His story through lineage definitions

(still working on new article, which I will post tomorrow)

In the Bible, Hebrew names have meanings and sometimes they’re like sentences. In the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ starting in Luke 3, the names go from Adam to Mary. In Matthew, the names start with Abraham and go all the way through to Joseph.

“Some months ago a guy sent me a (written passage) of what you get if you put together the definitions of the names in order,” explains Jordan. “When I first read it, I thought, ‘That can’t be true.’ So I spot-checked probably a third of the definitions I knew off the top of my head, and I spot-checked about 20 of the rest of them, and I found it’s right.

“Starting with Adam, God orchestrated the identity of people in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ to tell a story.

“One of the most fascinating things to me is the name Mary is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Miriam (Moses’ sister). Anybody know what Miriam means? It means ‘the rebellious one.’ You remember the rebellion of Miriam in Numbers 12? Her name represents all of us.

“You know what God did? He took that divine seed and placed it into ‘the rebellious one’ and it produced life. I read that and I see this (passage) and I just say, ‘What a magnificent God we serve. What a staggeringly awesome Book we read.’

*****

Here it is:

“The last Adam, standing redemptively in the place of another (Seth), the people of this earth (Enos) are His possession (Canaan), and for the praise of God He shall come down to make a way.

“When He dies there will be an outpouring. He is brought low that He may prove powerful. He would bring rest and will be a resting place. His name will be famous among those who have been cut off from the beast and bound in the enemy stronghold, for He calls them His possession.

“He will enter this earth as a tender shoot; as one from the heavenly region. He will divide even the closest friends. He will be a branch burning with resolve when He takes up residence here. He will be the Father of multitudes, the chief of a mighty host.

“He laughs at the deceiver and supplanter and overcomes. He shall be praised. The breach He will fortify and close and wall in. He is exalted, the royal seed who will crush the head of the hissing enchanter.”

*****

“Now, when you get that far, the line splits,” explains Jordan. "Matthew goes one way and Luke another." Matthew, the royal lineage, reads:

“He will be a covering, a garment, and in Him is strength. He will come serving to make wealthy His beloved and bring peace and enlarge for Himself a people. He will say, ‘Jehovah is my Father.’ He will be harmed but then healed; hurt but then made whole.

“It will be said that He, God, has judged and He, God, is exalted. He will prove the strength of God and the perfection of God. He will possess in His hand the power of God, and though He be forgotten of His people, He will prove the master builder and divinely heal them and He, God, will set and make strong.

“Those who ask God, those born in captivity, He will say, ‘My Father is majesty.’ He will be raised up by God to be a helper, to be the righteous one. God will raise Him up for God’s praise, majesty and splendor. He will be the help of God; a gift. And to Jacob He will, Joseph, and prove Jesus.”

*****

“In other words, to the heel grabber and supplanter, Jacob, He will exchange out of life for death Joseph and bring God's salvation,” explains Jordan.

“If you go through Luke, instead of Matthew, you go back to David and come through Nathan." The passage reads:

“He will be a covering, a garment. In Him is strength. He will come serving to make wealthy His beloved and give the gift of God. He declares to those under the enchantment that they are His dearest object of care and that He will raise them up.

“He will be the giver of grace; life in exchange for death. They will praise God who hearken unto Him and join to Him a covenant. Those who receive the gift of God, the one whom God hath exalted, will find the help and salvation of God. They will be sustained by God; be quickened, made alive, made awake.

“He will be measured according to the king’s divine oracle. He will be adored as king. He will be a heavenly light unto all who ask of God. And those born in captivity will He heal and give grace. He shall be praised for He gives life in exchange for death. To those who hearken the good tidings, He gives the gift of God unto the small.

“He is a bright light unto those whose eyes are fixed on God, and He is a consolation and comfort unto the burdened. The gift of God is life in exchange for death. It’s the violent action of the king in order to join in covenant. The gift of God raised up to heavenly heights, and gives life and liberty in exchange for death and rebellion, and brings us God’s salvation.”

*****

Jordan summarizes, “When I see this kind of a thing, it makes it ever so easy for me to trust Him, to trust His Word and to do it with a delight, not a drudgery, knowing that every page I turn and study, there are hidden treasures laid out there. Not hidden like, ‘I don’t want you to find them,’ but like Proverbs says, they’re treasures and people who search for them discover them.

