Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 10

Study Guide, May 28, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

We’re not really concluding our series on Prophecy today…more like taking a break for awhile. The Bible is packed with so many wonderful prophecies, of both fulfilled realities and realities yet to be fulfilled, that they just call to us to explore them. And in trying to describe the amazing revelations of the prophecies of the Bible, you just run out of words for that in the English language. So we are going to do our next series on Prophecy in Hebrew. And since it will take awhile for us to learn Hebrew…no, just kidding.

We could say that this prophecy is about an age when we could all be called ‘Millennials’, because this coming age is the Millennial Age. ‘Millennials’, of course, is the term applied to people born between 1977 and 2000, anywhere from 17 to 40 years old. But in the Millennial Age, the age differences between the residents of the Millennial Kingdom will be quite dramatic. And the reason we say that is because of the different people groups that are living in this Millennial Age. Let’s explore that!

You remember some time back we looked at that ‘mad’hiym’ picture of the Millennial Kingdom that Isaiah described. ‘Mad’hiym’ is Hebrew for ‘amazing’. We’re getting head start on learning Hebrew here. Really, We need to take another look at what the Prophet Isaiah revealed about it. Isa 11:6-8- And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.” NASU

Don’t you think this passage should be displayed at the entrance of every Zoo in the world? Absolutely. How many people know that there was a time on Earth when there was complete harmony within the animal kingdom? Not many people know that’s how it was before the Fall of Man into sin, which then affected the entire creation. And how many people know that there is coming a time when, once again, there will be complete harmony within the animal kingdom? Not many people have any idea how absolutely ‘neh’edar’ that’s going to be…that’s the Hebrew for ‘wonderful’…we’re getting it! Anyway, not many people have any idea what kind of wonderful experiences God has planned for us, even in how much more we’re going to get to enjoy interacting with all the once dangerous animals of Earth; from the wolf to the bear to the lion to the cobra, all of them will be as peaceful as a puppy is now. Although, it might take awhile to get used to cuddling up to a cobra, right? Give it time…you’ve got eternity to get used to it, starting, of course, with the Millennial Kingdom.

But back to the ‘age’ issue. Did you notice who Isaiah said would also be in the Millennial Kingdom? ‘Little children’, even ‘nursing and weaned children’…How can there be ‘children’ in the Millennial Kingdom? Let’s unpack this. Maybe we should ask, ‘Who all will be in the Millennial Kingdom? The Apostle John told us that the redeemed and resurrected family of God would reign with Christ on the Earth. Rev 5:9-10- “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” NASU

And then Jesus told His followers that when He returns to Earth that those believers living at the time of His physical return would immediately enter into His Millennial Kingdom. Look at Matt 25:31-34- “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” NASU

From this we learn that believers who are living upon the Earth when King Jesus comes to establish His Kingdom on Earth will directly enter into the Millennial Age. And so the inhabitants of the Millennial Kingdom will be both pre-resurrected and resurrected human beings, or both mortals and immortals. And those believers who are pre-resurrected will also then still be producing the ones that become those ‘little children’ and ‘weaned children’ that Isaiah told us about…the ones that like to play with snakes. And actually, this is just one of the significant things that differentiates the Millennial Kingdom from the Eternal Kingdom, because by the time the Eternal Kingdom begins, all believers will be in their resurrected human bodies.

And while we are pointing out differences between the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Kingdom we should also note that in the Eternal Kingdom there is no more death. However, since there will be saved mortal human beings that enter directly into the Millennial Age when Jesus returns, there will still be death in the Millennial Age among the pre-resurrected people. And yet, because of the pristine living conditions and such, life expectancy will be much longer than anything man has known about since before the days of Noah. Isaiah reveals this to us as well. Take a look: Isa 65:200 “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days;

For the youth will die at the age of one hundred and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought accursed.” NASU So, among those who are mortal there will still be some death in the Millennial Age, but most will certainly live for a very long time. A person 100 years old will be thought of as just a kid in the Millennial Kingdom. Wouldn’t it be great to feel like a kid at age 100?

But back to those ‘mortal believers’, because here is perhaps one of the strangest differences that arises. Remember now, that when Jesus returns to Earth, the Apostle John said that Jesus will rule on the Earth with a ‘rod of iron’. Why would there be any need for Jesus to rule with a rod of iron since only believers enter into the Millennial Kingdom? Again, along with the saved Jesus brings with Him from Heaven, there are now those mortal believers that were living on Earth when Jesus returned. And what these mortal believers brought into this new kingdom was that same human nature that the whole world has had to wrestle against ever since the Fall. Which means that the children that are born to these believing parents during the Millennial Age will have to make a personal choice to place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and become saved themselves. And many do, but as we later find out, many don’t. What do we mean? Let’s take a look at what happens at the conclusion of this 1,000 year period.

Rev 20:7-10-” When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” NASU

This is one of the most powerful indictments against the sin nature of man. Here is a time on Earth which now has the most wonderful living conditions. You have perfect environmental conditions, divine health, world peace, unlimited vocational opportunities, and mostly, you have the Creator and King Jesus Christ reigning as King on the Earth. And still, there will be those who are born in the Kingdom that refuse to surrender to the authority of God over their lives and put their faith in Christ so as to be forgiven and saved. And so, when Satan is released from the confinement he has been in for a thousand years, he organizes one final rebellion against God; and the rebellious unsaved join in. And this is the ‘Final Conflict’ on Earth before God then ushers in the Eternal Kingdom of the New Heavens and New Earth.

But it’s hard to imagine, isn’t it, that anyone would be that resistant to repentance and faith in Christ. But that’s just how rebellious the sin nature of mankind really is, and why then it is not surprising that people the world over can have the light of Creation and the light of conscience and the light of the Gospel of truth and still choose the darkness of not submitting to the love of the truth, the Gospel of Christ, so as to be saved.

But you noticed this conflict is referred to as the ‘Final Conflict’. And that’s another difference here with the Millennial Age from any other ‘Age’. For many often think of Armageddon as being the final conflict. But notice when Armageddon occurs. Rev 16:13-16- “And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty…And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.” NASU

Even the Apostle John is teaching us a little Hebrew. The name Armageddon comes from two Hebrew words, Har Megiddo, the hill of Megiddo. The word Megiddo means ‘place of troops’ or ‘place of slaughter’. It is also called the Plain of Esdraelon and the Valley of Jezreel. This area is about fourteen miles wide and twenty miles long, and forms what Napoleon called “the most natural battlefield of the whole earth.”

This is where Barak defeated the armies of Canaan, and where Gideon faced the Midianites, and where King Saul lost his life. It has also been a field of battle with the Romans and the Crusaders and the British armies against the Turkish forces in 1917. It also now houses underground hangers for the Israeli Airforce.¹

But one day John reveals that the armies of the nations will assemble at the leading of Satan and the Antichrist. But, of course, that’s when the Lamb of God then returns as the Lion of Judah and the King of kings to establish His Kingdom upon the Earth.

So ‘Armageddon’ is when Jesus returns to begin the Millennial Kingdom and the ‘Final Conflict’ is at the end of this thousand year reign, just before the White Throne judgment of all the unsaved and the beginning of the Eternal Kingdom.

There are many more differences we could point out between the Millennial Kingdom and the Eternal Kingdom, but we’ll have to save that for another time.

But with it being Memorial Day weekend, I thought we ought to point out one really astounding thing that Isaiah also tells us about what is going to happen in the Millennial Age. One of the most heartfelt calls, going back into the ancient world, is the call for peace in the Middle East. Recently our Government, along with others, met in the Middle East to appeal to the world again to work for peace in the Middle East. And historically, we know that peace in the Middle East hasn’t worked so well. But in the future, well – listen to what Isaiah prophesied about what is coming. Notice: Isa 19:23-25- “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” NASU

What a message Isaiah has given us to tell people about the peace that is coming to the Middle East! After thousands of years of war between the descendants of Ishmael, even among themselves, and with the descendants of Isaac, there is coming a time when they will all come together in peace and worship the One God and true Messiah. God will even call the descendants from Egypt, “My people”, and the descendants of Assyria, which is the modern Muslim middle east regions, “the work of My hands, and will call Israel “My inheritance”. And these three will be brothers and sisters in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ when He returns to reign as the King of kings and the Lord of lords over all the Earth. Do we have a story to tell to the nations or what?

All of God’s prophecies have happened exactly as He said they would. And all those yet to be fulfilled are also going to happen exactly as He has said they will. “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”

1. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Chariot Victor Publishing and imprint of Cook Communication Ministries.

Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 9

Study Guide, May 21, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

Who doesn’t like Moses and Elijah, right? These faithful men were not only heroes of the faith, but they also did heroic things. How about Moses with his turning the waters of the Nile into blood and directing other plagues upon the Egyptians; and then Elijah praying for drought and then for rain with both of them happening just as he prayed, along with calling down fire from heaven. These were certainly amazing things accomplished by these amazing saints. However, some commentators think that this world has not seen the last of Moses and Elijah. That’s right. They think that these two prophets of history are about to visit the Earth again in the near future.

Actually, they already visited the Earth after they left it the first time. Do you remember what’s called ‘The Transfiguration’ of Jesus? Matt 17:1-3- “Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.” NLT Can you imagine these disciples, walking up this mountain with Jesus, and all of a sudden, after over a thousand years, Moses and Elijah are right in front of them, talking with Jesus? And then they left the Earth again and went back to base camp in Heaven.

But in the near future two men are going to appear on the scene of Earth, and as we mentioned, some think it could very well be Moses and Elijah back again. And why do they think that? Because in the first half of the Tribulation period, two witnesses appear on the Earth, and the things they do sound a lot like what Moses and Elijah did awhile back. Let’s take a look: Rev 11:1-6- “Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.” ERV

And that’s why many think that Moses and Elijah are going to visit the Earth again in the near future. The Bible doesn’t identify them exactly. Some think that it might also be Enoch and Elijah, since neither of them died, but were caught up to Heaven before they died, or were raptured into Heaven. ‘Raptured’? How about that? You see, people have already been ‘raptured’ from the Earth without dying. So the coming ‘Rapture of the Church’ is nothing new. No, the experience of being caught up to Heaven without dying has already happened. It’s just that it’s going to occur on a really huge scale this time!

But either way, the world is about to witness the powers of these two witnesses, the likes that this world has never seen. And their judgments against this world continue for 42 months, or three and one-half years…which is why it is called the first half of the Tribulation period, which is the ’70^th Week of Daniel. And it’s called the ’70^th week of Daniel’ because the Angel Gabriel said this to Daniel in Dan 9:24- “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.” NASU And in this one verse Gabriel revealed six things that were going to occur, which we ought to unpack sometime, but we also ought to finish the account of these two witnesses.

So after they complete their judgments and their testimony this happens: Rev 11:7-13- “And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.” ESV

It’s fascinating how the Bible anticipated the reality of people the world over being able to witness an event all at the same time…no doubt through some kind of video or media feed. And did you catch that John called the city of Jerusalem ‘Sodom and Egypt’ here? Why is that? What a terrible irony that the city which God chose to be His temple city of Earth is now the center of corruption and idolatry in the end times. And, you see, that’s one of the important points about prophecy that people ought to know about and for Christians to be able to help them understand, that no, the future of the Earth is not about mankind figuring out a way to make life better and better and how to get along more and more until the world is a harmonious and prosperous and caring world. No, the future of the Earth is one in which the corruption and evils of mankind continue to grow worse and worse, and that only God has figured out a way to usher in a Kingdom of harmony and prosperity and world-wide compassion, extending even into the animal kingdom. But before He does so, mankind, along with the little ‘g’ god of this world, Satan, will continue to sin against their Creator and do harm to each other to such a degree that these judgments of prophecy are going to become judgments of reality. The only so-called ‘utopia’ on Earth is not a time when man or the Beast, the Beast of Revelation, are in charge. Utopia, or an ideal state of harmony and pristine living conditions, otherwise known as the Kingdom of God, is a time when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to take charge of His Earth.

But back to the passage. Did you notice what many people of earth do after the death of these two witnesses? “… and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents.” What an epitome of how upside down the sin nature of mankind is! It’s like Isaiah said about the ungodly mind: The ungodly mind calls evil ‘good’ and it calls good ‘evil’. This event when the world exchanges gifts while they rejoice at the deaths of God’s two witnesses has been referred to as ‘Satan’s christmas’. But their ‘satanic christmas’ season doesn’t last long, because after three and one half days, it turns into Easter! God resurrects these two witnesses before the eyes of a watching world. And then a shocked and trembling world watches them get ‘raptured’ into Heaven. Wow! But those in Jerusalem don’t have too long to set around and ponder what just happened because within an hour of the rapture of these two witnesses a massive earthquake hits Jerusalem that takes out 7,000 people.

That’s another thing about prophecy that is not only amazing, but also practical, in that, because of these prophecies you and I know about real things in real places and with real people that are about to happen. We know that in the near future an earthquake is going to hit Jerusalem and 7,000 people are going to perish in it. And many other judgments are coming to this world as well. It’s going to happen as sure as today is today. But there is also a sure way for anyone to prepare to deal with it all, and that is by turning to God in repentance and putting their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Then, in that eternally saved condition, a person is ready for anything.

However, for those in this Church Age, praise God we won’t have to experience this judgment spoken about here, as the Rapture will have occurred before then. But for those in the Tribulation Age, we pray for the salvation of many living in that time; for the salvation of those from every tongue, tribe, and nation.

And speaking of their salvation, here is another mind stretching event that is going to happen in the Tribulation Age. Are you ready? Do you remember how from time to time we kind of half-heartedly talk about how much better Angels would be at witnessing than we Christians are? Well, they would be! Well, guess what? One day they will! Rev 14:6-7- “And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.” NASU

We have just gone way past ‘door to door’ witnessing here! This is now Heaven to Earth witnessing by an Angel who appears in mid-air and proclaims the eternal gospel to every person and people group on Earth. Some commentators believe that this specific witness that goes out to the whole world just before Jesus returns is what Jesus was primarily pointing to in Matthew 24 as one of the signs of His second coming. Notice Matt 24:14- “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” NASU

And isn’t that just like our loving and long-suffering God, that before He ushers in His Kingdom on Earth He makes sure everyone clearly understands His offer of salvation and their chance to repent and believe the eternal gospel. It’s also important to point out that the Bible begins with clearly revealing to mankind that God is the Creator who personally made the heaven and earth and everything in it, and then the Bible ends the last book by clearly revealing that God alone is the Creator who made the heaven and earth, as well as each person. Even as this Angel proclaims the eternal gospel he reminds the people of Earth that Jesus is both Creator and Savior.

But the people living in the Tribulation Age are not done with hearing from Angels because another Angel comes to Earth and proclaims this: Rev 14:8- “And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.” NASU This is a judgment that’s made against Babylon, which refers to more than just a place, but especially to the entire system of the Antichrist and all who defy God’s authority over the Earth.

And then, well, we know how God often does things in ‘threes’…sort of a ‘trinity’ theme you know…well, a third Angel then speaks to the people of Earth. Rev 14:9-13- “Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” NASU

From the testimonies of three Angels the whole world hears the eternal gospel; they are reminded that their rebellion against the Creator is coming to an end; and they are warned about a judgment that is coming to all who continue to rebel and do not repent while there is time. And how remarkable that this Angel specifically reminds the people of earth that this whole concept of a place called ‘Hell’, which so many throughout history tried to deny as existing, is very very real after all. And when an Angel from Heaven comes to earth and testifies to every nation that this place of judgment called ‘Hell’ in the Bible is very real…well, that settles it!

But again, how like our God, who said that He is not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance, to send His Angels to give people the world over a chance to repent right up until the time He returns to establish His new Kingdom upon the Earth. What love!

So the world hears from the voices of three Angels. But then, there’s another voice from Heaven that says to the inhabitants of Earth: “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on! “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.” This voice is not identified, other than ‘the Spirit’, which would indicate it being the voice of God the Holy Spirit. And the thing is; whereas the Angels spoke from mid-heaven to the unbelievers in this Tribulation Age, God Himself speaks from Heaven to His believers with this amazing encouragement.

We often read this verse at memorial services of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. It speaks to how they have entered complete peace and rest from any earthly trial they endured, along with encouraging all believers that great rewards follow any and all for the good they have done in their works for Lord. How wonderful to know that! And this does apply to all believers, but the primary interpretation of it is God’s direct and audible message to the Tribulation believers, encouraging them that their times of trial and struggle are just about over, and God is assuring them that He is going to personally reward them for every good word and work they were sharing and doing in these troubled times.

These are powerful prophecies indeed. And God has given them to us to help us understand what’s going on in our world and what’s going to happen soon. Heaven is coming to Earth, and all of these prophecies are also opportunities for the people of Earth to get ready for its coming; to get ready for Christ’s coming – Christ’s coming back to the Earth He created and for the people He has saved.

Mothers: A Reflection of God’s Love

Study Guide  May 14, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

Here’s one of the most obvious statements you can make about Mothers: “Mothers wear a lot of different hats.” Maybe not actual hats, but different roles for meeting all kinds of needs. Let’s do something kind of fun: Let’s think of as many different roles, or hats as we can that Mothers wear. (Nutritionist, Chef, Teacher, Banker, Advocate, Private Investigator, Chauffeur, Personal Shopper, Home Care Specialist, Gardener,Therapist, Care Giver, Party Planner, Magician, Dr. Mom, Entertainer, Comedienne, Counselor….)

Mothers are all these and more. But one of the most significant things Mothers are is that they are a reflection of God’s love. So let’s explore.

In what ways are Mothers a reflection of God’s love? How about this one? Jer 31:1-3- “At that time,” declares the Lord , “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.” Thus says the Lord, “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness —Israel, when it went to find its rest.” The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.” NASU

‘Everlasting love’…Is there anything more enduring than a Mother’s love? From the time a Mother carries a child, her love is set in motion in a way that is best described in the same words as God’s love for His people; Everlasting. And in a sense, it’s just like God points out in how He carries His people in Isa 46:3-4- “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, You who have been borne by Me from birth And have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.” NASU In a sense, Mothers continue to carry their children even to their graying years. Whatever burdens their children carry, Mothers carry them, too. Whatever burdens their children are bearing, Mothers bear them, too. It’s a remarkable identification sharing experience, much like that of God with His people; experiencing sorrows together, as well as sharing joys together. And it doesn’t stop with time, instead, it is everlasting.

Which is closely connected with this reflection of God’s love as is pointed out in Ps 130:3-4- “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.” NASU In what is there a clearer reflection of God’s love than in the forgiveness of a Mother? And that part about ‘that You may be feared’…well, that has some overlap to it also, doesn’t it? Many Moms have known how to apply, as it’s been described as…the ‘board of education to the seat of learning’…if you know what I mean… It’s not easy to control the little marauding ‘Huns’ in the house. There are times when the little marauders need to learn that love has both a soft side and a tough side. We get a reflection of that in Heb 12:7-11. And we could inject Mothers also alongside the part that says ‘Fathers’… “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father (mother) does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers (mothers) to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” NASU

Most of us can probably remember some of those times that were ‘not joyful for the moment’ when we were growing up. For the moment, it felt like something other than ‘joyful’…I’m thinking of the word ‘painful for the moment’. Of course, that discipline was the exception rather than the rule. A lot of times, Parents resort more to being like the ‘Warden of Time-outs’, or some other ‘loss of privilege’ type disciplines…which are very effective. But you know what we are getting at here. The point is, sometimes just like with God’s love, a Mother’s love has to be tough. And even though a child may not see it at the time as being for their good; it is! And sometimes it’s way down the road, when children are reaping the fruit of righteousness from that discipline, that they realize how good it actually was, and how thankful they are that their Mother loved them that much to lavish both soft love and tough love on them.

But then, as the Psalmist was essentially saying, “Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who would stand a chance at life? But there is forgiveness with You and that’s why You are worshiped.” And that’s the point: Godly Mothers don’t keep a record of wrongs. They don’t hold onto the offenses against them, because they would rather hold onto their children and their love for their children. And the expressions of that and the experience of that loving-kindness penetrates deep into the souls of their children and powerfully affects them for good; even for change; and often with returned love.

For example: One of the most well known and respected early church fathers is Augustine of Hippo, North Africa, of the fourth century. He was a great defender of Christianity against the ungodliness of the Roman Empire. He is the author of inspiring Christian works like ‘City of God’ and ‘Confessions’, and the one who coined that great statement: “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee, O God.” Most people refer to him at St. Augustine. However, up into his early adulthood Augustine was anything but a saint. He was better known more like a ‘scoundrel’. And he was headed down a road to a life of worldliness and false beliefs. He had even joined a heretical religion called the Manichaeism, which was a kind of a gnostic, new age-type thing, where they could pretty much live any way they wanted. This was as far from Biblical Christianity as you could get. However, he had a committed Christian mother who was a prayer warrior, and she never gave up on him even into his adult years.

If you have ever visited Santa Monica, California, you were in the city that is named after Augustine’s mother, Monica, or Saint Monica. One account of the naming of the city is that it was named by a Juan Crespi on account of a pair of springs there called the Serra Springs. These springs were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her son’s early impiety.¹ This praying mother’s persistence and her perseverance in not giving up praying for him brought one of the greatest minds into Christianity and into the Christian world. Interestingly enough, most of the things we know about her were from his pen. He tells us about her in his book of “Confessions.”He wrote in his testimony about her prayers for him, testifying of Christ’s work in his life.²

Actually, that’s another surprising way God works on bringing people to repentance, and one of the most powerful ways God draws people to Himself. Look at how the Apostle Paul reveals this to us: Rom 2:4- “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” NASU Now that’s what we would call ‘counter-intuitive’, right? Again, people have come to repentance in many different ways, but one of the most effective ways God has drawn people into repentance and into a right relationship with Him is through His kindness. Mothers generally seem to catch onto this powerful virtue and method of influencing their children quicker than Dads. Fortunately Dads catch on as well, as they learn and follow their Heavenly Father’s ways with them. But a lot of times with Dads it’s lots of ‘huff and puff and blown the house down’ kind of reaction against any insubordination. The ‘leading them to repentance through kindness’ is not as clear on the screen of their ‘radar of relationships’ yet.

Now, the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that there certainly are times for different methods during conflicts and such, but the point is that only ‘wisdom’ can tell you what is needed at the time. And that’s why we say it’s often ‘counter-intuitive’ because God’s ways are often different from ours.

And here again, Mothers seem to be sensitive to these ‘counter-intuitive’ ways of God; like in how they know how to ‘draw with cords of love or with bands of love’. It’s interesting that even when God’s children were straying from Him there were times when God had to judge them severely, but that was usually after they had spurned His mercy many times. But He always began with mercy, as we see described in Hos 11:3-4- “I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms; But they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.” NKJV

One of the things we are to learn from God’s amazing ways that He has dealt with His children over the yeas, dealt with us over the years…is to never underestimate the power of kindness upon another person even in the midst of their undisciplined life. Often, it’s the stark contrast between righteousness with their unrighteousness, or the great difference between a compassionate spirit and their critical spirit that awakens the unrighteous and critical spirit in a person like shining a bright light into a dark room. That’s why we talk about people ‘coming to see the light’. God has certainly used that method to bring many of us to our senses. And so have many Mothers used these ‘drawing cords of mercy and these bands of loving compassion’ to help their children and others to see the light and come to their senses.

Again, the love that God uses is a love that’s based upon the need. Yes, sometimes love reprimands, sometimes love reproves, but the essence of genuine love is that it is always demonstrated. As has been put, ‘Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.’ It’s based upon need. And Mothers tend to tune into needs of others really well. Maybe that’s why their name is even spelled with an ‘M’ and the rest is ‘others’. Mothers gravitate toward looking out for the needs of ‘others’. And what a reflection of God’s love that is, right?

Actually, that aspect of love is referred to as ‘sacrificial love’. Sacrificial love sacrifices something of self for the one that is loved. And, of course, that has God’s love of John 3:16 written all over it… “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” Loving is giving, giving for the reason that; what others receive from what you give will meet their deepest need and bless them in the highest way. God did that for us in giving the life of His only begotten Son to meet our deepest need of having our sin sentence removed and forgiven and blessing us in the highest way by bringing our dead spirit back to life in union with Jesus Christ. That’s sacrificial love!

