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Saturday, June 22, 2013

CHRISTIANS IN TODAY'S WORLD.

Christians are a group of called out people who represent Jesus Christ and are to testify about Jesus Christ and the Gospel of the Kingdom" that is to come, God's moral government. They are to also testify about God's ultimate judgment on a sin filled world.

Jesus Christ's life and death was planned for from the very beginning. Jesus Christ was not captured, He willingly laid down His life for us. Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sin and His death was not a defeat, but rather a triumph over evil.

What is the Christian Church today really all about. Is it anything about what Jesus Christ came to earth to originally teach us or is it a bunch of man made ideas, concepts and doctrines passed down through the centuries starting after the death of Jesus Christ that has nothing to do with what Jesus Christ and His apostles taught?

One of the things a lot of Christians lose sight of is the fact that we as Christians are totally saved and purified only and solely and more importantly, completely by what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. There is not anything, other then confess, repent, become Baptized, and believe, that a Christian can do. Jesus Christ's blood atones for the sins of a Christian, nothing more. The Christian Bible says that "...all men sin, all fall short of the glory of God...", that includes professing Christians. Why Christians are saved is because Jesus sacrificed Himself to pay for our sins.

If you are doing things because you think it will save you, you do not understand. Yes, you should do things that Jesus and the scriptures say you should do. That includes following God's commandments. This would include the "Ten Commandments That means all of the Ten Commandments. But, this is not what gets you into the Kingdom of God.

Jesus Christ came to earth and He told anyone who was willing to listen that He would would “build a church" and that this "church" would never die out. Jesus Christ has told us by the word of His mouth that His Father shall give you a Comforter, that he may abide with you forever”, (John 14:16). Once you are a Christian you have the power of God and His Son Jesus Christ with you throughout eternity. A Christian does not have to anything more.

Is Christianity as we know it today with hundreds of different doctrines, beliefs and practices, anything close to what Jesus was talking about?

“...I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

What Jesus was talking about more than 2000 years ago was not some building. What Jesus was talking about was a called out assembly of people who were spiritually transformed and faithfully followed His teachings.

teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen (Matthew 28:20).

Jesus promised His disciples that He would guide the church until He returned. There are millions of people who profess to be Christian but what does that really mean? Christianity is divided into many different religions and down through the ages, these religions claiming to be Christian follow many different customs and practices that do not faithfully follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus promised that He would build a church that would prevail to the end of the age but most of the Christianity we see practiced today is not the church Jesus was talking about.

Jesus warned His disciples that “false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect" (Mark:13:22), Paul also said that people would be “corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ ”by the preaching of “false apostles” (2 Corinthians:11:3, 13). Jesus told us that “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew:7:14).

As a Christian you need to identify exactly what “Church” Jesus Christ was talking about. You need to identify the preachings of a different spirit and a very different gospel. You need to learn directly from God's Word, the Bible, exactly what “the church of the living God” (1 Timothy:3:15) is.

The average Christian cannot tell you what Jesus Christ founded His “Church” on. His “Church” was founded on the “Royal Law of Love”, that is the principle that all people within Jesus's Church wholeheartedly love God and each other. "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in Him” (1 John 4:16).

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Monday, June 17, 2013

IS THS THE END OF THE AGES? DOES THE BIBLE TELL US THE FUTURE?

ARE WE LIVING IN THE END TIMES?  DOES THE MORAL DECAY IN AMERICA TODAY POINT TO THE END TIMES?  WHAT DOES THE BOOK OF REVELATION TELL US ABOUT THE END TIMES.  WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ARE THE MAJOR SIGNS OF THE END TIMES?

FOLLOW THESE LINKS TO FIND OUT MORE.


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Thursday, June 13, 2013

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

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Dead Sea Scrolls 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls)

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The Dead Sea Scrolls
Psalms Scroll.jpg
The Psalms Scroll (11Q5), one of the 972 texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with a partial Hebrew transcription.
MaterialPapyrus, Parchment, and Bronze
WritingHebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean
CreatedEst. 408 BCE to 318 CE
Discovered1946/7 - 1956
Present locationVarious
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at Khirbet Qumran in the West Bank. They were found in caves about a mile inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name.[1] The texts are of great historical, religious and linguistic significance because they include the earliest known surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism.
The texts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mostly on parchment but with some written on papyrus and bronze.[2] The manuscripts have been dated to various ranges between 408 BCE and 318 CE.[3] Bronze coins found on the site form a series beginning with John Hyrcanus (135-104 BCE) and continuing until the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE).[4]
The scrolls have traditionally been identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although some recent interpretations have challenged this association and argue that the scrolls were penned by priests in Jerusalem, Zadokites, or other unknown Jewish groups.[5][6]
The Dead Sea Scrolls are divided into three groups; copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible, which comprise roughly 40% of the identified scrolls, texts from the Second Temple Period like the Book of Enoch, Jubilees, the Book of Tobit, the Wisdom of Sirach, Psalms 152–155, etc., that ultimately were not canonized in the Hebrew Bible, which comprise approximately 30% of the identified scrolls, and sectarian manuscripts (previously unknown documents that shed light on the rules and beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism) like the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Pesher on Habakkuk and the The Rule of the Blessing, which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls.[7]

Qumran

Qumran (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qumran)

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Coordinates: 31°44′27″N 35°27′31″E / 31.74083°N 35.45861°E / 31.74083; 35.45861

Caves at Qumran
Qumran (Hebrew: קומראן‎, Arabic: خربة قمران‎ - Khirbet Qumran) is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia. The Hellenistic period settlement was constructed during the reign of John Hyrcanus, 134-104 BCE or somewhat later, and was occupied most of the time until it was destroyed by the Romans in 68 CE or shortly after. It is best known as the settlement nearest to the caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden, caves in the sheer desert cliffs and beneath, in the marl terrace.

