Seeing the donut, not the hole

Well, sure enough, I'm so tired I can't keep my eyes open and thus I will have to finish new article tomorrow and post it then.

"It was 1936 and two friends serving together at a Sunday school conference in Alabama were at lunch, sharing what God was doing in their lives," writes Aaron Earls. "One, a missionary to Brazil home on furlough, told the other, a hymn writer leading the music for the conference, that a health issue would keep him from returning to the country he had grown to love. The news, received just days before, had broken his heart.

"The hymn writer asked, 'What will you do?' And through tears, the missionary, R.S. Jones, told the hymn writer, B.B. McKinney, 'Wherever He leads, I’ll go.' McKinney was so moved that he penned the classic hymn that afternoon and sang it that night after Jones had preached, recounts Terry C. Terry, a musicologist who wrote his doctoral dissertation about McKinney. Since then, this song has been sung at invitation times and crusades, revivals and worship services."

*****

"Katherine Hankey (1834-1911) was 32 years old when she wrote the hymn, 'I Love to Tell the Story,' out of her heart's deep desire to tell the simple gospel story wherever she was in life," explains writer Helen Salem Rizk.

"First, it was in the Sunday school of Clapham, England, where she became a devoted, refined, consecrated woman. Then, it was in the heart of Africa, where she spent most of her life, giving the sales of all her writings to missions. Finally, it was in the hospitals of London, where she spent the last minutes of her life telling lonely patients of God's beautiful love. When Hankey wrote the song in 1866, she was doing more than expressing a feeling in her own being, she was projecting that same feeling into the minds of thousands of people through the years who would sing her song and receive the same challenge."

The song goes in part:

I love to tell the story, more wonderful it seems

1. Than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams;
   I love to tell the story, it did so much for me,
   And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.
2. I love to tell the story, ’tis pleasant to repeat,
   What seems each time I tell it more wonderfully sweet;
   I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
   The message of salvation from God’s own holy Word.
3. I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
   Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest;
   And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song,
   ’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.
4. *****
5. Christianity is really, as Ephesians 3:20 makes clear, the outworking of the indwelling life of the risen Savior in us.
6. Paul exhorts in Ephesians 5, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
   [15] See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
   [16] Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
   [17] Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
7. “You know how you walk circumspectly?” asks Richard Jordan. “You walk carefully. You watch where you put your feet. You give attention to the details of your life to bring it all into conformity with who you are in Christ.
   “He’s saying, ‘When you wake up to all the things that are yours in Christ . . . Awake, arise, look at what Christ has given you! Wake up to who you really are in Christ!
   
   
   “You’re not looking for the place NOT to put your foot; you’re looking for the place TO put your foot. I don’t want to put it on the (garden) snake, I want to put it over here where there’s nothing but good ground. I’m walking circumspectly, looking for the opportunity to be who I am in Christ. To let that be what’s important. To buy up the time.
   
   
   “Somebody said the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is the optimist sees the doughnut and the pessimist sees the hole. You’re looking for the opportunities. Paul says, ‘Awake, let who you are in Christ have an impact.’
   
   
   “That’s why he starts in verse 18 and following telling you the proscribed social order for the Believer. We walk intelligently, in love, distinctly, and we have a life that simply reflects who we are in Christ.
   
   
   “These chapters in Ephesians show us the difference between what it looks like when we do it and when He does it. What I’ve discovered through the years is that a lot of people think it looks like this, and they’re thinking religion, and when they hear it’s really this, they say, ‘Woah, wait a minute, what a difference.’ Probably one of the greatest impetuses toward getting people to trust Christ alone is that!
   
   
   *****
   
   
   “In II Corinthians 3, Paul talks about the Corinthians being the living epistles. He explains, ‘Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.’
   
   
   “It struck me one day, ‘If they were the epistles ministered by Paul, didn’t Paul write some epistles?’ In essence, he’s saying that you and I are really ‘Romans through Philemon.’ THAT’S what He writes in your heart!
   
   
   “Now, God doesn’t automatically write it in there. It’s what He writes in your heart as you take in that truth. It’s the intake.
   
   
   “Paul said, ‘The outward man perishes but the inward man is renewed day by day.’ How’s it renewed?  You’re renewed in the SPIRIT of your mind. Paul says, ‘And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’
   
   
   “How often should your mind be being renewed? Day by day. It’s that daily intake, that moment-by-moment application of the truth of God’s Word in the details of your life. That’s really called prayer.
   
   
   “It’s looking at everything that happens in your life and thinking before God; talking to God about what’s going on, and what His Word says about what’s going on, and how His Word can be applied to that--how what His Word says your attitude should be about that insult, that temptation, that rejection, etc.
   
   
   “You say, ‘Well, I don’t know what it says.’ But you do know! Because when you don’t know, what do you do? You go find out!
   
   
   “Now all of a sudden I need to know how to ‘rightly divide.’ You wouldn’t have to talk people into rightly dividing if they lived like THAT!
   
   
   *****
   
   
   “You see how this thing just becomes life; becomes living? Why? Because He is our life. That’s how He IS your life. Folks, these are not mindless clichés designed for preachers to have something to talk about and you go, ‘Uh-huh, uh-huh.’
   
   
   “This is the living reality for the way God made your soul, your inner man, to function and a guy like me is trying to say them in 15 different ways so that maybe one of them will, ‘DING!,’ turn on the light for you and make it real.
   
   
   “If it isn’t real in your life, it’s just because you haven’t believed it; the verse says the ‘word WORKS in you that believe.’
   
   
   “You can say, ‘I don’t really care,’ but there will be a day when you do. You can say, ‘It’s not for me.’ There will be a day when it will be for you. Just remember some little old nut told you there was an answer and get in Romans through Philemon and find it.”

