Little word 'again' destroys all their theology

John 3: [27] John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
[28] Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.
[29] He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
[30] He must increase, but I must decrease.

“John literally turns over Israel into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and says, ‘He’ll carry you on; I’ve gone as far as I can go.’

“You come to the Samaritan woman and see that wider testament out there where the fields are white unto harvest and there’s this wider opportunity.

“By the way, that brings them to the nobleman’s son; to that second miracle where you’re again in Cana and the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, demonstrates that He hasn’t cast away His people; He hasn’t cast away His nation and He shows how, in their distress, they’re going to both seek and find their Messiah at the last. You’re going to see how it is He’s going to give them power to become.

Acts 1: [5] For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
[6] When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
[7] And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
[8] But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
[9] And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

“When I read verse 6 the word that sticks out is that word again. That little word again destroys all of amillennial, post-millennial, non-dispensational, covenant theology and all the rest of it.

“The idea that the apostles had misunderstood what Christ was saying to them and He wasn’t really telling them there was going to be a literal, physical, visible, Davidic kingdom; they just misunderstood.

"That little word again destroys all that because the only kind of kingdom Israel ever had up to this point from God was a literal, physical, visible, earthly, Davidic kingdom centered in the city of Jerusalem, the city of the great king.

“They say, ‘Will you restore again to us what we used to have?’ And He said unto them, ‘It is not for you to know the nature or the makeup of the kingdom.’ Oh, no, I’m sorry, that isn’t what He said, is it?

[7] And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

“In other words, He doesn’t say, ‘You misunderstood the nature of the kingdom.’ He just said, ‘I can’t tell you the times or the seasons; there are some things that have to happen before it’s accomplished and that’s something that has to be done at the Father’s command.’ ”

(new article tomorrow) 

Living above the snake line

Next to Moses, Elijah was probably the most impressive man in the Old Testament and yet he suffered with depression.

Elijah had the ability to perform tremendous miracles: Heal the sick, raise the dead, call fire down from heaven, stop the rain from falling for three years and then make it start up again, etc. Malachi talks about how before Jesus Christ’s return to set up His kingdom, Elijah will reappear on the stage of events in the "last days." In Revelation 11, he is seen again performing miracles.

“One of the best stories in Scripture takes place in I Kings 18 when Elijah (single-handedly) did battle with 450 prophets of Baal,” relays the book, 1001 Surprising Things you Should Know About the Bible. “Placing a bull on an altar on top of Mount Carmel, he challenged the prophets to make fire come down and consume the sacrifice. When they failed, he taunted them, suggesting that their god must be asleep or away on a trip.

"Elijah then had water poured on the bull, stepping forward and saying a short prayer: ‘Let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant.’ Fire suddenly came down from heaven and burned up the sacrifice—leading the crowd watching to prostrate themselves before God, then turn and slaughter the false priests.”

*****

“Elijah’s a key figure in Israel’s history,” says Preacher Richard Jordan. “He established the school of the prophets. His ministry forestalled apostasy in Israel for decades and generations.”

“Nevertheless, I Kings 19:4 reports that Elijah ‘went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.’

“He goes right down into the pit. He’s not just going to quit, but he says, ‘C’mon, Lord, just kill me.’ Everything’s reversed itself suddenly and now Elijah is running for his life out in the wilderness, sitting under the juniper tree all in a punk; in the throes of despair.

“And you have to appreciate he’s going from the mountaintop of Carmel in chapter 18— where he wins a great victory in his ministry and life—to the slew of despond under a tree in the desert in chapter 19, asking God to kill him.

“It was an overnight event. It didn’t take a long process to get there. Sometimes depression comes on you that way. Sometimes it comes on quickly. Sometimes you move from the joy and excitement of victory right into the agonies, defeats and dark doldrums.

“In I Kings 19:10, Elijah explains of himself, ‘I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.’

“Now, if you can’t see the series of bad-thinking in that you’re not listening. Elijah’s whole problem is he’s got unrealistic thinking and expectations; some misplaced dependencies.