Daniel  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel)

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Daniel
Daniellion.jpg
Daniel's Answer to the King by Briton Rivière
Prophet
Born7th Century B.C.
Died6th Century B.C.
Babylon (?)
Honored inChristianity
Mormonism
Islam[1]
Major shrineTomb of Daniel, Susa, Iran
FeastJuly 21 - Roman Catholicism
December 17 - Greek Orthodoxy
AttributesOften depicted in the den of the lions
Daniel (Hebrew: דָּנִיֵּאל, Modern Daniyyel Tiberian Dāniyyêl ; Arabic: دانيال, meaning in Hebrew "God is my Judge") is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways. Through "divine wisdom" from his God, Yahweh, he interpreted dreams and visions of kings, thus becoming a prominent figure in the court of Babylon. Eventually, he had apocalyptic visions of his own that have been interpreted as the Four monarchies. Some of the most famous accounts of Daniel are: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, The writing on the wall and Daniel in the lions' den.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

END TIME SCRIPTURES. 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

Perilous Times and Perilous Men.

2 Timothy 3:1-5:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,   traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Timothy%203:1-5&version=NKJV)


 

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Sabbath Is About God and His Ongoing Spiritual Creation In Us.

 Exodus 20:8-11
(8) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (9) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (10) but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. (11) For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

New King James Version

We live in a grubby, grasping, material world. Every day challenges us with its built-in bias toward material things. With human nature ever-present within us, it is not hard to overlook spiritual things in the pressured rush to accomplish each day's work.

The Sabbath, though, almost forces us to think about the spiritual—about God and His ongoing spiritual creation in us. It presents us with the opportunity to consider the whys of life, to orient ourselves properly so that we can best use our time during the other six days. The Sabbath is the kernel, the nucleus, from which proper worship—our response to God—grows.

Existentialist philosophers say that life is absurd, that it is but a prelude to death. All of life, they proclaim, is virtually empty of value because it has no ultimate goal better than what one already has. Life is going nowhere. Yet, keeping the Sabbath is in fact a celebration of just the opposite: It is all about life and its great goal as planned by the very Creator! It concerns His ongoing creative process toward our being made into the spiritual image of His Son.

Life may indeed be stressful, tiring, and sometimes even frightening, but life is not absurd. It is a prelude to life on an infinitely greater and higher level. As we proceed through the time given to us, the more we become like Him, the more sanctified we become from the world. In this mentally refreshing and elevating experience, we have a tiny foretaste of what is to come.

— John W. Ritenbaugh
 
 
 

Sunday, May 26, 2013

The Relevance Of Bible Prophecy And The Old Testament In Christianity Today.

There are many Christians today who do not see any relevance, or very little relevance in the Old Testament much less Bible prophecy.  The Old Testament and Bible Prophecy is the very basis or foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is what the Gospel is based on and where it gets its authority. 

Jesus Christ when he was preaching, used the Old Testament and Bible prophecy to back up and support what he was teaching.  When the apostles went out to spread the Gospel as commanded by Jesus Christ, they followed His lead.

The Old Testament and Bible Prophecy are the parts of the foundation of the Church that Jesus Crist built.  Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:16-18).  People complain that the Bible is hard to understand.  On the contrary, it is very plain to those who seek the truth.
 
The Old Testament and Bible prophecy deals with the whole counsel of God’s Word and the hope of the Christian.  The hope of every Christian should be the promise of eternal life in the Kingdom of God.  The Old Testament and Bible prophecy deals with the end of the world and of humankind.  It is the Christians belief concerning the ultimate or final things, such as death, the destiny of humanity, the Second Coming, or the Last Judgment.


There are many people today concerned with current events and Bible prophecy reveals that the only hope for mankind is to be found in Jesus Christ.  The Old Testament and Bible prophecy is the doctrine of last things that will happen culminating in the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God an earth..

The Old Testament is important because it supports the New Testament.  Prophecy is what proves God's word and holds everything written as the Word of God to the truth.  There are over 300 prophecies regarding Jesus Christ's first coming and one quarter of the New Testament contains prophecy. 

Prophecy points to the sovereignty of God in real history.  It demonstrates what a believer is supposed to be doing in this age, the age you are living in.  Prophecy should be what causes people to want to live Godly lives according to His commandments. 

One of the most important things it has done since Jesus Christ left the Church behind to testify for Him is to  give comfort in the midst of all sorrow and wickedness in today's world and facilitates perseverance with a hope of the future.

The Old Testament and Bible prophecy are the impelling forces to warn people of their sins and drive them to repentance.  The future is not hidden from those who believe in Jesus Christ.  God's people, the Church of Jesus Christ, have not been appointed for the wrath that is to come to this earth.  Christians, should live each day with knowing that our future in Christ is certain as is testified in the Old Testament and Bible prophecy.


 

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY.


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