Regyptian strut

(sorry for delay in new article, which I will have tomorrow for certain. I am working extra hours as a result of two co-workers quitting and the new manager of my department "walking off the job" after being in the position only two weeks! In the meantime, here's an old post that appeared in my recently read list:) 

With all the secrets and mysteries that still surround the ancient Egyptians, "one thing that is known was their obsession with the gods, the universe, the afterlife, and the rituals surrounding these wonders," writes blogger Jeff Roberts. "One has to wonder why Egyptian symbology is so prominent in modern-day society. What secrets are the elite keeping from the general public?

"Throughout the course of Egyptian civilization there were many different deities, gods, and Pharaohs that were prominently worshipped and cycled through over time (think Hollywood and modern celebrity culture).

"Many Egyptians believed that the Pharaohs were part god or divine in nature, and so the people would follow the kingship with faith in the Pharaohs’ eternal secrets to life.

"Magic and the supernatural were important aspects of their spirituality, which was supposedly taught about in the mystery schools.

"Sacred rituals were common in Egyptian worshipping temples, and the 'hymns' that were chanted during these rituals were said to contain the power to harness energies for their bidding... 

"Modern theories suggest that the Egyptians had made contact with extra-terrestrial life forms during which divine information was shared with the high-ranking members of the Egyptian society. It is suggested that this made an impact on the Egyptian’s fascination with the 'gods,' the supernatural, and the ritualistic ceremonies that were performed in the temples and mystery schools.

"The secret knowledge of the Egyptians was said to be kept hidden from the general public and was passed down over the millennia through secret societies such as the Freemasons and the Illuminati who maintained the ritualistic worship practices that was established in ancient Egypt.

"This could explain why there is so much Egyptian symbology found around the world today. For example, Obelisks from Egypt were transported out of the sacred archeological sites and spread across the world in such places as New York, London, Paris, and Rome where 13 Obelisks are stationed.

"Another example includes pyramid symbology in corporate logos, on the American dollar bill, and rampantly placed throughout music videos, movies, and television."

*****

“The kingdom of darkness extends all the way out through creation,” says Richard Jordan, in a study examining the satanic worship of the pagans/Gentiles during the time period the Israelites were brought out of Egypt.

“When Moses writes Genesis, he’s writing to these Israelis who’ve come out of Egypt and are in the wilderness. He writes the book to explain to them who they are, where they came from and how they got in the mess they’re in.

“Remember, they’re going to go in the land of Canaan, dispossessing all the Gentiles in the land, throwing them out and getting rid of all their stuff before establishing God’s kingdom.

“Well, who are these Gentiles? Where did all that stuff they were doing come from? They were doing abominable things. Read Leviticus 18 and 20 and you’ll say, ‘Man, what kind of culture was that?!’

“That’s the culture they evolved into. That’s what darkness produces in society. In Leviticus 18 is all the sexual perversion. Moses said, ‘You see all that stuff? Stay away from it!’ Why would he tell them that? Well, why do you think the largest purveyor of information on the internet today is pornography?

“That stuff began to permeate Israel. In Deuteronomy, they’ve spent 40 years facing some of this stuff and it’s already begun to seep in and be embraced by the Israelis.

“Moses warns them in Deuteronomy 4:19-20, ‘And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
[20] But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.’

*****

“Why are the sun, moon and stars there? You go back to Genesis 1 and you understand why. They’re to divide the light from the darkness. They’re to rule. They’re for signs. How they know that? Moses told them. He said, ‘When God created things, here’s what He did and here’s WHY He did it.’

“Do you see what the Gentiles were up to? They look at that stuff in the heavens and worship and serve them. Now we call that idolatry. That’s what the pagans were doing.

“They weren’t just worshipping the physical sun, moon and stars, they were worshipping the powers associated with them. The rulership, the message, the sign language, the teaching.

“But what did Job say about the heavens? Is that a good place to get your message? Is that a good thing to worship? Is that a good thing to serve?

“By the way, when he says worship, there’s a worship in connection with the powers—the sun, moon, heavens. When you worship something, you’re worshipping the invisible powers that these bodies were just the signs and symbols of.

“That’s why in religion, God said, ‘Thou shalt have no graven images.’ The image to represent that power . . . because worshiping the image, you’re really worshipping where the image came from. The image is just an expression of a thinking process. There’s spiritual force behind the making of that image and then they serve them. It always has a religio-political acts of service connected with this worship.

*****

“Jesus Christ says in John 3:18-19, ‘He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
[19] And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.’

“There are deeds that light produces and there are deeds that darkness produces that are worshipped and served. John 3:21 says, ‘But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.’

“The love of darkness and the love of the works of darkness, that lifestyle produced by their inner appetites, their inner worship (the word ‘worship’ means to value) . . . what is it that you value inside in your thinking process?

“There’s a value system taught by darkness and those values produce works; deeds that feed your appetites. It’s all designed to 'sear your conscience.'

“Even lost people have a conscience, as Romans 2 says. God wrote His law in their conscience and that’s why anyone anywhere, when they start out know, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’

“Anyone anywhere knows, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Anyone anywhere knows, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ That’s why they say all the religions of the world have the same value system. No, they don’t because they abandon what God says. . .”

Weak in Him

II Corinthians 13:4: [4] For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

"Not in ourselves but where? In Him. His weakness was going to Calvary. Listen, the things that allow you to be able to say, 'I'll be weak; I won't struggle, I won't make it about me, I won't have it to be in my resources' . . . The thing that takes your resources off the table is the Cross.

"I don't need to tell you that you don't like to take them off the table. It's not OUR weakness; it's HIS weakness. It's who He is for us.

Paul says in II Corinthians 12:9: [9] And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

[10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

"You notice he doesn't just talk about physical weaknesses? He talks about reproaches, necessities, persecutions, distresses. Paul just lumps all of our sufferings together in one basket and he says, 'I'm willing to glory in those things, because when I'm weak then is the power . . . ' We've got this 'treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.'