“By the way, you can do this same thing in a number of places in Scripture. My point to you is simply, it just blows me away. I can’t say it any other way.  It blows me away with excitement.

“I’m going to tell you that when I get to heaven, I’m not going to think it’s over. I think I’m going to spend all of eternity uncovering more things like this in God Himself and in His Word. It’s just too big for you and me, but I’m glad we can get what we can now.”

Way of Cain keeps broadening

On the CIA’s website you can read a PDF of the whole book by Fritz Springmeier on the "13 Bloodlines of Cain the Illuminati Serpent Seed."

“There’s a very interesting expression in Jude 11: [11] Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

“Jude is a book written for the last days and when you get over into that tribulation period right before the Second Coming of Christ, they’re still talking about Cain," says Richard Jordan. “Cain sets a way, a path in Genesis and it’s the way of man’s rebellion against God to do it himself, his way. 

*****

Matthew 23: [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.

"Talking to the Pharisees, Christ says, 'You guys slew all that righteous blood; your part of a group of people who have shed all that righteous blood beginning with Abel--Cain was the first in the line.'

"There's something began with Cain that goes all the way through the Bible; the way of Cain. First it was the way of a man, a system of religion. Jesus, talking about that way, said, [13] Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.'

"This way of Cain had become very broad; lot of people walking on it now. Opened that path out. You ever go trace a trail through the woods? One guy, two guys walk it and it's just a narrow path but then you get 10-15 walking side by side and the whole thing is stomped through. 

"By the time you get to Jude, it's BROAD, Jesus said. You know what's happened? Paul says, 'Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers.' They been working! They been spreading this way and it's become the way of all flesh. That religious fervor of Cain's doesn't end until the Antichrist religion.

Luke 11: [49] Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:

[50] That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
[51] From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

"Notice that Christ traces the blood to this generation; to this offspring, this spiritual lineage that reaches all the way back to the slaying of Abel and all the way over to the last days.

"A parallel passage to Luke 11:49-51 is Luke 23:34-35: [34] Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. [35] And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. 

"Who does Luke 11:49 say Jesus Christ is? The wisdom of God. You see how one passage says one thing and the other passage says something else, but they're both talking about the same person? In your Bible, the wisdom of God is personified in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Jesus Christ says Abel was a prophet. That's fascinating--the stuff going on in Genesis 4, it wasn't just two brothers fighting. There's a religious system conflict going on back there; a spiritual battle."

(new article tomorrow)

It's a marvel to Jesus

(new article tomorrow for certain. I have been under the weather since coming down with a cold and having it move into my ears, giving me what I have to believe at this point is a sinus infection. Having plugged ears for over a week can really start to wear on you.)

Mark 6: [3] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

[4] But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
[5] And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.

[6] And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

"They're not admiring Christ; they're mad at Him, jealous of Him. And you've got to understand their unbelief--their astonishment, their offense--came out of envy and jealousy. At the heart of hatred and unbelief is going to be those two things," says Richard Jordan.

"There are only two times it says Jesus marveled. One, He marveled at the centurion's faith in Luke 7--that a Gentile would have this great faith to believe the Messiah when Israel wouldn't. This centurion understood the Abrahamic blessing. He had blessed Israel, built them a synagogue. They come to Jesus and say, 'He's worthy of the Abrahamic blessing; he's blessed us.'

"These hometown folk in Mark 6 are a picture of what's going on in the nation. That's really the core issue here. It was their folly. They've got all this evidence to believe and they don't believe.

"These are not just isolated incidents in Christ's life; there's a bigger picture of Israel. He comes to His own country, His own people, His own kin, and although He's manifested and demonstrated Himself with the mighty works and the words of wisdom, they receive Him not.

*****

"Their jealousy and unbelief represents Jeremiah 2: [11] Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
[12] Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
[13] For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
[14] Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?

"That's the idea of marveling. 'Just be astonished. Let it scare the britches off of you.' He says, 'They've forsaken me. I'm the source of life! But they didn't just forsake me, they went out and tried to make a substitute that can't even hold water, much less the water of life!'