“He says, ‘Look at what I’ve been doing.’ He’s talking about his own activities. Where’s his dependency been? ‘Israel’s failed, but I alone. . .’ You know, in reality there were 7,000 other people who were faithful too. Elijah thought he was all by himself and yet there were 7,000 men in Israel who hadn’t bowed their knee to Baal. But all Elijah sees is himself. He misplaced his dependencies onto what he was doing and then got expectations.

*****

“Self-pity blinds his eyes to the resources he has, maximizing the difficulties against him. And that’s always what happens. In your life, when you begin to focus on yourself, it’s the self-pity that’s present in every depression. I don’t care what it is, where it came from, how it’s induced; it always has an element of self-pity in it. That’s the part of the formula you have to attack.

“Self-pity involves two forms of thinking. One is past thinking, where you remember; you rehearse the injury, the rejection, and you just go over it and over it in your mind.

“The other is future thinking where you project the insult or injury into the future and you begin to have anxiety and foreboding, worry and fear about it happening again; about it coming into your life in the future. And those things will eat your lunch. You won’t live above the snake line with thinking like that. That will put you in an absolute tailspin of despondency and despair.”

No other place to go but the truth

I came home from work Thursday to learn our internet and cable TV had been out since 3 p.m. when a gusty thunderstorm and heavy downpour moved through the area. We called Spectrum and learned there was no estimate for the outage's duration. To make a long story short, our service wasn't restored until mid-morning today!

I will have a new article tomorrow. Here's an old post that got good readership:

Cleaning out my family home's basement after my dad died, I came across an untouched paperback that had been given him after we moved to Loudonville, Ohio, by a colleague, Dr. Abraham Kuttothara, who was a surgeon from the Malabar coast of India. As a little note to my dad inside the cover, he wrote in pen something like, "I know you believe in your faith but I recommend you take a look at this."

The 1973 book was called The Awakening of Intelligence, by Jiddu Krishnamurti, considered the greatest Indian "guru" philosopher of all time by his adherents. I kept the book and eventually did read it. He is very cunning and crafty in how he steals from God's Word and twists it without acknowledgment, then puts a New Age spin on it.

One of the grace-applicable takeaways, though, was the concept of  "no justification, no condemnation." That means, in part, "I don't get puffed up and I don't dwell on shame and guilt. I forget about the past and move forward, using my mistakes to teach me. I don't beat myself up or try to rationalize with, "Because of this I did that, and if this or that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have acted the way I did."

Another takeaway I remember had to do with the indulgence of humans in the act and game of comparison and in competitive thinking. It's just not an intelligent way of going about life, he says in many different ways and throughout his book. 

*****

“There are three kinds of people in the world," writes C.S. Lewis. “The first class is of those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them.

“In the second class are those who acknowledge some other claim upon them—the will of God, the categorical imperative, or the good of society—and honestly try to pursue their own interests no further than this claim will allow. They try to surrender to the higher claim as much as it demands, like men paying a tax, but hope, like other taxpayers, that what is left over will be enough for them to live on. Their life is divided, like a soldier’s or a schoolboy’s life, into time ‘on parade’ and ‘off parade,’ ‘in school’ and ‘out of school.’

“But the third class is of those who can say like St Paul that for them ‘to live is Christ.’ These people have got rid of the tiresome business of adjusting the rival claims of Self and God by the simple expedient of rejecting the claims of Self altogether. The old egoistic will has been turned round, reconditioned, and made into a new thing. The will of Christ no longer limits theirs; it is theirs. All their time, in belonging to Him, belongs also to them, for they are His.

“And because there are three classes, any merely twofold division of the world into good and bad is disastrous. It overlooks the fact that the members of the second class (to which most of us belong) are always and necessarily unhappy. The tax which moral conscience levies on our desires does not, in fact, leave us enough to live on. As long as we are in this class we must either feel guilt because we have not paid the tax or penury because we have.