"But what I want you to understand is it's not your weakness in yourself that lets it be the power of God; it's that we're weak in Him.

Romans 8: [17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

[18] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

"How do you suffer with Him? You understand how to suffer for Him. There's a present suffering.

"The key in that is how do you respond to it? 'I reckon.' When you respond to the present sufferings with the same attitude that the Lord Jesus Christ had about His sufferings, you think about them the way He thought about them. Then you're suffering with Him, are you not? Then we are weak in Him.

"Our weakness, rather than being something that destroys us, becomes the place where His crosswork becomes our glory and thus we live through the power of God. We have victory because we have His victory.

Galatians 2:20: [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.

"That's why it's not about you; it's about who God has made you in Him and having that be what grips your heart and lives through you for His glory.

Go to II Corinthians 4:16 and you see it again: [16] For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Colossians 1: [11] Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

[12] Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

"Now, do you think that would frustrate your Adversary? He tries his dead-level best in whatever realm it would be and it all it does is increase your patience and longsuffering?! All it does is increase your ability to endure.

"You do it with joy because you rejoice in the Lord. You say, 'In every situation I've got something to be thankful for in Christ Jesus.' You see, we're weak in Him. That's what the grace of God does."

(new article tomorrow)

Supernatural messaging page after page

(sorry for delay--new article tomorrow for certain)

The feasibility of 40-plus authors—unaided by collusion or collaboration between themselves—devising such an infinitely intricate and cohesive body of work (66 books written over 2,000 years of history) as the Holy Bible is beyond absurd.

“It’s a wholly integrated messaging system that could have only resulted from supernatural, extra-terrestrial engineering.

“When you look at the insights painted from the beginning of Genesis, they go way beyond the horizon of the writer himself. They demonstrate their source understood the whole tapestry of time and embroidered in clues all along the way, so that when the reader reaches the end, he can look back and say, ‘Wow, He’d been planning this all along!’ ” says Richard Jordan.

*****

In Genesis alone are some of the Bible’s most complete pictures/proto-types/macro codes regarding Jesus Christ’s first coming, His crucifixion, His resurrection and Second Coming.

In I Corinthians 15:4, the Apostle Paul tells us Jesus Christ “rose again the third day according to the scriptures,” but there’s not one prior verse—in the Old or New Testaments—telling the reader this. It was obviously foretold in code by the story of Abraham and Isaac.

“There’s not even ONE clear verse that says He’s going to be resurrected,” says Jordan. “In fact, the disciples themselves in Luke 18, after having spent three years with Jesus, didn’t even know He was going to die. Paul says in I Corinthians 2 that the meaning of all this wasn’t revealed until he revealed it—until Christ revealed it to and through Paul.

“Paul obviously knew something about the Bible’s macro codes. Genesis 22: 4-5 says, ‘Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.’

“He’s going to take his boy and not just kill him, he’s going to take his boy and cremate him, and yet he says, ‘The boy and I are going to come back.’ In Hebrews 11 it says ‘he received him as though from the dead.’ Abraham believed in resurrection. He’s the one through whom Job learned that ‘my redeemer liveth’ though ‘worms eat my flesh’ (Job 19).

"The very spot Abraham offered Isaac—the hill on Mt. Mariah, which is just outside of Jerusalem (777 meters up from sea level) and has a peak named Golgotha—is the exact same place God the Father offered His Son 2,000 years later. Genesis 22 tells us Abraham 'called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.'

“Abraham gives it a prophetic name and doesn’t even know that’s what he’s doing. It’s also fascinating to note that in Genesis 22:19, the writer mysteriously leaves out mention of death-spared Isaac, reporting only that ‘Abraham returned unto his young men.’

“Isaac was obviously with Abraham, but he’s edited out of the text. You don’t find Isaac appear in the Bible again until you find him in Genesis 24:62, and you know what he’s doing? He’s coming to get his bride! That’s the Second Coming, isn’t it?! Isn’t that Revelation 19 when Christ comes with His bride?

“Another incredulous foreshadowing is information Sarah was 127 years old when she died (Genesis 23). Genesis 17 tells us Sarah was 90 when she got pregnant with Isaac, meaning Isaac was 37 at the time of his mother’s death.

“Abraham wasn’t taking a little boy up onto that mountain to kill him; he’s taking a man at least 30-33 years old! How old was Jesus Christ when He went up onto the mountain and God the Father took His life?

“You go through Genesis 22 and there’s one thing after another after another after another that matches. Sarah dies. There’s the fall of Israel. Abraham sends his servant. He’s not named in the text there; you get his name in Genesis 15—Eliezer, a type of the Holy Spirit.

“To get a bride for Isaac, Abraham says ‘go back to my kin folk.’ Isaac goes back to Abraham’s kin folk (a picture of the ‘little flock’ being gathered in the Book of Acts) to get his bride, Rebecca.

“In Chapter 25, Abraham took another wife and he gave her six kids, seven grandsons, and three great grandsons. You’ve got a picture of the blessings that flow in the Millennium. You tell me how in the world did the writer of the book of Genesis know how to write all that?!

*****

“The account of Noah and the Flood represents yet another set of macro codes in Genesis regarding the Second Coming. In fact, Jesus Christ says in Matthew 24:37, ‘But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.’ In Luke 17: 26-32, Jesus Christ also likened the time of His return to the days of Sodom.

“In the Book of Jude, which directly precedes Revelation, is a reference back to Genesis’ Enoch, ‘the seventh from Adam,’ and how he prophesied, ‘Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all.’

“Jude informs us God had given Enoch a message about a coming judgment upon the world of the ungodly, which turned out to be the Flood. In Jude the judgment being talked about is the Second Coming of Christ—an event that will once again wipe out the ungodly from the earth.

