Thankful for God's account of history

"If you ever read religious books, they start out talking about the ‘ultimate essence’ and the ‘basis of reality’ and the ‘true meaning of life.’

“You know how the Bible starts? You have two people naked in a garden. That don’t sound like any religious book I ever read. It starts out talking about whether you ought to put something in your mouth or not," says Richard Jordan.

“The fact that the Bible is a book of history is really what rubs people the wrong way about it. It’s a record of what’s gone on. Now, God is all through the Bible. His history is HIS story, but it’s a record of what’s actually happened on this earth for 4,000 years.

“The trouble is that if it’s history, then it’s what’s really gone on; it’s what’s really happened and it’s what really is going to happen, and it really doesn’t matter what you believe about it.

“The worst thing in the world is to be sincere and be sincerely wrong. What you believe, if it isn’t true, if it isn’t historically accurate, if it isn’t real; it don’t make any difference if you believe it or not! If you believe Jesus rose again and He didn’t, believe it all day long; it’s not going to do you any good.

“Because the Bible’s a book of history means heaven and hell are real places. They’re not just theology, dogma. It’s not just religion. Paul says, ‘Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.’

“That has to be true and that’s why he says in I Corinthians 15, ‘And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.’

“Jesus Christ, truth personified, once prayed for His disciples and said, ‘Sanctify them by the word; thy word is truth.’ Just like Jesus Christ was the perfect truth of God, He said His Word was the perfect truth of God.

"That’s what Paul said when he wrote, ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.’

“If you’ve got a bible and you don’t believe it’s the truth—and I don’t mean generically the truth; I’m talking about when you read a specific verse and the words in the verse, then you have an entirely different attitude toward the Word of God than God Himself does.

"The historically proven reality of the resurrection is the foundation Christianity is built on. Biblical Christianity expects a person to believe certain indisputable facts:

*Jesus Christ was a real person who lived on earth

*He was charged by Jewish leaders and crucified at the hands of Roman authorities

*He was buried in a known, accessible tomb and then preached as risen

*The leaders of His nation tried to dispose of the message that He was resurrected by, persecuting those who preached it

*The empty tomb, though, belied all their efforts

"The empty tomb is the central fact of the Christian faith. It's a fact that can be demonstrated to a historical certainty."

"People will tell you you can't prove the resurrection scientifically, but there's a lot of things in life you can't prove scientifically.

"The scientific method is a method of replicable events. It's science if you have something you observe, and you make a statement of it, and then others can come along and replicate the event. But there are a lot of things where you don't do that."

"Felons convicted in courts of law for murder, for example, are not convicted on science. They're convicted on historical evidences—the evidences which demonstrate something happened historically, in time, and jurors are pressed to a decision, or a conclusion.

"Individuals are forced to a conclusion based on the evidence. Whether you want to make a conclusion or not, the evidence demands that you come to a verdict."

*****

"In the Bible we learn the entire world is saturated with pride and we know why and we know why it hardens," explained Preacher Alex Kurz in his Thanksgiving message from a few years back. "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. 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."

*****

"A friend of mine once told me about what happens on his meditation retreats, where attendees stay silent and engaged in some form of meditation for days on end," writes journalist Anne Helen Petersen.

"At some point, usually a day or so in, most attendees find themselves weeping. Not because they’re suddenly enlightened, but because the experience of spending so much time in an unmediated encounter with one’s self, with no distractions, is terrifyingly intense.

"I’ve heard of similar reactions from long-distance runners, and long-term yoga practitioners, both of which make the body unignorable, the mind inescapable. We say we go on runs or meditate to 'get out of our heads,' but the real effect is to actually burrow deep inside them, to concentrate wholly on the self. For many of us, that experience is so rare that tears are the natural, involuntary result — like seeing a good friend, long neglected, after so many years."

*****

The most important thing in a person’s life is what he/she thinks about God and their relationship with/to Him.

“What you understand about God and who you think He is is the most important controlling factor in your life, because what you think and believe is where your life flows out of,” explains Jordan. “God wants you to be reconciled to Him and that’s what the Cross is all about.

“Paul writes in II Corinthians 5:17, ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’

“You see, God so radically changes your identity when you trust the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t just forgive you your sins, make you acceptable to Him, give you His righteousness, accept you in the Beloved. He also does a radical change inside your identity and makes you a NEW creature!

“You became something CREATED in the Lord Jesus Christ and that happens to every one of us, so the connection we have is by being IN Christ.

*****

“Performance-ism is just another word for legalism. It’s that mindset that equates our identity and our value to our performance and our accomplishments. Your value, your identity in Christ does not come from that.

“That’s the way we do it in life; we get our value, our meaning, our validation, our purpose out of what we accomplish, what we’ve done, how we are performing, and when we find out we’re not performing well enough it's, ‘Well, I’ll try harder!’