"They've taken the Word God gave them, the oracles of life, forsaken it and gone after a vain religious system that can't do anything. Jeremiah told them, 'Listen, you want to be astonished, you want to marvel, you want to let your 'What-in-the-world's-going-on?' hang out . . .' That's the situation in Israel and there they are.

"When it says in Mark 6:5, 'He could there do no mighty works,' this is one of these things where faith healers will tell you, 'Well, you just didn't have enough faith to get healed.'

"Here's a bunch of people in unbelief, and when unbelief is prevalent, all they could do is get healed! He couldn't do any mighty works; He'd just go out and heal a few people. Now, the few opposed to the many; the point is it's the little flock amongst the apostate nation.

"All this stuff where people use the Bible to abuse you . . . what religion does with that is they use the Bible to put you under a guilt trip so you'll send them more money to get you out from underneath that guilt trip.

"There's a lot more dangerous aspects to teaching people tithing than just getting their money. It's putting them under a guilt trip where you cripple them with guilt, shame, failure and fear. That's what unbelief does.

*****

"In Matthew 13, it says, [58] And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. He did not do them because He could not do them.

"That's like in John where it says they did not believe that Isaiah 53 might be fulfilled, therefore they could not believe. You see, the 'could not' comes after the 'did not', because of the hardness of their heart in their unbelief.

"John 7 says He's been speaking words of wisdom that they recognize. They're just mad about it because those mighty works make Him the standout and they say, 'Hey, he's just one of us; he's from our town. He's our neighbor; he's raised just like we are. He's not any different than us; he can't teach us anything.'

"You see how dumb that is? If He can't teach anybody anything because He came from your town like you are, that means you can't either. You just condemned yourself. That's what Christ is marveling at; how stupid unbelief is, how counterproductive. You look at any kind of unbelief and it will always be that way.

"John 7:14 [14] Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
[15] And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
[16] Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

"Now you're back in the same situation as in Mark 6. Jesus answered them and said in verse 17, 'If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

"That's a startling kind of a statement. He said, 'If you have in your heart a willingness to God's will that will create the capacity for detecting the divine authority of what Christ is saying.'

"You have to always remember that unbelief comes, not because there isn't enough evidence, but because there's a disposition in the heart that doesn't want God's will.

*****

After doing mighty works, Jesus Christ comes back to Nazareth and the reaction there is they don't want Him now either.

Luke 4:22 says, [22] And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

"It's, 'That's Joe's kid! When did he get so smart? Where does he get off saying all these things?!'

Verses 28-29 say, [28] And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
[29] And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

"The first time He was there teaching in that synagogue it didn't end well, to put it in a way. He's gone out, He's preached, He's done all these mighty miracles and wonders and then He comes back to His own.

"Mark 6 begins, [1] And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
[2] And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

"When it says they were astonished it doesn't mean they were, 'Woo, wow, He's doing a great job!' It's, 'Who does this guy think he is anyway?!' You see how Mark says in verse 6, [6] And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

"They're suspicious of what He's doing; they're not there being happy about it. Verse 2 has them asking, 'From whence hath this man?'

"You see that 'this man'? They're saying, 'Who is he to elevate himself over us?! I mean, he's Joe's kid; he's no big deal.'

"They're offended at Him because they think He's trying to make something of Himself--'He ain't no better than we are!' They're scandalized.

"They're suspicious of where He got the power and His ability to teach and preach it with authority like He did. They don't believe it's come from a legitimate source. They really think it's come from the underworld of evil.

"We've looked at passages saying this, [22] And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
[23] And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?

"They're claiming He's got the spirit of Beelzebub. They say, 'God didn't send you.' They're reasoning in Mark 6:2 is based on verse 3: [3] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

*****

"In verse 3 you get a glimpse into the early life of Jesus Christ. This passage is probably one of the more revealing ones. At 12 years old, Jesus knew He was, He had an awareness. He'd learned from the Scripture His identity.

"Jesus Christ literally worked in His daddy's business. When you look at Mark 6 where He's called 'the son of Mary,' evidently by this time Joseph was dead, because it doesn't call Him the son of Joseph.

"Evidently by this time the Lord Jesus is the breadwinner in the home and He's 'the carpenter.' He's the first-born and He would be the one who's the head of the house and responsible for its upkeep and protection and provision after His dad isn't there. And even when His dad was there He was working with His dad, learning how to be a carpenter.