Mothers reflect that kind of sacrificial love in many ways, even through the many different roles they fulfill, or through the wearing of all those hats that we talked about. And the thing is, they often don’t think of it in terms of ‘being a sacrifice’. They simply think of it in terms of ‘being a Mother’. They see themselves as interconnected to their children’s lives. I was thinking of what Jer 1:4-5 points out: “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” NASU From the time Mothers carry them inside to then walking alongside, Mothers are always by the side of their children, regardless of where they are, praying all they can and serving all they can and doing all they can to help their children be all they can for the purposes for which God has made them.

To be sure: Mothers are a reflection of God’s love.

1. Paula A. Scott, Santa Monica: a history on the edge. Making of America series (Arcadia Publishing, 2004), 17–18.

2. Susie Hawkins, Monica: The Portrait of a Praying Mother, bible.org

Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 8

Study Guide, April 30, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

In our Life Group we were talking about evangelism and ways to initiate witnessing conversations. And with an insight from Brother Roger we came up with a new method of starting a conversation. You could say to someone: “You may already be a Christian, but if not – you could be the last one that completes the Church and launches the Rapture of the Church!” What do you think? Would that get their attention or what? That might need some explanation. Actually, that needs some explanation even for many that already are Christians, because this is an area of prophecy that is not normally talked about very much in the Church as a whole. But it ought to be talked about quite often! And why do we say that?

Do you remember what we read about what the Apostle Paul said at the end of the prophecy about the Rapture of the Church in 1Thess 4:18? “So encourage each other with these words.” NLT A great reason that God has revealed these amazing prophecies to us, particularly the Rapture of the Church, is to encourage His people; to encourage them in the midst of whatever they are going through in their lives in good times or in bad times. And you talk about big time encouragement: Jesus’ soon return to escort His Church to Heaven and to then begin establishing His promised Kingdom on Earth is about as encouraging as it gets. Right? Plus, knowing that Jesus is on the verge of completing what He started when He said, “I will build My church”, ought to give us great encouragement, as well as give us courage to live out our lives as followers of the Lord Jesus, who is coming back just as He promised He would.

We pointed out that God works according to His purposes. Remember that great passage of Isa 46:9-10- “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure…” NASU

So God works according to His purposes. And as we began pointing out, even in the prophetic teachings of the Scriptures, as we seek to understand God’s purposes of these prophecies we can then better understand the reasons for them as well. Like we mentioned, as we better understand the purpose of the Tribulation and Great Tribulation period we can then better understand the reason for the Rapture. And in saying that, it takes us to that key passage of Rom 11:25-27- “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” NASU

For one thing: This is why we said that another great incentive to witnessing is to realize that one day, somewhere, someone is going to respond to the saving gospel and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and they will be that ‘last someone’ who completes the Church, who completes the ‘fullness of the Gentiles. And that will then trigger the return of Jesus for His Church to gather or to ‘rapture’ His Church and begin the final countdown of the Tribulation period and Jesus’ return to the Earth to usher in His Kingdom upon the Earth.

How about looking at the unsaved around you through that lens of Scripture, huh? Each person you see, think: “You might be the last one who completes the Church and triggers the Rapture of the Church.”

Two things about what we just said about this: One is that ‘the fullness of the Gentiles’ actually does refer to the completion of the Church. It’s why we say that we are living in the ‘Church Age’. This age that we are now living in is a particular age among other ages in the history of mankind. These ‘Ages’ are often referred to as ‘Dispensations of History’. For example, there was the Pre-Flood dispensation or age. There was the dispensation of Law, which was then followed by the dispensation of Grace, or the Church Age. And this age will be followed by the dispensation of the Tribulation, which will followed by the dispensation of the Kingdom or the Age of the Millennial Kingdom. And then these dispensations will be followed by the final age – the Eternal Kingdom of the New Heavens and New Earth.

The point is, that by better understanding God’s plan for the Ages, we can then better understand not only what has happened in the world, and what is happening in the world now, and what will happen in the world ahead of us, but also better understand ‘why’? Once we understand the purposes for these ages we can then see the reasons for what is happening in these ages.

An example of what we’re talking about can be seen in Jesus’ first coming, which then changed the Ages from the Age of the Law to the Age of Grace, or the Church Age. Gal 4:4-7- “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” NASU And Paul later calls this change, a change from ‘Law to Grace’, and new ‘Age’: the building of Christ’s Church. And by the way, just like the ‘fullness of time’ here meant the completion of the time of the Law, the ‘fullness of the Gentiles’ also means the completion of this age, or the Church Age.

But again, there will come a time when the Church Age is completed. And when it is, that will lead into the next ‘Age’ of Earth’s history, which will be the ‘Tribulation Age’. Actually, another way the Church Age has been described is by calling it a ‘Parenthetical Age’. It’s like a parenthesis of time between God’s work through Israel in the Old Testament and His continuation of working through Israel in the Tribulation period or ‘Tribulation Age’. The Church Age is in between these dispensations, like a parenthesis.

Don’t let these distinctions in ages throw you, because just like there will be distinctions among the saved in Heaven who are there from various tongues, tribes, and nations, there will also be distinctions between the saved from these various ages of Earth’s history. It’s important and amazing to remember that memory of Earth continues in Heaven. No doubt part of the great joys of Heaven will be the telling and hearing of other people’s life stories, from whatever age of Earth’s history they lived.

The point is, once the Church Age is completed, another Age will begin…the Tribulation Age. And one purpose for the Tribulation Age is for God to continue His working in and through Israel, who has experienced this ‘partial hardening’ during the Church Age that Paul pointed out. But then, at the beginning and throughout the Tribulation Age a great number of Israel’s lineage will turn to their Messiah and will once again be significant witnesses for Christ during the last years of Earth’s history before the Messiah returns to reign upon the Earth.

And that’s another thing we should remember about this partial hardening of Israel. Remember, Israel’s mission, as God’s people, God’s assembly, was to be a national light to the nations of the world. They were to be God’s ‘instrument of witness’ to the world of the way to have a relationship with the One God and Creator through faith in the coming Messiah, or the coming Christ. But they neglected their mission and rejected their Messiah. Therefore, God raised up another assembly to be His ‘instrumental of witness’, the Church. And this assembly of people would be from all nations, who were to then continue this mission of being a light to all nations. And this assembly, the Church, will do so until, as the Apostle Paul revealed, ‘the fullness of the Gentiles has come in’, or this particular assembly is complete, and then, in the Tribulation Age, God will enlist His assembly of Israel once again, led by the 144,000 from every tribe of Israel to be that light and witness to the nations of the Messiah and Lord Jesus Christ.

Actually, there is a question that often comes up about Israel’s place in God’s purposes and ministry of witness and work in the world. The question is often connected with the idea that since Israel rejected their Messiah, that God has cast off Israel from His further works and purposes. And once again, how amazing that God knew this question would come up, so He answered it before it was ever asked. Notice Jer 31:35-37- “It is the Lord who provides the sun to light the day and the moon and stars to light the night, and Who stirs the sea into roaring waves. His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and this is what He says: “I am as likely to reject My people Israel as I am to abolish the laws of nature!” This is what the Lord says: “Just as the heavens cannot be measured and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored, so I will not consider casting them away for the evil they have done. I, the Lord, have spoken!” NLT

So, yes, the Lord has continued plans for the ministry and works of the people of Israel. And that is one of the purposes for the Tribulation. But another purpose is God’s judgment upon this present world, for it’s in the Tribulation something else has reached it ‘fullness’ upon Earth, and that is, the ‘fullness of the cup of sin’. And that is why these judgments in the book of Revelation of the seals and the trumpets and the bowls are referred to as the ‘wrath of God’. Here’s something helpful to understand. Sometimes people think of the Tribulation period as just further persecution of God’s people along with judgments from God. Granted, it is a terrible time of persecution from the Anti-Christ upon God’s people. We saw the description of that in Rev. 7 of the martyrs that come through the Great Tribulation.

But there is something that specifically sets this age apart from any other age in mankind’s history, and that is, it is not just a period of intense persecution upon God’s people from the Anti-Christ and the unbelieving world; it is the age of God’s wrath upon the Anti-Christ and the unbelieving world. Notice just a few descriptions of these judgments that are coming upon the Earth:

Rev 6:16-17- “…Hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” Rev 14:19- “So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.”

Rev 15:1- “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. Rev 15:7- “Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.”

Rev 16:1- “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” NASU

These judgments during the Tribulation period, which get progressively more and more severe on into the Great Tribulation period are those of the wrath of God. It is God’s wrath upon a reprobate world, whereas persecution is the world, the flesh, and the devil’s wrath upon God’s people. And so again, one of the purposes of the Tribulation period is for God’s wrath to be poured out, not upon His church, but upon the hardened and reprobate ones at the end of this Tribulation Age; particularly upon the Anti-Christ and his followers.

Which then leads us to one of the most powerful reasons for the Rapture of the Church. And that is what Paul said to the Thessalonian believers right after he revealed this wonderful truth of the great catching away or rapture of the church. And before we read it, remember that both the Apostles Paul and Peter informed Christians in their letters that they were not to be shaken by persecution. Notice how Paul stated it in 2 Tim 3:12- “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” NASU So believers of all ages are to expect persecution, as should the Church today. But something was coming that was going to be different from this persecution from the world, and that was this ‘wrath of God’ upon the world. That was different. And so now notice what Paul said to these believers about that. And again, remember, he said this right after he told them about the Rapture of the Church: 1 Thess 5:9-11- “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” NASU

This ‘wrath of God’ was certainly coming…coming in the coming Tribulation Age, but the coming deliverance of the Church from ‘this wrath of God’ upon the world was another reason that they were to encourage each other, and that we should encourage each other in this Church Age. Again, even though we may have to experience persecution from the world, we will not experience the wrath of God in the Tribulation Age. It was like Paul was saying, that they ought to be encouraged about Jesus’ soon return to escort His Church to Heaven, and they also ought to be encouraged that this wrath that was coming in the coming Tribulation Age was not meant for the Church, but for the reprobates and all those who follow the Anti-Christ…even though the ones who received the Messiah during the Tribulation were going to have to endure some of these hardships while it happened.

Again, look for God’s purposes in what He is doing and you will discover the reasons for what is going on.

Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 7

Study Guide (Draft form), April 23, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

We could not conclude our short series on Powerful Prophecies throughout the Bible without celebrating one of the most powerful prophecies of all: The Return of the King, the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! In fact, every Christmas, Christ’s first coming, first advent, is a pronouncement to the world of Christ’s second advent, His second coming. Many of you have probably enjoyed the ministry of Jack Van Impe, a fascinating Bible prophecy teacher. One of his publications was a magazine, which had the best title: ‘Perhaps Today!’ Maybe we should have a plague over our front doors with that, and when we leave our house each day, we look up and see: ‘Perhaps Today!’ Really, unless we go to see Him first, one day will be that day that it’s time for the King to return for His Bride, the Church, and to begin reclaiming the world for His Kingdom.

Jesus told a parable to His disciples that was specifically about His return in Mark 13:34-37- “The coming of the Son of Man can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. When he left home, he gave each of his slaves instructions about the work they were to do, and he told the gatekeeper to watch for his return. You, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know when the master of the household will return—in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak. Don’t let Him find you sleeping when he arrives without warning. I say to you what I say to everyone: Watch for Him!” NLT

The master of the house, the rightful owner, is coming back to reclaim His house, the Earth. And we, the stewards of God’s house, have been given instructions to carry out in living out our stewardship through our worship and service. And we are to faithfully be about our Father’s business as we faithfully watch for the King’s return. For remember, along with Jesus return for His people is Jesus’ subsequent review of His people; review of what we did as stewards of the time, the talents, and the treasures He entrusted to us for carrying out our works of worship and service while we wait for the Master to return.

Actually we just need to remember that the earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains. And not only are Jesus’ disciples accountable for what we have done with all that God owns, everyone on Earth is going to give an account for what they did with the things God owns. You know, One of the most ignored truths about whatever people have produced, built, bought, and temporarily own, the fact remains: None of it belongs to them. That’s the message from the Psalmist to everyone in the world about whatever they think is theirs: “None of it belongs to you. For the Earth is the Lord’s and all it contains.” (Ps 24:1) Every person on Earth is a ‘steward’ of that which belongs to the Lord.

Part of the coming judgment of mankind concerns a review of what each person did with the things that belong to God; beginning with a person’s very body and soul. It’s like that completely foolish notion you often hear people say that they have a right to do whatever they want with their own body. No they don’t! Of course they don’t…because they don’t own their own body. It belongs to the Creator! By creation every body and soul belongs to God. The problem is that sin killed the spiritual life within that body and soul. Therefore, the person who has not yet had their spirit born again through repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ is separated from spiritual life with God and under condemnation of sin in their body and soul, but again, every person’s body and soul belongs to God by creation. However, the only way they have a relationship with their Creator and then live eternally in the presence of God in Heaven is by conversion; having their spirit reunited to Christ and their body and soul re-purposed by the Holy Spirit to be a temple of the living God. Remember; until a person is born again, his or her body is a ‘spiritual tomb’, dead in trespasses and sin. But when a person receives Jesus Christ into their life the Holy Spirit then converts their ‘spiritual tomb’ into a ‘spiritual temple’ of the living God.

Think of it this way: Besides the Earth being a prison of spiritual inmates who are under the condemnation of sin; Earth is also a spiritual graveyard, filled with people, who although are physically living, they are spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. What God is doing is for each repentant sinner who comes to Christ for salvation is that He converts them into born again children of God and temples of God the Holy Spirit. And one day, in the day of the Rapture, He’s coming back to remove all of His living temples from out of the graveyard of Earth and He will then begin His work of renovating the Earth from being a graveyard to being a paradise. He will begin renovating and restoring the Earth to be His Kingdom upon Earth.

And all of these things are now just on the horizon. No wonder we call these prophecies ‘powerful’! We are living on the verge of Jesus’ return for His church and His preparations for ushering in His promised Millennial Kingdom. So whenever you are a little bit down about one thing or another, remember to look up and by faith, see Jesus standing at the door of Heaven, just waiting for word from the Father: “It’s time!” And then it begins: 1 Thess 4:16-18- “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” NASU

Even the word ‘Rapture’ is an exciting word. We get the word from the Greek word, ‘harpazo’, which is translated as ‘caught up’ in the passage here. And from ‘harpazo’ is the Latin word ‘rapturo’, from which we get the English word ‘rapture’. So whenever you are talking with others about this great prophecy you could tell others that, officially, you are looking for and waiting for the great ‘harpazo’ of the church; the ‘catching away’ or the ‘gathering’ of the church.

And here is something else that is exciting. In fact, it reinforces just how anxious Jesus is to return to gather His church. In the Greek there are two different words for ‘air’. One is ‘aer’ which referred to the lower atmosphere around the earth, and the other was ‘aither’, which referred to everything beyond that, reaching into the stars and the heavens. Okay, to reinforce just how much our Lord Jesus is longing to come for His church, the word that the Holy Spirit had the Apostle Paul choose is ‘aer’! Jesus could call us Home right from where He is in Heaven. But no, instead, Jesus is coming for us; coming into the atmosphere of Earth to gather, to ‘rapture’ His church. How like our God, our Lord Jesus, to come for us when He could just call for us. That’s how much He loves us.

Now, you may be realizing at this point that in talking about the Second Coming, which includes both the Rapture of the Church and the final return by Jesus with the Church to the Earth…that we have entered an area of prophecy where various groups within the family of God hold different positions about all of this. In fact, there are a lot of different positions and teachings about prophecy, particularly the Rapture and the Tribulation and the Millennium. And why is that? Well, think about it.

Something we need to realize is that God has a reason and a purpose for everything He does. And He not only has a reason and a purpose for everything He does, He also has a reason and a purpose for everything He does not do. For example: When it comes to the doctrine of Salvation, about how people can have a saved relationship with God, He made it crystal clear in the Bible, that it is by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that we become born again children of God. God clearly and plainly spelled the way of Salvation out for all the world to understand, for salvation is about how to have a relationship with God.

So we could put it this way: Salvation is primarily about how we are going to get along with God, whereas Prophecy is partly now about we are going to get along with each other. Salvation is primarily our testimony of God’s children having a relationship with God. Prophecy is, in part, a test of how God’s children are now going to get along in their relationship with each other. Remember, God said something very specifically to all His children about how He expected them to now relate to and treat each other. In fact, this last Passion Week included what’s referred to as ‘Maundy Thursday’. ‘Maundy’ is a shortened from of the Latin word ‘mandatum’, which means ‘command’, as in ‘mandate’. It was in connection with the Lord’s Supper when Jesus was illustrating how His disciples should love and serve one another that Jesus then gave them this commandment, or ‘mandate’: John 13:34-35- “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” NASU

Jesus was raising the purpose of ‘love’ to a higher standard here. And I want to commend our Chapel family on this, as there is a generous spirit of love toward one another as we and grow and sharpen one another as we continue to try to learn more and more about the great teachings of the Scriptures, like about prophecy and such. So well done! It’s a pleasure and so encouraging and refreshing to dig into all of these great doctrines with the Chapel family. We patiently learn from each other, and sometimes adjust our former ideas or positions about some teaching or another. And that’s how it’s supposed to work in the family of God.

But you are no doubt aware of and have probably experienced spiteful attitudes and even rude and condescending treatment from some Christians who hold to other doctrinal positions than you hold to on things like prophecy, and even differing Creation models and such. Some Christians have even accused others of following teachings of Satan because they held a different position of the timing of the Rapture than they did.

These things ought not to be within the family of God. We need to remind our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that we need to pay attention to what Jesus said about how we are to treat each other. Christ’s followers are commanded by Christ to be patient toward other believers who hold to different positions about things like the prophetic time-line and such. Again, we are to learn all we can and hold to what we find to be the most consistent teachings of the Scriptures about all these amazing prophecies. But at the same time, there are people all around us dying in their sins and will be eternally lost and condemned in their sins that need to find out about the love and salvation of Christ. And sometimes they get their first promptings about trying to learn more about salvation through getting a glimpse of it all in how they see Christ’s children treating one another. Jesus Himself revealed that how Christian’s treated each other would be one of the most powerful witnesses to the lost world that these people really were saved children of God’s. That’s why He called it ‘a commandment’ and not a ‘suggestion’.

Remember, God is more concerned about how Christians treat their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, who may have different understandings about doctrines that do not determine our eternal salvation, than He is about how much you have come to know and understand the details of things like prophecy and such. Do you remember what the Apostle Paul, who recorded these wonderful prophetic Scriptures for us, said about treating others in the family of God? 1 Cor 13:1-3- “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.” NLT And one more time from the Amplified Version for further clarification: 1 Cor 13:1-2- “IF I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).”AMP

God is serious about how the world sees His children treating each other. When we realize it’s part of the testimony God uses to convince the world that we really are children of God, then God’s people can’t fight like cats and dogs about their different positions on prophetic events and such and expect the watching world to go, “Yeah, I think I want in on that. Such a loving and peaceful people they are.” No, let’s learn all we can about these great doctrines that develop our maturity, but then let’s really be committed to our witness and testimony of the saving grace and love of Christ to the watching world concerning how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Now, speaking of the Great Tribulation…We’ll come back to the Rapture, but just some more groundwork here…The question often arises as to if any will be saved during this time, or during this Great Tribulation period on Earth. Well, the Apostle John answers that with some astonishing revelation: Rev 7:1-4- “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel…” 9-15- After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying,“Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” NASU

That’s quite an answer isn’t it? Not only will there be people getting saved from every nation and from all tribes and people groups in the Great Tribulation period, but this astonishing evangelistic harvest will commence with an amazing evangelistic team: 100, 000 Messianic Jews from every tribe of ancient Israel! Whoa! And also, What? What about the lost tribes of Israel? Well, apparently God found them! And He not only found them, He’s got a great evangelistic work for them to do in this last period of man’s history before Jesus’ second coming to the Earth.

And this is what we’ll get further into in our next study, as well as more about the Rapture.

The Passion – Compassion – of Christ

A Devotional Communion Service

Study Guide, April 9, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

The Bread

This is a powerful week in the Christian calendar. It’s referred to as “Passion Week”. The events of it all are like a countdown to the Cross and the Resurrection. Actually, it was like a rapid succession of prophecies being fulfilled one after the other. You remember how Matthew recorded Jesus’ entrance into the city. Matt 21:1-5- “Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.'” NKJV

The prophet Zechariah had foretold of this day five hundred years before it ever happened, that the Messiah King would ride into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey. Now what especially marked Jesus entry was that He didn’t ride in on a horse, the way a conquering King would, but on a colt of a donkey. That should have showed them right there that their King had another purpose. One day Jesus will come to the city as the conquering King on a horse. Revelation 19 tells us all about that. But this time there was something else for the King to accomplish first. The Cross would have to come before the Crown. But that’s the part in the Old Testament prophet’s messages the people had not been paying attention to.

We read today from what’s called the Messianic Psalm; Psalm 22. The Psalm, which was written 1000 years before this ‘Passion Week’, eerily describes many of the exact experiences Jesus had on the Cross. It even starts with the very words that Jesus would speak from the Cross: Ps 22:1- “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” NASU

Along with the question itself, did anyone there know the answer to it when Jesus asked it from the Cross? Why would a King ride into the city to cheers of “Hosanna” on the first day of the week and then be crucified on a cross at the end of the week? And how odd that they were chanting “Hosanna”, which came from another Psalm, Psalm 118, which meant: ‘Save now’, or ‘Save us, we pray’. Save them from what? Many were asking to be saved, but they were asking to be saved from the bondage of their political rulers, when what they should have first been asking was to be saved from the bondage of their personal sins. And if they would have been paying attention to the messages of the prophets then they would have known that. Plus, then they would have also known the answer to their King and Messiah’s later question from the Cross of: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”

The prophet Isaiah had already answered why the Messiah had to be forsaken. Isa 53:3-6- “He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins! But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.” NLT

Isaiah clearly foretold that the Deliverer, the Messiah, would have to bear our sins in order for others, in order for us, to be pardoned. And so when Jesus asked “Why have you forsaken Me?”, of course Jesus already knew the answer…He had just never experienced the answer. He had never been forsaken. And thanks be to Jesus, that because He was forsaken for us that He later then said to us: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Heb 13:6 ESV We will never be forsaken by God because Jesus was forsaken for us, in our place, as our substitute, our Savior!

The Passion Week also included a second cleansing of the Temple by Jesus. Mark 11:15-17- “They came to Jerusalem, and He went into the temple complex and began to throw out those buying and selling in the temple. He overturned the money changers’ tables and the chairs of those selling doves, and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple complex. Then He began to teach them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!” Holman Bible Jesus had done the same thing on His first visit during Passover, but rather than those religious leaders repenting of their ‘thieving ways’, they simply restarted their thievery again after Jesus had left. So instead of the Temple being a place where the religious leaders were praying for others, it became a place where they were preying upon others, swindling and over-charging people for sacrificial offerings and such.

It’s interesting that John also recorded this: John 2:17- “Then His disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume Me.” NLT ‘Passion’: It was Jesus’ ‘passion’ for all the things that God loved that led to His ‘passion’ for all the people that God loved. It’s like that great prayer: “Lord, let my heart love the things You love and let it break over the things that break Your heart.” That’s probably a prayer we should each regularly pray.

And of course, the Passion Week included the Passover and the Lord’s Supper. Actually, you remember that Jesus gave the Passover meal a new meaning. The bread and the cup would now represent Jesus’ own body and blood that was to be sacrificed and shed as the Passover Lamb of God so that our sins would forever be covered by the forgiveness of God.

But before we partake of that Bread portion of the Lord’s Supper, think about this: We often think about what the Lord’s Supper means for us, and rightly so. But we should also think about what the Lord’s Supper meant to Jesus. For it’s one thing to receive the sacrificial Lamb of God, but it’s quite another to be the sacrificial Lamb of God. Right after they ate of the Lord’s Supper, they went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Matt 26:36-38- “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” NASU

The word ‘Passion’ means a deep and strong emotion, like in something that is rewarding. But it can also mean a deep and strong emotion, like in something that causes great suffering. The ‘Passion’ of Christ was also the suffering of Christ. What He was suffering was the weight of the world. ‘Gethsemane’ means ‘an oil press’. In the olive groves of Gethsemane they would place massive stones on piles of olives and the weight of these stones would crush the olives, and the oil would flow out of them. We, and everyone else who has ever lived are those Gethsemane stones. We were the stones that Jesus felt weighing upon Him in the garden and then on the Cross. It was the weight of our sins that crushed the Savior till the oil of His blood was shed and washed away the penalty of our sins. That’s ‘Passion’.