“This clearly tells the reader that the Flood was a picture of the Judgment in the ‘last days.’ Now, in I Peter 3:20 it talks about ‘when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.’

“From the different ages of men given in Genesis 5, what’s revealed is that Methuselah, the oldest man in the Bible at 969, is a proto-type for God’s longsuffering before wielding judgment.

“Enoch is 65 years old when he has his boy Methuselah. In Genesis 5:22, we learn something happened when Methuselah was born that caused Enoch to begin to ‘walk with God.’ This had to have been the message he got from God about an upcoming judgment.

“After 365 years, Enoch is taken to heaven without dying. Hebrews 11:5 tells us, ‘By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.’

“Methuselah was 187 when he had his son, Lamech, who was182 when he had his son, Noah. We’re told in Genesis 7:6 that the Flood came when Noah was 600 years old. If you add these three numbers together you get 969, the year Methuselah died.

“Methuselah’s name (in Hebrew) means, ‘When he dies it shall come.’ When you say Methuselah is the oldest man in the Bible, doctrinally what that’s talking about is God’s longsuffering that’s waited and waited and waited and waited and waited.

“It’s not just that Methuselah was old; it’s that he was a demonstration of the longsuffering of God. That’s why Isaiah 28 says God’s judgment is ‘his strange work.’

*********

“In the Book of Luke, women are prominent like in no other gospel. You see Elizabeth and Anna and Mary and Martha and the widow of Nain. There’s the woman who had the issue of blood and the weeping daughters of Jerusalem who weep for the Savior.

“You see the sinful woman who washed the Lord’s feet with her tears and wiped His feet with her hair. You see Mary Magdalene who was delivered from the demons. You see the women who ministered to Him before His Cross and after.

“In other gospel accounts, you read about ‘a certain man,’ but in Luke he says, ‘a certain woman did so and so.’ Women are everywhere but it’s not just that they’re women—Anna, for example, is a widow; it’s ‘the widow of Nain.’

“Luke took special interest in identifying who they were. It was ‘this woman, this particular lady, and she’s in this situation,’ and there’s all these personal details constantly given. He’s constantly painting the human side of it.

“You see how he looks into the feelings of people, especially parents. And again, this is something you would expect of a physician like Luke.

*****

“For 84 years Anna’s been a widow. Luke 7:12: ‘Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.’

“The Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said unto her, ‘Hush, little baby, don’t you cry.’ You know that song? That’s just the kind of moment it’s written for. He sees this little widow woman with her boy. That’s all of her family and he’s dead and the Lord has compassion on her.

“He says, ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, I’ll take care of it,’ and He does. He understood what it was to reach out and Luke understood how to paint the picture so you can see the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ as He’s touched with the feelings of our infirmities.”

*****

“If you come over to Luke 15 you see the insight I think is probably the most precious: ‘Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.’

“Isn’t that wonderful? Aren’t you glad that’s what He did?! He doesn’t stand off and say, ‘I can’t be touched, I can’t be bothered; I won’t be around them.’

“It’s in Luke that you see the two men at the temple. One is a Pharisee saying, ‘I thank God I’m not like these others,’ and the other is publican that goes by the temple and smites himself on the breast and says, ‘Father be merciful on me a sinner.’

"He understood what the walk of faith was about. He understood God had given the blood and the ‘mercy seat’ to cover the law as a payment for his sinful condition.

“Go back to Luke 3 and you find the publicans also came to John’s baptism. In Luke 7:29 you find the publicans justified God and believed the Word and the preaching of John.

“It’s in Luke that you see the two thieves and Christ saying to the one, ‘This day shall thou be with me in paradise.’ The issue in Luke is salvation. ‘Unto you is born a Savior which is Christ the Lord.’

“You go over to Calvary and see the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know the word ‘Calvary’ is only in the Bible that one time? Did you know that in every new bible they took the word Calvary out?! 

“We sing the words ‘at Calvary’ but you couldn’t sing that if you didn’t have a King James Bible because your bible wouldn’t have Calvary in it. You get the word from Luke because that’s the Latin name for Golgotha, which is an Aramaic word.

“Luke gives three cries from the cross. In the first, Jesus says, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’ There’s His compassion. Then in verse 43 He says, ‘Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’ There’s His power to forgive sins. In verse 46 He looks up to the Father and cries, ‘Into thy hands I commend my spirit.’ There He is quoting Scripture and trusting in the Word of God to the very end.

“It’s fascinating to see the next verse. The centurion looks and watches Him die and he glorifies God and says, ‘Certainly this was a righteous man.’ You know what Matthew says? Matthew records him saying, ‘Certainly this was the Son of God.’ But Luke says, ‘Yeah, He was that but, you know, we know He’s MORE than that—He’s a righteous man!’

*****

“Luke was a companion to the Apostle Paul; Paul’s beloved and loyal friend all the way to the end.

“The Gospel of Luke would be the account of our Lord’s life that Paul would be the most familiar with simply by his familiarity with Luke, and it’s Paul who says that there’s ‘one mediator between God and men—the man Christ Jesus.’ Luke says, ‘Behold the man, behold the man.’

“I have my own ideas about the influence Paul must have had on Luke and Luke on Paul but I know this—it’s fascinating that it’s only in Luke that you find Christ saying to somebody, ‘Your faith has saved you.’

“Luke of all the gospel accounts is the first one to use the word grace and by the way, he uses grace more than any of them. The first occurrence of the word redemption, by the way, is in the Book of Luke.

“Luke points to the Lord Jesus Christ and He says, ‘That Savior is our Kinsman Redeemer. He’s bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, and in all points He was tempted as like we are and yet He overcame it all by the power of the Spirit of God.’

“And Paul says, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.’ When he says that he’s not talking about following the Jewish program that Christ followed. He’s talking about the character and the virtue, the matchless manhood, the spirit-filled humanity that you see in Luke.