"If you think about that, that's just a normal kind of a life. He lived in a normal, run-of-the-mill family. He's got four brothers and at least two sisters. Mary's got at least seven kids.

"It's a busy household with a normal family life, and what that tells you is the Lord Jesus Christ truly participated in our humanity. It was not a royal, palatial kind of a thing.

"When they call Him 'the son of Mary,' there is a background to that statement. In John 8, the religious leaders in Jerusalem say, 'You see what they said about Jesus?' John 8:41 says, 'Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.'

"They say, 'We know who are daddy is; you don't. We're not born of fornication like you.' There was an insufferable stigma attached to the reputation of His family. Think about it. His mother, engaged to Joseph, comes up pregnant. Joseph marries her anyway, but he's not the daddy and that became publicly known.

"There's this hint of a 'this man.' 'He's just a dude that works down at the corner and, by the way, there's that rumor about Mary.'

"By the way, Mary had four more boys and sisters (plural) after Jesus was born, Mary was not a perpetual virgin. That's just a lie taught by Romanists in order to propagate their worship of the Queen of Heaven, which is a pagan goddess that goes all the way back to Genesis 11 in Baal worship. The idea that it's a perpetual virginity is just part of the pagan ritual.

*****

"Jesus has cleansed the temple at the beginning of his ministry. John 2:16-17: [16] And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
[17] And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

"In other words, when Jesus cleansed that temple, the verse in Psalm 69:9 was being fulfilled. Psalm 69 is a messianic psalm that prophesies and foretells the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The verse reads, [9] For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

"Prophetically this is Christ talking in verse 8: [8] I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.

"Now, no new bible's going to know how to get rid of that one because they don't know it's there unless they hear somebody like you talk about it!"

Thinking in the Big Picture

(here is an old post and I will have a new article tomorrow. Something I always used to look forward to Memorial Day weekend was the Ohio Grace Ministries Conference. The good news is the conference is back (after COVID cancellations) and it's only a couple of hours from me. The bad news is I can only attend this evening's message since no one was available to cover my shifts this weekend at work. I asked to have last weekend off for my nephew's graduation and was not permitted to ask for two weekends off in a row. This is very busy weekend for my retail position.)

Jeremiah 9:23 says, "Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches."

“God says, 'You want to rejoice in something, rejoice in that you understand me and what I delight in! Come to the place where you’re as delighted about the things I’m delighted in; what I’m zealous about, you’re zealous about,' " explains Richard Jordan.

"God says, 'You think like I think in the Big Picture and it’s no longer, ‘I’m doing this because He said to do it and if I don’t do it . . . ’

"It’s, ‘I understand why it’s this way—I buy into the program and I don’t just buy into it, it’s a good thing that I delight in!’

“When Deuteronomy says a friend is as one who is as thine own soul, that means they’ve come to understand what’s in your heart. They’ve bought into it and they’ve come to delight in it the same way you delight in it.

“Jesus says to these apostles, ‘You are my friends.’ Do you know the first person in the Bible called a friend of God was Abraham?

James 2:23: [23] And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

"Abraham was called this because he came to the place where he understood and bought into and lived out, delighted in what the Father delighted in.

“Likewise, the apostles, the night before Christ dies, He takes them aside to say: ‘I’m going to go die. I’m going to die for you. You’re my friends. You’re the ones who I’ve . . . '

“John 15: [12] This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

[13] Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
[14] Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
[15] Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

“Christ is saying, 'Just like my Father has revealed all these things to me, I’ve revealed them to you. I’ve entrusted the deposit the Father gave me with you. Just as I’ve learned what the Father is doing and I’m delighting in it, I’m giving it to you to delight in! You’re my friends. You’re as mine own soul. So I’m not going to call you servants. I’m going to call you friends because I’ve made you my friends. You’ve not chosen me but I’ve chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.’

“That goes back to chapter 14 where it's talking about this permanent nature in the New Covenant that comes in, and now they’re going to have this permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit--this permanent heart-writing of the law, this permanent working.

“It’s not going to be temporary anymore. It’s not going to be this David stuff back in Psalm 51 where he says, ‘Don’t take it away from me,’ afraid that it would be.