"That’s just performance-based acceptance. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit is not performance-ism. It’s not, ‘I’ll perform and therefore get there.’

*****

“Paul says in Galatians 2:20-21, 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.

“What he’s saying there is that, in the Lord Jesus Christ, you see the way God designed man to live . . . when you see that obedience of faith in God’s Word that led to the ultimate sacrifice at Calvary, trusting in the Father’s Word, you see the way He created mankind to live.

"It’s the way He created you and me to matriculate through life today. The challenges, the excitements, the excesses, the necessities of life as we experience them . . . 

“The Lord Jesus Christ had that kind of faith in His Father that He would say, ‘Of my own self I can do nothing.’ That’s the choice He made. He said, ‘I value and cherish my Father’s plan so much, I couldn’t even imagine being separated from it.’ You know what that is? That’s ‘the faith of Christ.’

*****

“He was not out here on a journey doing His own thing. He came to do the will of His Father and that’s what ‘the faith of Christ’ is. It’s HIS faith in the Word and the will of His Father, and that’s what Paul says our life as Believers is designed to be.

“That’s what it is to worship God in the Spirit. That’s what it is to have Christ as our life. These are not religious clichés even though sometimes we use them that way.

"Sometimes we get to trafficking in unfelt truth, but they weren’t for Jesus Christ and if they get that way with you, you need to sit down and look back at Him and see in Him who God designed you to be, because He’s the one living in you.

*****

“In John 14:10, Jesus says to Philip, [10] Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

“Philip doesn’t get it. He says to Christ, ‘We’ve been with you all this time and who you talking about?!’

"You’ve had a bad day like that, haven’t you? You’ve looked up and said, ‘Lord, where in the world are you today?! Don’t you care?! Are you on a trip?! What’s going on?!’

“When you get that way, it’s not because you’re looking at Him. It’s because you’re looking at circumstances; self. It’s not because you’re trusting Him; it’s because you’re trusting your own resources. So don’t get too mad at Philip because you do this.

“Later in the same chapter, Jesus says to Judas, ‘He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.’

“You see, He was so perfectly abandoned to the will of His Father that the Father dwelt in Him and SPOKE through Him. It was the Father’s wills, words and works.

"What Jesus Christ is doing is demonstrating the supreme, absolute value of the way He cherished His Father and He did it by putting His faith in the Father’s Word, so that the things He did in His life were what the Father gave Him to do.

“He’s in the Garden of Gethsemane praying and He says in John 17:18, ‘[17] Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
[18] As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

“How did Christ come into the world? By faith in the will and the word of His Father. And He said, ‘So send I them into the world.’ The men were sent with the same commission as the Son received from the Father. To go live exactly the way He lived.

"Can I say the same is true of you and me as it was with them. Paul says, ‘[20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

“The realization to make is, ‘I’m here in His place, doing what He’d be doing if He was here. In fact, He is here in me, living His life out through me.’

“That’s why we’re called the Body of Christ. We’re the vehicle through whom He lives and works today. That’s why Paul says, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’

*****

“We’re not talking about religion; we’re talking about a RELATIONSHIP with the God of heaven and earth, the Creator. The one who made you originally. The one whom your sins have alienated you from.

"Your self-will has taken you off in a different direction. Paul says, ‘I’m dead to that.’ How? ‘Through Christ. I died with Him. But I didn’t just die with Him; when He put away my sin, He gave me His life.’

“Paul says, ‘A spiritual transaction took place on a supernatural level inside of me, where I received His life and so that the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I have His life and it’s Him living in me.’

“The way He does that is when I live in my flesh the way He lived in HIS flesh! How did He live? ‘Without the Father I can do nothing. The works I do, the words I speak, are the ones the Father gave me,’ and I just put my faith in the Father and I’m living the life He gave me.

“So how does Christ live in me? He lives in my flesh the way He lived in His own flesh, 2,000 years ago and faith is just the issue of depending. Whatever you depend on is going to control you.

“The Lord Jesus Christ, my friend, is most magnified, most exalted, when we’re satisfied in life with Him and He’s enough. All the other stuff, even if we lose everything else, we’ve got Him and we’re still ahead.

“Paul said, ‘For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.’ To live is to know Christ and to die is gain because now I just get more intimacy with Him. I’ve heard that word defined ‘in-to-me-see.’ That’s really what it is.

“More and more there’s the ability to see into Him, and Him to see into me, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. In your life, when He is preferred above everything else, that’s how He’s cherished and demonstrated to be the treasure.