“Like the songwriter says, ‘Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon my Savior’s brow, His head with radiant glories crowned. His lips with grace o’er flow, no mortal can with Him compare among the sons of men. Fair is He than all the fair who fill the heavenly train. Majestic manhood, perfect pattern. Live again thy life through us.’ ” 

IN this wonderful provision

Civilla Durfee Martin, born in Nova Scotia in 1866 and author of the great old hymn, "His Eye is On the Sparrow," wrote these forgotten lyrics in 1912:

1. The blood that Jesus once shed for me,
As my Redeemer, upon the tree;
The blood that setteth the prisoner free,
Will never lose its power.

Refrain
It will never lose its pow’r,
It will never lose its pow’r;
The blood that cleanses from all sin
Will never lose its power.

2. It gives us access to God on high,
From far off places it brings us nigh;
To precious blessings that never die,
It will never lose its power. [Refrain]

3. It is a shelter for rich and poor,
It is to Heaven the open door;
The sinner’s merit forevermore,
It will never lose its power. [Refrain]

4. And when with all the blood washed throng
We sing in glory redemption’s song;
We’ll pass the glorious truth along,
It has never lost its power. [Refrain]

"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. Don't let somebody come along and put some religious shackle around you and put on a ball and chain of guilt and shame for your failure," says Richard Jordan on his TV program.

"God Himself knew about your failure. He looked down through time, knew you were coming, knew you were going to be the failure and flop and the mess that you are, and He sent His Son to the Cross to pay for all that. To settle the account, to take away our sin and to give us His forgiveness and His life in the place of our failure.

"When you struggle to get God to be happy with you . . . I had a man write me and list two pages of stuff he's done. Read his Bible, been out passing tracts, witnessing, went off to a mission field on a mission trip. He said, 'I've done all these things and I don't feel any closer to God than before I did any of it. In fact, I feel worse than ever. I can't seem to find a way out. Can you help me?'

"What a wonderful thing to be able to say, 'Yes I can,' and point him to Christ and say:

[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.
[21] I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

"The issue is not who I used to be, or who I'm trying to be; the issue is who God made me in His Son. You're in this wonderful provision God has made for you in Christ. The grace of God teaches us 'that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

[13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

"You look at that sin and you say, 'You have no place in my life. I've been crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed. I don't have to live in that; I'm free from it.'

Galatians 5: [24] And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. [25] If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

"They don't bind me any longer. Your feelings say, 'Yes, they do.' Your faith says, 'No, they don't.' You put off the old man and put on the new man.

"You focus on who He's made you in Christ, and that's why you've got to learn to study your Bible so you can know who it is. You need to get in Paul's epistles and find out who God made you in His Son so that can be the thing that becomes the REAL identity. You live out of your identity and that can be the real identity that you live out of."

(new article tomorrow)

O.T. guy got it: 'He's going to buy me back'

"It's interesting to me to let these guys back here testify for themselves. In Psalm 130 is one of the most amazing passages if you just sit and think about it.

[1] Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
[2] Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
[3] If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
[4] But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
[5] I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
[6] My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
[7] Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
[8] And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

"When he says 'out of the depths,' if you went back to Psalm 69, that reproach song about the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll see he cries out of the depths, and at first the depths are terrible circumstances coming on and finally it's the depths of death, where he's being swallowed up down into the pit," explains Richard Jordan.

"This psalmist is saying, 'Out of circumstances in my life that were just dragging me down to the bottom.' It's like he's right in the middle of them. He's not over here on the corner looking at them, saying 'over yonder.' He's right down the tube, right down the toilet with his circumstances.

"And he 'cried unto thee O LORD.' It didn't say he prayed; it said he cried. When you cry, you don't just go, 'Oh, huh.' When you cry, you wail. He's over and over and over and over and over--here's a guy who's in it, man.

[2] Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

"That's kind of brassy, isn't it? Look to God and shout, 'Here Lord, I got something I need you to hear me on.'

"But look at verse 3: [3] If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

"This character knew that his problems had something to do, in the bottom of them, with the fact he was a sinner. He said, 'Lord, if you mark iniquity; if you go around and keep a detailed list of my failures . . . if you do that, there ain't nobody going to stand.'

"Because we're failures, we're sinners, and it was out of a consciousness . . . You know what Paul would have said, 'Not I,' and I'm glad the psalm doesn't stop there. Verse 4: 4] But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

"You see his next word? 'But.' You're not left in the depths, flushed down the toilet with God marking your sins. That's where you might be, with nowhere else to go, BUT he had one place to go. 

" 'There is forgiveness with thee,' and I want you to look at the rest of that verse: 'that thou mayest be feared.'

"Under the law they feared God because of His wrath. In Exodus 19 He says, 'Tell them not to come close to the mountain lest I slay them.' But this guy's not fearing God because God's going to kill him. He's saying there's forgiveness, there's acceptance, there's love, there's you accepting me.

"He's saying, 'I don't know why, but with you there's forgiveness. How do I know? You've told me so. Lord, I'm just pleading what you told me.'

Verse 5: [5] I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

"That's saying, 'I'm not hoping in my goodness, in my righteousness, in what I'm doing. If I'm asking Him to look at me, I'm in trouble. I'm just going to trust the promise He made me.'

"What's the promise? [6] My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

"He's anxious like he just can't wait for the sun to come up. Verse 7: [7] Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

"When the Bible talks about hope, almost always, and I say almost because I don't want to say always, but especially in Paul's epistles, when it talks about hope, it's talking about the Lord's coming.

"Almost always when it talks about hope, it's talking about looking toward Christ's Second Coming to accomplish all that He's promised.

"He says, 'I'm hoping in the Lord and my hope is in His Word, because what His word's told me is there's plenteous redemption.' Redemption is to buy back and, 'He's going to come and buy me back from all my iniquities.'