"Or Saul where he does lose it, or Samson where he loses it and gets it back. It’s not going to be all of that. Now there’s going to be this permanent thing. He’s going to finish the task with Israel.

“They’re going buy into the program so fully they’re going to know what’s in line with His will. They’re going to delight in it so fully that when they talk to the Father about it, it will be just like Christ talking to the Father and it will be done. This is high ground these guys are being put on.

*****

"In John 15, Jesus is talking to people who've entered into an understanding of what Christ's doing and did what they did because they were His friends.

“I don’t know how you would define a friend. I ask people, ‘When you talk about someone as your friend, exactly what does that mean?’

"Proverbs 18 says, [24] A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

“I think the greatest definition I know of is found in Deuteronomy 13:6: ‘If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers.’

“This is one of these verses in the Bible where you find a definition where the verse isn’t focusing on doing that—it just kind of does it for you in that casual assumption kind of a way which shows more power to the definition because it’s not trying to press a point; it’s just, ‘This is the assumption of what a friend is in the Bible.’

“He puts a little appositive in there—that is, a statement that defines what a friend is. And that friend is described as ‘which is as thine own soul.’ People have taken that verse and we have a term we use in the culture for it called ‘soul mate.’

“Most people when they say that, we find out they’re talking about the person they want to get married to. Someone who is your friend is someone whose soul is in oneness with yours.

“When the Lord Jesus Christ said His joy was to do the will of His Father (‘My meat is to do the will of him who sent me’), He's saying, 'The thing that gives me strength and sustenance and makes my life work is to do the will of my Father.' "

Implacable, hardened in pride

"'The more you grow in grace, there are these moments where you become conscious of, 'That was me. That wasn't Christ. That was my action; that was me trusting my resources.'

"As soon as you realize that, you become aware of your own sinfulness; of the sin that dwells in ME. You become aware of what a long way you still have to go as a Believer.

"A quote from an old preacher I always remember is, 'The closer you get to the light the better you see the dirt.' The closer you get to 'It's Christ,' the more you realize, 'It's not me, because I don't have the capacity. I still have a long way to go and it seems like it's taking me forever to get there.'

"You become conscious of your pride, your impatience, your selfishness, your unrighteousness, your irritability, your laziness, your vanity, your complaining, your unbelief, your envy, your greed, your ingratitude. All those things, and you begin to see them in yourself, and you say, 'Woah.' That's what happened to Job.

"Those fiery darts are designed . . . I Timothy 4:2: 'Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.' Fire burns and it leaves scar tissue. It makes you insensitive. It kills the feeling. You become like Ephesians 4, 'past feeling.' You come to the place where you're insensitive to who you really are in Jesus Christ. That self-centeredness, that self-will, is an internal thing.

"Satan is literally seeking to get you to identify yourself with him and not with the righteousness you have in Jesus Christ. These darts assault you so you think of yourself more in the light of who you were in Adam than who you are in Christ--more when you were under the power of darkness than in the kingdom of His dear Son. That's the goal of these fiery darts.

"The shield against that is the constant, personal application of the truth of God's grace to you in Jesus Christ. You say, 'This isn't really who I am; it's the transformed life I have in Christ that's the real issue.'

"How can you say, 'I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live'? The way you say it is by faith. God's Word says that's the reality of who you are. The shield of faith says, 'This is my real identity; not the actions of me, the actions of Christ. Not my faithfulness, or lack of it, but His faithfulness.'

"The shield, the protection, is me trusting who He is and who He's made me in Him, and then personally applying that to my life in whatever the circumstance or situation I'm in. By the way, that transforms your view of the circumstances and situations, because now they're opportunities for your faith to trust who God has made you. They're growing moments.

*****

"A constant struggle Believers have is to apply the truth of God's Word in denying ungodliness and worldly lust and living soberly, righteously, godly.

"The struggle is to do what faith does, do what God says, regardless of our opinion or viewpoint about it, our emotions, our ego, our desires, our reasonings. What preachers call the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 says in verse 6: [6] But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

"When you think about your faith in God's Word, your persuasion that God's Word is true, your confidence that it is, your Christian life will never be a life that is well-pleasing to God except it be a life lived by faith. You must understand that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; it's more than just believing God exists.