“When we’re satisfied with Christ, when we’re prizing Him, cherishing Him, treasuring Him as a prize, and His gain is our heart’s delight above all else, that’s what Paul means in Philippians 3:9 when he says, ‘[9] And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
[10] That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

*****

“You notice ‘and be found in him,’ how that’s a passive voice? I’ve come to love the passives. The essence of life is not DOING! The essence of the Christian life is BEING, not doing! It’s who you are, not what you do.

“It’s who God has made you in His Son, and when that becomes the focus of your life, and you learn to just relax and enjoy life in the identity God has given you in Christ, rather than trying to do things and look over your shoulders and see if God’s happy with you, you’ll find yourself doing plenty. But it won’t be to gain something from God; it’ll just be because that’s who you ARE and that’s who people who ARE this, that’s the way they live.

“When I had cancer several years ago, someone sent me an email saying, ‘You’ll never know if Christ is all you need until he’s all that you have and when He’s all that you have, then and only then, do you discover that Jesus is really all that you need.’

“If you don’t count all that you can do ‘but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ’ . . .  if you’ve never come to that point in your life and you’re still trusting something of yourself, can I tell you that’s a dead-end road?

“Maybe you haven’t learned that yet, but when you do learn it, can I tell you it’s a dead-end road, and when you really do do what the Psalmist said (‘I came to the end of myself’) can I tell you there’s one standing there at the end of your rope who is the answer.

“You go bloody your nose to learn, ‘It ain’t me.’ Whatever it is you hope to rely upon, whatever it is you hope to cling to, whether it’s in yourself, if you’d be honest enough in your own self to know you can’t trust yourself . . . 

“We put the bravado on, but in your heart of hearts you know yourself. We kick at the slats, we don’t like to believe that, but the grace of God is only available when all of our resources are gone. You’ll never do it until you come to the end of yourself.

“Compared to everything else, He is the one who really is the treasure of your life. God help us to let that be the reality. Instead of screaming and hollering that, ‘But I’m going to lose it all,’ just say, ‘You know what, I’m really FINDING the real source of life.’ Paul said, ‘For me, Christ is gain. I just want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. That old song says, ‘Oh, how I love Jesus because He first loved me.’ ”

'Just beginning' of Genesis-driven future

Earlier this week, just ahead of Thanksgiving, “President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order launching the Genesis Mission, a new national effort to use artificial intelligence (AI) to transform how scientific research is conducted and accelerate the speed of scientific discovery,” reported The White House in its official press release.

“In this pivotal moment, the challenges we face require a historic national effort, comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project that was instrumental to our victory in World War II and was a critical basis for the foundation of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories.”

From Gizmodo website: “According to Michael Kratsios, science advisor to the president, the Manhattan Project comparison is just the beginning. The Genesis Mission is also, we’re being told, ‘the largest marshaling of federal scientific resources since the Apollo program.’ ”

Here is analysis from a YouTuber:

People say, “Maybe they just liked the name Genesis for representing the beginning,” but after looking up different news articles, I found out a week prior to Genesis Mission being announced, Jeff Bezos announced that he would be a CEO of an actual AI platform called Project Prometheus.

There are a lot of parallels between Greek mythology’s Prometheus and Genesis. When it comes to Prometheus, there’s the creation of humans and giving humans forbidden knowledge through the flame, the fire, and Prometheus facing punishment.

From Wikipedia: "In the Western classical tradition, Prometheus became a figure who represented human striving (particularly the quest for scientific knowledge) and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences. In particular, he was regarded in the Romantic era as embodying the lone genius whose efforts to improve human existence could also result in tragedy: Mary Shelley, for instance, gave The Modern Prometheus as the subtitle to her novel Frankenstein (1818)."

In Genesis, it talks about humans being tempted by the serpent to devour the forbidden fruit and they face punishment.

These are the names of the two AI products announced just a week apart from one another. Is this just a coincidence?

Bezos’ Project Prometheus deals with the creation of these robots and, just like with the Book of Genesis, they will be giving their creations knowledge.

I’ve spoken about this card game before called “A Game of Conspiracy; The Illuminati Card Game,” and basically these cards do not work as fortunetelling or tarot, but it’s the so-called powers-that-be who are telling us ahead of time what they’re going to do, no different than any other form of media.

The card entitled “Sufficiently Advanced Technology” has a quote from Arthur C. Clarke: “Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

The card’s instructions read: “Place this card with your resources and link it to a science group you control. As long as that group remains science, it is also magic for all purposes. Or, if this card is linked to a magic group, then as long as that group remains magic, it’s also science for all purposes.”

But what I found interesting about his woman illustrated on the card is this crescent moon around her eye. If you look at the Genesis Mission logo (put out by U.S. Department of Energy) you can also see what appears to be three crescent moons, or one big crescent moon.