"The Christian doctrine that there is no ‘salvation’ by works done to the moral law is a fact of daily experience. Back or on we must go. But there is no going on simply by our own efforts. If the new Self, the new Will, does not come at His own good pleasure to be born in us, we cannot produce Him synthetically.

“The price of Christ is something, in a way, much easier than moral effort—it is to want Him. It is true that the wanting itself would be beyond our power but for one fact. The world is so built that, to help us desert our own satisfactions, they desert us. War and trouble and finally old age take from us, one by one, all those things that the natural Self hoped for at its setting out. Begging is our only wisdom, and want in the end makes it easier for us to be beggars. Even on those terms the Mercy will receive us.”

*****

“Romans 12 is Paul’s gathering together of the issue of, ‘Here’s the description of what the impact of God’s grace is designed to look like in the lives of Believers,’ and if you wanted to have a profile of what it is that the ministry of grace is seeking to produce in the lives of people . . . not just in doctrinal statements but what is it supposed to look like, it’s in Romans 12," explains Jordan.

“Romans 12:12 (‘Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer’) is really, in a lot of ways, one of those encapsulized statements, right in the middle of a passage, that sort of gathers together a description of the Christian life.

“The details of your service for Christ don’t really begin until you come to Chapter 12. It’s the idea of, ‘Okay, let’s get busy being who we are in the details of life.’

“Verse 12 is in the context of how we relate to other Believers. Verse 9 says, ‘Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.’ In other words, the focus in our relationship with others is going to be on love. Let love be the real thing. Don’t ‘diss’ somebody when it comes to love. Be genuine.

*****

“I John 4 is very clear: ‘If God so loved us we ought to love one another.’ Your love for others HAS to be based upon an understanding of God’s love for you. The reason the world can never love their fellow man . . . you see the world thinks if they can get rid of the differences between people you can get rid of conflicts. Consequently, you have an egalitarian society where everything’s equal. We call it ‘multi-culturalism’ and all that kind of stuff.

“The only way you get rid of conflict is to get rid of sin. The only way you deal with the sin issue is the Cross. The world thinks the Cross is foolishness, so they reject the only answer that’s really there.

“That’s why I’ve said to you for years that you can’t abandon the world that you live in. If you want to have some impact and influence in the culture you live in, go out and preach the gospel, the truth of God’s grace, get them saved and then they’ll know and understand how to love people. Otherwise they never will.

“Abhorring evil and cleaving to that which is good is essential to love. Love doesn’t mean you just think everybody and everything’s the same. Love takes divine viewpoint and says, ‘This is good and that’s evil.’ God told Israel, ‘Woe to them that call good evil and evil good.’

“You come to verse 12 and you’ve got this dominant theme now in love just kind of echoing in your mind when you get there. That’s why it’s essential, by the way, that you go back to verse 2 and ‘be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’

“Verse 12, under that banner of love, Paul says, ‘Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.’ So while I’m serving my brother and brethren, while I’m not being slothful in business, my attitude in it is I’m going to be rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation and I’m going to be instant in prayer.

“I’m going to be continually, constantly in prayer, all for the sake of loving others, loving our enemies as we ought. This is how Christ is designed to become visible and more real, and frankly more convincing to those who are about us. His life becomes a tangible reality.

*****

“II Corinthians talks about that living epistle. The epistle of Christ written in your heart and that life of Christ living out through you.

“You see, grace isn’t just a theology, and what he’s saying here is, ‘This is the way you think through . . . that renewed mind thinks through how to deal with the issues of life.’

“Romans 5 says, ‘And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
[4] And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
[5] And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.’

“Our joy, hope, patience--they’re not found in freedom from trouble; they’re found in the midst of the difficulties.

“Tribulation works patience. So the tribulation has done its work. It’s taught you that there’s no other place to go but the truth of God’s Word. Patience is something that sustains you; keeps you there.