The Cup

When you look at the world of people, what do you see? Here’s what Jesus sees: “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.” Matt 9:36 NASU When Jesus looks at the world of people He sees ‘sheep without a shepherd’. When Jesus looked at you and me He saw sheep without a shepherd. But not only did He see us, He also felt ‘compassion’ for us. The word ‘Passion’ means ‘to suffer’; the word ‘compassion’ means ‘to suffer together’. The reason that Jesus went through with the sufferings of ‘Passion Week’ was because of the ‘compassion’ that went through Jesus. When Jesus looked at the world, looked at us, He felt compassion for us. And He still does.

Just think: The driving emotion that God feels toward you and me is ‘compassion’. “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them”…for us. The Apostle John says ‘we love Him because He first loved us.’ From what Matthew said we could put it another way: ‘We have become His sheep because He first wanted to be our Shepherd. And He wants to be our Shepherd because He feels compassion for us.’

God has always wanted to be our Shepherd. It’s as the Psalmist said in Ps 100:3- “Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” NASU God made us because He wanted us. He made us the sheep of His pasture because He wanted to be our Shepherd. But our Shepherd saw that we were distressed and dispirited.

Isn’t it strange that people don’t know that apart from Christ that they are sheep without a shepherd, who are distressed and dispirited? Now strangely enough, some people, or some straying sheep, don’t think of themselves as distressed and dispirited. They think that they are fairly satisfied and happy. They might even think their heart and soul are healthy. But that’s called ‘deception’. You see, What people who are without Christ in their lives don’t know is that their mind and heart are completely deceived. The Great Physician of souls has revealed that the unconverted human heart is in a desperate and dangerous condition: Jer 17:9- “Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed.” TEV All the straying sheep of the world who have not yet come to the Shepherd have a soul disease and they are dying in their sins, even though their deceitful heart and mind tells them they are fine. In fact, the sin sickness of their heart is so bad that it cannot even be healed. But, praise God, it can be replaced. Even the prophet Ezekiel foretold how this new heart, this new birth, this new life in Messiah can be experienced. Ezek 11:19-20- “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.” NASU

How desperate the condition of the unsaved is: their mind is deceived, their heart is too sick from sin to be healed, and their spirit is dead…separated from the spirit of God. But then: “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.” Because of the compassion of Jesus there was the ‘passion’ of Jesus, the ‘Passion Week’ where Jesus was “pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.”

And that’s why Jesus calls for everyone to now come to Him. He was forsaken so that no one who comes to Him will ever have to be forsaken. He was made sin for us so that anyone who comes to Him could be made righteous in Him. He died so that any who would come to Him could live; could be given a new spirit, a new heart, a new life in union with His own life. But they have to come…to come to Him. The straying sheep have to come to the Shepherd in order to be reunited with the Shepherd of their souls.

That’s why we call for people around us to come to the Shepherd; to come to the One who suffered through Passion Week because of His eternal compassion for them. We trust that you have come to Christ and asked Jesus Christ to come into your life and be your Savior, your eternal Shepherd. If you have any doubt about your relationship with Christ…this is a key moment to make sure of it by praying to Christ about it. And then you can rejoice in Christ’s promise that anyone who comes to Him will receive eternal life from Him…and in Him. And then share that with as many others as you can. For every sheep needs to come home to their Shepherd.

Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 6

Study Guide, March 19, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

One of the most intriguing aspects of God’s prophecies concerning our future in the New Heavens and New Earth has to do with the revelation about our ‘reigning with Christ’. Actually, for those of you that have seen the Chronicles of Narnia movies, one of the themes that C.S. Lewis was stressing in these works was this theme of reigning in the new kingdom. You remember that Aslan was symbolic of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, or Jesus, and the four children that grew up were kings and queens who were intended to reign over Narnia.

This concept of reigning with Christ in the New Kingdom is a clear reality throughout the Bible and it is something that God wants us to clearly understand about our future in the coming Kingdom of our Lord. Just take a look at some of the prophetic passages that reveal this to us.

2 Tim 2:12- “If we endure hardship, we will reign with Him.” NLT

Rev 5:9-10- “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

Rev 20:6- “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.”

Rev 22:5- “And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.” NASU

One of the frequent questions people have about Heaven is; “What we will do there?” But how often have you heard other Christians answer that question with, “Well, one of the things God says we will be doing on the New Earth and in the New Heavens is that we will be ‘reigning with Christ’.”

Isn’t it strange that one of the most important things that God wants His church to know about and to be preparing for is historically one of the most neglected teachings of the church? Yes, it is strange! Harry A. Ironside was a Canadian-American Bible teacher and author who pastored the Moody Bible Church in Chicago from 1929 to 1948. One of his mantras was to remind Christians that all through life they were in ‘reigning training’. That’s right: ‘reigning training’. In this life we are to realize that we are “training for reigning”, as in, whatever else you are doing in your life, remember what your life is preparation for: ‘reigning with Christ.’

Besides wanting a family, God also wanted to create sons and daughters who would rule and reign over all He had created. Remember, all Creation is part of the inheritance of God’s children. With this in mind look carefully at what the Psalmist said about one of the purposes of mankind? Ps 8:3-6- “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands…” NASU David went on to speak of this rule over the earth, but note that he also connected it with the works of ‘the heavens’. Even the Apostle Paul reminded us that the entire creation is awaiting the final redemption in order for the children of God to be revealed or unveiled as co-heirs of God and be freed to reign over a redeemed creation. Rom 8:19-21- “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” NASU

Many of the descriptions of the redeemed, or of the renovated, and then even the resurrected new kingdom are focused on the Earth, as in the Apostle John seeing the New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven to become the capitol city of Earth and the Universe. But the redemption of creation extends to the entire creation, as we see the Apostle Peter describing in 2 Peter 3:10-13- “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” NASU

That’s pretty intense, to say the least! Now, the timing of this prophecy is at the conclusion of the Millennial Kingdom, which is why we say that the Millennial Kingdom is a renovation of the Earth, but the Eternal Kingdom is a resurrection of the Earth and the Heavens as well. And we say, ‘resurrection’ of the Earth and Heavens, because they were created to be eternal, thus, the destruction spoken of here is not their annihilation, but of their purification and complete renewal; a completely renewed or resurrected Earth and Heavens. Plus, catch this: God’s reign and rule extends over all creation; the Heavens and the Earth. And since God’s sons and daughters were created to reign with Christ, that means whatever rule God extends to us also extends to the Heavens as well as the Earth, for that is just what the Psalmist said: “You make him to rule over the works of Your hands.”

In a terrific book by Joseph Dillow called, The Reign of the Servant Kings, he points out that it is evident that this future kingdom embraces the entire created order. He said that while it is true that one purpose of the heavens was to ‘declare the glory of God’, it seems that they were also created to be placed in subjection to man (for man to rule and reign over the galaxies). He spoke about how when people began to discover the enormity of the universe, such as finding out that the universe was at least 20 billion light years in diameter, that it made the scientists feel rather insignificant. However, when you begin to factor in this plan of God for man to ‘rule over the works of God’s hands’, it has just the opposite effect: It expands man’s significance, or we should say, it expands God’s children’s significance to be as high as the heavens are above the earth! To realize that God’s plan for man was to rule and reign with Him over all creation, from the Earth to the unimaginable wonders of the entire created order of the universe is to magnify the significance of the sons and daughters of God beyond description.¹

Think about it: Where did that desire that is deep within man to gaze into and to explore the wonders of the stars and galaxies come from anyway? It sheds a whole new light on that statement by the Apostle Paul about “What do you have that has not been given to you by God”? (1 Cor. 4:7) That not only includes our gifts for service and our talents for accomplishments, but it’s a reference to any noble intention or desire that rests in the heart of man. The source of all that is noble and good is God. There’s a God-given reason that man longs to explore the wonders of the Heavens, for God created man to one day rule and reign over all the created works of His hands.

We might wonder why God didn’t sort of ‘spell out’ in the Scriptures more about this plan of exactly what works and activities we will be doing in the New Heavens and New Earth. And yet, there are quite a few preview pictures. Like in the Millennial Kingdom we have descriptions of the renewed peace between people and the animal kingdom, along with the expansion of the nations and of great commerce world wide. And then we even have those great previews in the book of Revelation of the capitol city of the New Earth and New Heavens; the New Jerusalem. And we also have some Parables about the Kingdom of Heaven where Jesus taught us that there would be varying degrees of rewards and privileges of ruling in His Kingdom based upon our faithfulness to His instructions for our lives now; before His Kingdom is established.

For example: Do you remember the parables of the talents and the minas? The ‘talents’ represented differing ablilities and gifts and the ‘minas’ represented equal opportunities for service. But the Lord gave each of these parables to teach us that how we serve the Lord in our lives now will determine what rewards and ministry privileges He will give to us and assign to us when He comes to establish His millennial kingdom and then on into His eternal kingdom. But now, what’s fascinating about the parable of the minas is the identity of the rewards that the faithful servants were given. Remember that the people were thinking about the Kingdom of God and what they were going to do in the Kingdom. And Jesus chose this example to teach them something in particular about how it was going to be. Notice: Luke 19:16-19- “The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’ “‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’ “The next servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made five times the original amount.’ “‘Well done!’ the king said. ‘You will be governor over five cities.’ NLT

What was the point? The point was that Jesus connected faithfulness in this world, in the use of His treasures, to ruling or reigning over some portion of His new world, or of the New Kingdom of God. Jesus revealed that this work of ‘ruling’ or ‘reigning’ over a portion of His Kingdom is a key activity in the coming Kingdom. So, although the activities and the opportunities of just what’s involved in the rewards of ‘ruling’ or ‘reigning’ are not spelled out by God in the Scriptures, the fact is that these ruling assignments will be viewed as great privileges is clearly taught over and over again by our God.

Sometimes I think that God, our Perfect Parent, deals with us in ways that parents sometimes deal with their own children, in how they promise their children that they are going to be very happy about the reward they are going to get after they complete some task or tasks, but without spelling out exactly what it is. Sometimes they do it that way because they want to teach their children to trust them and to believe that their promises are true. And then sometimes they don’t tell them exactly what the reward is in order to make sure, or at least to try to help their children come to love them, to love their parents, more than just the things that they give them. Interesting, huh? You see, our Perfect Parent wants us to trust Him, too, and to love Him even more than the good things that He gives us or even has in store for us. Still, He has told us straight out that He has wonderful plans to reward us with some amazing ruling and reigning privileges. And yet, He has informed us that, since these are rewards, that means that they are based upon us faithfully doing now what He has instructed us to do in our preparation for the New Kingdom.

The Apostle Paul had been granted a unique visitation to the third Heaven. He saw things that were beyond description. And he could have told us exactly what he saw and told us exactly the kinds of rewards and privileges that would be awaiting us, depending on our faithfulness in our worship and service for God now. But instead, and almost like being careful so that we wouldn’t love the things God had for us more than loving God Himself…instead he just left it with what the Prophet Isaiah had earlier said about it, and what Paul himself had earlier quoted about it: “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” 1 Cor 2:9 NASU

It was like Paul saying: “Trust me. You are not going to want to miss out on any of these rewards or privileges. You need to be as faithful and useful to the Lord as possible now, so that you can receive a full reward and not forfeit any of the ruling and reigning experiences God wants to give to you.” Again, how we serve the Lord today, and in the days we have left days on this Earth, is going to determine our rewards and our ministry assignments when Jesus comes to establish His Kingdom on Earth, and even extending on into the regions beyond this Earth of God’s created New Heavens, planets and places that we have only caught glimpses of so far.

That brings up something else very important that we are to remember, and that is this: Our ‘eternal destination’ is one thing, but our ‘eternal destiny’ is quite another. You see, Our ‘destination’ of heaven was determined by Christ’s gift of salvation to us. But our ‘destiny’ in heaven is being determined day by day by our works of sanctification for Christ. Salvation is about Christ’s works for us. They determine our destination with our names written in Heaven, our names recorded in the Book of Life. Eternal life is Christ’s gift of His own life to us as we receive Him by grace through faith. But sanctification is about our works for Christ. Certainly, the power and sufficiency to do these works are by Christ’s Spirit as well, but we are choosing day by day if we will put God first in our life, if we will surrender to His Lordship, if we will seek to grow in the understanding of His Word and His Will, and if we will deny our self for His sake and try to offer Him the gifts of an obedient Christ-centered life. And, you see, the sum total of our works for Christ’s sake are what Christ will evaluate, like in the parables that He taught us, to determine what our destiny will be in serving and ruling and reigning with Christ in all those privileges and activities in His coming Kingdom. And remember, He told us that these future rewards for our present service are more wondrous than what any eye has seen or any ear has heard or beyond anything that we could even imagine.

Just like in the parable of the Land Owner, God has things that He has set aside for you in your inheritance that He wants to give you. God has a destiny of ruling and reigning with Him over all His created order of the New Heavens and the New Earth. But this inheritance and this destiny is based upon what you have done, and are doing, and will do in your faithfulness to Him with the time and the talents and the treasures that He has given you to serve Him now, before He returns, or before you go to Him.

What we call responsibilities and duties now will be called privileges and rewards in Heaven or the in the New Kingdom. In the New Kingdom we will want to serve and reign with the King as much as possible. But we are determining what these possibilities will be by how we are serving the King now as much as we possibly can.

Sometimes you hear it said of sports teams or individual athletes that ‘they are in charge of their own destiny now’. Well, for the Christian, each Christian is actually in charge of his or her own destiny now, in the sense that how we are using the things which God has entrusted to us to serve God and to bless others and to fulfill the duties of our discipleship, is what God will evaluate as He reveals to us what our destiny is going to be in our ruling and reigning assignments and privileges in the New Heavens and New Earth.

So what do you say? We probably ought to each step up our service and worship of the King, because the thing is: You and I are ‘in training for reigning’!

1. Joseph Dillow, The Reign of the Servant Kings, pp 562, 563

Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 5

Study Guide – March 12, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

Often things begin as one thing, but become quite another. In fact, as we have begun studying various prophetic passages, we find that some prophecies are also about people, who begin as one thing, but become quite another. Let’s look into one of them today.

If I were to say, ‘setting out a fleece’, who would you think of? Right, Gideon. But there’s something that Gideon learned in that powerful story of the prophesied victory over the Midianites that is also a powerful thing for us to learn as well. Notice several things God says to Gideon in Judges 6. In verse 12 we have this: “The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” Then in verse 14 God adds this: “The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” Now then notice Gideon’s enthusiastic and ready and willing response to this in verse 15: “He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” And then the prophetic statement by the Lord about it all in verse 16: “But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.” NASU

What a difference between the way God saw Gideon and the way Gideon saw himself. God says to Gideon, “You are a valiant warrior.” And Gideon is like: “Are You talking to me? I think you have the wrong guy.” And then he goes on to give his reasons why: his family is the least among the tribes of Israel, and he is even the least among his own family. So if he’s the least of all of this, how could God think so much of him?

You know, one common malady we tend to have is that we know ourselves too well and we know our God too little. And since we know ourselves so well, but our God so little, we then tend to go with what we know about ourselves, or to live from who we are in and of ourselves, rather than to go on to discover more about who we are in and of the Lord, and to then live by faith in His strength instead of just our own.

Did you know that ‘who’ you say you are is ‘not who’ you really are? Plus, who others say you are is not who you really are. No, who you really are is who God says you are. Therefore, a major priority is for us to discover who God says we are and to then live out our lives according to who God says we are.

Gideon said, “Lord, let me tell you who I am. I am in a family that is the least of the tribes of Israel, and I am the least in my family as well.” But then essentially God says to Gideon: “Gideon, let Me tell you who you really are. You are a valiant warrior. And let me tell you something else you didn’t know. Not only are you a valiant warrior, but you also have an additional strength that you didn’t know about, as in: “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”

So what was ‘this strength’ that Gideon was to go in? ‘This strength’ was God’s presence in his life, which would enable Gideon to do what God planned for him to do. But how often is it that discovering who God says we are and then depending on God for the strength to do whatever it is that God planned for us to do is so often shoved aside by our own faulty ideas about who we are and by our faulty reasoning about why we can’t do what God has planned for us to do? But how important is it to know this: “God’s commandments are God’s enablements.”

God is not going to require us to do what He has not equipped us to do. Remember, the Apostle Peter specifically spoke about this very thing. 2 Peter 1:3- “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.” NLT So is it really possible to live a godly life? Has God given us everything we need to do so? Sure! But we need to practice seeing all of this from God’s perspective; including how we see ourselves.

Again, our natural tendency is to focus on how we see ourselves and also on how others see us, all the while neglecting to focus on how God sees us, which is actually the only true picture of who we really are. Whenever God says; ‘This is who you really are’; that is who you really are! Boom….done!

Question: has God ever said anything to us like what He said to Gideon? “O valiant warrior?” How’s this for a personal identity to carry with you? “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Rom 8:37 NIV More than conquerors? You know, just ‘conquerors’ by itself sounds pretty good. But ‘more than conquerors’? And you see, that’s the equivalent of what God said to Gideon. Plus, notice that God did not just say: “The Lord is with you, O warrior”, but “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior!” It’s like God saying to you, “The Lord is with you, O valiant conqueror!”

And now note this: For God to call us a ‘conqueror’ refers to what God has made us. But for God to also call us ‘valiant’ refers to what God thinks of us. To call us a ‘conqueror’ refers to our duty for God. But to call us ‘valiant’ refers to God’s love for us. Some synonyms for ‘valiant’ are: courageous, gallant, heroic, noble, powerful, benevolent… You mean, that’s how God thinks of us? Yes!

Take ‘courageous’ for example. You want to know what one of the most courageous things on earth is? ‘Repentance’ When a person turns from sin and self to surrender to and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ; that’s one of the most courageous things a person can do. When the book of Revelation speaks of the ‘cowardly and unbelieving’ as those who will perish, that is a direct reference to those who will ‘not repent and believe’. It takes courage to repent before God. To refuse to repent is an act of cowardice against God.

But the point here is to realize how affectionately our Heavenly Father thinks of us and how highly our Heavenly Father thinks of us, and how much He now wants us to think of ourselves more and more in the same way that He thinks of us. And by thinking of ourselves as God thinks of us it will embolden us to face whatever we have to face with this understanding of who God says we really are: ‘O valiant warrior! O valiant conqueror!’

Now then, If you are a conqueror that implies you have a battle, or battles. So think about it: What is your battle, or what are your battles? Actually, we should ask that another way: “So, O valiant conqueror…what is your battle? And in whose strength are you going out to fight it?”

You’ve heard it said that before you can fight the enemy you have to identify the enemy. What is often left out is that before you can rightly fight the enemy you have to rightly identify yourself. Here’s an interesting thing about some prophecies. You see, in the midst of this prophecy that God gave to Gideon about who Gideon was going to fight, God also gave him a revelation of who Gideon was going to be as he fought the fight: He was going to be ‘a valiant warrior’. You see, even more important than who and what we face in life is who and what we are as we face it. God wants us to clearly know who we are as we face and fight the battles of life. We are to learn that fighting the battles of life or facing the battles of life is foremost about who we are in the fight even more that what we have for the fight.

God made that pretty clear to Gideon, too. Remember that? Well, first of all they started out with 32,000 people to face the hordes of the Midianites. And God said, ‘Let everyone who is afraid return home.’ And 22,000 of them took God up on the offer. But God said, ‘10,000 is still too many.’ So they narrowed it down to only 300 men. And then do you remember the weapons that God laid out for the people to use in this great victory that God prophesied they would win? Yeah, unusual weapons, to say the least! Each of these valiant warriors were give a trumpet (or ram’s horn), a pitcher, and a torch. Would you like to go out onto a battlefield armed with with a trumpet, a pitcher, and a torch? Clearly, God had something up His sleeve.

Check it out: Judg 7:20- “When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” NASU

Now, the inclusion of Gideon in this shout was a statement to the Midianites of how God was working with and through His people, as well as a reminder to the people of their need to think of themselves as working in union with God. But I wonder how many of them had flashbacks in their minds of the mysterious tactics God had the people use in the victory over Jericho? That battle had been about 250 years before this. I think that saying ‘God works in mysterious ways’ has been around for a long long time. But think about: God was going to bring about this great victory through a trumpet call from God’s people, from broken vessels held by God’s people, from light revealed by God’s people, and by the sword of the Lord proclaimed by God’s people.

Mysterious, yes, but actually pretty standard procedure for how God works in doing battle in this world. How’s that? Well, break it down. God’s procedure for victory in this world is still by using God’s people like trumpet calls to proclaim the excellencies of Christ: 1 Peter 2:9-10- “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…” And God is still using His people like earthen vessels, that reveal the most light when they are broken…broken as in humble and surrendered to the Lord for His plans and purposes. 2 Cor 4:7-8- “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves…” And God is still using His people to lift up and reveal the light of the gospel, the light of truth to the world around us. Matt 5:14-16- “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” And God is still using His people to hold forth the ‘sword of the Lord’, which is the word of the Lord. Eph 6:17- “And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” NASU

Yes, it’s still pretty much standard procedure for walking into battle with the ‘Midianites’ of this world. We walk with a trumpet; which is the call of Christ’s Lordship over this world, a pitcher; which is the vessel of our life revealed through our broken and humbled lives, and a torch; which is the light of God’s Word, as we carry the sword of the Lord; proclaiming the truths of God’s revelation on our march through this world.

In fact, these trumpet calls are like previews of other prophecies that are now just on the horizon:1 Cor 15:51-52- “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

Matt 24:30-31- “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” NASU

Yes, there are more trumpet calls to come in these great prophecies about what’s to come. And every day on earth is one day closer to the sound of these trumpet calls!

But remember that often even in the midst of prophecies about what God is going to do or is about to do we also learn more about who God has made us to be, and intends for us to be, as in Gideon’s case here, and even in our case. God made us to be valiant warriors, valiant conquerors through Christ who loves us. Remember, God sees us not just as who we are in ourselves; He sees us as who we are in union with Him. For we are one thing in ourselves, but we are quite another in Christ. And since that is how God sees us, in union with Him, that is also then how we are to see ourselves.

So what do you say, O valiant Warriors: Are you ready to pick up your trumpet and pitcher and torch and face whatever you have to face with a sword for the Lord and for His church?

How about a shout of “A sword for the Lord and for His Church!”

Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 4

Study Guide March 5, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

We have been examining some things that you would think would also be rare, and that is; prophecies found in the Bible. But the thing is, the prophecies in the Bible are not rare at all. In fact, over a third of the Bible is prophetic material. And God designed it that way so that something that we would think of as being rare, like a prophecy and especially then it’s fulfillment, would in fact be like ‘business as usual’ for God. And God’s purpose in giving so many prophecies and then fulfilling prophecies throughout the Bible was to demonstrate to the world that He is the only God and that only God can do such a thing! Something that would be extremely rare to man is simply commonplace to God, who alone can reveal the end from the beginning. So let’s return to our exploration of some these powerful prophecies we find sown throughout a third of the Scriptures.

One of the things that’s quite remarkable about Biblical prophecy is that there are many reasons that God gave us so many prophecies throughout the Bible. But one of the understated reasons is to help cure or at least curb human nature from it’s bent toward two things in particular: Impunity and Insolence. Now, ‘impunity’ has to do with ‘exemption from punishment or judgment’ and ‘insolence’ has to do with ‘rudeness and disrespect’. And in connection with human nature and God’s Word, many people have treated God’s Word as if it didn’t apply to them, as though none of what God has said about His commandments and His judgments to come applies to them. They live their lives as though they are exempt from any of these judgments that God has warned people on Earth about. And along with that presumption is this disrespectful attitude that goes with it; thinking and living as though God’s Words are irrelevant to them and to their life.

