will come.

Solomon used God’s wisdom well when applying it to the lives and needs of others, but when it came to applying it to his personal life, he was severely lacking. Truly applying wisdom will affect your personal life. Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10

Wisdom:
Delivers us from the ways of evil men Proverbs 2:10-13
Delivers us from immorality 5:1-3
It gives us the right words to say 10:31,32; Luke 21:15

Delivers us from evil and brings us to humility 16:16-18
It builds up and brings us strength and safety 24:3-6
Disciplining brings wisdom to children and to all whom God disciplines 29:15
Prepares men for Leadership Acts 6:3
Enables us to determine God’s will Colossians 1:9
True wisdom is gentle, pure, and merciful James 3:1

‪#‎askforwisdom‬ ‪#‎wisdom‬ ‪#‎questforwisdom‬ ‪#‎giftofwisdom‬ ‪#‎resultsofwisdom‬‪#‎walkinrighteousness‬

Salvation Comes From God!

Salvation Comes From God

Life or Death is in the power of the choice!

There are two eternal destinies to which the eternal souls of mankind choose to spend their eternity by either choosing life or death.  We are able to live physically without choosing God, but we will be making choices to destroy ourselves physically.  The reality is if we are choosing not to choose God we are choosing Satan and his wages...his payment for being his minion is death.  Though you may be alive presently, you can not live on his wages and you will begin to die physically and of course you are already dead spiritually.

We all start out in this life as babies who carry the bent toward sin and death.  We will all carry this to our grave unless … unless there is a Savior, a Redeemer who is willing to take our punishment for the sins we have committed.  We do, and his name is Jesus, He is our Savior.  He is God, come in the flesh to take our punishment of death and save us from our sins and from the penalty of our sins.

As a means to clarify my previous statement, we are not punished for having the bent toward evil, but because of that bent we should choose evil.  That is what we will be punished for.

Salvation begins, only after you have reached an understanding that you are doomed, and that there is a Savior waiting on your acceptance of Him.  Though the purchase price has been paid; it is an advance payment waiting on you to claim it. As it begins to dawn on you that there is hope, that life doesn’t have to be meaningless; and you make your choice to accept the sacrifice Jesus made in your behalf, you begin to live!  

Life will take on new meaning, life will be something to look forward to, and life will now be eternal instead of being over at the grave.

Genesis chapter 15 lays out the covenant God made with Abraham for atonement for sin.  God appears to Abraham in a vision and gives him a message.  

God said, “I am your shield” and “I am your great reward”.  If we were to break this done a bit, it would look like this … I am your protection and your treasure.  What difference did this make to Abraham to have this declaration of God?  First of all, when the Word of the Lord comes to someone; it is to be shared.  Abraham, as the messenger of God, was a prophet of God.  Secondly, Abraham was a part of mankind; and this entire chapter deals with the sin nature of mankind and the redemption process that God had planned.  

Abraham showed his humanity by thinking of passing the blessings on to his household, but God had a much bigger plan in store for him.  God plainly showed Abraham, who was to benefit from this declaration that was given to him.  It was to be his children.  God began to tell Abraham all that He had done for him.  God said, “I have separated you from your land and your people, and brought you to a new place and given to you as an inheritance”.  This land was to be a place where Abraham’s children could serve the Lord without the influences of the wicked neighbors.  (Some of the details needed worked out and would be in God’s own good time!)

The meat of this passage now follows as Abraham, following God’s instructions, takes different kinds of animals and divides them laying them in an organized fashion.  This most certainly would have created a trail of blood as the life-blood flowed from the animals and mingled in a pool.

This was a sight that Abraham was never going to forget because of its significance, and while he waited on God to make the next step; Abraham maintained the purity of the sacrifice by not allowing any external contaminations to take away from the pure sacrifice.  Abraham had birds swooping to get their own piece of that tasty meat which he chased away while he waited.  These birds could be compared to the devil as he tried in vain to get between the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the Father making it impure and thus ineffective.

The sun began to go down, and Abraham in his humanity began to become sleepy as God began to reveal Himself in this new and remarkable way.  It was as if the wickedness of the world had overtaken the light and extinguished it altogether as an unnatural darkness swept across him.

As God began His discourse with Abraham, He prophetically spoke of Abraham’s children being servants in a strange land and being set free when the time was right.  He spoke of the people of that land being judged for their sins, and Abraham’s children inheriting that land from the hand of God.

The smoking furnace that Abraham saw was representative of the suffering Abraham’s descendants would face, while the burning lamp would portray the great deliverance by which they would be delivered.  This has a two-fold meaning, one as in the children of Israel being delivered from Egypt, and two as in we who have been grafted into Abraham’s lineage have lived for many years in bondage to the prince of this world and have received our freedom through Jesus Christ.  This type of covenant could only be broken through one party not going through with his or her end of the covenant, which would require his/her death as the perpetrator of this broken promise.  

Abraham is considered the prophet of the Lord and the father of all who have faith.  Through this kind of representation we see from him we can understand that he is representing both God and mankind.  In a nutshell, this covenant states that if God doesn’t keep up His end of this covenant, He will die as part of that agreement; on the other hand, God is saying, that because no amount of mankind will ever be “good enough” as a sacrifice of death for failing in this agreement, He (God) would die for that scenario as well.