It’s just weird, this card talking about sufficiently advanced technology has this crescent moon symbol and the Genesis Mission is all about sufficiently advancing technology. You can’t make this up; it can’t be just a coincidence.

As they usher in AI, we must remember it’s something that’s been here for a long, long time and they’re trying to bring it to us like it’s brand-new but it’s not.

It gets even worse when you remember it’s not just AI. It’s not just all these resources being pulled from all these different AI companies, but they’re also taking from the Oak Ridge, Tennessee national laboratory. It’s basically CERN in the United States.

What is also very suspicious is the announcement of Prometheus and Genesis Mission correlates with the completion of ITER. News just came out, and I’m reading this article published on November 25, “World’s largest engineering project begins to recreate the sun’s energy on earth. On a plateau in southern France crews are assembling ITER’s core to create a solar fusion reaction here on earth. This is the moment when a decades-long plan to test starlight fusion on earth shifts from blueprint to hands on.”

They say they’re going to have the power of a star on earth, and they say it’s going to benefit humanity—we won’t need oil and things like that. But does anybody truly believe that? Do they ever do anything that really benefits humanity in that way? No.

All these countries that we think are enemies on the TV screen are all coming together oddly enough to complete this ITER project, from Russia to Europe to China and especially the United States.

We’re now at a point where the so-called powers-that-be can get caught doing anything on camera, or in a picture, and everybody will just come to their defense and say that, “Well, it’s probably AI. More than likely it’s AI. There’s a little discrepancy in the photo—it’s completely AI.”

So, they can get caught doing anything and it will just be AI. That is crazy. We’re now living in a day and age, in this little bit of time since AI has been brought out to the public, where they can now debunk anything and everything, no matter how bad it looks for them, as being AI.

That’s all they pretty much have to say: “It’s just a very advanced form of AI,” and how are you going to prove it’s not? It’s crazy because this is the AI that we’re aware of.

Imagine the AI that we’re not aware of; the AI that probably goes back decades upon decades and what they have faked. What they may have told us was real that was not real whatsoever?!

*****

Here’s other commentary from a YouTuber:

This specific Genesis Mission, if you read between the lines, they talk about advancing manufacturing, critical materials, nuclear fusion. These are all things they know the common person doesn’t understand, but if you look closely you’ll see “biotechnology,” right there front and center (in the White House press release).

Trump’s Genesis Mission says “Genomics analysis is exclusively called out as a priority area. Personalized, customized vaccines and gene-editing align with its goals for rapid-tailored medical breakthroughs such as AI-optimized mRNA therapies or CRISPR-based treatments.”

This is about altering what it means to be a human. Don’t forget that. The mission specifically calls for AI to revolutionize biotech and a shift toward gene-editing.

They’re going to tell you it’s a one-off deal. “You got cancer? All you need is a personalized, customized mRNA vaccine to edit your specific genome and you’ll be cancer-free. You got a thyroid problem? Diabetes? Oh, all it will take is one of these shots.”

What they’re really doing is getting these personalized nanotechnology transhumanist shots inside of your body. Their obsession is eugenics.

Sleep on it! You're His poem, masterpiece

(Working on piece about Trump's newly announced "Genesis Mission"--think fallen angels, Nephilim from Genesis 6--and will post today for certain)

When the Lord comes to Solomon in a dream at night and says, ‘Solomon, I’ll give you riches and power, whatever you want; what can I give you?,’ Solomon answers, ‘I want wisdom.’ I Kings 3: [15] And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream.

“When the text says ‘Solomon awoke,’ what’s meant by that is, ‘You know, it doesn’t help you to work incessantly; stay up half the night, get up early to go to work, work through all kinds of difficult, sorrowful, hard, painful experiences--God gives you His gifts when you’re not working at all. When you aren’t even conscious; you’re asleep,’ " explains Richard Jordan. 

“Think about that. It’s not of works; it’s His workmanship, not of us. Think back through Scripture. When did God give Adam Eve? When did He cut the covenant with Abraham? He put him in a deep sleep. I mean, Solomon isn’t the only one in Scripture that that’s true of.

“When Paul says, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,’ he’s saying God’s the one who gives the blessing, not based on your merit, but on His giving. ‘For we are his workmanship.’ This is HIS doing.

“That word ‘workmanship’ (Ephesians 2:10) is talking about a ‘work of art.’ A masterpiece. Preachers like to point out that the Greek word translated there is the word we get our term ‘poem’ from.

“That word comes over in English as ‘poem.’ You’re His work of art. You’re literally the form through which He’s going to express Himself. A masterpiece is something you do to make yourself known.

“Romans 1:19-20 says, ‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. [20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.’

“Everybody knows something about God. He manifested Himself. Romans 2:14 says, ‘For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.’