Imagine that, how rude and disrespectful is it to God for people the world over, who owe their very life and breath to Him, to live as though God’s revelation of His will and His plan for mankind is irrelevant to them. How can the Owners Manual for life be irrelevant?

Not only is that extremely rude to God, it is also extremely dangerous, because as God said about the choices we make: we are either choosing the blessing or we are choosing the curse. And it is our responsibility to find out which of these we are choosing day by day. And of course, God prefers that people be wise and choose the blessing, because no one is exempt from the consequences of choosing the curse. And for anyone to think that he or she is exempt from that is absolutely foolish.

But how prevalent is this spiritually insolent attitude today in our culture? We find it in universities to courtrooms to media to main-street, and so on. So many people completely disregard the relevance of God’s Word and especially the authority of God’s Word over every area of life for mankind upon earth. And it seems to be getting worse; this attitude of dismissing God’s Word as being relevant to people’s daily lives, along with this attitude that they are not going to be held accountable for their beliefs and deeds in their lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. But they continue living as though they are exempt from any coming judgment warned about in the Biblical Scriptures.

But that’s where the prophecies of the Scriptures shine a spotlight in order to give some clear examples to the world that clearly demonstrate to all people that no one is exempt from God’s commandments, counsel, and warnings, and that for anyone to disrespect or arrogantly ignore God’s Words is to just increase their wages of sin, which will be paid in judgment upon them.

And so, a case in point: And for this we return to Jericho. However this was now after the walls came down and the battle was done. And in the context of it we see Joshua and the people protecting Rahab and her family, as they had promised Rahab for helping protect the Israelites as the were scouting out Jericho. And how fascinating that Rahab, who is identified as a harlot in Jericho, then becomes a converted follower of the Lord and also the great great grandmother of King David, and is named in the amazing lineage of Jesus. This is another example of how God foremost loves people, and He wants to redeem any and all who will turn to Him in repentance and faith, and He will then include them in the great work of building His family and His Kingdom.

So here’s the passage and prophecy: Josh 6:23-27- “So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel. They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. However, Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, “Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.” So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.” NASU

Now that seems like an odd oath, which was actually a prophecy that Joshua makes here. Surely there was more to it than that. There’s always more to it than that. Remember those two things that lurk in the sin nature of man; these attitudes of impunity and insolence toward God? Well, Jericho represented both, in the people of Jericho’s choice of idolatry and in the people’s defiance of God. That’s why Jericho is a good symbol of this world. Also, remember that the Apostle Paul revealed that upon every person’s heart who has ever lived on earth, God has written His laws. So Imprinted on the human heart is this understanding and this sense that every person is accountable to their Creator and as such every person is to seek to find Him and to then live under His authority for their lives. Therefore, Paul says; ‘Everyone is without excuse’. And of course, God promises that all who do respond to His drawing them to Himself and all that do seek to find Him will find Him, as He is not far from anyone. God is not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

But many do refuse to seek Him. Many choose to live in defiance of God’s authority over their lives. Most of mankind’s history is simply one long argument against God. Do you remember Jesus’ words before He ascended to Heaven. He said, “All authority is given to me in Heaven and on Earth.” But man’s history, from governments to classrooms to living-rooms, is filled with people basically arguing with Jesus and essentially saying, “No it hasn’t. You’re not the authority here! I can do what I want in this place or in this instance. I can do what I want in this business or in this courtroom or in this church or place of worship or in my house or in my body. I can do what I want regardless of what God has said and am also exempt from any judgment of His Word.”

And with that kind of attitude so prevalent among so many people, that’s why this prophecy from Joshua was necessary as an example to show the world that ‘no one should disregard God’s Words and no one is exempt from God’s judgments’. And so that brings us to a man named Hiel. But to catch what kind of times it was let’s look into the passage: 1 Kings 16:29-34- “Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.” NASU

Five Hundred years after Joshua prophesied about what would happen did happen exactly as had been prophesied. And note the additional information we receive here about this prophetic curse: “…according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.”

This prophecy was not just something that Joshua came up with in the heat of the moment of this great victory over Jericho. No, again, this prophecy was given by God through Joshua as an example of the fact that God’s Words are absolute truths for all people and for all times, and this would be a clear example that no one is exempt from judgment as a result of the disobedience to and the disrespecting of God’s Words.

So here was a follower of the Lord, Joshua, speaking on behalf of the Lord what would become the prophetic Scriptures of the Lord. And yet, how many other insolent people through the years have also thought, “Who do you think you are to tell us what we can or cannot do?” Remember, that’s basically what many people in Korah’s rebellion said to Moses, as well as did others say that to God’s prophets and later to His apostles. And people are still saying “Who do you think you are?” to basically to any believer who dares to share the truths of God’s Scriptures with the skeptics of the world, particularly about a value issue; a moral issue. And yet, They don’t even realize that when someone says or thinks that in response to the communication of the words of the Lord through His Bible, it is God who hears their question as well, as though they were directly saying to God’s face: “Who do you think you are?”

This Bethelite named Hiel was about to find out ‘who God was’. He was about to find out that He is the only God and there is no other, who tells the end from the beginning. Hiel chose the curse and the prophecy came to pass, as God’s Word always does. And just like Hiel, spiritually insolent people, people who think God’s Words and God’s warnings are irrelevant to their lives, are about to find out ‘who God is’. And remember, just like ignorance is no excuse for breaking the laws of the land, ignorance is no excuse for breaking the laws of the Lord. But actually, as we pointed out, everyone is without excuse, for God has written His laws on people’s hearts and they know by creation and conscience that they are accountable to their Creator and God.

But you see how powerful this prophecy was in that it anticipated the times when the people would be ignoring God’s Words and God’s Will. King Ahab had fallen so far as to worship Baal again, like the Canaanites of Jericho had. And the Scriptures pointed out that Ahab did more evil than even King Omri had done. Ahab was moving the culture even further away from God. So you see, the rebuilding the walls of Jericho was not just so that people could live their again. People had been living there for many years. No, the problem was that in rebuilding these particular walls it was like re-establishing the culture of Baal worship again for the people. It was like building back up in defiance of God’s Words what God had torn down. The attitude of Ahab and Hiel and many in the culture was that of insolence and impunity toward God. They disregarded God’s authority in their lives and they lived like they were exempt from any of God’s warnings or judgments. But as they watched Hiel begin this defiant work they saw the prophecy of God through Joshua come to pass right before their very eyes.

There is a fascinating Proverb that says: “Do not move the ancient boundary which your fathers have set.” Prov 22:28 NASU You know, we live in a world of change. It’s always been that way. It was that way in Joshua’s time and in Ahab and Hiel’s time. It will be that way until the Lord returns to establish His Kingdom on Earth. But wisdom is knowing which things we are free to change and which things we are not free to change. And we are not free to change God’s ancient boundaries of His Word, which reveal His Will for our lives and His instructions for our lives for our beliefs and our morals and our behaviors. And for any who think they can change God’s unchangeable words – well, that’s why we have the example of Hiel the Bethelite, who chose the curse by defying God’s Words and thus suffered the consequences. He found out he was not exempt from God’s judgments, and neither is any other man or woman who has ever lived.

That’s why the only wise thing to do is to live under the authority of Jesus Christ and to live in union with Him as your Lord and Savior.

Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 3

Study Guide  February 26, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

Parents make a lot of prophecies. Have you noticed that? They say things such as: “If you keep crossing your eyes like that, they’ll get stuck that way?” Well…not really…You might get dizzy or something like that, but that prophecy is not anatomically accurate. Or how about this one: “If you don’t behave I’m going to knock you into next week.” Now we’re into time traveling…Or, I knew a guy who used to say this one to his kids: “If you don’t stop that I’m going to cloud up and rain all over you.” So was he like a ‘Transformer’ from the movies or something? Or here’s a long range prophecy some parents make: “When you have kids, then you’ll understand what I’m talking about!” Now, that might have some validity in that parental prophecy!

But we’ve been pointing out that the Bible contains thousands of literal prophecies that have come to pass exactly as predicted or will come to pass exactly as predicted. And part of the reason God gave the world so many prophecies is to demonstrate to the world that He is God and there is no other…and to remind the world that God’s Word always comes to pass. Therefore, everyone should be amazed at what God has prophesied that has already come true, and then prepare for whatever else God has prophesied that is about to come true, or that is still awaiting its fulfillment.

In other words; for all people of the world, their ‘faith’ is to be activated by what God has already proven to the world about the fact that His Words are absolute truth. And, thus, all people are to then live their lives by faith in relation to the absolute truths of God’s Word.

Now then, we should give a short clarification about ‘faith’, because there is a big difference between Biblical faith and worldly presumption. Most of what people call ‘faith’ is actually ‘worldly presumption’. The religions of the world, in particular, are filled with what they call ‘faith’ when what it actually is; is ‘worldly presumption’; ‘worldly religious presumption’. They are basing their beliefs upon what they ‘assume’ is true, and then they live their lives according to the things they now ‘presume’ are true.

That’s where Biblical prophecy parts the waters of world religions like the Red Sea, because Biblical faith is not based upon the assumptions of man. Biblical faith is based upon the assurances of God’s Word. Biblical faith is based upon Biblical realities that give us an abundance of evidence and reasons to commit our trust and our lives to the God of the Bible. Again, that’s part of the reason why God had His writers record names and places and actual events so that the honest man or woman could then could know that these things were so, and therefore have a ‘know-so’ kind of faith instead of a ‘hope so’ kind of presumption about it all.

Mark it down: Biblical faith is based upon Biblical evidence. Why do you think Jesus showed Himself to hundreds of people after His resurrection? He gave them flesh and bone evidence that He was the resurrected Lord and thus they could place their complete faith in Him being their complete Savior. The Resurrection proved that Christ’s work on the Cross worked. And all the rest of the prophecies of the Bible prove that God’s Words are to be completely trusted and thus we are to now live completely committed lives in worship and in service to our Lord and Savior.

As we look into some of the many powerful prophecies that demonstrate that God’s Words are absolute truth, we may come up on some that we don’t often think about as being ‘a prophecy’. But, you see, many of the powerful events that occurred in the Bible were preceded by a powerful prophecy from God about exactly what was going to happen before it ever happened. One powerful example of that is before God delivered the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt He foretold exactly how He was going to do it through the ten plagues. And then everything He foretold would happen, did happen exactly as He had foretold. By the way, one of the fascinating things about the ten plagues that many Christians haven’t learned, but when they do learn, it then changes everything they’ve ever thought about those plagues of the Exodus, is the fact that each of these plagues was a direct attack upon an Egyptian god that corresponded to the plague. The turning of the Nile into blood was a defeat of the Egyptian god of ‘Hapi’, the guardian of the Nile. The plague of the boils and sores was a defeat of the Egyptian god and goddess of Serapis and Sekhmet. The plague of darkness was the defeat of their gods of ‘Ra’ and ‘Atum’, the gods of the Sun. And of course, the death of the first-borns was the defeat of their belief in a so-called god that gave life, called ‘Osiris’.

But the point is, again and again, God has been seeking to demonstrate by His works and His Words to the creatures of this world that there is only one Creator and God. There is no need to make assumptions about who made us and why we are here and what does the future hold for people, because God has already told us and shown us the answers to these things, and then even proven them by fulfilled prophecies so that our faith can be based upon Biblical assurances rather than worldly assumptions.

Here is another example through another event that many believers are familiar with, except for this fact; and that is, that before it became a powerful event it was first a powerful prophecy. Those of you that have visited Israel probably stood next to this remarkable piece of history. It is not known if this is the precise remnant of the Jericho wall of the Biblical account, although it very well could be. Still, it’s really amazing just looking at the size of it.

What is known is that the present day Jericho is an extension of the same Jericho that we read about in the Bible. And that Jericho is over 4,000 years old, maybe more! The present day buildings are just east of the Old Testament site, but it all refers to the same city that is one of the oldest settlements in the world. Again, this is a real place where Joshua recorded the real events that took place there, along with the real prophecy about it. Let’s look: Josh 6:1-5- “Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.” KJV

“See, I have given into thine hand Jericho….and the wall of the city shall fall down flat.” Powerful! But note that this is a prophecy that God made and it was either going to be absolutely true or absolutely false. But since it was God who gave it, of course it was going to be absolutely true.

But also note that a battle was about to take place, but God already promised them the victory. Does that sound familiar? Remember Jesus’ words in John 16:33? “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” NASU Jesus has already overcome this world. The victory over everything in this world, even death, has already been won.

How about if we rename this world of ours ‘Jericho’. And Jesus says to us: “See, I have given into thine hand Jericho.” Does that change the way you now see this world. “I have given into thine hand this world. I have already overcome this world. And in Me, you are an overcomer!” That changes everything, right? Now, Too be sure, there are battles ahead of us, just like there was a battle ahead of them in Jericho. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation”…but then He also said, “…but take courage…be of good courage, for I have already overcome this world. I have already won! And therefore, so have you.”

Is that how you see this world around us, as a world that has already been defeated…already been overcome by our King Jesus? How about this…Is that how you see yourself, as one who is united to the King and who is also then an ‘overcomer’ with the King? This world, this Jericho, has already been defeated. Oh sure, there are some skirmishes, some battles, that are still ahead of us, but this world has already been given over into our hand…into the hands of God’s people. The victory is already won!

Is that how you look at life, as an over-comer, as a victor in Christ? Do you see what God was saying to Joshua? As Dr. Warren Wiersbe put it: “Remember Joshua, you fight from victory, not just for victory.”¹ Think about that! Actually, rewire your entire mindset to think like that! Jesus Christ has already won the victory over this world. And as Christians, as those who are in union with Christ, we are to understand what this means about any fight we have to face, whether it’s a fight against the enemy of sickness, or the enemy of suffering, or the enemy of persecution, or the enemy of emotional or financial or relational hardship and so on. We are to know that we are fighting from victory, not just for victory. From now on, whatever we have to face until we see Jesus face to face, we now face it from our victory in Jesus Christ, who has already overcome the world, and therefore, so have we!

Again, even when facing the battle of death, we have already won, because we are fighting from victory, not just for victory. Do you remember what the Apostle said? 1 Cor 15:55-57- “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” NASU

Since the last enemy is already defeated, so then is every other enemy already defeated. When facing the battle of persecution we have already won, because we are fighting from victory, not just for victory. When facing the battle of cancer we have already won, because we are fighting from victory, not just for victory. When facing the battle of depression or suppression or any other hardship we have already won, because we are fighting from victory, not just for victory. Even temporal losses do not change our eternal victory. In fact, even temporal losses are turned into eternal gain. Remember Paul’s words on that? Phil 1:21- “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” NASU

For unbelievers temporal losses are turned into eternal losses. But for the believer in union with Christ, temporal losses are turned into eternal gain. Paul learned to think like an ‘eternal man’, not a ‘temporal man’, and so must we. It’s only when you expect everything to work out in this temporal life that you set yourself up for a fall. It’s like expecting everything to work out in the first chapter of a novel. That’s not realistic in a novel and it’s not realistic in this life. This part of our life is only the first chapter in the novel of our eternal life. It’s only the first part of your eternal story.

And that’s something else we learn about the amazing prophecies of the Bible. And that is: these powerful prophecies of the Bible are also filled with powerful promises for us. Just like this prophecy from God about Jericho was also a promise from God to Joshua and God’s people. “I have given Jericho into your hand.” Who does this world and all it contains belong to? Ps 24:1- “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.” NASU And Jesus also said, Matt 5:5- “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” ESV Now remember, the meek are not the weak; the meek are the humble followers of Jesus Christ, who are set to inherit the earth, which is the Lord’s, and all it contains. How about that? When you look at this earth, this world around you, you are looking at part of your inheritance. It’s only a matter of time before this world turns over everything to the King and His rightful heirs.

So that means that wherever you are, whether on the sea or in a store; or wherever you go, down main street or down Wall Street, the thing is: Our Father owns it all. And its only a matter of time before all of it is turned over to the rightful Owner and His rightful heirs. Remember, what you are looking at is ‘Jericho’, and God’s people have been marching a long time. Soon the walls are going to come down and the final ‘Joshua’, the Lord Jesus, is going to return and lead His people in complete take-over of this world, which belongs to God and to the family of God. But that’s another powerful prophecy that we’ll explore another time.

But mark it well Brothers and Sisters: We live in victory because we live from victory, not just for victory.

1. The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament © 2001-2004 by Warren W. Wiersbe. All rights reserved.

Wife of Jehovah; Bride of Christ

Study Guide February 12, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

When it comes to marriage there are lots of helps and a lot of advice. Like this one that says, “The most important four words for a successful marriage: ‘I’ll do the dishes.’” My Dad told my Mother when they got married that if she would cook and bake whatever recipes and whatever meal ideas that she would like to try he would do the dishes. They both saw it as a ‘win-win’ situation. She could experiment without having to clean it up all of the time, and Dad could get lots of pies and cakes and other goodies and such. Of course Dad was planning to pass that assignment onto us kids as soon as possible, and he did. My brother and I were on ‘dish duty’ all the time. We thought it was like a Biblical thing, as 2 Kings 21:13 says, “…and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.” KJV I don’t think that’s the primary interpretation of that verse though.

But even marriage vows have gotten a bit strange now with: “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now update your Facebook status.” But here’s some good advice: “I promise not to keep score, even if I am totally winning.” And then this one: “The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest.” You can’t go wrong there!

But the marriage relationship has always had a bit of the element of ‘mystery’ to it. And we mean ‘mystery’ not in terms of strange or unknowable, but more in terms of ever discovering more and more of the deep meaning and implications of it. And that description of ‘mystery’ is seen right away in how God spoke of even His relationship with Israel in terms of Israel being a ‘wife’, like the ‘wife of Jehovah’, and then of course the church is referred to as the ‘bride of Christ’. And the Apostle Paul even went on to magnify this mystery in referring back to Genesis 2:24 with words from the first human groom, Adam, to his wife, Eve: Eph 5:31-32- “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” NASU And part of the mystery he is speaking about here is the mystery of ‘union’, of how both the covenant of marriage itself represents a union of a man and a woman and the covenant of salvation represents the union of Christ and the Church.

And speaking of ‘mystery’, remember Adam added something else to the mystery of it all in that he first said: “The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’” Gen 2:23 NASU This, too, is part of the ‘mystery of marriage’, particularly here of the union between Christ and the church. How so? Because it contained an important symbolic meaning concerning the regeneration of believers and their union with Christ. Think about it: Like Adam said of Eve, ‘This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,’ the apostle essentially says of the church: ‘We are bone of His bones, and flesh of His flesh:’ that is, we are parts of Christ’s body, the church.

How remarkable is this application of Adam’s words concerning Eve to Christ and to His church. This formation of Eve from the side of Adam’s body was a figure of the regeneration of believers by the breaking of Christ’s body. When Paul gave the Corinthian believers the account of the Lord’s Supper he included these words in particular: 1 Cor 11:23-24- “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” NKJV Like Adam’s body was broken in order to give new life to Eve, Christ’s body was broken in order to give new life to us; new life to our spirit.

In his same letter to the Corinthians Paul went on to explain this further, even referring to Jesus Christ as the second Adam: 1 Cor 15:45-53- “The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person. But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man. What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.” NLT

The union within marriage of a man and a woman and then the union within salvation of Christ and the church are some of the greatest mysteries in the world. But again, not mysterious like being strange, but mysterious like being wonderful; full of wonder and adventure and meaning, that all reaches higher and higher the further you explore it. Even our union with Christ spiritually takes on another dimension as Paul reveals that we should also be looking forward to our new immortal physical bodies, physical bodies that are like Jesus Christ’s own immortal physical body.

Again, one of the greatest revelations about our salvation is this mystery of ‘union’. And so one of the greatest necessities in our salvation relationship is therefore to learn more and more how to think and act and serve within the reality of our union with Christ. And in saying that, you know what’s coming next… So also then one of the greatest revelations about marriage is this mystery of ‘union’. And in having said that, then, yes, one of the greatest necessities in our marriage relationship is therefore to learn more and more how to think and act and serve in within the reality of our union with our married wife or husband.

We tell couples in premarital counseling that they haven’t lost their minds in getting married, but they have divided them, as in, ‘from now on you will be sharing a brain’. Half your brain is now located in your wife’s head, or in your husband’s head. So you need to get used to that. Be patient, it takes awhile. That’s why in marriage, independent decision making, independent planning, or independent anything amounts to only a half decided decision or only a half planned plan or only a half thought out anything; because ever since you ‘two became one’ your spouse now has the other half of the whole picture that you need in order to make whatever decision or plan or action ahead of you. Again, two people – one brain. So it really is one of the great mysteries of both marriage and salvation; you have to learn to think in union, as well as live out you life from the perspective of your ‘union’.

But how amazing that God used this marriage union to help us better understand the height and depth and breadth and length of the dimensions of His relationship with His people. In fact, even when Jesus told His disciples about His plan for their future they no doubt realized that it sounded just like Jewish wedding plans. Remember that? John 14:2-3- “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” NASU

I can imagine them looking around at each other, like; “This sounds familiar.” And it was, because it was just like the steps in a Jewish marriage. In a Jewish marriage first was the betrothal (which involved the groom’s traveling from his father’s house to the home of the prospective bride, paying the purchase price, and thus establishing the marriage covenant. Second, the groom would return to his father’s house (which meant remaining separate from his bride for certain time period, during which time he prepared the living accommodations for his wife in his father’s house). And then third, the groom would then come back for his bride at a time chosen by the father. And then fourth, he would then return with the bride to to the groom’s father’s house. And there would also be a celebration of the wedding feast.

Fantastic symbolism! Jesus left His Father’s house to come to our home of Earth. And then He paid the purchased price; He purchased our salvation with His own sinless blood. And then Jesus ascended back to the Father’s house to prepare a place for us. And when the Father determines the time, (which Jesus told the disciples in Mark 13:32- “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” NASU), then the bridegroom will return for the bride and take His bride, His church, to the Father’s house. And even this coming of the bridegroom was often accompanied by a great announcement. And does that sound familiar? 1 Thess 4:16-18- “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” NASU

But God wasn’t done using the marriage analogy to teach us about our union with Christ because here is what we find God calling our great gathering in Heaven. Rev 19:5-9- “And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.’ Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'” NASU (And in the Marriage of the Lamb all of these steps of the Jewish wedding ceremony are included.)

One thing that’s also very important to point out to us, as the members of Christ’s church, the bride of Christ, is in connection with what we earlier spoke about, which was this: The great necessity in our salvation relationship now is to learn more and more how to think and act and serve within the reality of our union with Christ. For you will notice that the Apostle John specifically points this out. How so? Well, You see, not only are we clothed in the righteous robe of Christ which depicts Christ gift of salvation to us, but John points out that we are also wearing fine linen, which depicts our gifts of righteous acts of worship and service for Christ. The idea is kind of like this ‘tallit gadol’ or ‘prayer shawl’ that I brought back from Israel. There is the garment itself, but then it also has these tassels or ‘zitzit’, as they are called, attached to it. We could think of these tassels as our works of worship and service that we have done for the Lord. What we will want to wear to the marriage supper of the Lamb is both His righteous garment of salvation for us and our tassels or our thank offerings of our works of service for our Savior. These works are really our demonstrations of love for our Lord, who left his Father’s house to come for us, and to purchase our salvation, and then return to prepare a place for us, and is coming back to take us home for the celebration, the eternal celebration really, of being united to our Creator and Redeemer; a union that is like a Bridegroom and the Bride.

Sure, it’s a great mystery, our union with our Lord and Savior, but it’s becoming clearer and clearer to us all the time. Plus, it’s the foundation for our motivation to discover more and more about the union of marriage itself, and if married, to then live out the wonder of this union that God chose to symbolize His relationship with His people. And the key to it is our memory verse: 1 Cor 13:13- “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” NASU Practice this ‘greatest part’ of loving like Christ loves us, and the ‘faith’ and ‘hope’ parts will fall into place.

(Resources: Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc.; The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)

Powerful Prophecies, Pt. 2

Study Guide, February 5, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

On the northeast portico of the Jefferson Memorial are these words that where quoted this week by the President at the National Prayer Breakfast: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.” Here was a clear reminder that God does indeed judge nations. In fact, one of the reasons that God had His prophets record the rise and fall and judgments of nations in the Old Testament was so that the world would clearly understand that governments and nations are accountable to the God of Creation and that He does indeed judge nations in this world. We know that much of the judgment of individual people will be in eternity, but as for nations…well nations are judged in time…in this world.