“Paul doesn’t just tolerate tribulation; he says, 'God, take this tribulation and make it serve you.' First, you’re rejoicing in hope. It’s important to understand what the hope is. The verse is telling you your hope is based in hope. Hope is the rock in which joy is rooted. It’s the soil out of which the rejoicing comes. The ground of our hope and the goal of our hope are all in Christ.”

(new article tomorrow)

Apex of ungodliness

“One of the things education and educational institutions are designed to do is pass on the traditions of a culture. A classic is a piece of literature that communicates the values, attitudes and ideas of the culture. If you only have a handful passing that on, can I tell you that the culture is lost? It’s gone. It’s just a little condiment some fuddy-duddies still know something about. Most of what these (institutions) wanted communicated was of no value as far as gaining the ability to have a conscience that could make decisions about things beyond the immediate."

*****

God says to Abraham in Genesis 15, [16] But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

“By saying it Isn’t full yet, there’s this recognition on the part of God that the Amorites are going to get more wicked, more ungodly, and it’s going to grow and grow, getting bigger and bigger, and finally it’s going to reach a point where 'WHAM!' they’re going to get it; it’s just not there yet.

“There’s this evolution of evil to a place where it comes to the crescendo that can’t go any further and then the judgment comes," explains Richard Jordan.

“It’s the same principle with the nation Israel. Matthew 23: [31] Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
[32] Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
[33] Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
[34] Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
[35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
[36] Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

“Abel is in Genesis 1 and Zechariah was in II Chronicles 24. That was the first book and the last book in a Jewish bible. He’s saying from the first one slain to the last one slain—we would say from Genesis to Revelation; from Adam all the way to the Second Coming of Christ. That’s what He’s talking about.

“These men didn’t do it personally, but all of that accumulated ungodliness is going to come down on their heads. There’s this evolution, this increasing of ungodliness.

Romans 1:18: [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

“Notice the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. It hasn’t been executed yet; it hasn’t been poured out yet. It’s just been revealed in His Word; we have it here and He’s revealed from heaven His wrath against the unrighteousness of men.

Romans 9:22: [22] What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

“When someone’s fitted to destruction they’re right at the point where judgment should fall on them; they’re ripe for that moment.

“That time came in the Book of Acts when Israel and the world had joined in rebellion and what were they doing? Who were they fighting against?

"The apex of ungodliness is not just going out and doing wicked things; it’s literally to fight against God Himself and that’s what they did in the person of Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit in the early Acts period.

“When He introduced the dispensation of grace, He introduced something into the program that has a restraining affect on ungodliness and He literally put the brakes on ungodliness and began to retard it.

II Thessalonians 2: [7] For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
[8] And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
[9] Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
[10] And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

"In the last days of the dispensation of grace, godliness is going to re-establish itself and it’s going to evolve and grow as God waits for the dispensation of grace to end.

"The Rapture’s going to come and take the Body of Christ out, and what was hindering and retarding is going to be taken out of the way and then it’s going to grow to a full-blown crescendo once again.

"There will be a final, climactic stage of ungodliness that comes to a head and that’s what Jude 14 and 15 is saying, when the Lord comes with 10,000 of His saints to execute judgment on all. When He comes, the ultimate climax of ungodliness will be experienced.

Revelation 19: [11] And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
[12] His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
[13] And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
[14] And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
[15] And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
[16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
[17] And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
[18] That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
[19] And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

"Who is it that sat on the horse? Jesus Christ. Here you have the Antichrist and all these people in the earth and what have they come to do? Make war against God Himself. They came to fight against God."

(new article tomorrow)

Greedy dogs

II Peter 2 begins, [1] But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
[2] And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
[3] And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

“He’s so familiar with it and it’s so closely associated with what he thinks is in the Bible that he won’t hear anything; that’s why they’re false teachers,” explains Richard Jordan. “These guys, in Israel’s situation, are going to be professing Israel but they’re apostate Israel and the truth of God is going to be evil spoken of.