"People ask the question, 'Can God really help me in my life? Can He really work to transform my life? If I trust Him, will it really pay off? Is there a payoff for trusting Him?'

"That's what faith is; it's what produces the reward of God working in your life. The transformation is in our faith trusting what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us as it's revealed in His Word.

"Faith and discouragement are polar opposites. They don't exist together. The attempt of the Adversary to discourage someone comes about with the assault of the fiery darts.

"It's easy when you're talking to other people to say, 'Here's what the Bible says,' but what happens when it comes to you?

"Galatians 2:20 says, [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

"What you have to do to lay hold on eternal life--get a grip on the life God's given you in Christ--is come through some of these 'not I' moments, where you realize again what you realized when you got saved. You said, 'I can't do it.' You were conscious of your sinfulness, failure, bankruptcy, brokenness. You said, 'Lord, I can't; I'll trust you because YOU can.' 

*****

"In the Bible we learn the entire world is saturated with pride and we know why and we know why it hardens.

"The mind becomes implacable and it's hardened in pride. It's difficult to penetrate it with light and truth and understanding; they have no means of access.

"Satan is a king over all 'the children of pride,' says the Bible. The unsaved humanity is a mirror image of their father the devil and he is the reigning authority over all his children. Pride courses through their veins and because of that pride, there is this ungrateful response to the things of God. They're not thankful.

"Satan has this proudful ambition to usurp what is rightfully God's; what belongs rightfully to the Creator, and ever since Genesis 3, unsaved humanity falls right into the lap of that prideful desire to achieve, to ascend, to make a name for one's self. Did he not offer to Eve, 'Ye shall be as gods'? He's saying to her, 'You see, you don't have to be inferior, you don't have to play second fiddle; you deserve better.' 

"The same individuals who are lifted up in self-adoration, self-love (Paul says they are lovers of their own selves), they're boasters, a bunch of braggarts. They're haughty, and not only that, they're proud.

"When you study what pride is, and surely we could go to a dictionary, pride simply is a preoccupation with self. There is this excessive desire to be the attention, to be appreciated and adored. There's this unhealthy desire to be admired by others.

"When you find pride in the Bible, you find this lustful desire to be the center of attention. What often happens as a result is you will see a proudful person begin to look at others with contempt. That haughty spirit of puffed up arrogance will lead one to begin to look down on others. There is this false sense of conceited superiority that leads toward looking at others as being inferior.

"Pride, by Bible definition, is extremely deadly, extremely dangerous, and there is this link between pride and unthankfulness. In Romans 1, right off the bat, as the Apostle Paul indicts humanity, [21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, when they knew god they glorified him not as God.

"In their attitude of unthankfulness and ingratitude they rely upon their haughty sense of professing wisdom. Notice, neither were they thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations. They replaced that spirit of thankfulness. They displaced any gratitude that should have been expressed because of the creative power and wisdom of Almighty God, and what they did is they suppressed any attitude of thanksgiving with vain imaginations.

"II Corinthians 10:5 says, [5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

"The idea here is that humanity--they presume, they assume they know what's happening. They assume they know what's going on. They assume they know how man came into existence. They assume they know how God thinks in some ways as well.

"Paul says meekness is the capacity to bring into subjection every thought to the obedience of Christ. It's not so much bringing my thoughts so that I'm always obeying Christ, but rather, just like Jesus Christ in meekness chose to obey His Father. Meekness is not weakness. Rather, it's the ability to restrain power, ability, strength. To restrain one's prerogatives. He chose not to exercise His royal rights and prerogatives as an equal co-member of the godhead. He chose to restrict His divine abilities.

"Jeremiah 49:16: [16] Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

"Pride deceives and convinces you of something that just simply isn't true. It distorts reality. By the way, the idea of vain imaginations--again, Paul, when he talks about the imagination and every high thing, it's talking about prideful understanding and wisdom. So when you think about the deception, it's all imaginary! A proudful person convinces themselves, 'I am right; you're wrong.' Pride convinces that person of things that just simply are not true.

"Psalm 73:6 says, 'Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.' Pride is bondage; it makes you a slave. it's like a chain of enslavement.