But not only did God have His prophets record the judgment of many nations in the pages of the Bible, but He even chose to use some of these judgments for a double purpose. And that second purpose was to once again prove to the world that His words were absolute truth, because no one but God could foretell a judgment that was going to fall on a particular nation and then have it occur exactly as foretold. And one nation, and especially its capitol city, is a fascinating example of this. The nation was Phoenicia and the city was Tyre. Let’s explore.

Phoenicia was a narrow coast-land stretching along the NE Mediterranean. It is bordered on the east by the Lebanon Mountains and on the southeast by the hills of Galilee. It is famous in history for the great commercial cities of Tyre and Sidon and was a part of Canaan. At present it consists of the Republic of Lebanon and Syria. At one time David and then Solomon did trade with King Hiram of Tyre for obtaining beautiful cedar for building the Temple in Jerusalem.

But the Phoenicians were also known for their idolatry and immorality and their unconcern about the sanctity of the life of a child. Hmmm…kind of rings a bell, doesn’t it? Sounds a bit close to home. Thankfully, God is extending a season of mercy to our own nation. Certainly, God knows what we will do with it, but we are about to find out. But for the Phoenicians and the King of Tyre, their cup of sin was already full, and therefore the judgment.

But now here is where it goes from being a general judgment against a nation to a specific prophecy that moved this into that territory of ‘only God can do this’. Just before the conquering of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. Ezekiel is given this prophecy against Tyre. And not only does God have Ezekiel prophecy Tyre’s judgment, He even tells them what the conquering forces are going to do as they conquer it. Let’s take a look: Ezek 26:2-12- “Son of man, Tyre said this about Jerusalem: ‘The city that was the gateway for the nations is destroyed, and its doors are swung open to me. I’ll get rich now that it’s ruined.’ So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I am against you, Tyre. I will bring many nations against you as the waves on the sea rise. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down its towers. Then I will sweep up the dust and turn Tyre into a bare rock. It will become a place by the sea where people spread their fishing nets. I have spoken, declares the Almighty Lord. It will become a prize for the nations. The people in the villages and on the mainland will die in battle. Then they will know that I am the Lord. “This is what the Almighty Lord says: From the north I’m going to bring King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon against you, Tyre. He is the greatest king. He will bring horses, chariots, war horses, many people, and many troops. He will destroy the villages on your mainland. He will set up blockades, put up dirt ramps, and raise his shields against you. He will direct his battering rams against your walls, and he will cut down your towers with his axes. He will have so many horses that their dust will cover you. The noise from the war horses, wagon wheels, and chariots will shake your walls when he enters your gates. He will enter as people enter a conquered city. With his horses’ hoofs he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people in battle, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. His troops will loot your riches and take your goods as prizes. They will destroy your walls and tear down your delightful homes. They will throw your stones, wood, and soil into the water.” God’s Word Version

So what’s going on here? Another sin of Tyre was that as the attack by the Babylonians started against Jerusalem Tyre rejoiced over Judah’s destruction. Tyre dominated the trade by sea, but Jerusalem controlled the caravan routes. So Tyre greedily responded to Jerusalem’s fall believing more products would be shipped by sea and they would prosper even more. But Ezekiel used the image of a violent ocean -storm to picture God’s punishment. Like ocean waves, invading nations would pound against Tyre’s defenses, smashing her walls and towers. God added that He would scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock.

The prophecy even used an interesting wordplay describing Tyre’s fate. “Tyre” means ‘rock’ or a ‘hard pebble.’ God would turn this ‘rock’ of Tyre into a ‘bare rock’. No longer being the central city of commerce, she would become ‘a place to spread fishnets’. Fishermen generally spread out their nets to dry on barren rocks, to keep them from becoming tangled in trees or bushes. Tyre would be so decimated that the once-majestic city would be barren enough to use as a drying place for nets.

The chapter went on to explain how this destruction had a ripple effect on the regions around it and to all of Tyre’s trading partners. It’s kind of like if some financial catastrophe happened at the New York Stock Exchange, it would have this ripple effect of chaos and turmoil around the world. And if you think about it, even these examples are a bit of a preview of what God says is going to happen again in the end times with the fall of the world government that God calls the revived ‘Babylon’. But that’s another prophecy for another time. But this destruction went on here for thirteen years as Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Tyre and destroyed it…and this part of the prophecy came true at that time.

Now why do we say this part? Because Tyre was like a dual city. One section was on the mainland, which the Babylonians destroyed. But the other section was a nearby island, which was like an island fortress. This place had 150 foot walls and was kind of like the ancient Jericho, which held off attackers by its great protection. And since it was also surrounded by the sea, well, they felt pretty invincible. But you remember something about God’s Word…God’s Word always comes to pass. For the next 250 years those who lived in this walled fortress city, who did their commerce by the sea, thought they had withstood Nebuchadnezzar’s siege and also Ezekiel’s prophecy against them. But they were about to find out that ‘Yes, God’s word does indeed always comes to pass’. In 332 B.C. Alexander the Great called for this fortress city to submit to his rule. They refused, and their resistance and their arrogance over believing that no one could reach them to defeat them so angered Alexander that he had his armies tear up the land and dump stones, timber, and debris into the sea until they had build a causeway out to the island. He then came out and destroyed them.

God’s word may tarry, but it always comes to pass. It’s a lesson the world has had a hard time learning, being slow to hear and hard of heart. But it’s another reason God, in His mercy, has given the world thousands of prophecies throughout the Scriptures to prove to the world that God’s Word always comes to pass, so each person needs to realize this and come to repentance, before God’s judgment comes to pass on them just like it did with these kings and nations of the ancient world.

Speaking of kings, Ezekiel’s prophecy to the king of Tyre was especially powerful because God also used this prophecy to speak to the king behind this king. What do we mean? This whole prophecy against the king of Tyre is pretty lengthy in that it covers three entire chapters of Ezekiel. And the reason for that is because the pride and rebellious nature of the king of Tyre was particularly reflective of another ruler, actually the ruler who is behind all of the rulers of the earth who take their stand against God; and that ruler is Satan. Look at how God speaks to the king behind the king: Ezek 28:11-19- “Again the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; it has consumed you, And I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have become terrified and you will cease to be forever.”” NASU

So here we have a prophecy within a prophecy…and a condemnation of a king behind a king, or again, the king behind all kings who have ever lived who have been proud and rebellious against the Lord God. And how fascinating that as Ezekiel rebukes the King of Tyre of thinking of himself like he was a god when he was only a created human being, God rebukes Satan for thinking of himself like a god when he was only a created spirit being. Although I can imagine that when this earthly king of Tyre got this message he may have thought: “I don’t remember being in the garden of Eden. Are you talking to me or to someone else?” To which Ezekiel could have replied; “Yes. You see, I’m talking to you and to the ruler behind you. You don’t see him, but believe me, there is another king behind you and he’s been part of the reason you have been and are doing the evil that you do. So, yes, I am talking to him through you.”

This is what we are to understand about the ungodly rulers of the nations around the world. Whoever is ruling or whoever is their king, know this: Another king stands behind each ungodly king or ruler. Satan and his agents have been a strong and wicked influence on the rulers of this world ever since the fall of mankind. Now, of course, proud and unconverted rulers and kings are rebellious enough on their own, but we are to realize that the king behind these kings is pushing them into even further resistance against God and even into further wickedness as hard as he can. Remember, Satan is not called the ‘god’, little ‘g’, of this world for nothing!

But what a rebellion. Satan was in Eden, the garden of God. God had anointed him as a guardian cherub. The assembly of the Cherubs were angels who were the ‘inner circle’ with the closest access to God. And God had given him nine of the twelve gemstones that later on would make up the breastplate worn by Israel’s high priest. But his worship turned inward and his self-generated pride corrupted him and turned into full rebellion against his Creator. And so he was expelled from Heaven, or from his governing position in Heaven. Actually, Satan’s fall is happening in stages. He was cast out of the government of Heaven, but he still has access there, as we see from his accusation of Job and even now in his continual accusing of the brethren, which continues on into the Tribulation, as we see in Rev 12:10-” Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.” NASU

But in the Tribulation Satan will be cast from Heaven and then restricted to earth. And in the Millennium he is confined in the bottomless pit until a short release at the end of the Millennium. And of course then his final demise is that he will be cast into Gehenna Hell forever.

But again, how amazing is the way that God makes it so clear that both people and nations are accountable to the one Creator and Sovereign Lord of all. And one of the powerful ways He has revealed this to mankind is through His powerful prophecies that are spread throughout over a fourth of the Scriptures that He has given to mankind. God did this so that each person on earth may know that He is God and there is no other, declaring the end from the beginning.

(Some information gleaned from Bible Knowledge Commentary/Old Testament Copyright © 1983, 2000 Cook Communications Ministries; All rights reserved.)

Powerful Prophecies – Pt 1

Study Guide, January 29, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

We live in a very skeptical age, don’t we? Many have adopted the deception that permeates our society that absolute truth is something that is not only hard to know, but many believe it cannot be known. In fact, when it comes to beliefs about faith, the whole concept of truth is something that has become so distorted that a lot of people claim that there is such a thing as different truths for different faith groups. And in believing such an illogical premise as this they are then convinced that either there are different gods for different people groups or that all these different gods are actually just the same god with different paths in getting to him, or to it, or whatever they imagine this god to be. But one of the strangest things about it all is that somehow people seem to be okay with these ideas even though these different beliefs and different paths are filled with conflicting claims about crucial issues; like life and death and the afterlife and about who God is and what is required for a relationship with God and how a person receives forgiveness and on and on. And so what happens is that people just concede to this totally illogical claim that; well, there simply must be different truths for different people. But, again, if these so-called different truths are claiming conflicting things, then basic logic means that they cannot all be true after all, right?

Again, very strange. One thing we are to realize about human nature is that people generally look for evidence, logic, and proven history in order to evaluate any ‘truth claim’, except when it comes to ‘religious beliefs’. For when it comes to ‘religious beliefs’ human nature tends to default to just going with what ‘seems right’ to them, rather than what ‘is true’ for all people. The wisest man that ever lived warned all people about this very tendency in mankind when he said, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Prov 14:12 NASU

Now here’s the deception: Especially when it comes to religious beliefs, people tend to default to going with ‘what seems right’ to them. But the problem with that is that you cannot know ‘what is right’ until you know ‘what is true’. For example: In India, it seems right to many people to believe that the world is filled with millions of gods. In Thailand, it seems right to many people to believe that there are many spirits, but not actually a personal god. In Saudi Arabia, it seems right to many people that there is only one god, but this god completely rejects the divinity of the one known as Jesus from Nazareth. And in America, it seems right to many people to believe that no matter what you believe, if there is a god and if there is a heaven, you’ll probably be fine, as long as you’re not really, really, really bad…or as bad as somebody besides themselves, that is.

I remember R.C. Sproul once being asked about how he could talk about Jesus Christ as being the only way to heaven when the world was filled with so many other religions and so many other gods. And he said, “You mean, besides that fact that there are no other gods?” Important point, right? Again, regardless of what ‘seems right’ to a man, a person cannot know what is right until you know what is true. Or, until you know what is true you cannot know what is right. Now then, knowing this rebellious tendency in man against ‘truth’, God gave mankind a particular way to actually determine what is true for all people as opposed to just what seems right to so many.

In the book of Isaiah God stated a series of things about Himself and about what He alone could do to both reveal ‘truth’ and to prove ‘truth’. First, notice what He says about the claims by man about there being different gods in the world. Isa 45:5-6- “I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God…there is no one besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. “NASU Could God make it any more clear that there are no other so-called gods in this world? God plainly states that He is the only ‘God’ in existence. Yes, there are spirits, there are demons, and there is a real Satan, who manipulates and dominates the lives of the unconverted throughout the world, since he thinks of himself like a god, although he is just the leader of demons. But, and contrary to what conflicting world religions claim about their god or gods, the God of the Bible is the only ‘God’ there is.

But God wasn’t done talking about the issue of Himself as being the only God. He went on to say:

Isa 45:12- “It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands and I ordained all their host.” Isa 44:24-25- “I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone, causing the omens of boasters to fail, making fools out of diviners, causing wise men to draw back and turning their knowledge into foolishness…” NASU Here God not only reveals that is He the only God in existence, He then states that everything that now exists is because He created it with His own hands. And He then even gives name to any and all who would challenge His claim: He names them ‘Fools’! As in: “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”” Ps 14:1 NASU Or, ‘The fool has said in his heart, ‘There are many gods’. Or, ‘The fool has said in his heart, ‘There are many ways to God’. No, the God of creation who is the only God in existence, who then went on to even create a human body for Himself, thus becoming both God and man, Christ Jesus, and then said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jn 14:6 NASU There is one God…one Savior…and one way or pathway to having an eternal relationship with God. God made it very clear both Who He is and how one comes into a relationship with Him…through our one Savior, Jesus Christ.

But God then chose to do something else in particular so that by sound logic and proven history and clear evidence mankind could use to this to determine the truth about everything God was claiming about Himself and about salvation. Back to Isaiah…God put it like this: Isa 46:8-10- “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’.” NASU

God was telling the world that He was going to do something for mankind that only He as God could do that would prove to them that everything He said about Himself and this world and the world to come was absolutely true. He was going to declare things about the end from the beginning, or He was going to tell them things that were going to happen in the future, so that when they happened then people could clearly understand that only God could do that! Plus, it would also mean that not only whatever God said about anything that happened in the past was true, but also everything God said about what is going to happen in the future was also true. God purposefully injected prophecies into His revelations, or His Scriptures, for the purpose of mankind being able to know that, yes, not only is there such a thing as ‘absolute truth’, but these absolute truths can be found in the pages of God’s Scriptures, where God proved that His words were all true by declaring things about the end from the beginning, like only God can do.

In J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy it states that there are 1,239 prophecies found in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies found in the New Testament, for a total of 1,817. And these prophecies cover an expanse of 8,353 verses of the Bible. That means that about 26% of the Bible is prophetic. And so out of the over 31,000 verses found in the Bible it’s like God saying, ‘I’ll tell you what. Out of every four verses I’ll make one of them be a prophecy so that you can prove that My words are true.’

Now of course, God didn’t say it exactly like that, but pretty close. Why do you think God had His writers of Scripture spend so much time recording actual dates and times and place names and people’s names all throughout the Bible? Much of it was so that people could examine the evidence of the claims of the Bible and according to sound logic and reasoning and actual history, they could then prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that all these things were absolutely true. And since these things were absolutely true that God said would happen and then did happen, it means that everything else that God has said about the future is also absolutely true and is going to happen just as God said. And since God’s words are absolutely true, then there absolutely is such a things as ‘absolute truth’ to which all mankind is absolutely accountable.

But there’s the rub…the issue of ‘accountability’. That’s the part that many people do not like. They do not want to believe that they are accountable to One God about the One Truth that there is only One Way to have a relationship with God, and that is to repent and believe in the One Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, they may not want to be accountable, but they can no longer make any claim that not only is there not such a thing as absolute truth, but absolute truth cannot be known. God has not allowed mankind to make any such excuse since He has given mankind nearly 3,000 prophecies that reveal the existence of an absolute God and prove that there is such a thing as absolute truth.

So in the weeks to come we are going to looking into some of these powerful prophecies God has given us in the pages of His Scriptures. We just finished looking at some powerful passages in the Bible, so now we’ll look into some powerful prophecies. And since we have been in the book of Isaiah, we’ll wrap up today’s study with a look into one of these amazing prophecies that prove to all people that only God can reveal something like this.

Isaiah’s ministry covered the years of about 740 B.C. to about 700 B.C. Isaiah is best known for his prophecies about the coming Messiah, which we will cover, of course, but he prophesied about something else that was so stunning and so specific that it caused an unconverted king to do exactly as the prophecy instructed him to do.

Remember, Isaiah was written about 740 to 680 B.C. Isaiah prophesied about the coming judgments on both Israel and Judah. The Assyrians conquered Israel in 722 B.C. and the Babylonians conquered Judah in 586 B.C. But now here is where it really gets amazing. Over 150 years before it ever happens Isaiah prophesies that a Persian King would allow the captive Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple and city. But not only that, before this King is ever born Isaiah even gives the name of the King that will do this. Check it out: Isa 44:28-45:4- “He says to Cyrus, “You are My shepherd. You will do what I want. You will say to Jerusalem, ‘You will be rebuilt!’ You will tell the Temple, ‘Your foundations will be put in place!'” This is what the Lord said to Cyrus, His chosen king: “I took you by your right hand to help you defeat nations, to strip other kings of their power, and to open city gates that will not be closed again. I will go in front of you and make the mountains flat. I will break the city gates of bronze and cut the iron bars on the gates. I will give you the wealth that is stored in secret places. I will give you those hidden treasures. Then you will know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by name. I do this for My servant, Jacob. I do it for My chosen people, Israel. Cyrus, I am calling you by name. You don’t know Me, but I know you.” ERV

And don’t you love that part? “You don’t know Me, but I know you.” It’s believed that after the Persians defeated the Babylonians, that no doubt is was Daniel that took Cyrus this message from the writings of Isaiah. And after Daniel reads this 150 year old prophecy to Cyrus, can you imagine the spiritual…could we say, ‘heebie jeebies’ that Cyrus got from hearing this? God says, “You don’t know Me, Cyrus, but I know you. And you will do what I want.” And then God goes on to tell him. To which Cyrus is recorded as saying: “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Any of you who are the Lord ‘s people may go there for this task. And may the Lord your God be with you!” 2 Chron 36:23 NLT

Cyrus got right after it! When you read your name written in a document that is 150 years old telling you what you have been appointed to do, and signed by God…well, you do it! But part of our point here is that here is a prophecy that no human being could ever have devised. God did not leave any option open for people to say that the Scriptures are just the ideas and opinions of men. Here is a written work with the finger of God upon it. It is recorded in the annuals of history and it includes dates and times and the names of real people in real places, which declares to the world: “For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’.”

Prophecy is God’s proof to a skeptical world that He alone is God and that His words are absolute truth. And therefore, everyone on earth is absolutely accountable to Him because He alone, Christ alone, is the way, the truth, and the life.

Powerful Passages, Pt. 10

Study Guide, January 22, 2017

Pastor Clay Olsen

One of the most important purposes in our study times is not only to communicate Biblical information, but to prompt all of us to, as was said of Mary, to ‘ponder over all these things’…particularly in how these things are to change us more and more into what God has purposed for us. Dr. Howard Hendricks used to like to say: “The purpose of Biblical study is not changed minds, but changed lives.” If I am not changing in how I personally think, how I socially interact, and how I daily live, then I need to change my goals for living. I love how the Apostle Paul so often just ‘bottom-lined’ the issues of life, like in 2 Cor. 5:14-15 when he said: “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” NASU

If we are going to make real life changes as followers of Christ we have to start right here with choosing not ‘What’ we are living for, but ‘Who’ we are living for. And in order to ‘no longer live for ourselves, but live for Christ’, we have to accept the fact that when we received Christ into our lives we not only received the right to become children of God, but we also gave up the right to now be the one in charge of our life. For when Christ comes into a life, He comes in as who He is: He is Lord and Master. So to live wisely each day requires making a transfer of power each day over to the Lordship of Christ. That daily and purposeful transfer of power is to become the normal way that you and I live each day.

What this also means is that when we fail to transfer this daily right for Christ to be in charge of our life we should realize that the degree that we fail to do this is the degree that we are still living in direct resistance against the Lordship of Christ in our life. Plus, we should know that Christ’s Lordship is essential to Christ’s leadership in the daily things in our lives, like in everything from decision making to relationship building to making day to day plans. In other words, what is required in order to benefit from Christ’s leadership in our lives is that we daily commit to His Lordship over our lives.

So that’s the charge for each of us, and that is; to make sure we are daily turning control of our lives over to the Lordship of Christ, who alone has the right to be in charge of our lives. That’s the charge. Now, here’s the caution: As you daily surrender to the Lordship of Christ and look to Him for His leadership in your life, do not make the circumstances of your life either become the way you evaluate the love and care of God for your life nor the way you determine your faithfulness in life. Remember this: Never evaluate God’s love for you according to the circumstances of your life. Evaluate God’s love for you according to the Cross of Jesus Christ…who demonstrated once and for all how much He loves you. He gave everything, His very life, in order to have you with Him forever. And as for circumstances, circumstances can be helpful as secondary measurements in our walk with the Lord, but never make them the primary measurements as to your walk with the Lord. To take the next steps in discipleship you have step past circumstances controlling your life and choose to be controlled instead by the love of Christ; as in, Christ’s love for you and your love for Him.

What are we to do with circumstances? Part of the answer to that is to look at it like this: What are we to expect in this life as a result of committing our lives to live as faithful followers of the Lord Jesus? Let’s explore.

How would you fill in the rest of this? Life is…

Here are a few endings: ‘Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.’

‘Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once.’

‘Life is short…smile while you still have teeth.’

‘Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.’

‘Life is hard, unfair, confusing, and short…but mostly, life is a gift.’ Since life is a gift, why then do we expect so much?

One of the things we regularly need to change, or regularly adjust, is our expectations. Perhaps one of the greatest stumbling blocks in our understanding of the reality of life for a Christian in this world is this: Unrealistic expectations. And unrealistic expectations are often the result of misrepresenting or misunderstanding what God has promised His followers in this life. You are probably familiar with the words of a hymn that was written by Annie Johnson Flint. She lived in the late 1800’s. Her parents died when she was young. She was raised by a loving Aunt and Uncle and became a committed follower of Christ. One of the lessons she learned in connection with the life of faith was that she could not dictate to the Lord as to how He was to supply her needs. She struggled with severe arthritis, which interfered with her job as a Teacher. So she began writing poems and Sunday School lessons, and hymns. And one hymn in particular has been a great help for Christians through the ages for clearing the air on unrealistic expectations about the Christian life. You’ll recognize it: ‘God has not promised skies always blue, flower-strewn pathways all our lives through; God has not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain. God has not promised we shall not know toil and temptation, trouble and woe; He has not told us we shall not bear many a burden, many a care. God has not promised smooth roads and wide, swift, easy travel, needing no guide; never a mountain rocky and steep, never a river turbid and deep…But God has promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing kindness, and undying love.’¹

Are your expectations about this life realistic expectations or unrealistic expectations? Or, are you Biblically clear about what God has promised and what He hasn’t promised? This is a much more crucial issue in life than many Christians realize, because the only way to sustain a faithful and committed walk with Christ is to maintain the kind of faith that says like Daniel’s friends: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Dan 3:17-18 NASU

Their faith was fixed upon their commitment to God, not fastened to the circumstances of life. In other words, their faith could not be defeated by the circumstances of life because their faith was set upon a different foundation; the Person of God and the real promises of God. They didn’t have unrealistic expectations about this life, and as a result there was nothing in this life, nothing in the circumstances of this life, that could defeat them and their faith, nor diminish their faithfulness. Commitment to Christ means having the kind of faith that cannot be defeated by the circumstances of life.

In the seal of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society from 1814 there is an ox standing in the center. In front of the ox is a plow. Behind is an altar with smoke rising from it. Over this picture is a banner with the words, “Ready for Either.” Ready to be harnessed to the plow to serve, or ready to be offered up to God on that altar as a sacrifice.

Every Christian will come to a point in his or her walk with God when, if they are going to follow Christ closely and faithfully and not at a distance and compromisingly, they are going to have to be able to say before God and man: “I’m Ready for Either”; either to serve or to be sacrificed. Are you ready to say that? “I’m ready to serve behind the plow or I’m ready to be sacrificed in whatever circumstances I am in”.

Remember this: God owes us nothing. Our very birth life was a complete gift from God. And now our second birth into eternal life is another gift, an eternal life gift of salvation from God. God owes us nothing, but He has willed to give us so much. And He has even given us precious promises that He is going to do just that. But again, we must know what God has promised for this life and what He hasn’t promised in this life if we are going to live out our lives as faithful followers of our Savior and Lord.