This covenant was fulfilled in Jesus Christ who is God and man both, and because man failed in his part of the agreement, offered up Himself as God on behalf of mankind.  It is critical that we recognize both the humanity and the divinity of Jesus and understand just what He came to do, for how can we appreciate His sacrifice on our behalf unless we understand the workings of this covenant and what was required for sin.

The only way to atone for the sin of humanity was for a holy God to offer Himself as a holy sacrifice for an unholy people.  It is clear, mankind had nothing to offer for its own redemption.  As this plays out in our lives, we have salvation by our faith in the grace of God which is available through Jesus Christ because of His offering.

Genesis 15:1-21

Romans 4:16

Romans 5:1,2

Romans 6:23

Where Does The Capacity To Reason Come From?

The Capacity to Reason Comes From God!

The social push today is to have reason with no faith in an outside deity.  Their cry is to be left alone and not have their lives dictated by what they call an abstract god.  Their definitions of God have been a mockery to who He really is, because He isn’t an abstract dictator who really doesn’t care about them.  Reason, they say is to live a life that is lived in the here and now, with no thought for what you cannot see.

What if all Americans lived that way.  Just because you cannot see the government doesn’t mean that it’s non-existent.  Rather if we just open our eyes, we shall see the evidences of the government which resides in another part of the country.  Belief in God is a lot like that many of us can see the evidences of His presence, many of us can feel His presence; so come now and reason it out...look at the facts, the evidence, the truth and reason will no longer be ignorance, but will be reality.

When God implanted the seed of life into soul of man part of that included the ability to reason.  Without the ability to reason, there is no choice and we become robots following our instincts.  Genesis chapter 1 says that mankind was made in the image of God.  That means they had a spirit, a soul, and a body; all of which enabled them to make their own choices and carry them out.  As early on as Genesis Chapter 3 we see that capability acted on; which was the downfall of the world.

Reason is not always evil, but is a God given ability which He intended for us to use to choose Righteousness, but when we allow a humanistic approach govern our reasoning we will choose evil.

Humanity, as created by God, are highly spiritual beings so the idea that you can have freedom from religion is inaccurate, misleading, and is predicated on Humanism (the worship of humanity and their thought processes) and Atheism (the refusal to acknowledge a higher power) which is also a form of Humanism.  It is because of our wicked heart that we are able to rationalize wickedness and is possible due to a disconnect in our spirit.  When this happens we are making choices in our soul and the choices are based on feeling and not reality.  Even if we choose to disconnect our spirituality from our souls, inevitably we, either in this generation or in the following generations will revert to being spiritual again. Usually this will end up with the antithesis of Christianity and be outright devil worship.

Throughout the entire Word of God, there is a distinct call to look at the truth laid before you and reason or think it through.  Isaiah 1:18 Come Let us Reason together.  Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.  Joshua said, “Choose you this day whom you will serve”.

The ability to reason things out comes with a great responsibility to guard our hearts from what we cannot see.  Usually as humans, we tend to look at the here and now to base our judgments on, and our reasoning becomes flawed, skewed, and lop-sided because we haven’t taken into account the whole picture.  

There is a choice that each of us will make.  We will either choose to look at life through God’s eyes or we will look at life through the eyes of the god of this world.  When we choose to look at our lives through the eyes of God, we will become enlightened and our understanding will become enhanced; while if we choose to look at life through the eyes of the god of this world our understanding will become darkened.  When the path isn’t clear, we need light.

Can a person make an intelligent choice when all the facts whether seen or unseen are not taken into consideration? Determine in your own heart what evidence you may be missing.

Luke 20:9-18/Matthew 21:33-46/Mark 12:1-12

Luke 20:1-8

Ephesians 4:17-32

Psalm 119:105

God As The Son!

The prophets in the Old Testament prophesied about the time when God would come as the Savior.  Isaiah says “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight a path in the desert for our God”.  John the Baptist, who was the last prophet before Christ, took up that cry and declared to the people that Jesus Christ is both Lord and God.

There are some popular religions that believe Jesus was a re-incarnated Michael the Archangel or that he was just a prophet that taught a good moral message, but what does the Bible have to say about that?  Was Jesus an angel picked out for the job of being Savior or was He, as God offering Himself as the ransom for the sins of the people or was He just a prophet?

The Son has existed forever, even before the Father prepared Mary as a surrogate.  The Bible says “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”.  The Prophet Micah prophesied that a Ruler would come out of Bethlehem who had neither beginning nor end, and the book of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who had neither beginning nor end.  Jesus is an eternal being who rules forever and is a priest forever.  The Priesthood begins with Jesus and ends with Jesus, therefore it was He who commissioned the priests out of the tribe of Levi.

Though we often view Mary as the mother of Jesus the Son of God, and so she is in respect to the fact that she cared for Him as a mother would, God had chosen through His Sovereign Nature to come into the existence of mankind  through the portal of humanity .  The Son of God, though He chose to come to the earth as a baby that would need a mother’s care; pre-existed as God throughout eternity past.  It is through coming like this that it can be said of Him “He was tempted in all points such as we are, yet without sin”.  Jesus, after taking upon Himself the form of a human, opened Himself to being able to feel the depraved feelings of mankind, but yet purposed in His heart not to defile Himself by indulging into self-pity, feelings of rejection, feelings of lust, or any other thing known to mankind.