“That word feign, false, is an artificial kind of word that is molded. We use the word plastic. The word plastic comes from a Greek word that means to press into a mold. These people’s words are that way. They find out what you want to hear, what you want said, what will sell.

“We see it in political realms today. You go out and ask, ‘What do you want to say?’ and I’ll mold it to what you want so that I can get the position, the power, and I’ll just go do whatever I want to do.

“Through covetousness. They’re greedy for power, for control, so they take words that are designed to fit the situation.

“Verse 18 says for when they speak great swelling words of vanity. [18] For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
[19] While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

“That’s a chilling verse. Great words—oh they sound good. Wonderful oratory. But they’re words of vanity. We’ve got a great word—we say airheads. That’s really what it is. Paul talks about the vanity of your mind. If you have something that has absolutely nothing in it you have a vacuum. You open it up and it sucks stuff in. There’s these great swelling words that are just sucking in all of these false ideas. They allure through the lust of the flesh.

“It’s like I Timothy 4 says: [1] Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
[2] Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

“The path of faith is wearying to the flesh. You see, your flesh loves the performing. Makes it feel good; it satisfies. It hangs constantly to being able to do something.

“Revelation 18, you’ll see how it fits in II Peter: [11] And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
[12] The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
[13] And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

“Revelation 17 and 18 is that religious system that rules over the earth is the religious system that’s heads up in the Antichrist and false prophet.

“You look at verse 12 and the first thing in the list was gold. The last thing was souls. They’re selling the souls of men just like a merchandiser would sell his wares. This is the consistent pattern of false teachers.

Isaiah 56: [6] Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
[7] Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
[8] The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
[9] All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest.

[10] His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
[11] Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

“Somebody said that’s the real DD degree. You ever see a preacher with a DD after his name? That means dumb dog.

“Micah, looking toward the tribulation period, he’s looking on that fifth course of judgment on the nation Israel, Micah 3: [8] But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
[9] Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
[10] They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
[11] The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
[12] Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

“I tell you something about money. Listen, folks, one of the clearest ways you know what’s valuable to you is where you spend your money. Religious hucksters all they’re interested in is the money and they’re just as alive and well in the dispensation of grace as they will be in the tribulation.

“I Peter 4: [17] For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
[18] And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
[19] Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

“There’s a passage just like this in Hebrews 10: [26] For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
[27] But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
[28] He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
[29] Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? 

O for the wonderful love He has promised

(sorry for article delay. I had to fill in for vacationing employee today at my job and will do the same early tomorrow morning.)

Will L. Thompson (1847-1909), author of the all-time classic hymn, "Softly and Tenderly," wrote one of his most popular songs, “Gathering Shells from the Sea Shore,” in 10 minutes at the age of 26.  It sold 246,000 copies.

The last stanza goes, But now we are growing up in years, Maud, Our locks are silvered and gray;

Yet the vows that, we made on the shore, Maud,

Are fresh in our memories to-day.

There still is a charm in those bright shells

And the sound of the deep ocean's roar.

For they call back the days that we spent, Maud,

Gathering up the shells from the shore.

"It became such a hit that it swept the nation from shore to shore and gathered a fortune for its youthful composer who became known as the 'bard of Ohio,' " says an article on hymnstudiesblog. "However, after a very successful career writing secular and patriotic music, at age 40 Thompson turned to composing sacred songs and established the Will L. Thompson Co., a profitable music publishing firm with offices both in East Liverpool, Ohio and in Chicago, IL.

"In Chicago, he became a personal friend of revival evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody and his chief song director Ira David Sankey.  'Softly and Tenderly,' sometimes given the title of, 'For You and For Me,' was apparently produced and copyrighted in 1880 and was a favorite of Moody’s. It was soon widely used as an invitation song in the great evangelistic campaigns conducted by Moody and Sankey in both the United States and Great Britain."

When the famed evangelist lay dying, Thompson visited Moody to lend spiritual comfort. "The story is told that in 1899 Thompson made a visit to Northfield, MA, where Moody was lying on his deathbed.  Visitors were forbidden, but when Moody heard that Thompson was there, the dying evangelist ignored doctors’ orders and demanded that his old friend be admitted. 