“You see, God has indelibly printed into the heart of all men some information. You have to educate yourself out of that, and what the 'educated' guy says is, ‘Well, if you want to be sophisticated and educated, you have to get over your primordial tendency to believe in the superstitious idea of something bigger than you.’

“To get over that is to get over the mystery of life itself. You can look at creation and see the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God; the fact there’s a Creator revealed, and in that term, ‘things that are made’ is a translation of the exact same word in Ephesians 2 about workmanship! Creation is God’s workmanship; His masterpiece demonstrating His wisdom, His understanding, His knowledge. He’s placed it in the Creation!

“When you look at the Creation, what you’re seeing is God manifest His purpose; what He’s accomplishing. You find out about Him!”

To whom much is forgiven, greater appreciation

(sorry for delay in new article and will have tomorrow now. had to get up super- super early to put in my 8 hours at work before heading to brother's house for Thanksgiving meal.)

The classic account in Luke 18 tells about “a woman in the city, which was a sinner,” who “when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,

[38] And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”

Luke reports, “Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.”

*****

California preacher John Verstegen explains, “You see the self-righteous, better-than-thou attitude of this Pharisee? He’s gone beyond condemning the woman to condemning Christ.”

Luke 18 continues, 40] And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.
[41] There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.
[42] And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
[43] Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

Verstegen says, “What’s the proportional difference between 500 and 50? Ten percent. It’s fascinating. Their debt was vastly different, but what was the same? They have no ability.

“The Pharisees were supposed to be leaders in the nation Israel. They were supposed to be the ones who led the understanding of the Word of God. Simon should have not just said, ‘I suppose.’ It’s almost like he’s trying to avoid the right answer here because he knows he’s condemning himself in saying this.

*****

“Look at Jesus Christ’s statement: [47] Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
[48] And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

“You see the principle there? Salvation by grace doesn’t come along and say that, ‘Well, your sins aren’t that bad.’ It says, ‘Her sins they are many, but the reason it made such a difference in her life is she was willing to get beyond her fear of coming into the Pharisees where there was sure to be condemnation; coming into the house of the Pharisees where they probably all talked about her.’

“It’s because there was a person there who had the answer for her sins, that were many indeed, and when she sensed and knew and recognized who He was, an overwhelming appreciation of gratitude (love) is what she experienced.

*****

“What’s the result of ‘to whom much is forgiven’? A greater appreciation. A love that can only be experienced by an appreciation of the depth of the need, the extent of the forgiveness, the value of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"What I’m saying is one of the most essential aspects of a relationship of grace is an acknowledgement and an awareness of how much we need it!

“If we’re like the Pharisee, and we don’t think we have that many sins, well, we really won’t appreciate the grace of God that much because we think our need’s not as great as the woman of the city.

“But if we realize, ‘I may not be the ‘woman in the city’; I’m the man of the town,’ and it’s interesting how we always pick on the woman but, boy, we forgot the man. ‘My needs are just like this woman now, and it took the same blood of Christ to pay for my sins; the same grace of God to save me from a just condemnation that I deserve.’

“I’ve got a question for you. If you’ve trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for your Savior, how forgiven are you? Don’t answer yet because we could all say, ‘All of it, totally.’ Christ’s saying in that verse that the way you and I can appreciate how forgiven we are is a response of LOVE on our part because He loved us first. Isn’t that fascinating?

“Romans 5:1 says, ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’

“One of the immediate things that happens as a result of having all our sins forgiven is PEACE with the God of heaven and earth. That’s what’s in this relationship. The experience of the justice of God, rather than condemning us in our sins like the Pharisees condemned this woman, being FOR us forever, just like Christ was for that woman.

“The next verse says, [2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

“What does the word ACCESS mean? When you think of a computer or a cell phone, you’ve got to have a security code, or access. Access allows you to get in and keeps others out.

*****

“Think of the difference between that and in the Old Testament. Did the nation of Israel have access to God? They did but it was very limited. They had to go through the priest. The priest had access but it also was very limited. The priest could go into the very presence of Almighty God once a year and do everything JUST right.

“Remember Nadab and Abihu when they offered that strange incense fire? Boom, the fire burned them up right there and God said, ‘Hey, I told you whoever comes into my presence, I will demonstrate that I am holy.’ What could they say? ‘Yeah, you did tell us that. We’ll get it right next time.’

“Think about that. You and I have complete, total access INTO the grace wherein we stand. We have open-door access into the grace of Almighty God. Not only that, see how it says that in Ephesians 2:18: ‘For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.’

“The fellowship that were in is that fellowship that exists among the godhead. The access we have is into that relationship! That verse says the triune God is involved in that access given to us freely by the blood of Christ.

“Not only that, but look at chapter 3:12 and look at the nature of this TYPE of access. It says, ‘In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.’