So what really does it mean when you see or hear Immanuel?  Immanuel or Emmanuel is a word used to describe the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  First of all “incarnation” means “taking on the flesh”.  The words Immanuel or Emmanuel mean literally “God With Us”.  Isaiah brings these words into his writings (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) to give hope in a time when there was none.  The meaning was clear God was going to visit His people. The Word of God was going to become flesh!

The messages that God had spoken in times past were clear, Mankind deserved to die for its sin; yet God, the merciful Father that He is offered to take our sin and our punishment for sin in exchange for a relationship with Him.  A life of sin always will end up with someone’s death and there is no getting around that fact, so when God declares that he is willing to take it on Himself, He is declaring that you (we) have been pardoned if you allow His blood sacrifice to atone for your sin.  Physical death is not yet eradicated, but it will be as Jesus will come back to this earth destroy the rest of His enemies.  Sin will always take a person to the point of self-destruction unless God steps in to reverse that path through Salvation.  Though many of us live our lives with seemingly “good morals”, unless we choose Jesus our lives are headed for destruction in the Lake of Fire which was prepared for the angelic enemies of God and those they have deceived.

The Ministry of Jesus Christ began at His Baptism.  Baptism was always a sign of entering into a life of service for God and when Jesus was baptized the meaning hadn't changed.  It is here that the three person Godhead is present in either visible or audible form.  Those around Jesus had no doubt as to what had just happened unless they just chose to ignore the truth.  John the Baptist, the man doing the baptizing at that point interpreted that to mean that Jesus was (is) the Sacrifice of God.  The crowd that was standing around heard, saw and heard the interpretation so they really were without excuse.

As Jesus received His ministerial initiation ritual, it became evident that He was set to become a leader of an entirely different stripe.  His physical leadership was going to be short, and divisive; yet it was going to be a leadership that was focused on His love for His followers rather than some selfish agenda.  It was unheard of for a leader to seek to give life to his followers by dying for them.  Usually the leader would spend years discipling his followers and hope they would catch it by the time he could no longer lead them.  Jesus discipled His followers a mere 3 years and then offered Himself up as a sacrifice on the cross to give them life (spiritual).  Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

The life and ministry of Jesus the Son of God on this earth had more purpose than just to create some amazing stories to teach good morals.  Many people view the stories of the Bible this way; but in reality the Bible is the story of God rather than just independent stories of people or even an isolated story of Jesus.

The ministry of God incarnate drew to a close as the Religious Leaders declared Jesus a blasphemer of Himself as God, and through which they became the true blasphemers of God.  They thought they had enough evidence against Jesus to destroy Him by death and He willingly offered Himself up so that His message would spring to life through His death.  His physical death on the cross was the beginning of a new era for the world as within three days He was raised bodily from the grave and an earthquake made the empty tomb visible to those who came to see it.  The Power of God is the only force that is capable of raising the dead body of our Lord to life.

God the Son is the person of the Godhead through whom all things are issued.

God As The Father

He is the father to the fatherless

He is a mother to the motherless

He is the Creator of the world

He is an orchestrator of Redemption, Creation, Life, etc...

He is the Giver of the Law

He is the orchestrator of Holiness, righteousness, Truth, Revelations, etc…

He is the Giver of all Blessings (Good Gifts)

He is the beginning of Wisdom, Glory, Promises

There is very little distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  As we proceed into this study, we shall see many similarities between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God the Father begins to reveal Himself to us in the beginning of His Word.  We have already mentioned the word El-ohim in which The prefix “El” translates as Father God.  As mentioned in a previously, the suffix “ohim” gives the pre-fix a plural meaning.  The word El-ohim is a singular word for Father God with a plural meaning.  This indicates more than one person having the name as Father God.  (Genesis 1:1)  We are not trying to say that there is more than one God but that the term God is made up of three persons; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God is a Living Father.  Hosea 1:10 indicates that there are those who hadn’t been Children of the Living God, but that He would become their Father.

The Father always refers to an authority that has brought into existence or gives life to a son or daughter.

The Old Testament makes various references to God the Father, but though it has been mentioned; it becomes a reality in the New Testament.  The New Testament has shown us that the Father is a personal Father instead of a vague reference to Him being our Father.

There are two aspects of the Father.  One of these aspects is God the Father as He issues the decree for us to be His children.  The other aspect of the Father is in Christ, who though He is our “Elder Brother” through our adoption, He initiates fatherhood into each one of us.  It is because of Creation that we have a part of God instilled into us as men to be fathers to our children and show them the true character of God the best we can.  There are many parts of this that we will need to ask God to help us as there is no way a fallen being can exemplify a holy, and righteous God to their children.

A  father also continues to breathe life into his children’s hearts by blessing them or offering them the Living Truth though it may be hard for them to swallow.  A father will speak to his children about the dangers in life and will do everything in his power to protect them from those dangers.  A father whose child has taken its own way of destruction, will work with his child to redeem the situation in which they have found themselves.