"Again, I don't know how else an Old Testament dude could say what he had never heard about--about what the Lord Jesus Christ's going to do--any better than that. He didn't know how God was going to do it because He hadn't told him yet, but he sure trusted God to do what He told him He would do.

"It brought him into a level, and I love that thing in verse 4 ('there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared')--not because you're scaring me, not because you're big and bullying and can smush me like a bug, but because you love me and you accept me. That's different. You know what that is? That's spooky, but that's almost like the way Paul uses fear: 'Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.'

"You see, there's a guy who got it. If Nicodemus had had that attitude, Jesus would have never said to him, 'Art thou a master in Israel and know not these things?' Because when Christ said that, He pointed out the problem Nicodemus had. He wasn't walking by faith in the message God had given him."

Safe-n-secure inside the capsule

Colossians 3:3: “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

“I used to struggle with this verse, wondering, ‘What does it mean?!’ Then it dawned on me it means exactly what it says. What a thought!

"If I’m standing in a circle, I’m not hid and you can see me. It’s just on one plane. But if I’m in a capsule and ‘hid with Christ,’ I’m totally submerged inside of God with Christ!

"You know what that is? That’s security! That means I’m safe and secure inside of Him from any harm; any foes on the outside. And I’m completely supplied by everything that’s in the capsule.”

*****

Three words, "in Christ Jesus," and variations such as "in Christ," or "in Him," are phrases used by Paul more than 130 times in his 13 epistles. It is the dominant thinking of Paul because in his mind, being "in Christ Jesus" is the essence of what Christianity is all about; it’s the essence of the grace of God and who we are.

“Christ is our life, our mind, our goal, our strength; He’s the sum total, the excellency of all that we have.

“In Christ—you’ve got to get the idea—is to be IN something. The idea is to be IN the sphere of something.

“I like to say we’re encapsulated. You see, if you were in a circle, that would be different. When you’re in a capsule, you’re surrounded with protection and then if a brick fell, what would happen? It would bounce off! You’re completely surrounded. That’s what it means to be ‘in Christ.’

*****

“God has chosen us IN HIM and we are made alive IN HIM. We are new creatures IN HIM and are to walk IN HIM as we received Him, rooted and builded up IN HIM and established in our faith.

“We become the righteousness of God IN HIM, we are established IN HIM, and can do all things IN HIM that strengthen us. God always lead us in triumph IN HIM, making us a sweet savor of Christ unto God. IN HIM we have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places; as we abide IN HIM, we are made complete IN Him who is the Head of all principalities and powers. And we are made more than conquerors THROUGH HIM that loved us.

“It is as we realize upon the vital union which God has put between Christ, who is the ‘Chiefest of ten thousand,’ and us, who are members of His body, that this mighty Conqueror enables us to set up banners (floating over, His own peculiar banner, bearing His name, ‘Love’) through the power of His work upon Calvary. Thus is He glorified.”

(new article tomorrow)

The fear going on today

II Timothy 1:7: [7] For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

"When Paul tells Timothy, 'God's not given you a spirit of fear' he's talking about fear in a spiritual sense because Timothy is being a bit timid in the ministry and Paul's trying to give him a little kick in the pants--a little encouragement to say, 'Get on with getting on,' " explains Michigan preacher Brandon Smith.

"Your spirit is kind of the nature, the disposition of your soul. Scripture talks about having different spirits and some are good and some are bad. You can have a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of jealousy, a spirit of judgment and knowledge, or a spirit of slumber. How is it that you're going to carry yourself as a Believer? What spirit are you going to have?

"The spirit that God's given us is what Paul tells us in I Thessalonians when it says, 'but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.' The spirit God has given us is Himself, not those things that aren't edifying or profitable for us.

"So, if God hasn't given you the spirit of fear, where would it come from? If it's contrary to what God's doing, the answer would be it's coming from the Adversary; it's part of the lie program. It's getting you to move off of who you are.

"Why is it that Satan would have you operate in fear, because, by the way, this fear is going on today. It could impact all of us; some of us could be moving off of standing firm and might give into it. Some others will come and go a little bit.

"The spirit of fear is meant to frighten and intimidate you. Who has the desire for those in the Body of Christ to not operate as who we are? You know, Satan hates God and God has given us Himself, so Satan hates us.

"We have been given the blessing of God; we've been given His Holy Spirit which lives within us and so these are all things Satan hates.

"You know, Satan hates Pauline truth. One of the things that evidences that is he's blinded many of the people to it. He doesn't seem to be blinding many people to Catholicism.

"One of the first things we ask each other when we get together in a group is, 'Why don't other people see this? It's so wonderful.' Well, when you start to answer that, you have to start with the issue of the Adversary and the fact he doesn't want it spread.

"The curse of the Garden was not Satan's greatest defeat. The Nephilim being destroyed wasn't Satan's greatest defeat. Even, I would go so far as to say, when he gets kicked out of heaven in the Book of Revelation that's not his greatest defeat because that's an outcome of where his greatest defeat took place and that is in the crosswork of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:15: [15] And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

"Satan wants to attack the message because he hates it and it has embarrassed him. It exposed him for who he truly is."

(to be continued)

Reconstructive 'surgery'

(sorry for absence and will definitely have a new post tomorrow. At the last second I rented a car (mine has busted radiator) and drove up to Chicago on Monday to enjoy a few days of my church's summer Bible conference. The car Budget gave me for "economy" price was a brand-new Kia Soul SUV. Boy, did I get a taste of luxury and the gas mileage was better by quite a margin than my 2005 Nissan Altima. When preachers tell you it's much better to be at a service in person they ain't a kidding. Below is an article from 2011 that I actually forgot I wrote. It appeared in my recently read list today so I thought it was worth reposting.)  