Proverbs 13:10: [10] Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

Proverbs 16:[5] Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

[6] By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
[7] When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
[8] Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
[9] A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

"Proverbs 6:16-17: [16] These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: [17] A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

"By the way, that's No. 1 on the list. The No. 1 abomination is a proud look. When it says a proud look, it's not suggesting that somebody looks proud, or has the appearance of pride. It's talking about a pride-filled person who evaluates and sees everything or everyone as being beneath them, as being inferior; as being unworthy.

"It's not a, 'Look, man, he dresses proudly,' or, 'He looks proud,' but rather it's the way he evaluates, the way he perceives. The proud look is the way he interprets his surroundings. Again, there is that twisted sense of superiority of the one who has the proud look. He views things through the lens of that empty, vain, imaginative, haughty pride that would lift himself in exaltation against the knowledge of God; against what God is saying and against all that God is doing."

Jonah's slide down

David writes in Psalm 139: [1] O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.

[2] Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
[3] Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
[4] For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
[5] Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
[6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

"Jonah quotes the Book of Psalms seven times and would have known the psalms of David. He would have known you can't go to sea, or anywhere else, and get away from God," explains Richard Jordan.

"So when it says Jonah flees the presence of the Lord, it's not so much that he's trying to get away to a place where God isn't; he knows that's not possible.

"His idea was, 'If I can get out of the land of Israel, then that spirit of prophecy that's on me won't be on me anymore.' What he's doing is running from the ministry; from his prophetic office, the position he's been given as God's witness man in the earth.

I Kings 17 begins: [1] And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. [2] And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, [3] Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

"That idea of 'before whom I stand,' is, 'I'm His messenger.'

II Chronicles 29:11: [11] My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.

"Jonah's trying to get out of the ministry, which is exactly what His nation had done.

"There is hard, physical evidence of the Phoenicians visiting the North American and South American continents, the new world, before the time of Christ. There's evidence that they had sailed the whole planet.

"Solomon used these folks in his kingly activities. I Kings 10:22: [22] For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

"King Hiram is a Phoenician king with his Phoenician navy. You can get gold and silver from a lot of places, but to get apes and peacocks you couldn't do that in the Mediterranean.

"Tharshish is as far across the Mediterranean as you can go. It's a city of Spain. What Jonah's trying to do is get as far away from Jerusalem as he can get, which is the other end of the Mediterranean and he's on a boat that will take him as far away as Africa and perhaps East India.

"It took three years for these ships of Tarshish to make their circuit. That's the reason they came to Solomon every three years.

II Chronicles 9:21: [21] For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

"You had to go around to Africa to get the apes and to India to get the peacocks, meaning these ships went long, long ways. My point to you about Jonah is he's trying to get out of town and he's serious about it. He's willing to go as far away as he can to get out of the ministry.

Jonah 1: [3] But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. [4] But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

"Any time you leave the Lord, you know which direction you're going? Jonah is in such a hurry he doesn't even take time to get a passenger ship; he gets on a freighter, a merchant ship with a bunch of mariners. He takes the first berth out of town and he paid the fare.

"Listen, when you depart from the Lord there's a price to be paid and you know who's going to pay that? You see, there's a lot of preaching and spiritual application in these verses.

"Hebrews 12 says God chastens His sons, so He's going to chasten Jonah. He's going to deal with him and He's going to deal with him in afflictions. Now the great storm is a type and picture of what Israel will go through in the tribulation.

Jonah 1:5: [5] Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

"Jonah's gone down into the bottom of the ship and he's in a deep sleep. He just keeps going down, down, down, down. Get to chapter 2 and he's going to go down to the bottom of the mountains, go down to hell. He's on a real slide down.

"When it says he's in a deep sleep, that's the opposite of the Lord Jesus when He's in the ship and it's tossed at sea and His disciples ask, 'How can you sleep when we're fixing to perish in this storm?'

"Similar storm as in Jonah, a picture of the tribulation, but their problem was Jesus said, 'We're going to go to the other side,' and then He went to sleep because He was trusting the will of His Father about where they were going and He wasn't worried about it.

"Now, Jonah's sleep is a sleep of exhaustion. He's a guy running from God and he's completely worn out. Have you noticed we live in an exhausted world? When you run pell-mell from God in your own way, doing your own thing, that's where you wind up."

(new article tomorrow)