Through Creation, we are called the children of God.  Adam, the first man, was referred to as the son of God in Luke chapter 3:38.  When mankind fell into rebellion, it seemed as though we were losing our place as the children of God until the time of the Israelites.  God stepped in and set them apart and re-initiated them as His Children.  Since the Israelites were human, their desires and pride would often get in the way of a true meaningful relationship with their Heavenly Father.  God the Father was always there to re-establish them as full children.

As time moved along, between the on again off again relationship of the Israelites and God and the ever increasing de-moralization of the rest of the population, the world continually was getting worse.  God’s plan under the Old Covenant was for the Israelites to be a type of the true Children of God and to set the stage for the initiation into the church or His Bride.

Just as the physical father cares about each of his children, our Heavenly Father cares deeply about each of His Children.  When we as children of our Heavenly Father are rebellious, He still loves us very deeply; and though we are enemies of His plan for us, He has gone to great expense to redeem our relationship with Him.

Sometimes we may feel like orphans, but we can be assured; God is our Father and is just waiting for us to reach out and take hold of His hand.  The Father is actively working on behalf of all of mankind, searching out all of the dysfunctional children who are His because He created them.  God has given us life at our birth, but we still need to make a conscious choice to remain a dysfunctional child or become a part of the inheritance of His Righteousness.

As physical fathers, we look to our heavenly Father for an example in how to be a good father to our children.  It is through us as fathers that our children will see God for who He is.

1 John 1:31 The Love of the Father

Hosea 1:10 Children of the Living God.

Why It Matters Who God Is!

If God is not who He says He is, the Bible is a lie and man remains a wasted being with a random nature that can’t be governed or govern.  You cannot separate God from the necessity of Him being Lord over all.  Our desperately wicked hearts need a guiding force that govern them, thus creating the scenario of creating the need for God.  Anything that governs is its governor, lord, god, etc.

If God is not who He says He is then life is meaningless, not to mention it is nonexistant.  Satan through secular scientists is trying to push an agenda of a no God society in which is claimed that life is a result of blending unorganized matter in a random fashion.  True science has proven this wrong by showing us there has to be a guiding force (God).  Romans chapter 1 says in my own quotation “Though the evidence was there, they chose to ignore it resulting in moral degradation, because they no longer wanted God to be their guiding force.”  Mankind for some reason has a real infatuation with being their own god and tries to overthrow God’s place in the universe in any way they can.

There are some problems right on its face with the push toward the mental framework which tries to undermine the existence of God.  The fingerprint of God is indicated over and again through the many avenues of the world’s people and its creatures, and plant life.

When God speaks, His voice is meant to be heard.  We have this fallen nature that doesn’t like to be told what to do.  We try to do things our way instead of God’s decreed way.  Our insatiable desire to be our own governor does nothing but dethrones God from the seat of authority in our lives, and lifts our capabilities to reason which comes from God in the first place, to the status of god.  This is a direct result of our own pride through which no man has a place with God.  

Our pride when left to run rampant in our lives will destroy our spiritual relationships, and our physical relationships.  Satan’s main goal is to destroy us and will often destroy our relationships to get a greater hold on our souls.  We will either find a god to fill our souls or we will set ourselves up as our own god.  

The idea of being your own god may sound pleasing to begin with, but in reality, there really are just two gods; The God of Heaven and earth or the god of this world (Satan), and any choice we make is for one or the other.  There is no neutral ground.  When it comes to serving yourself, it is the same as setting yourself up as god and translates to selfishness.  Selfishness is always a result of pride, because you are thinking only of yourself and not thinking of serving God.  Pride is what Satan felt in his heart when he tried to elevate himself to the status of God, but it was selfishness that was the evidence of that pride.

There are just two tables spread for us to sit at and fellowship around, the Table of God or the table of demons, and we cannot sit at both.  We will either partake in the spread of God or the spread of demons.  Though we would like to be islands to ourselves, especially spiritually,  we are not; and the truth is that everything we face is from one kingdom or the other.

The evident truth is that the world is in really bad condition; where life holds little or no value, morality is defunct, social skills are disappearing, and there is a great infatuation for a world of fantasy.  God has offered Himself as our Savior, and He is willing to save us from destroying ourselves from this flow of poisonous behavior.  God has deemed that life was worth creating, social interaction and morality is a necessity, and that fantasy is a lie.  We really need God as our Saviour.

Our character is tainted, marred which causes us to feel we have the edge; and that is selfishness which is driven by pride.  We will never be able to see God for who He is and hold to “Our Significance” unless we are willingly ignoring the evidence.  We need to find our significance in God because ours is as filthy rags.

Without God there would be no life, no faith, no love, no joy, and no hope.  There are many different gods/demons in the world that are being worshipped because man knows in his heart that life is bigger than he is.  The devil has seized upon that thought and has magnified on man’s desire to worship, creating a front that can be seen for man to worship.  Without God, love is turned to a selfish lust/covetous relationship, and joy is turned to heaviness of heart with a fascade of happiness and hope is turned to worry.  Many people have allowed their circumstances to dictate their lives instead of looking to God for the answers.  This results in a culture of death and often they end up killing themselves because they are tired of their life and the fascade they are under.  Mankind is on a downward spiral that is getting tighter and tighter.  The Savior is there waiting!