"Though very ill, Moody greeted the songwriter most cordially, took him by the hand, and feebly whispered, 'Will, I would rather have written ‘Softly and Tenderly’ than anything I have been able to do in my whole life.' ”

“United Methodist Hymnal editor, the Rev. Carlton R. Young, notes: “This is a typical lullaby in the gospel hymn tradition that characterizes Jesus as a mother, gently rocking and comforting a child. This attribute contributes to the continuing popularity of this genre of religious song that presents Jesus as waiting, caring, and forgiving in intimate—and for many, compelling—metaphors.”

Other well-known hymns by Thompson include: “Jesus is All the World to Me,” "Lead Me Gently Home, Father" and "There’s A Great Day Coming."

 Another blog says, "Even though he became quite rich, Thompson continued to live a life of service.  He supported various civic and religious activities generously.  He was also aware of the fact that small-town people had very little exposure to good music, so he loaded a piano on a horse-drawn wagon and went through small Ohio towns giving concerts of his music."

Lyrics to "Jesus is All the World to Me":

1.    Jesus is all the world to me,
My life, my joy, my all;
He is my strength from day to day,
Without Him I would fall.
When I am sad, to Him I go,
No other one can cheer me so;
When I am sad, He makes me glad,
He’s my Friend.

2.    Jesus is all the world to me,
My Friend in trials sore;
I go to Him for blessings, and
He gives them o’er and o’er.
He sends the sunshine and the rain,
He sends the harvest’s golden grain;
Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain,
He’s my Friend.

3.    Jesus is all the world to me,
And true to Him I’ll be;
Oh, how could I this Friend deny,
When He’s so true to me?
Following Him I know I’m right,
He watches o’er me day and night;
Following Him by day and night,
He’s my Friend.

4.    Jesus is all the world to me,
I want no better Friend;
I trust Him now, I’ll trust Him when
Life’s fleeting days shall end.
Beautiful life with such a Friend,
Beautiful life that has no end;
Eternal life, eternal joy,
He’s my Friend.

Bodily shape inside our body

(Still working on new article to post tomorrow.)

"When God created humans with a soul, He literally placed a bodily shape inside of us meaning, in essence, there’s a person inside of our body.

"Not only is there the account of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 as proof, but Paul says in II Corinthians 12, “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)”

“If this guy’s caught up in the third heaven and Paul says, ‘I can’t tell if he’s still in his body or not,’ then when he wasn’t in his body, he must have still looked like he was.

“He said, ‘By looking at this guy I can’t tell whether he’s dead or alive. He’s up in the third heaven, though.’ So what’s up in the third heaven is his soul. But what did he look like? Paul didn’t say, ‘Well, he died but I don’t know who he is up there.’ When out of the body, he looked just like he looked in the body.

*****

“Some people wrongly have the idea that when we get our glorified body in heaven, we’re all just going to be carbon copies of one another, but Paul makes clear in I Corinthians 15: 35-38 the resurrected body bears your distinct identity.

“Paul writes, ‘But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.’

“Because we’ll have our own personal body with its own personal appearance, we’re not just conscious of being in someone else’s presence, we can put a name to them and a face.”

“Not only will we recognize and know those we’ve personally met in our lifetime, but we’ll be familiar with people we’ve never come face to face with.

“In Matthew 17, Peter instinctively knows who Moses and Elijah are even though there were no introductions given. While Peter had studied about the two men, and was taught things about them, he couldn’t have known what they looked like since they lived centuries before he did.

*****

"While Luke 16:25 reveals we’ll have memory in heaven, remembering incidents and things that happened on earth, we’re not going to have bad memories surrounding any of the people we encounter in heaven.