In Luke 24:39, Jesus says, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” Paul says in I Cor. 15:50, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”

Richard Jordan explains, “This is where the idea of blood poisoning came from. (Adam and Eve) had something flowing through their veins but it was not contaminated blood that had to be shed for remission of sins as you find later on. ‘Male and female created he them,’ we’re told.

“Well, the man is the initiator and the woman is the responder. The man is the intellect; he’s the one who is to think and operate on volition. The woman is the emotional side. She is to respond to his will. Just like in you there is a will and your emotions are to respond to your will and when that functions properly you function the way God intended it.

“The man is the determiner and the prime mover. The woman is the emotional comparison. Men are more cerebral and women have more of an emotional intuition. It’s an ability to FEEL things that’s intuitive. You need to dwell with her according to knowledge, Peter says. You need to understand her makeup and that she’s made to be a responder and she’s going to respond and give you back what you give to her. When they do that, they’re one flesh, verse 24 says. One complete humanity. One person.

“Marriage is the reconstruction of man; it’s the completion of man. Man has that part that was taken out of him and put back in him and they become one functioning unit. Eve put back into Adam in marriage results and the reconstruction of the original item and the ability to function the way God created them to function.

“Neither the man nor the woman can be completely whole without the other because they’re interdependent, but since the fall sin has so disrupted this divine order that the oneness is never completely achievable. You’re never going to completely, totally achieve it in this life, but you can get close, and the more compatible you are with walking in the Spirit (the way God intends you to walk) the closer you get to it.

*****

“There’s an idea that floats around that says Adam’s original wholeness was he was male and female and he was bisexual and that’s just nonsense. The teaching is then said that because Adam’s made in the image of God and the likeness of God, therefore God is male and female in one. Again, that’s just not true.

“When you take two elements and combine them together they have qualities and a nature of their own. You take oxygen and hydrogen and you can combine two hydrogen and one oxygen molecule and you come up with water. Now you can’t breathe water; it will suffocate you. But it’s got oxygen in it that you need to live!

Oxygen and hydrogen are compressible gases. Both of them you can compress them, put them in cylinders, compress them down, put them under pressure and store them. You’ve seen hydrogen cylinders and oxygen tanks. But you put them together to form the compound of water—water is non-compressible.

“So you take two compressible gases, put them together and it forms a liquid that is non-compressible. When you combine two separate things you form a new nature.

“So it isn’t that Adam was talking to himself inside and feeling some female and male hormones. Adam was Adam, out of whom could be taken . . . Adam was neither simply male nor simply female; he was Adam, out of whom those male and female elements could be separated and they are separated now.

“When you put the man and the woman back together you’re recreating that wholeness. That can be understood in some measure when you understand what marriage is in its ultimate. Don’t let somebody take a passage like that and say therefore God is male and female and all that kind of stuff.

*****

“From the family you separate off the marriage unit and you can’t have a successful family without it being built on the institution of marriage.

“You leave your father and mother, folks, and then you cleave unto your spouse. You separate yourself and establish yourselves as a new and separate entity and a man must accept the responsibility for accomplishing that, including establishing a marriage wherein his wife is protected.

“In the issue of marriage, the husband is the head and the wife is the helpmeet. The wife comes along with her husband and is joined to him and her purpose is to fulfill him; to make him a larger, bigger person than he is by himself. To complete him; to be his helpmeet. The one who mirrors him. The one who answers to him. Adam is no longer sufficient and complete in himself; he needs this woman to come along and to complete him.

“God created Eve for the purpose of being married to Adam. It’s a creation institution and it’s the basic stabilizer of the human race and of society and, folks, families won’t function without the institution of marriage as its base.

*****

"You read the passage in Genesis 29 and there ain’t no doubt about it, there isn’t no ‘I Dos’ there. I mean, here’s Jacob and he’s worked for seven years--he’s got an agreement with Rachel’s daddy that he can have her to be his wife but he doesn’t get Rachel; he gets Leah. The old man tricked him.

“The daddy had a daughter he wanted him to marry first so he tricked him, but the point is when he went in unto her who had been his pledged wife, he went in expecting it to be Rachel and it turned out to be Leah, and going in unto her and having the intimate relationships that he had with her, as far as the situation in Scripture is concerned, she became his wife and there wasn’t any ceremony and any ‘I Do’ kind of a thing. It just was done.

"There’s more involved in marriage and the reason we call the consummation of marriage ‘the marriage act’--the reason that thing is there is that’s involved in marriage.

“In the Bible, marriage is more than a church institution. You see the church, especially the Roman Church, is the one who instituted the ceremony of marriage as a religious institution. It’s one of the seven sacraments of the Roman Church and that’s where that kind of a thing comes from where, if you hadn’t stood in front of a preacher or priest and had the thing blessed by the church, then you’re not really married.

“On the other hand, there’s more involved in it than just going to bed with each other. Sex and sexual relations are not what marriage is in the Bible either. Marriage demands this kind of a vow and a covenant.

"Malachi 2:14 says, ‘Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.’ That means being his helpmeet.”

Down, down, down

 II Kings 14-18 is the time period historically out of which the Book of Hosea comes.

“If you start to read Hosea repeatedly you’ll be familiar enough with the book that you then can go back to Isaiah 28 and begin to notice themes in the chapter that are kind of mirrored in the Book of Hosea,” says Richard Jordan.

“I’ve said to you over and over that each of the 66 chapters in the Book of Isaiah will have information that correlates with the 66 books of the King James Bible . . . there are themes and ideas that pop up in one that pop up in the other and even through Paul’s epistles it works out that way!

“What that tells you is whoever wrote your Bible already knew what the end was going to be when they wrote the Book of Isaiah.

“Isaiah 28 starts out talking about one of the judgments on Ephraim, and Hosea is going to focus on Ephraim, which is one of the tribes of the northern kingdom and sort of the pseudonym for the whole of the northern kingdom of Israel.