The desire for God is so indelibly marked into each one of our souls, that even in trying to discount the fact that He exists, we create a god of our own.  People who refuse to recognize God will come up with gods that if you really stop to think about them are weird.  The Romans developed a god that was a god of tapeworms, thinking that if they worshipped it, that god would be happy and not send his minions to harass them.  The unfortunate thing is that they were worshipping Satan and his demons.  Longer ago people were more spiritually aware and recognized the spiritual world in things like trees, rivers, animals, and stars.  What they failed to realized is that in the creation of the world, God placed a part of Himself into the existence of these things to give them life and energy.  Instead of recognizing the Creator, they focused on the creation.

The meaningless nature of life without God discredits any advances in understanding science, mathematics, and that man’s attempts to alleviate pain and suffering is a waste of time and effort.

The Bible says that man is without excuse for rejecting knowledge of God, because the evidence is all around us.  Evolution or Environmental Pantheism has taken the God ordained elevated position as overseers and rulers over creation from man and in turn given lordship to the elements to rule mankind.

Who Is God?

• His name is Jehovah  Isaiah 26:4, Exodus 6:3
• His name is Yahweh (The Real Jewish name for God so Holy they would not even pronounce it)
• His name is Jah  Psalm 68:4 “The Lord Most Vehement”
• His name is El Shaddai “God Almighty” Genesis 28:3 Exodus 6:3
• His name is Everlasting God Genesis 21:33 Isaiah 40:28 >perpetual, without end<kinetic
• His name is a Strong Tower Proverbs 18:10

Where would you expect to find God in the Bible? You will find God in Genesis through Revelation!  Each book, each chapter, each verse reveals yet more about God.  The Bible is God revealing Himself to us.  God, though He wants us to understand Him, knows that our finite minds will never be able to wrap fully around who He is.  He will continue to reveal Himself a little at a time to us , and our comparing our Revelation of God combined with the Revelation to another person or more will indeed give a fuller picture of who God is.

We have tried to understand the concept of the Trinity but many of our explanations seem woefully inadequate.  We have also tried to describe the character of God in a multifaceted manner, but there has always seemed to be something that was missing.  What if we were to not just say that God was a triune God or that His character was multisided with yet a side that came into play that is often missed...like His Sovereignty.  We have tried to portray God as a triangle, but what if He is more like a pyramid. A pyramid is a triangle that is 3D and has a side that is often missed...the bottom.  When looking at the character of God in order to get a more complete view, we must turn it around and look at it from all sides.

Finding God in the Bible

-Woe is me. God revealed should always awe us.

Every time God revealed who He is to people, They responded with awe, or reverence toward Him.  There is just something about who God is that brings people to the realization that they are full of filthiness or rottenness to the bone, and that they are woefully inadequate to enter into the presence of a Holy God.

-Fear follows when we see God for who He is!

• Elohim Genesis 1 - Elohim is the plural form of God. Genesis Chapter 1:26 says “Then Elohim said, “Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domestic animals all over the earth, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.”

The words “Let us Make” are given as a discourse between God and another being(s).  These words infer that God was talking to a fellow Creator(s).  This is where the argument for God as a singular person falls flat on its face.  Creation is done by none else than the All-Powerful God-head known as Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.  These three persons are the embodiment of God.  Though each of these are complete all three are independent and yet agree with each other and are submissive to each other.  It is the unity of these three persons that created the world, the universe to operate with such harmony.  It is their wisdom and foresight that  created the world to follow such precise mathematical calculations.

• John 8:56-59

Before Abraham was…”I am”.  I am was known by all the Jews to be a name for God.

• John 10:30

Jesus was claiming to be God by saying “I and my Father are one”. Notice the distinct difference in “Father” “I”.  Where there is a father there always will be a son or daughter.  In this case it is a Son.

• John 15:26/1 Corinthians 2:10

Jesus offers His followers the Holy Spirit (or the Comforter), saying that when He (Jesus) is gone, He will send the Holy Spirit to them.  This second passage gives us insight into part of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  The Holy Spirit searches out the deep things of God and reveals (unveils) them to us.  The Holy Spirit is the means by which we have our breath, redemption, and our sanctification.

The role of these three throughout the Bible and History (His Story) are inexorably connected.  The Father gives the Word (the Son John 1:1) the Authority and the Holy Spirit moves to fulfill their will.  Nothing is done in the absence of each other.

>The Word Elohim comes from the prefix “El” meaning Leader, or Father.  “El” often accompanied a descriptive word like Ohim (plural form) or Shaddai (Almighty).  The Old Testament used “El” no less than 200 times.<

El Shaddai has been used several times as a name for God and has always been interpreted as God Almighty.  While the prefix El is usually  rendered as meaning Father/Leader, inserting “El” before “Shaddai” brings them together to mean Almighty Father/Leader.

I have noticed that if you study out the gods of the previous generations they all have some warped element of “Who God Is”.  Whether it is a god of life, and fertility, or a god of providence, or even a god of war/anger...people who have not understood GOD have relied on the revelation they have received from the god of this world, who loves taking truth and warping it people’s minds.  