“The priest could get access into the very presence of Almighty God in the ‘holiest of holies,’ but he could only do that once a year, and I’m telling you there was probably a little fear and trepidation in that man’s heart.

“You understand that twice a day every day that high priest literally came within inches of losing his life? He would go into the holy place and make sure the shewbread was fine, the altar of incense was fine, the candle stick was lit, and then get out of there because what was right on the other side of that veil? The glory of Almighty God. That guy came within inches of his life twice a day.

“Paul says we can have access with CONFIDENCE by the faith of Him. Who is our confidence in? Oh, not self. All this talk about how you need to have more self-confidence kind of thing; how you need to build up your self-esteem.

“It’s no wonder people have such difficulty with self-esteem because they find they keep doing what? Failing.

“Don’t have self-based esteem; have Calvary-based esteem. Don’t have self-confidence; have confidence that comes from the Word of God working in us because it cannot change; it’s perfect, God cannot lie. So it’s scriptural-based confidence.

“Not only do we have confidence, but look at Ephesians 1:6: ‘To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.’

“Everyone wants to be part of some thing or some one. People will compromise their integrity to BELONG to a group. People will compromise their morals to be in the ‘in’ crowd. Why do we do stuff like that? Because we think there is more value in the acceptance of the group we want to belong to compared to the value we hold in our character for our morals.

“As soon as we do something that violates the standards of the group, guess what? You’re out of there. Listen, God said He MADE us accepted in the beloved. Who’s the beloved? That’s the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I’ve got a question for you. If you’ve trusted Christ for your Savior, how accepted are you? You’re as accepted as the Lord Jesus Christ is. Isn’t that amazing? Just think about that for a moment. God MADE you accepted according to the same standard.

“Why is that good news? Guess what, all you can do is just realize, ‘Whew, wow, I can just rest and appreciate what’s there; who He is.’ You are loved eternally with the same love that exists among the godhead. There is no other kind of love He’s offering.

“It’s no wonder therefore then that the Apostle Paul can make a statement like this in Colossians 2:9-10: 9] For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
[10] And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

“This is why I get so upset when I see people attacking that verse, saying you’re complete in Christ theoretically, potentially.

“They absolutely undermine and destroy the very nature of the grace relationship God has placed us in. The only kind of grace relationship God has to place anyone in is the relationship that exists within the godhead.

“He doesn’t say, ‘We’re going to have this fellowship over here and you’re just going to be a second-class citizen. You’re still pretty good, but you’re over there.’

“This is not Tony Robbins and ‘fake-it-’til-you-make-it’ kind of stuff. When that verse in I Thessalonians says ‘Rejoice evermore,’ you say, ‘Well, let’s see. I’ve been forgiven of all my sins, I have peace with God, I’ve been accepted in the beloved, I have access, I’ve been blessed, I am complete, I’m sealed—I might just have reason to rejoice evermore!’

“That’s Paul’s point. That’s what it looks like. The natural byproduct of a trust that this relationship really is what it is, is it will impact the inner man and manifest itself in the outer man, hence whatever comes, we can just say, ‘Lord, for your grace and the blood of Christ.’ ”

Five on your side

(new article tomorrow)

Paul says in I Corinthians 14:19, “Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”

Starting with Genesis 1, there are at least three dozen places in the Word using five-word statements for fundamental understandings from God.

The first five words, "In the beginning God created," represent the foundation of everything; all of history, all of theology, all of life.

“Notice God CREATED, so that means God is outside of creation," says Richard Jordan. "There goes pantheism and polytheism. What He created had a beginning. There goes materialism; the idea that matter is the ultimate reality.

“ ‘In the beginning God created.’ There goes deism; the idea that God doesn’t really get personally involved in creation.

“Have you ever had anybody try to tell you that Albert Einstein believed in God? Someone asked Einstein one time (I read his testimony about this), ‘Do you believe in God?’ and he responded, ‘Well, if you mean a personal God who intervenes in history, then no. But if you mean an ultimate FORCE that is behind everything, then yes.’

“ ‘In the beginning God created.’ What does that tell you about Creation? That tells you there’s a personal involvement, a personal plan, a personal activity. It’s a visible, supernatural presence. By the way, that’s the opposite of Kierkegaard’s existentialism.

“What I’m saying is that all the philosophies men develop to try and create their own world, the first FIVE words in the Bible tell you that none of that is true. If you don’t get those first five words straight, the rest of the Bible’s not going to mean much too you.

*****

“Come to Romans 5:12 and notice another five words: ‘By one man sin entered.’ You know where the problem in Creation, the problem in your life comes from? That one man was a guy by the name of Adam.