In other words, we need to know what the possibilities are, and then we need to be ‘ready for either’. And in the chapter we refer to as the ‘Faith chapter’ with the ‘Heroes of Faith’, we find out just what those possibilities are. We looked at this passage a while back, but we need to look at it in connection with our focus today: Heb 11:32-38- “And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.” NASU

These are the experiences of the heroes of the faith. And notice carefully that both groups were faithful, yet both experienced very different circumstances in life. If those who experienced the sufferings and hardships had based their faithfulness to God upon how well things were going for them in their lives, they would not have been listed here in the ‘heroes of the faith’ chapter. If their faith life had been focused on personal fulfillment, they wouldn’t have been listed here among the faithful. But they are here because their faith was not focused on personal fulfillment, but upon personal commitment. They had stepped beyond making the circumstances of life be that which determined their faithfulness. And that’s the step we need to take as well. They had stepped up to connecting their faithfulness to: God’s eternal love for them and their eternal love for God, regardless of whatever temporary circumstances they were in.

And another reason their faith was not determined by their circumstances was because of the focus of their faith. They could detach themselves from their circumstances because their faith was attached to something better…a better country. Look at Heb 11:13-16- “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” NKJV

One of the elements of a vital Biblical faith is to carry this identity about yourself as being ‘a Pilgrim’ in this life, and carrying this sense of being ‘on pilgrimage’ through this life. And one of the things that Pilgrims expect when they are on pilgrimage is they expect hard circumstances along the way. What a blessing for sure when things go well on a pilgrimage, but the point is, when they don’t, those hard circumstances do not change why we are on pilgrimage nor where we are going.

What personal identity to you primarily carry in your life? How about; ‘a Pilgrim on pilgrimage’. If we Disciples of the Lord also started thinking of ourselves not only as Disciples of the Lord, but also as Pilgrims who are on pilgrimage through this world, through this country, who are headed to a ‘Better Country’; then we would think a lot more realistic about our purpose in life and about the hard circumstances of this life. And then, instead of expecting more and more blessings out of this life, we would seek to be more and more of a blessing to our Lord and Master and more and more of a blessing to others along the way, doing what we can for whoever we can for as long as can in our pilgrimage to our ‘Better Country’. And we would be able to say, maybe even sing: ‘God has not promised skies always blue, flower-strewn pathways all our lives through; God has not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain. But God has promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing kindness, undying love.’

And not only is that enough…that is all we need for living a life of faithfulness, committed to living under the control of the Lordship of Christ, regardless of whatever circumstances we have to face on our pilgrimage to the ‘Better Country’, our eternal home.

1. Rowland V. Bingham, Annie’s Story, Bible Memory Association International,
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The First Freedom:  Life

Message, January 15, 2017

Pastor Robert Kornegay

From the American Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Unalienable Rights vs Inalienable Rights

Powerful Passages, Pt. 9

Study Guide, January 8, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

I was thinking about how do you conclude a series on Powerful Passages from the Bible? You don’t really, because the Bible is filled with powerful passages that we will be learning more about for all eternity. And that’s another amazing thing about the Bible, the Word of God. Do you remember what the Apostle Peter said about the Word of God? The Amplified Version puts it like this: 1 Peter 1:24-25- “For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like [the] flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off, But the Word of the Lord (divine instruction, the Gospel) endures forever. And this Word is the good news which was preached to you.” So God’s Word…all God’s words endure forever. And since God is the only person in the world who is ‘omniscient’, or ‘all knowing’, that means we will be learning more about the wonders and the depths of the Scriptures for all eternity. So don’t feel bad when you come across passages in the Bible that you don’t feel you understand very well…it’s going to take some time. Fortunately, Peter also told us that we will be able to understand everything that we need to be saved by God and to then go on and live a life of godliness. 2 Peter 1:3-4- “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.” NLT

So we may not know everything we want to know now, but we can know everything we need to know now in order to live a godly life and become more and more the person God created us to be. And I do love that principle – that it’s never too late to become the person God created us to be. A New Year…a new commitment; here’s our recommendation: Make a new commitment this year to become more of the person God created you to be. And really, why would you want to become more of the person God didn’t create you to be anyhow? And when we put it that way, it shows how ridiculous and foolish that kind of thinking is, right? Who thinks, “With this New Year I’m going to make a new commitment to become more of the person that God didn’t create me to be.” Again, ridiculous!

And yet, that is exactly what so many people have done and are doing each day. How so? Well, think about it: By the way they choose to think and by the way they choose to live, day by day they are choosing to become more and more of the person that God didn’t create them to be. And thus, this points out an important point about human nature: Human nature naturally defaults to it’s faults. There is a bent in human nature, which even drags on after conversion to Christ and receiving a new nature, a bent in our nature that lingers, we could say, like a virus in the old nature, which is this: There is within the human nature a destructive drive to become more and more the person that God didn’t create human beings to be. And unless that drive is conquered by conversion and then constrained by commitment, it continues to be the driving force in a person’s life.

Plus, as we mentioned, it puts people in direct conflict with God. Even converted Christians can remain in conflict with God if they have not constrained this inner resistance by continually committing themselves to becoming the person God created them to be. Again, many people, some Christians included, are living their lives each day in direct conflict with God. And thus, this is a major reason why so many people are living conflicted lives. And this inner conflict is ruining their lives.

Think about it: You can’t be living in conflict with your Creator and not be conflicted. How strange that our culture pursues wellness and wholeness with a passion, while continuing to live in direct conflict with their Creator. If people spent half as much time pursuing wellness and wholeness in their spiritual lives as they do in their physical lives we would become a land of God fearing people who are seeking after the living God and finding Him. And in finding Him they would then find themselves, and find out more and more the person that God created them to be.

Now, here’s the interesting thing: I had no intention of talking about this today when I began writing this up. This is not the study I had started preparing to get into. We will get into that one. But again, this just shows how powerful the passages of God’s Word really are. If you let them get a grip on your mind and heart they will. And wow, what a grip!

And so here’s what we need to do. With this being the beginning of a new year, this is another opportunity to make a new commitment or to continue a commitment that you may have already made to this great quest that God has laid out for us in life; To become more of the person that God created you and me to be. The most important thing that you can accomplish in life is becoming as much of the person God created you to be as possible. This is priority number one in what God is seeking to accomplish in you and in me. Note it well: Rom 8:29- “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…” NASU And now look at it in the Amplified Version for even more clarity: Rom 8:29- “For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness]…”

Were you aware that this is the central thing that God is seeking to do in you: to mold you more and more into the image of His Son so that you will inwardly share Christ’s likeness? And in sharing Christ’s likeness then God will use you to carry out the purposes for which He created you. This is God’s highest ideal and purpose for you and for me. It’s been stated this way: ‘God loved His Son Jesus so much that He wants to make a whole world of people who are just like Him.’

Like with Jesus, God has special assignments and works for us to do, of course. But God’s highest purpose is focused not on what we are to do, but on who we are to be! God destined us, designed us, to be like Christ Jesus. In fact, in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which is believed to be his first letter, he stated what his highest goal or greatest labor was in the lives of other believers. It was this: Gal 4:19- “My little children, I am in pain again over you, like a mother giving birth. I will feel this pain until people can look at you and see Christ.” ERV That was Paul’s passion. That was what Paul labored toward in his service to his fellow believers, to help them in this God destined, this God designed purpose for their life, to become transformed more and more into the image and character of Christ, because before others can see Christ through us we have to let Christ become more and more formed in us.

Which takes us back to our premise: We can let go of our culture’s fixation on finding ourselves. No, the great quest of life is much bigger than that! Our God given quest and our foremost focus is to be on finding the person God created you and me to be. And that calls for our eyes to be fixed on Jesus, and not on ourselves. That’s the person God wants you to find and to more and more then become. And actually, in becoming more and more like Christ you then become more and more of that person that God created you to be, with His character working through your personality. And as a result you will discover that this is the very person you had always wanted to be all along, but didn’t know it.

Where do you start? Where do you look? Well, God gave us the exact blueprint to follow in order to help make us the person He created us to be. Now, don’t confuse the fact that God loves variety in things like our personalities. We are all very different in personality, different in likes and dislikes, different in preferences and appearances and so on…. And God loves all of these differences, and so should we. But there is something in which we are to reflect in the midst of all of our different personalities and such, and that one thing is this: The Image of Christ. In the midst of countless personalities in this world of ours, there is to be one character to which we are formed, or into which we are transformed, and that is the character of Christ. Think about it: Christ-likeness is what will one day characterize the people of God in the Kingdom of God. Therefore, it is Christ-likeness that is to characterize the people of God in this world, helping point others to Christ in preparation for God’s Kingdom.

We did an entire series on the character qualities of Christ so we won’t go into each of those as word studies again. But the point we are making here is that we each need to make a point of carefully and continually following this God-given blueprint, for this is God’s pattern we are to follow for becoming in character the person God created you and me to be. Here it is: 2 Peter 1:5-10- “Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.” NASU

As the Apostle Peter revealed here, these are the seven character qualities that render our lives as either useful or not useful, or as either fruitful or not fruitful. And again, what believer sets out to live a life that is not useful nor fruitful to God? We don’t consciously think that way, but that’s the way it is unless we do consciously commit to become more and more the person God created us to be. And so in essence, these seven character qualities are what God determines to measure the true success of your life. Consider it carefully: What determines the measure of your success in life is the measure that you became the person that God created you to be. Even the works that God created you to do are evaluated in terms of ‘who’ God created you to be, as measured by these seven character qualities of Christ. Again, these character qualities exhibited in and through the works and service of your life are what determine your usefulness and fruitfulness in the Kingdom work of Christ.

We often focus so much on asking is this thing right or is this thing wrong…is this thing okay to do or is this thing not okay to do…and on and on? And in doing so, we just kind of default to the Pharisee habit of focusing on what’s externally permitted according to the rules of their religion instead of focusing on what’s most internally profitable in order to deepen our relationship with our God, and then also with others. No, in order to deepen our relationship with our God, as well as others, we need to be asking a different set of questions. We need to ask questions that are foremost in relation not to what this or that will do for our fulfillment in life, but in relation to what this or that will do for our faithfulness in life. Or, rather than thinking so much in terms of what you and I can or can’t do, we ought to be thinking more in terms of what this or that will contribute to our quest; our quest of becoming more and more conformed to the image and character of Christ. Will whatever it is that you are thinking or doing cause your character to increase in Moral Excellence? Will it help you grow in Biblical Knowledge? Will it strengthen your Self-control? Will it deepen your Perseverance? Will it further develop Godliness in you? Will it display Brotherly Kindness to others? Will it demonstrate Scriptural Love to those around you? Remember, our personal fulfillment in life is to be superseded by our personal faithfulness to God. Whatever we hope or want out of life is to be superseded by who we are to become and who we are becoming for the sake of Christ in our life, Who gave His life for us, and to whom we now owe our very life.

So how about we think of it like this: We have a New Year before us. Okay, and as followers of Christ we plan to make it our goal to do just that: follow Christ. But now, unless we make our highest goal in following Christ to first become more like Christ, then we are rather just ‘spinning our spiritual wheels’, aren’t we? Because, remember, what makes our Christian service and works count for Christ is if our service and works are Christ-like. And in order for our service and works to be Christ-like, you and I have to be…’becoming more and more like Christ’. And Christ-likeness is the image into which God is working to transform us more and more. Or, the person God that created you and me to be is this person who is more and more like Christ in whatever it is that we do and whatever it is that we say. For remember: Who you are is even more important than what you do, because what you do, and even how you do it, is determined by who you are. And how you do something is often more important that what you do.

So what if we were to spend each day this new year seeking to become more and more the person God created us to be? What would happen is that others would then see more and more of Jesus in you and in me. And more of Jesus in you and me is really the person this world needs to see. So there’s the key to becoming the person God created you to be. The person God created you to be is a person who thinks and acts a lot like Jesus. Again, the design is this: Christ’s character working through your personality. Let’s go for more of that this year.

Looking Back – Looking Ahead

January 1, 2017
Devotional Communion Service

Pastor Clay Olsen

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Sunday, Christmas Day, Dec 25th, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

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Christmas: Christ and You

Study Guide, December 4, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

We are in the season where we know the reason that there is this season is because of Jesus, as in – ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’. Right? Even the songs we sing are celebrations of Jesus coming to our world, like: ‘Joy to the world! The Lord is come; Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room…’ This is the season when we rejoice over the greatest gift the world has ever known and could ever know.

I love the way that great verse of John 3:16 has been described:

John 3:16

GOD — The Greatest Lover
SO LOVED — The Greatest Degree
THE WORLD — The Greatest Company
THAT HE GAVE — The Greatest Act
HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON — The Greatest Gift
THAT WHOSOEVER — The Greatest Opportunity
BELIEVETH — The Greatest Simplicity
IN HIM — The Greatest Attraction
SHOULD NOT PERISH — The Greatest Promise
BUT — The Greatest Difference
HAVE — The Greatest Certainty
EVERLASTING LIFE. — The Greatest Possession

As God’s people, as born again children of God, we have every reason to spend the rest of our lives celebrating our greatest gift of Jesus Himself and rejoicing in this greatest love we can ever know. And actually, in Christmas messages, we often focus on our responsibilities now, as those who have received God’s gift of salvation through our Savior, to live our lives as a thank offering to God. We emphasize our purpose for living as followers of the One who came to die for us so that we could live with Him. We dwell on what it means to us that the King of kings and Lord of lords would would become the Servant of all so that He could become the Savior for any who would receive Him as their Lord and Savior.

And yet, there is something else that is very amazing. In fact, it is so amazing that if we were to spend a similar amount of time thinking about it as we do on thinking about what it means to us that Jesus came for us it would cause us to wonder even greater still as we wander through this season and this world. It might even sound a little strange at first until you really think it through. It’s this: Yes, Jesus is the reason for the season, but so are you…because Christmas is really about Christ and you. You are the reason that there is such a season, because God so loved the world, loved you, that He gave His Son for you.

Have you ever thought much about what Christmas means to Jesus, what Christmas is all about to Jesus? Not the holiday itself, or the time of year when we think it all might have taken place, but the whole event itself, of what caused Jesus to do what He did in order to accomplish what He planned to do and why. Actually, thoughts about what Christmas means to Jesus are embedded throughout the Christmas Carols that we sing. Like in ‘Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne’ the first verse says, ‘Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown when Thou camest to earth for me; but in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room for Thy holy nativity.’

This song points to the wonder that the King of Heaven and Lord of all the hosts of Heaven would go to all the trouble and humility to take on humanity, even being shuffled off to a lowly manger instead of a palace for His arrival on a planet that He created Himself. But, you see, ‘where’ He was born didn’t matter as much as ‘why’ He was born. And ‘why’ He was born, why He left His throne and kingly crown, was to come to the earth for …who? ‘Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown when Thou camest to earth for me’…for you and for me. To Jesus, the reason for Christmas is you and me. To Jesus, the reason for this season is you. It’s a statement to the Universe of Jesus’ love for you.

Another Christmas Carol celebrates the reason Jesus came like this: ‘Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice; Now ye need not fear the grave: Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save! Calls you one and calls you all To gain His everlasting hall: Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!’

You save what you value and what has great worth to you. Think about this: We tend to underestimate the magnitude of our worth and of just how much we mean to to God. And as such, we tend to overlook what God intended us to see by His coming for you and for me. And that is, we tend to overlook what God wants us to see when He looks at you and at me. This Christmas, when you look up into the stars to wonder over this greatest gift of Jesus, and what it all means to you, remember that Jesus is looking down at you and thinking about what it all means to Him; what you mean to Him. Central in the key to spiritual health and even mental well being is to see ourselves as God sees us, because who and what we are in God’s sight is the truth about who we really are and what we mean to Him.

Think about it this way: Yes, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…or… the Father loved the world so much that He gave His Son to the world, to you and me. And then in return the Son then gives to the Father all those of the world that received the Son. The Father gave the Son to us, and the Son then gives us to the Father. Now, yes, the Apostle John reveals that the Father gave us to the Son as well. But we could think of that in terms of like ‘raw materials’, and just look what Jesus made of us to give back to the Father after He saved us.

Remember that this ‘greatest love’ of John 3:16 was about you, about God’s love for you. John 3:16 is not just about God’s love for the human race, it’s about God’s race to save each human that He loved, like you. The reason for all that Jesus went through was because of you. Hebrews tells us that the reason Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame was because of the joy of redeeming you and me. The reason that John 3:16 says that God so loved ‘the world’ is because there’s not enough room there to list each person’s name that He came to save. But that’s what it means. ‘For God so loved’…and then put your name there. That’s what John 3:16 means to God. He sees your name there. And so should you, because that’s what Christmas is all about: Christ and you.

In the song ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ it points out this very thing. It says, ‘Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, Ris’n with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.’

To Jesus, Christmas was a rescue mission. The ones He loved were now held captive to sin and death. The only way to get them back, the only way to bring them back, back to life again, was to go to Earth Himself and become one of them so that He could die for all of them and then give new life to any of them who would receive His light and life, receive Him into their life, and thus become born again. In fact, The First Noel reminds us, ‘Then let us all with one accord sing praises to our heavn’ly Lord, That hath made heav’n and earth of naught, And with His blood mankind hath bought.’ It cost Jesus everything He had to purchase our salvation. He bought us with His own sinless blood. And yes, we know that’s how much it took to redeem us from our sin. But don’t miss the fact that it is also how much we meant to Him. Jesus gave everything He had in order to have us.

We often think of the wonderful gifts the Wise Men brought to Jesus, of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We associate Christmas with gifts. Well, what was Jesus gift to the Father? Eph 5:25-27- “…just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” NASU Now, This gift of the church to Himself is also to the Father of course. But the point is that the gift that Jesus is presenting is ‘You’. You are the present that Jesus bought…bought with His own blood. And you are the Christmas present Jesus gave to His Father God. Why, we even come as a present that is ‘wrapped’ for God. Isa 61:10- “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness…” NASU You can’t get any better wrapping paper than that!

They say that ‘imitation’ is the greatest form of flattery. Well, ‘incarnation’ is the greatest form of love. It’s not a ‘Carol’ we sing very much, but it’s called ‘O Hearken Ye’. And it says, ‘O hearken ye who long for love, And turn your hearts to God above…The angel’s song the wonder tells; Now Love Incarnate with us dwells.’ That God would become one of us…would take on human flesh, in order to save our souls is a love that cannot be described. Or as the Apostle Paul put it, 2 Cor 9:15- “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” NASU

That God loved us that much to become one of us and to then give His life for us is certainly an indescribable gift. Even the Psalmist revealed that this love that God has for us is beyond measurement. He had to put it this way: Ps 103:11- “His love for His followers is as high above us as heaven is above the earth.” ERV These are things that God wants us to know about the way He thinks and feels about us.

But the wonder doesn’t stop there. For Jesus not only became one of us, remember, the reason He became one of us to become one with us; united in spirit and life and love. Perhaps one of the most astounding things the Disciples ever heard Jesus say was in a prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17. And when you begin to grasp what Jesus revealed here you should never have any problem ever again with not feeling loved or ever again have a question of your self-worth. Listen to what Jesus said: John 17:22-23- “I have given them the glory You gave Me, so they may be one as We are one. I am in them and You are in Me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that You sent Me and that You love them as much as You love Me.” NLT

How can that possibly be that Jesus could say of us to the Father: “You love them as much as You love Me!”? Without interfering with the unique of love of the Godhead, still, this revelation was meant to explain to us why Jesus was doing everything He was doing for His disciples and for us. It was because the Father loved them and loved us as much as He loved His Son. Feeling special yet? And this explains why God is patient with us; why He is kind to us; why He doesn’t keep a record of our wrongs; why He never gives up on us; and why He endures all things and keeps working all things together for our good. It is because Our Father in Heaven loves us as much as He loved His Son on earth. Jesus said so.

And so that brings us back to the wonder of Christmas. When we think of Christmas we think of Jesus, for He is truly the reason for the season. But we are to also know that when Jesus thinks about Christmas, He thinks of us, for we are the reason that He came. And not just because we had become lost in sin, but because He wanted us back again. He loved us that much. And He loves us now, His sons and daughters, as much as the Father loves the Son. That’s what Christmas is about: it’s about Christ and you – He came for you so that He could have you with Him, forever, because that’s how much He loves you.

The Son is the greatest gift of God to us…yet in some wondrous way, you are Jesus’ greatest gift to God. It’s hard to imagine how this could be so, but how wonderful and how inspiring to know that it is so.

Promoting Thanksgiving

Study Guide, November 27, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

Since we just enjoyed Thanksgiving let’s linger a bit longer on it and give it it’s proper due. Family gatherings and special meals are a significant focus of the Thanksgiving holiday, but one other great thing about Thanksgiving is that it is intended to promote the habit of giving thanks all year through. So what we need to focus on today is just that; promoting thanksgiving – not just the holiday, but promoting the practice of thanksgiving itself. And yes, there is a way to promote this habit in our life. And we see it from the pattern that the Apostle Paul practiced. For, you see, Paul not only developed this great habit of practicing thanksgiving toward the Lord, he even developed this great habit in promoting a thankful habit toward others, and about others. How so? Well, let’s look.

Take Epaphroditus, for example. Who was Epaphroditus? Epaphroditus was a messenger of the church of Philippi to the apostle Paul during his imprisonment at Rome and was entrusted with their contributions for his support. Paul seems to have held him in high appreciation, calling him his “brother,” “fellow worker,” and “fellow soldier.” On his return to Philippi he carried the ‘epistle of Philippians’ to the church there. But while in Rome Epaphroditus came down with a dangerous illness while ministering to Paul and others. In fact, this will tell you about the kind of guy Epaphroditus was.

Remember, he is seriously ill, but listen to what he is concerned about. Phil 2:25-30- “For now, I think I must send Epaphroditus back to you. He is my brother in God’s family, who works and serves with me in the Lord’s army. When I needed help, you sent him to me, but now he wants very much to see all of you again. He is worried because you heard that he was sick. He was sick and near death. But God helped him and me too, so that I would not have even more grief. So I want very much to send him to you. When you see him, you can be happy. And I can stop worrying about you. Welcome him in the Lord with much joy. Give honor to people like Epaphroditus. He should be honored because he almost died for the work of Christ. He put his life in danger so that he could help me. This was help that you could not give me.” ERV

What was Epaphroditus concerned about? He didn’t want to make any of his fellow Philippian brothers and sisters sad by learning about how sick he was. What? Wow! Talk about a super servant! Now, of course he was all in for others praying for him and such, but this just speaks volumes about his servant-hearted attitude. What distressed Epaphroditus was when others became distressed about him. Pretty amazing. But the point is this: We are told that Paul held Epaphroditus in high appreciation. And that’s the first part of our formula for promoting the habit of thanksgiving: Appreciation.

Let’s look at another brother from a different Mother and we’ll see the next part of the formula. This brother has a similar name to Ephaphroditus. His name is simply ‘Epapras’. And some have thought Epaphras and Epaphoditus were the same guy. I could see how that could happen, right? But Epaphras was connected to another city; the city of Colossae, which was in Asian Minor, while Philippi was in Ancient Europe. And here Epaphras was an eminent teacher in the Colossian church. And Paul had a lot to say about Epahras, too, like calling him a ‘dear fellow servant, who is building up the Colossian Christians’; and ‘a faithful minister of Christ’, implying that Epaphras was the founder of the Colossian church. In Philemon 23, Paul calls him “my fellow prisoner”, who was taken captive like Paul for his zealous labors in Asia Minor. Epahras had been sent by the Colossians to inquire after and minister to Paul.

And then in Col 4:12 Paul commends him this way: Col 4:12-14- “Epaphras, another servant of Jesus Christ from your group, sends his greetings. He constantly struggles for you in prayer. He prays that you will grow to be spiritually mature and have everything that God wants for you. I know that he has worked hard for you and the people in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. Greetings also from Demas and our dear friend Luke, the doctor.” NASU

So here we find the other part of the formula for promoting the kind of thanksgiving that the Apostle Paul practiced. And that is: Commendation. Paul was constantly commending others to others about all of the things he appreciated about them in their service and works and helps and character qualities and on and on. Plus, by focusing on the practice of commending others it defeats the critical spirit that lurks within our old sin nature. You know, that attitude that just spills out when somebody bumps your cup. Or just that antagonistic spirit that seeps up to the surface and we criticize this person and that person and we grumble and gripe about this, that, and the other thing. How do you defeat that old vile critical spirit of our sin nature? By practicing ‘commendation’!