The Canaanites had a god they called el which by their definition meant father of mankind.  Does that come as any surprise that the first reference to God would get hijacked by the devil?  Just about every culture has stories about a god who came in the flesh which is a rip-off of the promises that God gave in the Bible.  The Bible has indirectly influenced everything whether we want to admit it or not.

>Proclaiming God!

God has proclaimed Himself in in many different ways and as having many different characters.  We cannot just look at one specific character of God and say “that is God”.  We would be narrow  minded and would not take into consideration who God really is.

• Psalm 102:1-28

In the desperation of life, The clock ticks on rapidly removing the present to the past.  The troubles of life leave no one untouched, and at some point we all are faced with the reality that we live in a fallen world.  It is then that the Lord moves in His Holy sanctuary and announces who He is.  It is when we feel overwhelmed and ask God for help, that He will uphold us in His Mercy.  

Our Heavenly Father is our only true definition of a father and it is His Father character that we as fallen humans try to duplicate.  Fortunately God has given us the avenue of His Spirit to indwell our hearts creating in us a new character...His.  This enables us to replicate the Father character that God has wanted to impart to His children.

God has revealed Himself as “I AM”.  As early as Genesis 15 God told Abraham “I AM thy Shield”, “I AM Thy Abundant Reward”, and  “I AM The Lord That Called You”.  When God  identifies Himself as “I AM”, He is clearly claiming to be the fulfillment of everything that is needed.  Let’s break this down a bit.  

The words “I AM thy Shield” can mean only one thing or at least one group of things.  What is a shield, and how does this become a reality?  

A shield is usually designed for no other reason than to protect a specific thing or person.  In other words, a soldier would have used a shield in the old times to stand behind and fight.  This could resemble a sort of portable fort which would protect if used properly.  There is yet another use for the word shield which also denotes a protection.  This type of shield is similar to the first but can be used to protect in other circumstances than battle.  Sometimes we may shield our eyes with our hands to protect our eyes from the bright sunlight.  When God calls Himself your shield, He is clearly saying “I will protect you, stand behind Me”!

Bringing to bear the second “I AM” that God gave to Abraham is “I AM Thy Abundant Reward”.  God was claiming to be the fulfillment of all blessings that were given to Abraham.  Normally we think of a reward as being something we have coming for doing something else, but truly there is nothing we can do to merit the reward/blessing of God in our life.  The thought came to me that God might reward you for being righteous, but in reality our righteousness is as filthy rags and not worth being rewarded.  True Righteousness will come only from God and not from within yourself, so that too is a blessing/reward.  “Every good and perfect gift comes from above” James 1:17

We have yet one more “I AM” that God gave to Abraham at which to look.  This one in particular gives the reader a sense of ownership. The words “I AM The Lord That Called You” indicate a person being called out of something.  God is asking to be obeyed, followed, and trusted.  God calls Abraham to follow Him which means to be set apart from the wicked culture of his family and nation.  It is here that God become Abraham’s God, and Abraham starts toward becoming a friend (not a foe) of God. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have toward you”.  God calls you, because He has something He has in mind for you!

The Israelites received yet another “I AM” statement from God.  Now that God has established that He speaks to mankind, God introduces Himself as “I AM the God of thy Fathers”.  The meaning of this means several things, first of all that their/our fathers are not dead but live forever, that the promises given to the fathers are reinstated to the person hearing the voice of God.  Abraham’s descendants seemed to have trouble truly believing God’s promises to Abraham about them, but God offered them the same covenant that He had to Abraham as a personal covenant..  The situation often had resembled hopelessness as they strove to serve the Egyptians,and they were constantly reminded of the pain they felt.  The Israelites, Even though God was working on their behalf through diverse miracles, kept choosing their own way.  They, like us, have this twisted nature inherited at birth that does not want to bow to a superior being such as God.  We tend to go to great lengths to ignore, trying to wipe out traces of our Creator and His influence on our lives.

God has also declared Himself as “I AM the First and the Last”.  When something is the first we think of the author, foundation, and the beginning; while when something is last it is the ending, and the fulfillment.  God is the author of life, faith, freedom, happiness, etc… It is His overshadowing of our lives that we have our life, faith, and freedom…  When God says “I AM the First and the Last” He is literally saying, “I AM Everything”.  God is the purpose for which we exist.  Have you allowed him to be everything in your life?

“I am the Door.”  The door is a security for those for whom it is designed.  It closes out the enemy keeping us free from its clutches.  The door denotes ownership.  We are owned by the Master.  The door will keep out everything that is not supposed to be inside.  If everything that passes into our lives actually would pass through the door of Jesus Christ, we would have no evil entering our soul. If no evil would enter our soul, then no evil would exude from our being.  The way we live...by receiving and doing must all pass through the door of Jesus Christ.  