“God gave Adam dominion over the earth and Satan coveted that dominion so he came along and deceived Adam into believing that Lie Satan propagated to him back there. Adam knowingly, willingly disobeyed the clear statement of God and sin entered the world.

“I Corinthians 15:3 says, ‘Christ died for our sins.’ Count the words. The Word that created everything was made flesh. He literally stepped outside of creation into creation and became one with us. He’s the one mediator between God and man. ‘Fully satisfying payment for us.’ That’s five words you want to remember.

“Count the words in, ‘And that he was buried.’ ‘And that he was sealed.’ He was buried and ‘rose again the third day.’ There’s five more words. ‘And that he was seen.’ There’s five more.

“All the message of the gospel there is in those five words. He died, He was buried. The death was real. It wasn’t a mystical, theological argument. It was a real death. Then He was raised from the dead.

“The theology is in the death and the resurrection. ‘And that he was seen’ is the historical validation. You understand your faith doesn’t rest in an enigma. It doesn’t rest in a theory. It doesn’t rest in some superstitious hoodileedoo.

“Come to Ephesians 2:5 and count the words in the parenthesis: ‘By grace ye are saved.’ Another five words that come along here and tell you everything you need to know!

“Colossians 2:10 says, ‘Ye are complete in him.’ How many words is that? Don’t forget that your completeness is in who God has made you in His Son.

“If you trust in Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit took you out of Adam and put you into Jesus Christ. Your identity isn’t in Adam anymore; it’s in Jesus Christ. His death became your death. The only answer to sin is death, so Christ died for you and you died with Him. His burial was your burial. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. His resurrection is your resurrection.

“By the way, ‘I am crucified with Christ.’ How many words is that?

“Let’s do one more. Titus 2:13: ‘Looking for that blessed hope.’ You know what, we’ve got a good future ahead, folks. The Lord Jesus Christ could come at any moment and catch us away." 

When you remember you're God's beloved

J.C. O’Hair once wrote in a poem:

If we’re on the way to glory,

Joy should fill our soul;

‘Tis done by the Holy Spirit when

The Spirit has control.

There are burdens, trials, sorrows,

But God’s abounding grace,

He says, is all sufficient for

Every single case

 

“I’ve been telling you for decades, I don’t care how high you get in your understanding of truth and about what God’s going to do and how exciting it’s all going to be, the first step in ‘getting out of the closet’ is just believing in God’s love for you," says Richard Jordan.

“The Book of Ephesians is full of this stuff. Ephesians 1:6: ‘To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.’

“You go out in the world today and there’s a cry to be accepted, to belong, to have a connection. People spend time, money, energy, resources to gain acceptance.

"You see young people giving their lives away—drugs, sex, etc.—because they want to be accepted; they want to be loved and valued and they’ll give away their future for the fulfillment of that.

"And you know what it is—it’s an illusion because it only lasts until, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ shows up.

*****

“There’s an acceptance that never goes away when God Himself accepts you; when He meets that need, that yearn, that drive, that thirst deep down in your heart and He accepts you.

"If no one else ever did, so what?! Who’s going to last the longest? Them or Him?! Whose opinion is going to be the one that really counts in the long run?

“I know how it is—you look at yourself and you say, ‘Who could accept me?!’ You know where God the Father finds you today if you’re saved? He doesn’t find you in a performance system where you’re living up to standards and pleasing Him because of it.

“He finds you in the one place in all the universe that He’s absolutely, sublimely pleased and that’s His Son. Whew! You can relax. Lose that tension, all that stuff the world, the flesh and the devil throws at you.

"You can say, ‘You know what, I’m enveloped in some ever-lasting arms of love, not because of what I do, but because I’m in Christ.’

“Satan knows that no temptation’s going to succeed in your life when you remember who you are; that you’re God’s beloved.

*****

“You remember what the name ‘David’ means? Beloved. It took a David to defeat a Goliath. It took David to destroy the giant. Listen, it takes someone who KNOWS that he’s God’s beloved to win the fights in life!

“When you understand that you’re God’s beloved, what that does is it makes you a victor no matter what the Adversary . . . no matter what the world, the system, the culture, the satanic drive and flow behind that culture; no matter how your old sin nature attacks, the answer and the victory is in being God’s beloved.

"One of the things the Holy Spirit prays through Paul who prays for you and me is Ephesians 3:18-19: 'That you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.’

“Notice that word ‘comprehend.’ God desires that you be able to get your mind around something and understand it.

“Colossians 1:27 says, ‘To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.’

“That’s what God wants you to know. What do you think the Adversary would want to hide from you?

"The devil doesn’t care if you pack a Bible and study it--just don’t comprehend out of that Bible what is the breadth, and the length, and the depth, and the height, and to KNOW the love of Christ, which passeth all knowledge.