So here’s the formula for promoting the habit of thanksgiving; and again, thanksgiving towards God and thanksgiving towards others. Here it is: ‘Appreciation plus Commendation promotes Thanksgiving.’

But one point about that is this:This wonderful habit of thanksgiving is not one that is developed in isolation. And that’s why the practice of thanksgiving often breaks down. Thanksgiving is something that develops in connection with developing other great habits, like practicing the habit of appreciating the services and good works and sacrifices of others, along with practicing the habit of then commending them and these good things to others. Think about it: Nearly the entire final chapter of Romans is filled with Paul naming significant believers and commending them for their significant works. Take a read with me here: Rom 16:1-7- “I want you to know that you can trust our sister in Christ, Phoebe. She is a special servant of the church in Cenchrea. I ask you to accept her in the Lord. Accept her the way God’s people should. Help her with anything she needs from you. She has helped me very much, and she has helped many others too. Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, who have worked together with me for Christ Jesus. They risked their own lives to save mine. I am thankful to them, and all the non-Jewish churches are thankful to them. Also, give greetings to the church that meets in their house. Give greetings to my dear friend Epaenetus. He was the first person to follow Christ in Asia. Greetings also to Mary. She worked very hard for you. And greet Andronicus and Junia. They are my relatives, and they were in prison with me. They were followers of Christ before I was. And they are some of the most important of the ones Christ sent out to do His work.” ERV

And Paul goes on naming and commending others. And did you catch what Paul said in the midst of his words of appreciation and commendation about them? “I am thankful to them, and all the non-Jewish churches are thankful to them.” You see, His thankful spirit and his thanksgiving habit was promoted by his deep appreciation for others and his generous commendation about others.

Again, ‘appreciation plus commendation promotes thanksgiving. Plus, when you express your appreciation of others and practice commending others to them and commending them to others, you know what happens? It sets things in motion in their own lives that become blessings that they become thankful for and blessings that others are thankful for. Really, Do not underestimate the power of public appreciation and the power of public commendation. Paul practiced this over and over with others, as you can see in the readings of the New Testament. And whenever he did that it created a powerful blessing in their lives, which then set good things in motion in and through their lives.

Take Timothy for example: Listen to what Paul tells the Philippians about him.

Phil 2:19-24- “But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me; and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly.” NASU

Now, you are probably struck by what Paul said there in the middle part, but first note that by Paul calling Timothy a ‘kindred spirit’ and commending him for his ‘proven worth’ and his passion for furthering the gospel, Paul not only greatly encouraged Timothy, but he planted this sense of esteem toward Timothy in these Philippian believers as well. Particularly when he reveals that it was Timothy that stepped up to offer himself in serving them any way he could when others were simply caught up in their own interests. So imagine the reception Timothy got when arrived after this commendation to them about Timothy. Imagine how thankful they were for Timothy after learning how much Paul appreciated Timothy’s commitment and then hearing how much Paul commended Timothy’s character.

One other ‘by the way’ here: Isn’t that a strange, but sad commentary, that here, even in the early church, the Apostle Paul was frustrated by how many around him were, as he put it, ‘not all that concerned for the welfare of others, but were just seeking after their interests ahead of those of Jesus’ interests’? I guess times change, but human nature pretty much stays the same. That’s why we have to develop and promote other habits in our lives, like appreciating others and commending others and being thankful for others…for otherwise, our human nature just reverts to focusing on self service rather than serving others.

And now we can see how these all come together by looking at an amazing thing Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. Check it out: 1 Thess 1:1-3- “Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father…” NASU

Here the appreciation of Paul and Silvanus and Timothy toward these Thessalonian believers promotes these words of public commendation of them, which then promotes these expressions of thanksgiving in such a way that for over 2,000 years now, millions of others have learned about the great reputation of these Thessalonian believer’s works of faith and their labor of love and their steadfastness of hope. These believers had lifted others up through these works of theirs, so Paul made sure that he and his friends lifted them up by publicly appreciating and commending and thanking them. And these seeds of appreciation and commendation and thanksgiving grew into blessings for these Thessalonian believers and it also inspired them to continue in their works of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope.

Oswald Chambers once said that we are often not aware of how much of a blessing we are to others. So others need to say it. We need to let others know. Like Paul, we are to develop this habit of publicly appreciating others and commending others because those who are worthy of appreciation and commendation are also the very ones who are not seeking it for themselves. No, honorable people like this are not focused on seeking to build themselves up. They are looking to build up others, to edify others around them. But somebody needs to be building them up. That’s how it’s supposed to work. So that’s why you and I are to build them up, as well. It’s like a circle of edification really. And when we do that for others it encourages them to continue their works of faith and their labors of love and their steadfastness of hope. Plus, it promotes this habit of thanksgiving in us and in others.

One other ‘by the way’ as we wrap this up. Did you notice another pattern here in 1 Thessalonians? (Faith, love, and hope…or as it’s usually put: faith, hope, and love) Paul gave us a pattern that can help us identify things that we appreciate about others, things we can commend in others, and things that we can express our thanks for in others. Just identify some things you see in others about their works of faith, about their labors of love, and about their steadfastness of hope. Look for examples of these things in others and then express your appreciation and your commendation and your thanksgiving about it all. And by doing so it will not only promote this overall habit of giving thanks to God and others in your own life, but it will bless others richly and change you greatly.

Powerful Passages, Pt. 8

Study Guide, November 13, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

Isn’t it just like our Triune God to create a world filled with trinities? Like what for instance? Like Time: Time is past, present, and future; and of course the Egg: An Egg is shell and egg white and yolk; and like Water: Water is solid, liquid, and gas; and the Sun: The Sun is made up of mass, light, and heat. And even in mathematics you have 1x1x1 equals 1. And how about Space: Space is height, and width, and depth. Or we could even say; height is space, width is space, and depth is space.¹

And then we even have ourselves. The Apostle Paul identifies a Christian as ‘spirit, soul, and body’.

1 Thess. 5:23- “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” NASU

And it’s right here that it gets really amazing, because even the ‘soul’ is a triune entity, or even the soul is made up of three parts: mind, will, and emotion. And Christians and non-Christians alike have a soul. But when it comes to the spirit, something is different between them, of course, for the Christian is one whose spirit has been raised from the dead to new life in union with Christ’s Spirit, whereas, the non-Christian is one whose spirit is still dead in trespasses and sin. And for Christians, this new spirit, or newly alive spirit, is now intended to oversee the soul, or is to act like a New Manager, overseeing the workings of the mind, will, and emotions. And the Apostle Paul calls this new spirit, the ‘New Man’, and he calls the old spirit that still resides in us, the ‘old man’. But how about for purposes of our study today, we call them the ‘New Manager’ and the ‘old manager’. And the reason we are calling them that is to help us to really get a grasp of what our responsibilities are now in how we are to handle these three parts that make up our soul; our mind, our will, and our emotions. For Christians, these things are supposed to be under new Management. Yes, they are now under new Ownership; under the Ownership of God, but God has assigned us, as His stewards or managers, to be the New Managers of our mind, will, and emotions.

How about if we go to one very powerful passage and look at these managerial responsibilities that God has given to us? Eph 4:22-24- “…in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” NASU

One interesting thing about the construction of this passage is that this counsel here is not given to us in terms of imperatives or instructions or commands, but more in terms of assumptions or expectations. God expects that we now realize that this is simply what Christians do. It’s like that Geico commercial, “It’s what you do”, right? It’s like Paul saying, “In light of the fact that you now belong to God, you aren’t under the management of your old corrupted nature, but you are now under the management of your new nature, right?” And the only right answer is: “Right”!

But the expectation is the same. It’s like when God created Adam and Eve. His intention was that they would now act as godly stewards or as godly managers over all of God’s creation. Instead we know that they acted in ungodliness and disobedience at first and thus sin corrupted their natures, as well as their world. They, too, had to be redeemed so that they could again go about managing the rest of their lives and their world according to God’s instructions.

When God redeemed and then resurrected our dead spirit to new life, He intended that we also now use the rest of our life to manage our lives according to His instructions. But that meant that first we were going to have to take back dominion over ourselves, or over our soul; or over our mind, will, and emotions. Our mind, and will, and emotions are no longer to be under the influence and management of our old corrupt nature, or our old self, but are now to be under the influence and management of our new nature, or our new self. A Christian is one that has a New Manager in the house, or in his or her life. And that Manager is the new spirit, the new spiritual nature, the new man or new woman; the new self. We are under New Ownership and therefore we are to live under New Management. And God has assigned us to be the New Manager over our mind, will, and emotions. And hopefully, this concept of the ‘New Manager’ will help you to better understand this intention that God that has for you and for me to now take dominion or to take charge over our soul; our mind, will, and emotions. Okay…how so? Let’s break it down.

First, we could start by calling the ‘new self’ the ‘New Manager’ since we understand that a manager’s duty is to see that things are done in a certain way, and that way is the way that the Owner has prescribed. Remember, before Christ came into our lives, we did things the way that we thought they ought to be done. That was ‘old manager’ thinking. Again, there’s a ‘New Manager’ in town, or in your life and my life. It’s the new spirit that God has placed within us.

Okay…back to the ‘New Manager’. We are to act as the New Manager over these three aspects of our lives or of our soul; our mind, our will, and our emotions. And the way we do that is through; practicing discernment in our thinking, practicing direction in our will, and practicing discipline in our emotions. And that last part, of practicing discipline in our emotions, is one that is not given very much attention, right? So we’ll start with that one.

We are to manage our emotions by practicing discipline in our emotions. Now, our emotions have been given to us by God. God is an emotional being, and He created us in His image, as emotional beings. So we know that God wants us to enjoy this gift of emotions. But we are also to remember that our emotions, like our minds, are still influenced greatly by the fall of mankind into sin. And therefore, one thing we are to realize about our emotions is that our emotions don’t determine truth. In fact, sometimes our emotions can be completely false, and based upon false assumptions about people or things or events. Our emotions can deceive us and distort reality. One study found that for some people, losing their cell phone creates an emotional attack similar to a near death experience. Really?

Emotions are powerful and they are real in themselves, but they are not always connected to reality itself. And that’s the problem. However, in managing our emotions by practicing discipline in them we are to connect them to realistic things, and to such things that God knew would produce holy emotions…happy emotions. That’s one of the reasons He taught us the Beatitudes, or the ‘Here’s How to Be Happy’ attitudes and actions. Remember them? Matt 5:3-9- “Happy are the poor in spirit: for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. (Speaking about being humble here) Happy are those who are sad: for they will be comforted. (Speaking about burdened over things God is burdened about) Happy are the gentle: for the earth will be their heritage. (Speaking about having emotional strength under the control of kindness) Happy are those whose heart’s desire is for righteousness: for they will have their desire. (Speaking of having a heart for the things that God has a heart for) Happy are those who have mercy: for they will be given mercy. (Speaking of having compassion towards others instead of a critical spirit) Happy are the clean in heart: for they will see God. (Speaking of pursuing godly moral habits) Happy are the peacemakers: for they will be named sons of God.” BBE (Speaking of seeking peace for others in their relationship with God and seeking peace above conflict in our relationship with others) So, in other words, right actions can create right emotions, happy emotions, when we practice discipline. So remember, even though all feelings are real, they may not be realistic or accurate or true or trustworthy. And that’s why we need to evaluate our emotions based upon something that is realistic and accurate and trustworthy, which is ‘Truth’.

And that takes us to managing our mind by practicing discernment in our thinking. ‘Discernment’ is a great word and concept. Discernment is the ability to understand and judge wisely and objectively. It’s related to that surprising instruction that Jesus gave us, that somehow, a lot of people seem to have no idea that Jesus ever said such a thing. We talked about it recently, but it’s from John 7:24. And we’d better go to the Amplified Version on this so that we can really get it precise. “Be honest in your judgment and do not decide at a glance (superficially and by appearances); but judge fairly and righteously.” AMP

How remarkable that God calls us to judge all things, but not to be judgmental about it. How do we do that? That’s where the New Manager comes into play and chooses to judge or evaluate the situation not through the lenses of his or her own personal reasoning or opinions, but through the lenses of God’s revelation and judgments. This is where we stop judging people or things based upon personal likes or dislikes or personal preferences and standards and such, and instead we evaluate people or things based upon God’s standards and principles for all of us. And so you see, that judgment starts with ourselves and then moves outward from ourselves to others. And then we pray about it and seek to be a help to others with the truths of God’s Word about us all.

That’s one of the beautiful things about God’s standards, about ‘Truth’ itself. Truth is never about an ‘us verses them’ mentality. ‘Truth’ is always about an ‘all of us verses sin’ mentality. Remember, sin is the thing that ruined the whole world. So the whole world should be working to root out as much sin as we can from our world. God wants us all to win over sin; to win over sin in our thinking and over sin in our actions and over sin in our emotions. And mark in down: Sin is anything that is contrary to the character and will of God. So to practice discernment in our thinking we have to evaluate if this thought or action or emotion is in keeping with the character and will or God or if it is in conflict with the character and will of God. As the New Manager of the new life we have in Christ we are expected to choose to think and act according to that which is in keeping with the character and will of God. Or, we are expected to seek to ‘win over sin’, because there is never any win in sin. Every sin is a loss of something; a loss to our mind, a loss to our will, a loss to our emotions…a loss to our soul.

And speaking of the will, each of us New Managers are to be practicing directing our will to be in harmony with God’s will. In fact, the best motto of any of us New Managers of our lives is, of course, Jesus’ motto (if we could call it a ‘motto’ for now): “Father, not My will, but Thy will be done.” You see the direction of the will here? It’s not downward toward our own will, nor is it outward toward the will of others around us; it’s upward toward the God over us. It’s like that great statement from Dr. Warren Wiersbe: “If you look to yourself you’ll be discouraged; if you look to others you’ll be distracted; but if you look to Christ you’ll be delighted.”

The ‘will’ in each of us is the ‘choosing’ part of us. The Bible calls us to ‘choose’ upward to God’s will and God’s ways over 140 times, in some versions. We are to choose whom we will serve; we are choose what is important over what is simply wanted; we are to choose wisely over choosing foolishly; we are to choose the blessing instead of the curse, and on and on. Every day, as managers of our mind, will, and emotions we are making choices about numerous things. And the first thing we have to make a choice about is which manager will make the choice: the New Manager or the old manager, or the new self or the old self, or the new nature in us that is united to the nature of God or the old nature still residing is us that is still under the corruption of sin?

Remember our passage…the Apostle Paul, writing by the direction of God the Holy Spirit, just assumed, just expected us to now be choosing to think, act, and feel by the direction of the new man, the New Manager. He expected us to be putting off the old man, the old manager, and then choosing to practice discernment in our thinking, choosing to practice direction in our will, and choosing to practice discipline in our emotions; to simply practice: “Father, not my will, but Thy will be done” as a daily way that we think and act and feel about all of the things in our lives.

Think like the New Manager over your soul, over your self, and watch the change it makes in how you think, and how you act, and how you feel about the things of this world and even about yourself. Choose to live according to the person God created you to be; His New Manager that is daily taking back dominion over yourself and then acting as His steward, His Manager over the other things God has for you to do. And in choosing to daily ‘put on the New Manager’ for directing you and then daily ‘putting off the old manager’ from controlling you, you will also be daily choosing the blessing instead of the curse. Just start your day with Jesus’ words of “Father, not my will, but Thy will be done” and you will not only be choosing the ‘holy life’, you will also be choosing the ‘happy life’.

And that’s about as wise as it gets. And as a Christian; “It’s what you do!” Right?

1. scotthong.wordpress.com, The Trinity: Examples in Real Life

Powerful Passages, Pt. 7

Living Out a Pre-planned Life

Study Guide, November 6, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

Do you like ‘riddles’? Who doesn’t, right? Okay, well, how about:
What has a face and hands but no arms or legs? A Clock

What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? Short

What has a neck but no head? A bottle

What has to be broken before you can use it? An egg

How many letters are in the alphabet? Eleven: 3 in ‘the’ and 8 in ‘alphabet’ equals 11

So riddles are kind of fun…and some can be really remarkable, like this one: Since Jesus is the Word and the Scriptures are His book, what are you and me? Well, let’s let the Apostle Paul answer that in his own language from Ephesians 2:10- “…we are His ‘poiema’…” And what is a ‘poiema’? Well, from this word in the Latin we get ‘poema’, and from the French we get ‘poeme’, and from the English we get ‘poem’. So, in essence, since Jesus is the ‘Word’ and the Scriptures are His ‘Book’, you and I are His ‘Poem’.

Have you ever thought of yourself as a ‘poem’, or better yet, as ‘God’s poem’? Let’s look at this powerful passage and we’ll unravel it a bit. Eph 2:10- “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” NASU The Greek word ‘poiema’ is what is translated here as ‘workmanship’. Have you ever had anyone say that you were quite ‘a piece of work’? Well, whatever they intended by it, they probably had no idea how much you really are a piece of work, God’s work. Other versions translate the word as ‘masterpiece’. And that’s another amazing thing about why God chose the Greek language to communicate His truths to His church, because the Greek is like both a picturesque language and a multi-layered language. Just take this word ‘poiema’ here. It is muti-layered in the sense that like a majestic poetic work it tells a wondrous story through intricate thought and form and structure. And then it becomes like a blueprint for the accomplishment of some significant set of works. And then in order for this blueprint to be accomplished it has to be united to a significant workman. And this workman, himself or herself, becomes a piece of the entire master plan, or we could say, a ‘masterpiece’ in the master plan, or we should say, ‘in the Master’s plan’. And who is the ‘masterpiece’ of the Master’s plan? You and me.

Are you feeling sufficiently significant yet? Yeah, not even the sun, moon, and stars have that level of significance. Again, most people have no idea how much of ‘a piece of work’ they really are! When a Mother gives birth to a child it’s like giving birth to a ‘Poem’- ‘God’s Poem’. When you came into this world, along with you came the Master’s plan – with you as the ‘masterpiece’ through whom God intended to carry out the works He had written into the plan, like a work of poetry. And all of this was designed just for you, His ‘Poem’. We know this to be true because the Apostle Paul assures us that this ‘God designed plan’ was constructed previous to our arrival on Earth.

Sometimes we wonder what God was doing in eternity past. Part of what He was doing was, as the Ultimate Literary Genius (which even these words fall terribly short of describing God)…but again, part of what God was doing was constructing each of our personal stories…crafting this comprehensive plan for the creatures He would one day call ‘man’. Remember, even the work of Christ of securing our salvation through His sacrificial offering on the Cross was predetermined from eternity past. Recall Acts 2:22-24- “Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know — this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.” NASU

The point being, nothing that has happened has ever taken God by surprise. God works by His predetermined plans. Even in your salvation, it wasn’t like after you gave your life to Christ that God then had to come up with some ideas of some things for you to do now in your works of service. It might be a surprise to the Angels, but can you picture God saying something like, “Well, I didn’t see that coming. How can we now use James or Sally here in doing some things to help get ready for the Kingdom?” No, of course not. And I feel even foolish to illustrate it like that, but isn’t that somewhat the way many believers tend to think about their lives? They look at their post-conversion lives like a random set of good works and service activities here and there that they can do. But instead, they are supposed to realize that when they gave their life to Christ that they also stepped into this grand story that God had written out for them and was waiting for them to enter into it and to then discover and delight themselves in it as they went from good work to good work in their service for their King and Savior.

Your life story is not waiting to be written, for God has already written it! Yes, in a sense you are writing your life story every day, but God already wrote one for you and intends for you to unite your story with His story. Your predetermined, pre-written life story is now waiting for you to be discovered; discovered and then lived out as a personal disciple of the Master planner.

If you only look at discipleship in terms of duty, then you are missing out on the rest of the experience that God planned for your experience as His disciple. Certainly, our duty of all that we are required to do is a high and noble aspect of discipleship, to be sure. But God intended to inspire us in doing our duties by helping us discover more and more of the things which He designed for us to do for Him in working with Him and joining in with Him in preparing for His coming Kingdom.

Maybe we could look at it this way, and it’s a bit of an unusual illustration, but just go with it for now…Many Christians live their lives like its a game of ‘solitary scavenger hunt’…think about it…’solitary scavenger hunt’. Now, how ridiculous would that be to think up some things to hide and then go hide them and then go back and find them yourself. Of course, it sounds ridiculous, but again, isn’t that somewhat like the way many Christians look at the Christian life? By grace through faith they have trusted in the works of Christ for their salvation, but now they look at their works for their sanctification, or their walk with Christ, as like being up to them now… as though their good works were up to them to come up with and then do. It’s like a game of ‘solitary sanctification hunt’, as though God had not already prepared any works for them to find and then to do.

But no, Discipleship is as much about ‘discovery’ as it is about ‘duty’. And if you leave out this element of ‘discovery’ you will have left out one of the biggest incentives God intended for you to experience in your walk of discipleship. Go with me a bit further with this illustration, because it helps me, too…You see, God designed this amazing game of ‘sanctification scavenger hunt’ for you and for me to play…or to live out. And as we seek to discover what is next to find or to do or to pray or where to serve or who to encourage or who to exhort or who to witness to and on and on, God the Holy Spirit guides us in our hunt, almost like letting us know – “You’re getting warmer…warmer…Yes, hot now” or “No, you’re getting cooler, cooler, No, now you’re cold.”

The point being: Christ’s Spirit will guide us into the works He has prepared for us to find and the works He prepared for us to do as we yield to His guidance…yield to His Lordship. These works are a part of this poetic master plan that He designed for us to discover with His guidance and then to do by His grace.

No wonder so many Christians are bored with their lives. Who wants to play a game of scavenger hunt by themselves? And how sad, and how wrong, that so many Christians have come to look at the walk of sanctification, the life of discipleship, as nothing specially planned just for them…nothing pre-planned by God with just them in mind, just waiting for them to discover day by day.

That’s not how the first Disciples looked at what following Jesus was all about. Sure, they all knew it was their duty to follow Jesus and obey His instructions, but they also knew that following Jesus meant that every day was a day of discovery, of discovering more of what Jesus had in mind for them to learn and to practice and to carry out in their works of service for their Master’s sake. Their knew their Master had a ‘Master plan’ for each of their lives. And every day was a new journey of discovery as they kept their eyes on Jesus and followed wherever He was leading them.

And think about this: Even Jesus’ own journey through Israel and the lands around it was was not just a random walk through Judea and Galilee…but rather a series of appointments…a pre-determined plan that Jesus was following in doing the works the Father had planned for Him to do. Notice what Jesus said: John 5:17- “Jesus answered them, “My Father is always working, and I too must work.” TEV John 10:37-38- “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” NASU Jesus, too, lived His life by this predetermined Master plan, doing the works that God had planned for Him to do from eternity past.

In a very similar way that God the Father had a Master plan for the Son of God, God the Father has a Master plan for everyone who has become reborn sons and daughters of God. God not only knew you from eternity past, He even wrote a poem about you from eternity past. A poem filled with a plan of good works designed just for you to walk in them as you walked with Him. He wanted to lead you, as a disciple of His, into a life of discovery of those things He had in mind just for you to learn and to do and to experience, just like He did with His first disciples.

What if you looked at each day as another line in the poem of your life that God has already written, but is yet to be experienced? What if you looked at each day as wondering what the itinerary is that God has for you to do today? What if you walked through your days thinking, “Lord, who have You put on the list today for me to pray for; or for me to meet; or for me to share truths from Your Word, truths about Your gospel with; or who have You placed in my path for me to encourage, or for me to challenge, or for me to listen to or help according to the abilities and the resources You have given to me? Lord, what appointments are on Your itinerary for me today?”

Is it coincidental that God has given us the title of being His personal ‘Ambassadors’ in our journey through this world? One of the primary features of being an ‘Ambassador’ is following an itinerary of things the sending party is trying to do or hoping to accomplish in some foreign land through the works of their ‘Ambassador’. You and I are God’s ‘Ambassadors’. And along with the time that we have left on this Earth we also have this itinerary from God, especially designed by God for you and for me, to focus on and to act upon as personal ‘Ambassadors’ sent by the King of kings into these foreign lands.