We  are just like sheep, with seemingly no homing instincts. We tend to wander from one thing to another feeding on whatever there is to feed.  This would result in many of us becoming lost with no hope of finding our way back to the shepherd.  Jesus says, “I am The Good Shepherd” which means He has our good in mind.  He willingly will go into the desert places where the hobgoblins, satyrs, and the demons add to the darkness, for no other reason than to find us.  The evening comes and our shepherd leads us into the sheepfold ~a place of rest~, laying himself across the opening as the Door, separating his sheep from the howling wolves.   The “Good Shepherd” will mean nothing to us unless he is willing to lay down his life for His sheep.  When Jesus willingly laid Himself down as a sacrifice, He was putting Himself between Satan (the lion) and His sheep as the door.

Our culture today, has this infatuation with the undead or the dead made alive, but what they do not realize is that this idea is one that is taken from God’s character and promise that He is the Resurrection and the Life and twisted to some sort of perverted half dead monsters that run around chasing people.  There is a time when all must pass through the valley of death which seems so final, but God, who is rich in life and mercy has provided us with His strength to live again.  God incarnate, spoke to a family grieving the loss of their brother, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life”.  The dead can and will live again, either in Life everlasting or in eternal death.  As Christians we have no business making the “Undead” or “Zombies” a part of our life either in play, or otherwise.  The Bible says to rise up and walk in Newness of Life and stop living in death.

“I AM the True Vine” is another declaration by our Almighty God.  We have often seen vines that have sent out little shoots away from the actual vine and then it may become confusing which was the real vine.  Take into that scenario being grafted into the vine a branch that was taken from a wild vine such as we all were.  If that branch gets grafted into the shoot, which may have some semblance of life but not true life; the shoot will get drained and any life the branch had would get depleted.  If that same branch were to be grafted into the true vine, there is enough strength in that vine to sustain itself and the branch and both would grow to new proportions.

“I AM The Way, The Truth, and The Life”.  There are many different religions in this  world, but one in particular seem to stand out.  Every last religion with the exception of Christianity have a push toward being good enough for its god, whereas in Christianity, Jesus says “Take my Righteousness on yourself since you cannot be good enough”.  Some people have said, there are so many religions and they can’t all be right, so none of them are.  That is faulty reasoning because since all roads do not go to the same place doesn’t mean that none of them are right.

Jesus has claimed to be the Way, the Truth and the Life. Is He right?  

For starters He has done what no other religious leader has done.  He went through death and came out again (resurrected), all for the atonement of your/my sin and so we would have the power to live above it.  Jesus said “No one comes to the Father but by Me”.  Who is better to bring someone to the Father but the Son?  Who is better to restore the relationship to the Father, that was lost,  than the Son?  Is it so hard to believe that the Son would go on a mission strictly to restore relationships with the Father?  Jesus said “I am come that they (people) might have Life and that they might have it more abundantly”.  He also said “I am come to seek and to save that which was lost”.

Was Jesus speaking the Truth?  He has claimed to be the Truth which means that Truth emanates from His very being.  Can we trust Him?  What evidence are we looking for or should we look for?  

First of all most of the religious leaders other than Jesus sought to kill those who did not agree with them.  That is a message of death.  We really don’t need more of the curse of death in this world...It already lays pretty heavy on us.

Jesus sought to give Life to those who did not agree with Him (His enemies).  I recommend reading the Life of Jesus, His personal teachings and then the teachings of His followers and look for the evidence of the message of Life.  Jesus claims were backed up by supernatural episodes which are commonly referred to as miracles.  These miracles were/are present both through the Life of Jesus and the Lives of His followers.  One of the biggest of these miracles is the birth by the Spirit of God.  When we are born of the Spirit of God it means, God has imparted Himself, His character to us.  Being born of the Spirit of God can be felt by the individual and then seen by others.  This is evident when the actions of the person no longer are their own, but are an outworking of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

The only scenario you will find that Jesus does not bless a person with life is when they refuse His Life within them.  This is not to be confused with physical death, but that may be included.  Physical death to the person who refused Jesus is an extension of his dying life brought on by sin and life in a fallen world, but physical death for a person who has accepted the Life of Jesus within themselves is an avenue to escape the sin-cursed earth for the glories of Heaven.

God wants us to recognize us for who He is.  God says “I AM”, and when He say that He means He is everything.  “I AM” is an all-inclusive name that describes all of God’s attributes.

• Exodus 34:5-7 God proclaims who He is!

Moses as a God ordained leader of the children of Israel got a message from God that described God to him that was to be relayed to the rest of the Israelite and future followers of God.  God told Moses “I Am Merciful, I Am Gracious, I Am Longsuffering, I Am Full of Goodness, I Am Full of Truth, and I Am the Forgiver of Unrighteousness”.

God wanted the Israelites and us to remember Him by these traits.  The Gospel Message comes straight out of these characteristics of God, therefore to forget these characters of God is to forget the character that moved God’s heart to save us.  Although Jesus has indeed fulfilled the Old Testament, the true New Testament Church will not hold the Old Testament with disregard by saying it is irelavent to its existence.  In order for the New Testament to mean anything to an individual or church they must first understand the purpose and text of the Old Testament.

The presentation of God being Truth sets the standard for living in general.  Living by Truth means that we recognize that God knows and has revealed the best lifestyle for our safety.  Anything that occurs outside of Truth comes across as unrighteousness or crookedness to which God because of His Goodness then responds with Mercy by offering us His Grace in a Longsuffering manner; thus because of our acceptance of who He is, He becomes the Forgiver of our unrighteousness, and we because we have then aligned ourselves with the Truth of God begin to live a straight life.