“Why does He want me to know? ‘That you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’ You see, the goal is to get to know something that will result in God Himself controlling your life. Even the mundane things of life, every area of your life.

“Then you move into the places where there are real challenges and struggles. The injustices of life, the harshness of life, the things that happen just because you were a bonehead, and yet He says that in all of it, 'We’re more than conquerors through Him that LOVED us.'

*****

“I John 4:10 says, ‘Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’

“You know what love is? Love’s not going out there, saying, ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ Love is what God did at Calvary when He paid for everything that’s wrong with you.

*****

“Under the law, God gave Israel a bunch of regulations about how to set things right when they were wrong and in Leviticus 27: 9-11 are rules about when something is lost and has to be replaced, how do you determine the replacement value of the thing.

“Verse 12 says, ‘And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be.’

“They bring the thing. They say, ‘Here’s where I’ve been damaged,’ and the priest sets the replacement value. The value that the priest placed on it, well, that’s what God says the value is.

"Who is our high priest? You remember Hebrews 10:10? The verse says, ‘By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’

“You know what your high priest says? ‘Here’s the value, here’s the way I value it. I have by one offering . . .’

“You see, if God was waiting for you to be perfect, Jesus Christ would have stayed home. He came so that He could provide perfection for you. Now, if the priest values it that way, God says, ‘That’s the way it is!’ If God values it that way, what say ye?

“When you’re working along in life, trying to figure out how God thinks about things, that’s where you start thinking.”

Quest for 'truth' behind society's demise

Here's another outtake from Sunday morning’s sermon and will have a new article later today for certain:

Truth is in Jesus. Obviously we know Jesus never told a lie; we know Jesus, morally in His character, His very nature, He is truth.

We need to acknowledge truth is a PERSON; that’s the problem with our culture, says Alex Kurz.

Pilate didn’t ask about truth because, “Man, I have a deep desire to know what truth is.” He dismissed the Lord Jesus Christ and he said, “What is truth?”

The most simple definition is “truth is reality,” as God defines it. Christ makes some earth-shattering declarations about Himself.

John 14: [5] Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
[6] Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

He says, “I am truth,” and that’s the problem the world has. You see, truth is a person. The real issue isn’t about information; it’s about who is Lord and that’s why the world resists and rejects what the Bible has to say about truth.

As Lord and God, Jesus is truth. There’s no negotiation. We recognize also that truth is preserved in a written form. By the way, Jesus is the living Word (capital “w”), is He not?

So the Lord Jesus in John 17: [17] Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
[18] As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
[19] And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

God never leaves it up to humanity to find truth; He says, “I’m the revealer of truth; the revelator of truth.”

By the way, God’s truth is available to more than 90 percent of all languages on Planet Earth. Do you think God’s interested in ensuring His truth is made available to all of humanity?

There’s this old Hinduism thing where they picture discovering God by using an elephant analogy. You know, "truth isn’t located in one central place but God, for some mystical, weird reason, is available all over the place."

Kind of like a blind man who bumps into an elephant. He feels the leg and says, “Ahh, a pillar.” Another blind man feels the tail and says, “Ahh, a broom.” Another blind man feels the trunk and says, “Ahh, a trumpet.” Another blind man feels the tusk and says, “Ahh, a plowshare.”

That’s the myth of religious pluralism, that everyone has a little bit of truth and what man now is instructed to do is, “You’re on a quest to try and find out what ultimate truth is.”

It says, “Well, you have this religious system, that religious system. There’s a little bit of scattering of truth here, little bit of truth there, so on and so forth and you know, God sort of leaves it up to man, like a jigsaw puzzle, and maybe one day you’ll discover ultimate reality; you will arrive at absolute, objective, authoritative truth.”

What did Jesus say? “Thy Word is truth.” A document, the Scriptures, that has been around certainly for 3,500 years, has been available for thousands of years, proven to be historically accurate.

You can study the sciences and archaeology and no one has yet been able to demonstrate a verifiable error in God’s Word.

People say, “Well, maybe that’s your experience but it’s not my experience.” How hypocritical is that.

What if medicine had the same attitude and mentality. My doctor says, “Hey, Al, you got this problem; here’s a prescription.” The pharmacist says, “Wait a minute, I don’t feel this is the best course of treatment.”

How would you like a banker to determine what truth is? I deposit $1,000 into my bank account and the bank says, “No, I feel you’ve got nothing in your bank account.”

When it comes to truth being defined by subjective feelings or experience, people don’t believe that, but for some reason, when it comes to absolute truth, all of a sudden it’s, “Well, that’s not my truth.”

You see the consequence of the spiritual attitude that grips even our culture today and we’re not immune. It rips cultures all over the world, how if people are going to operate on their own supposed truth, it has plunged society into destruction and chaos and confusion.