“You’ll say, ‘Hey, there’s Brother Rick,’ and all you’ll remember is Christ in Brother Rick and not all that was ‘I, not Christ’; that will all be gone. The blood of Jesus Christ is going to cover all the bad-memories stuff for you. It’s just going to be gone, and what you’re going to remember is Christ and who you are in Him.

“In our relationships with one another today, the key is to have Christ living in us so that when we meet up there, we’ll have something to remember.

“Paul urges in Romans 6:11 to ‘yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead,’ meaning the resurrection life we’ll have for eternity is the life we are to have live in us right now.

“The key is to let our resurrection lives be in effect today so that when we get out there in our resurrection body, the life we then live will already be familiar to us.

“The verse is saying, ‘Don’t live in your old identity, live in your new one, because the new one’s the one you’re going to take out there.’ Let everybody get to know you in your new identity NOW because that’s who they’re going to recognize out there.”

*****

Adam was only two days old when he appeared on the scene in Genesis as a fully mature 30-year-old adult.

“If you had anatomically examined Adam, he’d appear 30, so how would we know he’s two days old?” asks Jordan. “God told you. He created him with the appearance of being older. So, if He created the world with the appearance of age, how is it then that you look at the world and say, ‘Look, see, it’s really young’?

“How can you prove it’s young by its appearance if it’s created to appear old? You follow that? That’s the logic used by Creationists, and that logic just leaves me to say, ‘I thank God for Genesis 1:1 and Hebrews 11:3.’

“Verses tell me is there’s something to the ‘ruin- reconstruction theory’ include Genesis 2:4: ‘These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.’

“Notice it doesn’t say, ‘This is the generation’? No, it says, ‘These are the generations (plural) when He made the six-day creation.’ The six-day creation is not the generation of the universe; it’s the generations. If that’s the first creation, don’t you think that word ‘generation’ would be singular?

“The second time this word’s used is in Genesis 5:1: ‘This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him.’

“Now, Seth is the beginning of the book of the generations of Adam, right? But is Seth the first child Adam had? Cain and Abel came before Seth. The ‘book of the generations of Adam,’ refers to a starting point in time that skipped two previous sons at least.

“Now, why did it do that? Well, look at Genesis 4:25: ‘And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.’

“It says ‘another seed.’ We’re talking about the Messianic line here! The Messianic line started with Abel, but Abel got knocked off and was replaced by Seth. So, when you look at the second time the word ‘generations’ is used, it skipped over previous generations.

“Genesis 6:9 is the next time the word’s used. The verse says, ‘These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.’

“God begins a new generation in the earth. God wiped out a previous generation before Noah, meaning there was a destruction of the old world and then a new starting point.

*****

“Genesis 2:4 is at least consistent with the use of the term ‘generations’ in Scripture. That suggests there was a previous ‘generations of the heavens and earth’ before the Creation of the six days in Genesis 1:3 and following.

“Genesis 1:28 says, ‘And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’

“God said what? ‘Replenish the earth.’ And do what? ‘Subdue it.’ If you subdue something, doesn’t that imply it needed to be put in subjection? If something’s in perfect harmony, would it need to be put in subjection? That implies it’s in rebellion, doesn’t it?

“Man’s original commission is made in light of the world being in rebellion against God. And he’s told to go out and replenish the earth. Now, people say, ‘Well, that word replenish really means to fill it up.’

  

“But if you look back at verse 22, it says, ‘And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.’ That word fill there is exactly the same word translated replenish in verse 28.

“When they translated that word in the King James Bible, they chose specifically to translate it replenish and not fill. They knew what they were doing and they did it on purpose. Now, why would they do that?

“By the way, the re concept in ‘replenish’ means what? Fill it again. ‘Plenish’ it again. Why did they do that? Genesis 9:1 says, ‘And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.’

“He’s saying, ‘Replace; repopulate the earth. Replace the previous occupant with a new set of occupants.’

“The implication all through here in Genesis is that there could have been, and probably was, a previous . . .  the old world. And the heavens which were of old, and the earth, they perished in a flood—probably the flood in Genesis 1:2."