The various ways that God has proclaimed Himself do not completely define Him independently of each other.  God has so many facets that can be revealed to us about Him that we really couldn’t handle the magnificence, the glory, the power; through our puny ever reasoning mind so He chooses to reveal parts of Himself and what might be revealed to someone else may not be revealed to you.  God reveals enough of Himself to us as individuals to help us carry on with our lives.

God has created this world for His pleasure and Glory, but since that time the world has become a sin-cursed planet where men, women and children by nature choose a life of rebellion to their Creator and giver of life.  It is because of this rebellion which amounts to unrighteousness, that God being the merciful God that He is; chooses to become a Savior.

• Isaiah 9:6

>Wonderful< Acts 4:12

>Counsellor - Guide< Luke 12:11,12

>The Mighty God (El Shaddai)<

>The Everlasting Father - Jehovah<

>The Prince of Peace - Melchizedek< Genesis 14:18-30, Hebrews 4:14-5:10

>Savior< Matthew 1:21

>Emmanuel -God with us< Matthew 1:23

>Deity< John 1:1-51

>Light< John 1:7-9

>Sacrifice< John 19:1-42 -Genesis 15:1-21

God entered into the corridor called time, and walked down the streets of the cities as a man to bring men the message of peace and hope.  

Mankind had been told for years that a Savior, a Messiah would be coming to liberate them from the curse of sin they were under; and though when He did come, He was misunderstood by the very people who should have understood who He is! Jesus as our Savior became “Wonderful” as His name is truly the only name that will save us.

It was prophesied that Jesus would be called Counsellor.  If we take a look at John 1, John describes Jesus as the Word of God which by any interpretation will also mean Jesus is God’s Word revealed.  There are many times we admit our need of God’s Wisdom and after having asked God for His Wisdom in our lives, He willingly gives us a deeper dimension of His Wisdom through the Word of God.

Jesus as God in the flesh destroys/negates the effects of our most powerful enemy.  Satan though stronger and shrewder than we are is no match for Jesus.  Jesus is the Creator of everything other than God which would make Satan a created being.  This automatically puts Jesus as head over all.

Jesus is our Forever Father.  First of all it is Jesus that gives us as fathers a true picture as to how an earthly father should live.  Our humanity coupled with a severe dose of selfishness will destroy this image by creating anxiety within the children we are meant to father.  Our Heavenly Father cares about you/us enough to lower Himself to take our punishment of death for our sin.  We need to get a grip on how much God cares for us in order to exemplify His Love to those around us.

Melchizedek as king of Salem (Peace) met with Abraham after a great battle against the 5 kings who took his nephew and family captive.  The Book of Hebrews describes Melchizedek as though he were actually a pre-incarnate Christ.  Jesus, as his blood was shed for mankind, paved the way for fallen man to regain a peaceful relationship with Himself; rooting out the wickedness in our hearts through a sanctification process.

When God became our Savior, it became evident that though we were His creation and had turned our back on Him, He was not willing that any would die the imminent eternal death.

It is not just enough for God to have chosen to be physically with us during a period over 2,000 years ago, but He has promised His continued presence in our lives.  The presence of God though not physically seen, but is often felt by His people who have accepted His purchase of their souls.  God is a Spiritual being mean the He doesn’t really carry a bodily form but can take one.

The Deity of Jesus has been disputed for years by those who either want to work out their own salvation or those who simply don’t care.  The entire Book of John is devoted to helping the reader see the divine nature of Jesus.  By the time the Book of John ends, there was no question in the minds of those who were His followers and a Roman officer who declared that publicly.  They all had to admit or ignore the facts, which they all did.  We could look at the unfolding events after that and see just how big of an impact Jesus had on those who saw His works.  It was supernatural.

Light has been long looked at as something that dispels darkness.  God is light (1 John 1:5).  Light is the reflection of the Glory of God and though it appears to proceed from the sun, moon and stars; its origin was the presence of God.  The creation story shows that light was before the sun existed but got placed into the sun.  Genesis 1, Revelation 21:23

There is an established law that says sin/rebellion against God calls for the death of mankind. God is Love and one way that can be shown is through giving up of yourself for one who has turned against you.  Our only hope of escape for this impending death is through this avenue of Jesus giving up of Himself for us.  Jesus came to the earth for no other reason than to be a sacrifice for the sin of the world.  This reconciling of us as enemies to God through Jesus sacrifice, makes us no longer enemies but friends, and heirs to the kingdom of God.

The Sovereignty of God cannot be understood by a human who is fallen from the presence of God.  At best, even those who have been restored to fellowship with God struggle with the meaning of it.  God’s Sovereign nature allows Him to choose certain paths that seem destructive to His created people to bring about a desired end in their life.  God is not willing that any should die in their sins and will go to great lengths to patiently call them to His side.

When looking at who God is, we realize that we are nothing in comparison to God.  The All-Powerful nature of God aligned with His Sovereignty and His Holiness help us to realize that we need something beyond what we can do to fellowship with Him.  How does the Revelation of God affect you?