“The nation of Israel at this time in history is divided into two parts: the northern kingdom (the 10 tribes) called Israel and the two southern tribes called the ‘kingdom of Judah.’

“Somebody once called Hosea ‘Israel’s northern kingdom Jeremiah.’ Jeremiah is known as ‘the weeping prophet,’ and he was there in the land when Nebuchadnezzar came in and he prophesied before the captivity, during the captivity and after the captivity.

“There are places in Jeremiah where he talks about how he can’t stop the tears from coming; the weeping for the sins of his people and for the judgment that is coming upon them for their rejection of God’s Word.

“Hosea is sort of that same kind of a prophet to the northern kingdom. Verse 1: ‘The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.’

“Just notice when you read the time element here about when this is. He lists four kings of Judah and then lists only one king of Israel.

“Four kings cover about a 50-year period of time. Now, Jeroboam the son of Joash, is, by the way, Jeroboam No. 2. When he tells you he’s the son of Joash, that’s so you know he’s not talking about ‘Jeroboam, the son of Nebat’ who caused Israel to sin and was the one who was involved with the dividing of the kingdom after Solomon died.

“The first Jeroboam is the reason there is a division between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. He started that second course of judgment back there.

“Jeroboam No. 2 starts to reign in Judah about the same time as Uzziah and there are a bunch of kings in Judah after him but they’re not listed. And they won’t be listed in any of the Minor Prophets when he begins to identify who they are. The reason for that is the spiritual condition of the northern kingdom.

“II Kings 14:23 informs, ‘In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.’

“Joash king of Judah is one the high marks spiritually, politically and economically of the nation of Judah of all the sons of David. He had a tremendous life and ministry; he went out and destroyed the Baal worshippers out of the land (Kings 12 and 13 detail Joash’s life).

“He was a tremendously effective leader for the southern kingdom. It was during this time politically and economically the nation Israel, the southern kingdom just prospered and went ahead. So in the south there’s a real economic and spiritual revival going on. In the north it’s just exactly the opposite.

“I think about this situation and it reminds me of a nighttime picture of Korea on internet satellite. South Korea is lit up and North Korea is just like a black space. With these nighttime pictures of the globe on the internet, it’s fascinating where the lights and so forth are. That’s where there’s some productivity, some wealth, some ability to have electricity.

“I read verse 23 and I say, ‘How in the world I’m supposed to keep this stuff straight?!’ You got two Joashs—one in the south and one in the north! You got to be sure you notice which one they are because they’re different. One’s a good guy and one’s a bad guy.

“The next verse says, ‘And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.’

“You see he doesn’t start out so good. The spiritual heritage of Joash the second corresponds with the spiritual heritage of Jeroboam the first.

“Thirteen times in your Scripture the expression occurs, ‘Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.’ He’s the ultimate source of rebellion in the northern kingdom.

“Verse 25: ‘He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.’

“One of the reasons Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh is because he didn’t want God to deliver Nineveh; he wanted God to destroy them. Jonah’s prophesying here about the same time that Hosea is going to be.

“God used Jeroboam the son of Joash to deliver Israel, so they were not completely wiped out and destroyed at this time. This guy is the last king in the northern kingdom who God ever operated through.

“So when you come to Hosea and these other prophets, when they list the kings in Israel they stop with this guy because he’s the last one God worked through and the prophets don’t recognize any of the rest of the kings; they’re unfit to mention in Hosea and the other prophets when they list the heritage and the time period in which they’re operating.

“You see verse 29: ‘And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zachariah his son reigned in his stead.’

“Almost every one of his descendants doesn’t sleep with their fathers. You know what happens to them? They get bumped off. Even the kings of Israel and Zechariah his son reigned in his stead.

“Chapter 15:8 says, 'In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.'
[9] And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
[10] And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and smote him before the people, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.

“So he’s assassinated. There’s a coup in his government and they take him out and they sort of ‘Et Tu, Brute?’ and they turn on him and slay him. And then this dude Shallum takes over.

“So you come to verse 13: Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria.
[14] For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.

“This dude didn’t get to reign but a month before somebody came and bumped him off! Another assassination.

“Verse 25 says, ‘But Pekah the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh, and with him fifty men of the Gileadites: and he killed him, and reigned in his room.’

“Verse 30 says, ‘And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.’

“You go through here and what’s happening is just total complete bedlam in the northern kingdom and it comes to the place, you come over to chapter 17, Elah (that’s the guy who bumps off his predecessor).

The chapter reveals, “In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
[7] For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharoah king of Egypt, and had feared other gods.’

“The Assyrian captivity takes over so this is the last king in the northern kingdom. After Jeroboam the son of Joash, all of the kings after him, there’s just contention, fighting, murder, confusion and they’re just going down, down, down until finally they’re carried away into captivity.

“That carrying away into captivity is a warning of God to the southern kingdom because the southern kingdom was always an illegitimate kingdom. In the first 11 chapters of I Kings you’ve got King David, he dies, Solomon takes the throne and you have the reign of Solomon. Then in chapter 11 Solomon dies. When he died, he had a son Rehoboam take the throne.

“But when Rehoboam took the throne, this guy Jeroboam is going to come along and divide the kingdom. The reason he does that starts in I Kings 11:26.

“Verse 28 says, ‘And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour: and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph.’

“A cross reference to think about is Genesis 10:8 when Nimrod became a mighty hunter before the Lord. There’s a spiritual connection between that with Nimrod and what’s going to happen with this character here.

“Jeroboam is told by the prophet, ‘God’s going to use you to divide the kingdom and the reason he’s going to do it is because of worshipping false gods.’ Baal worship begins in Genesis 10 with Nimrod and that false, counterfeit religion culminates with the Tower of Babel.”