What has God put on the list in His itinerary for you to do today? And yes, we each have responsibilities that we are accountable for doing in our lives, but neither did your responsibilities take God by surprise either. In fact, what if you factored even your responsibilities into the Romans 8:28 equation of: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” NASU Just because some things look routine or mundane to us that we have to do in our lives day by day doesn’t mean they look that way to God. For each day to God is what? “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Ps 118:24 NASU Every day is a new gift from God to us, with His mercies that are new each morning for us, and with the rest of His story, His poem, that He has written out for us, to be discovered and then experienced by us.

So inject this focus on discovery into your daily duties and watch what it does to your motivation for living each day as a disciple. Don’t just live out your life; enter into the life that God prepared before the foundation of the world for you to live out.

Powerful Passages, Pt. 5

The God Who Gets to Us

Study Guide, October 30, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

There are many things we grow accustomed to in life without stopping to really learn more about? For example, like: Why do stars twinkle? Technically, the reason that stars twinkle is because of ‘stellar scintillation’. Stellar scintillation just means that stars twinkle when we see them from the Earth’s surface because we are viewing them through thick layers of moving air in Earth’s atmosphere. In other words, as their light travels through the many layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, the light of the star is bent or refracted many times and in random directions . And this random refraction results in the star ‘twinkling’. (And ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ sounds a lot better than ‘scintillating, scintillating, little star…how I wonder what you are?’)

Plus, stars closer to Earth’s horizon appear to twinkle more than stars that are overhead, and this is because the light of stars nearest the horizon has to travel through more air than the light of stars overhead and so is subject to more refraction or bending or ‘twinkling’.¹

How about another thing we are accustomed to, like our blue sky? Why is the sky blue? The sky is blue because some light travels in short ‘choppy’ waves and other light travels in long waves. And blue light waves are shorter than others, like red and yellow light waves. And once again, our atmosphere scatters light, and since the blue light waves are shorter they get scattered the most. Thus, the blue sky!

Now, when the Sun gets lower in the sky, the light travels through even more atmosphere. And the blue light gets super scattered then, so much that the reds and yellows show up more, since they scatter the least. And sometimes the sky really glows reddish because other particles of dust and other vapors reflect the reds and yellows and violets the most.²

Again, we get accustomed to seeing twinkling stars and blue skies and sunsets and such. But one time something happened that was so unusual that this person did stop to ask what it was all about. And his question was, “Why is this bush burning, but not burning up?” You know what we’re talking about right? Ex 3:1-3- “One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” NLT

Granted, this Bible story is one that many believers have also grown accustomed to. But what if twinkling stars, blue skies, and burning bushes had more in common than we thought? What if we recall what the Psalmist reminded us about what God is doing through twinkling stars and blue skies? Ps 19:1-4- “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display His craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him know. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.” NLT

Just like God is using the twinkling stars and wondrous skies to speak to people and just like God used the burning bush to get to Moses, God comes to us in both the common places and strange places. Granted, He had a special assignment, a special mission to reveal to Moses, but the point is, we need to keep listening for and looking for God in all of the places we are. God is trying to get to us both through what we consider common, like the stars of the heavens, and even through what we would consider uncommon; like burning bushes. Or we could say, whatever kind of times we are in, God is trying to get to us, to speak to us, and to assure us that He is with us in them and even going through them with us.

It’s like how He assured Moses, that He was going to see Moses and His people through the struggles they were in. Moses and the people had imagined all their walls had sort of caved in on them, but God was still at work on it and on their behalf. It’s like God reminded us all later in Jer 29:11- “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” NASU And remember something very important: ‘A future and a hope’ doesn’t just provide hope for the future; it also provides ‘help in the present’.

In our lives there can be burning bushes of amazement, and there can be burning bushes of afflictions. Elizabeth Skogland, in her book Coping, describes the severe problems with depression experienced by the famous 19^th Century preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He was called ‘the Prince of Preachers’ and became Pastor to one of the largest churches in London at the age of nineteen. He published over 3,500 sermons and authored 135 books before his death at age 57. Thousands of people came to hear Spurgeon preach. His ministry was deep and profound, yet countless times he struggled with a severe heaviness of heart. His depression and poor health often kept him away from the pulpit. In the days of his greatest preaching at the Tabernacle, Spurgeon was often afflicted and even thought of quitting, because he felt that his illness was diminishing his effectiveness as a minister. Fortunately the leaders of his church felt differently. They preferred Spurgeon with all of his frequent absences to any other minister. And so he stayed. Yet, his swollen hands and tired body made him an old man while he was still young.

Depression was a major component in the life of this great man of God. It was like a bush that didn’t burn up. God didn’t cause this burning bush, but God came to Spurgeon through it and assured him that He was with him in it, and made him triumphant in spite of his trials of this burning bush of ill health.

Speaking of this burning bush of health, Joni Eareckson Tada, has been paralyzed since her teenage years. Her paralysis has been like a bush that doesn’t burn up. God didn’t cause this burning bush either, but He has promised to be with her in it and through it. And Joni has said that her hope is not only in her future, it’s in her present, too…in the here and now. She said, “God proved to me that I, too, can have fullness of life now. I have friends who care. I have the beauty of the outdoors. Though I can’t splash in the creek or ride horses, I can enjoy being outside and my senses are flooded with smells and textures and beautiful sights. The peace that counts is an internal peace, and God has lavished that peace on me. And I realize that I haven’t been cheated out of being healed…I’m just going through a 40 year delay. After my death, I’ll be on my feet dancing.” God has gotten to Joni Eareckson, even in this burning bush of paralysis.

Or maybe, it’s the burning bush of prayer. You have been passing through the waters of trials, and through the fires you have prayed, but you don’t understand what’s going on. But instead in the midst of the bush God says: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God…Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you…Do not fear, for I am with you…” Isa 43:1-5 NASU

God promises to be with us to uphold us. He promises that although we suffer, we will not be broken, and that He will never forsake us, and that we will endure because His grace is sufficient for us.

And yet maybe it’s here that this burning bush is really puzzling, because it’s the bush of ‘understanding’. Brothers and Sisters, the ‘want to understand’ has been an unseen stumbling-block in the spiritual walk of many believers, particularly this inclination to only respond to what we first understand. Granted, it ‘s a natural inclination in us all, this ‘want to first understand’ before we respond or obey. Strangely enough, our want to understand is kind of like medicine; the right dosage of it can be good and healthy, but an overdose can have really bad effects on us. Even Job, a man of righteous and great maturity asked God ‘why’ sixteen times about what was going on with his sufferings. It’s interesting that God didn’t answer Job’s ‘why’ to give him a better understanding about the issue of suffering, for what Job really needed was to gain a better understanding of ‘Who’; ‘Who’ was still sovereign even over a broken world of suffering; ‘Who’ was going through the suffering with Him; and ‘Who’ was going to make sure that Job would triumph over all these tragedies.

It’s strange, you know, how people tend to think that they respond to the degree that they understand. That is the stumbling-block. People understand that certain eating habits will be either healthy or unhealthy for them, but they often continue bad eating habits anyway. People understand the laws of the road or laws of the state, but they often break laws anyway. So no, people do not necessarily respond to the degree that they understand – rather they respond to the degree that they ‘fear’, and respect, and, reverence, and love.

It’s the same in our relationship with God. God does not command us to understand Him, but He does command us to fear Him. He doesn’t command us to understand His ways, but He does command us to obey Him and to walk in His ways. Deut 10:12-13- “Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?” NASU We fear the Lord in His Godhood and we love the Lord in His Fatherhood. And we will respond to Him to the degree that we fear Him and love Him, even if we don’t understand all the ‘why’s about it all, or about all that’s going on in our lives. Plus, remember this: our peace is not found in understanding of ‘why’, but in our trusting in ‘Who’…and in responding and obeying ‘Who’ the Creator and Redeemer of our life is and trusting in the fact that since God understands what He is doing in and through our lives, we can rest in that.

Remember, this is the God who was willing, at great cost, to enter into our suffering. To Moses, Yahweh said, “I have seen the affliction of My people – and I have heard their cry, I know their suffering, and I have come down to deliver them.” This is a God who is not detached, not silent, not unfeeling about the hopes and fears of His people. This is a God who feels, cares, who will go to great extremes to get to you. Remember, He went to the cross for you. The Bible reminds us that while we were His enemies, He died for us…how much more now will He love and care for us as children of God?

And yet, we know that we still live in a world of thorn-bushes. But remember, it’s when you’re near the thorn-bush that God gets to you. Just when things are getting real tiresome, when the routine of it all is weighing on you, when the responsibilities and pressures are really beginning to prick you, maybe even when you least expect it, that’s when you notice the burning bush – and you realize that God has been right there with you all the time, trying to get to you, and wanting to help you.

That’s how it was with Moses, and in many ways, that’s how it will be for us, from now on and throughout this life – there will be burning bushes we won’t understand. And you will either go away from the bush in confusion and discouragement, or in commitment and determination, as did Moses. This difference will be – if you recognize God in it and obey His voice through it, realizing it’s the voice of our God and Father who is trying to get to us because we get to Him.

1. enchantedlearning.com

2..spaceplace.nasa.gov

Powerful Passages, Pt. 6

The Proper Use and Cleaning of Our Biblical Mind Filter

Study Guide – October 23, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

One of the parts of machinery that is often overlooked when it comes to just how important it really is, is the filter; particularly the condition of the filter. The condition of the filter directly affects the power and efficiency and usefulness of the machine. All right, We get that…we clearly understand that. But what about in the ‘machinery of our own lives’ (if we could call it that), what is the filter in us?

First let’s look at the filter itself. Phil 4:8- “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things.” Holman Bible

This is one of the most powerful passages concerning what living as a Disciple of Christ actually involves. And regardless of how familiar we might be with this passage, just like the filter in machinery, we still often tend to neglect it, and we often overlook cleaning it…cleaning out our ‘BMF’ or our ‘Biblical Mind Filter’. And we’ll talk about that in a bit. But this ‘BMF’ is made up of eight parts; or God has given us an ‘8 Part Biblical Mind Filter’ through which we are to think and live as a disciple of Christ.

In a previous study we took a walk through each of the parts of this filter. So we won’t do that exactly in this study, but let’s point out some things about this filter, and then talk about the very important aspect of how we go about cleaning this filter in order to then be able to access more of the power of God’s working in us and our usefulness to God in Him working through us.

Let’s turn this around a little to get an idea of just what we are up against. One of the ways to get the impact of what the Scriptures are saying is to turn them around a bit. Here’s what we mean: As you are driving down the roadway of life each day, just how much is your filter exposed to, let’s say, things that are not true – things that are not honorable – things that are not just – things that are not pure – things that are not lovely – things that are not commendable – things that are not morally excellent – and things that are not worthy of praise? Well, how many days are there in a year? That’s about how often we are exposed to these things, right? In a prayer study that Randy Hebert and I were recently going over, we were talking about Randy’s Point Man Prayer Ministry and discussing how vital it is for Christians to focus more on prayer and to simply occupy their minds more and more with the realities of God’s world. And the study pointed out something very interesting about this ‘exposure to the world’ problem. It said, “It is quite natural and inevitable that if we spend 16 hours daily of our waking life in thinking about the affairs of the world, and 5 minutes thinking about God, then this world will seem 200 times more real to us than God.”

That’s quite a reality check. We hear a lot of talk about the ‘carbon offset’ concept, but what we really need to have in our life is a ‘Culture Offset’! We need to occupy our minds with a Biblical worldview over and above a ‘cultural worldview’, or rather, ‘a cultural worldly– view’. Remember what the Apostle Paul said about that? Rom 12:2- “Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants—what is good, pleasing, and perfect.” God’s Word Version

That would be a good question to ask people who have become converted to Christ: “So have you changed the way you think? And in what ways?” You see, the converted life in Christianity is centrally focused on continuing to convert our thinking to more and more of the kind of thinking described in the Bible, which is the mind of Christ. In order to not live like the world we have to not think like the world. Or, in order to live more and more like Christ, we have to learn to think more and more like Christ. And He reveals His way of thinking to us in His Word which He has given to us.

We have to ‘offset’ the distorted reality thinking of our culture by thinking according to the realistic revelation of God’s Word, the only true and accurate ‘worldview’. We especially have to think according to this ‘Biblical Mind Filter’ that God commands us to use, otherwise we will default to the faulty thinking of our culture which tends to dwell upon what is not true, not honorable, not just, not pure, not lovely, not commendable, not morally excellent, and not worthy of praise. If we don’t ‘offset’ that kind of thinking then our ‘Biblical Mind Filter’ will often be clogged up with these worldly attitudes and influences, which will in turn diminish our spiritual power and decrease our spiritual usefulness in living out our daily discipleship.

And now here’s the odd thing: Most Christians don’t set out to live a life of diminished spiritual power and decreased usefulness. Have you ever had anyone ever say that was their life plan? Like, “So what are your goals as a Christian?” “Well, my goals are to live a life of diminished power and decreased usefulness.” Of course that’s not their plan! But without a plan to think and live Biblically, then that is exactly the goals that they are going to reach. It’s like the old saying – “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time!” Many Christians have spiritually ‘carbon cultured up’ their lives because they haven’t made specific goals to offset and overcome them by committing themselves to using the Biblical Mind Filter that God has instructed us to use and to regularly clean out.

So what if you asked a different question, like: “How do you go about using the ‘Biblical Mind Filter’ that God revealed to us and how do you go about cleaning it?” And then maybe get ready to answer their question of: “What in the world are you talking about?” Right? So first get very familiar with this passage of Philippians 4:8, so that you can describe this 8 part Biblical Mind Filter. And then get familiar with describing the cleaning technique, which the Bible also describes as the ‘practice of confession’.

No doubt you have heard other Christians say something like, “Well, if my sins have been forgiven by God, why do I need to confess them to God?” And whenever someone says something like that or thinks something like that, it reveals that they haven’t yet come to understand some very crucial things, like the difference between being forgiven from the eternal penalty of all their sins and being forgiven from the presence of their daily sins. Or they haven’t yet grasped the difference between Christ’s work in their salvation and in their walk in their sanctification. We see Jesus revealing this difference when Jesus was demonstrating servant-hood by washing the Disciple’s feet in John 13:6-10 – “When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” “No,” Peter protested, “You will never ever wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to Me.” Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!” Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean.” NLT

Jesus was teaching all of us disciples about the difference between being made holy once for all in our salvation, in our eternal relationship with God, and then living holy lives as saved people in our daily fellowship with God. When a person trusts in Christ as Lord and Savior he is ‘bathed all over’, as 1 Cor 6:11 points out: “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” NASU This is speaking of our position in Christ, as saved, once for all time, from the penalty of our sins. We have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, or bathed all over, as Jesus stated. It’s also important to also point out that in that passage Jesus also said, “but not all of you”, as He was revealing that Judas was not converted, but the other Disciples were.

But now, since we are still in this world, and still wrestle against our old sin nature and against the ungodliness of this world that we are walking through, we still then need to be daily cleansed from the presence of sin in our lives in order to have close fellowship with God and to then be useful to God. Again, it’s like the cleansing of that filter in a machine so that it can function with the power and efficiency it was designed to have. And that takes us to the answer to the question of “how then do you go about cleaning this filter?” That answer is 1 John 1:9- “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” NASU

How wonderful of our Lord to provide this way of washing away this presence of sin from our lives in order to be more useful to Him, as well as more content and happy. And this discipline of confession is to be a daily discipline, a daily habit of ours. And note two things about this kind of confession. One, the confession is not a confession of sins in general. It is a confession of sins specifically. For if you only confess your sins in a general sense then you will fail to gain victory over any of your specific sins. So you and I need to confess our specific sins to God. And not just sins of commission, like self-pride, selfishness, envy, malice, rudeness, greed, grumbling…want me to stop? Yeah, we all get the picture of our need to get cleansed from these in our confession to God. But don’t neglect the sins of omission, like back to our Biblical Mind Filter. In whatever way that we have not obeyed God’s command to dwell on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise, then we need to confess that. Otherwise, this filter is going to soon get clogged up with things that are not true, not honorable, not just, not pure, not lovely, not commendable, not morally excellent, and not worthy of praise. We have to commit to washing out this filter and this presence of sin in our lives in order to grow closer in our fellowship with Christ and to then be more available and useful to Christ, and of course, like we pointed out, even to happy in our experience of life; as the only way to be happy in Jesus is to ….’trust and obey’.

But we said there is a second essential point about ‘confession’. In fact, if this element of confession is left out, then that confession is not Biblical confession at all. And what is that key element? Prov 28:13- “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” NASU You see, Biblical confession carries a ‘motive’ attached to it. And without this motive attached to it, then it is not Biblical confession. This motive is ‘to forsake’ the sin. It’s not just the identification of our sins that God is calling us to…it is the forsaking of them. God is not trying to make us smarter sinners; He’s trying to change us into wiser saints. When God calls us to daily confess our sins of things like self-pride, or selfishness, or from dwelling on things that are not true or not honorable or not worthy of praise and so on, what He is looking for is if this key element is attached to our confession. Are we confession our sins along with the intention of forsaking or turning away from practicing those things, with His power and sufficient grace to do this, of course? Again, Without this intention to forsake these sins, there can be no real cleansing from those sins. Instead, these things just simply continue to build up and clog up the filter of our minds and hearts, and we continue to think the way we thought before and do the things we have done before. That’s not spiritual transformation; that’s spiritual stagnation; mentally, emotionally, willfully.

But when we combine the confession of our sins with the intention of forsaking these sins we find not only God’s daily cleansing of those sins; we find God’s compassion in our experience. One of the greatest blessings in life is ‘feeling the pleasure of God’ in your life. And that sense of God’s pleasure comes through when a believer seeks to please God through daily cleansing their Biblical Mind Filter so that they can experience more and more of the power of God working in their life and the purposes of God being worked out through their life.

So take good care of your BMF. Your power for living and your usefulness to God depends upon it.

Powerful Passages, Pt. 4

Study Guide September 25, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

How many have been to Nazareth in Israel? It’s a beautiful city. Of course, in Jesus day it was a bit smaller.

But it was in the town of Nazareth, as Jesus was beginning His public ministry, that Jesus stated something that shocked all of those who had gone to the synagogue that day. Actually, it’s one of the most powerful passages we find in the Bible. So let’s go to Nazareth and hear what Jesus said. Luke 4:16-21- “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” NKJV

What a stunning announcement! Jesus reads from the passage of Isaiah 61, which clearly refers to the Messiah and then stops and basically says to the people; “These Scriptures are talking about Me!” So first, let’s look at what Jesus said about Himself here, and then we’ll look at what He said about His ministry.

Transport yourself back in time a bit and imagine you are at that synagogue. Remember, Nazareth is a small town. Most people knew each other. They knew that Jesus was one of the sons of Mary and Joseph. But Luke also reminds us that news about Him had been spreading all around Galilee, things that the Apostle John records in John 1:19 though chapter 4:45. These things included His miracle in Cana of turning water into wine, along with performing other signs that were confirming that He was the Messiah. He had also witnessed to Nicodemus that the New Birth could be experienced through receiving Him as Messiah. Nicodemus had testified that he also knew about all these signs that were confirming Jesus’ claims about Himself. Jesus had even presented Himself to the Samaritans, and many of the Samaritans were being born again. Not to mention that He had also challenged the Pharisees in Jerusalem and turned over the tables of the corrupt leaders who had set up shop and were bribing people in the Temple. So, yeah, news had spread and everyone should have been on the lookout for the Messiah.

And so now the people of Nazareth are all gathered at the synagogue that day. A typical synagogue service opened with a prayer and was followed by the confession of faith from what’s called the Great Shema, from Deut. 6:4-9. ‘Shema’ is the Hebrew word for ‘Hear’. It started with “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deut 6:4-5 NASU By the way, that’s also what Jesus later pointed out was the greatest commandment of the law. Isn’t it just amazingly simple and yet profound that all of life comes down to this Great Shema? “The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The answer to all the world’s problems and conflicts is settled in this one revelation. If each person would submit their life and commit their life to living by this Great Shema it would change the course of all mankind. But, of course, we know that most people won’t and that’s why we need a new world…which is coming, for those who have submitted themselves to the One God, who is the Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Three in One, and who do love the Lord their God. Praise God! (And, by the way, all Three Persons of the Trinity are represented in that first verse of Isaiah 61 that Jesus read…“The Spirit [The Holy Spirit] of the Lord [The Father] is upon Me [The Son]…”

After the confession of the Great Shema there would be the readings from the Law and the Prophets. Then one of the leaders would have a sermon, or if there was a visiting Rabbi, he might be asked to have some comments on the passage of Scripture that was read. And oh boy, did Jesus have some comments on this passage of Scripture! Think about it: Ever since the announcement to Adam and Eve that a through human birth a Deliver for all mankind would come, who would also have the power to crush Satan, along with all the prophet’s additional prophecies, the people had been on Messiah alert; Messiah watch. So after thousands of years of watching and waiting, one day in a normal synagogue meeting, Jesus reads the Scripture that has it’s primary reference to the Messiah, and stops and says to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

And they all rejoiced and repented and received Him as their Messiah and Savior…right? Not exactly, for that part didn’t happen. No instead, they said something like, “Wait a minute…who does He think He is…isn’t this Joseph’s son?” Take a look: Luke 4:22-30- “And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in Your hometown as well.'” And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.” But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way.” NASU

What a change of atmosphere here…there was like about an 80 degree drop in attitude! They soon changed from wonder and admiration to skepticism and spite, and Jesus knew it. That’s why He said essentially, “No doubt, now you want a miracle.” But He knew their hearts, and He knew that just like their ancestors in the days of Elijah and Elisha, not even miracles change hearts that are ‘God resistant hardened hearts’. Note something very important here. Yes, Jesus used many miracles to confirm His Messianic identity. And to the people that had ‘God receptive seeking hearts’, the miracles simply confirmed what they had been seeking.

There’s something we need to remember about human nature, and that is: Not even miracles will change a heart, if that heart is resistant and hardened to the truth, which is really saying ‘resistant to the authority of God’. St. Augustine said, “They (People) love truth when it enlightens them, but hate truth when it accuses them.” Yes, miracles will confirm truth, and that is what Jesus was doing through His miracles. They were fulfilling the prophecies that were written about the Messiah, which would then confirm His identity. But the miracles themselves could not create a repentant heart. It is the Laws of God written on the heart of each person and the convicting work of God that Holy Spirit that is revealing to the heart and mind of each person of their need for a Savior. And if they are responding to that light, God will reveal more light and whatever is necessary for them to be saved. But if they are resisting that, well then, do you remember what Jesus said about the story of the unsaved rich man?

As Abraham was talking to this unsaved man who was now in Hades, this man told Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers. But Abraham pointed this out to him: “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 16:31 NASU That is crucial to know and understand. You see, you can actually gauge a person’s receptivity to God by how receptive they are to the authority of the Scriptures. God’s promise to all people is if you seek God will all your heart, you will find Him. Point being: God is seeking seekers. And the reason they are seekers is because they have been responding to the Laws of God that He has written on each person’s heart and to the convicting work of God’s Holy Spirit, who is seeking to draw all people to Himself. Praise God, some are responding and therefore seeking God. And be assured, wherever they are, in whatever corner of the world they are, if they have been responding to the Law of God written on their heart and to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit with a ‘God receptive seeking heart’ – they will find God, or better; God will find them and save them.

But also note something else Jesus pointed out that is another sad commentary on human nature, but it does explain a lot, and it consoles us all as well. The Apostle Matthew fills us in on a little more of the discussion here: Matt 13:54-58- “He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.” NASU

Have you ever wondered why it seems so hard to witness to your relatives and those you’ve grown up with? Well, you are in good company…really good company, because even Jesus got ‘push-back’ from His hometown and own relatives. But it shows us something else about human nature, and that is that people tend to think about beliefs in terms of ‘Who are you?’ instead of in terms of ‘What is true?’ And when you try to share ‘What is true’ with people who are caught up on ‘Who are you?’ you are pretty much stuck with ‘No can do!’ But the point is; it is, sadly, very common that the hardest people to share Biblical truths with are with those who have known you so well that they are caught up on ‘who you are’ instead of listening for ‘what is true’, regardless of who it is that reveals it to them. Plus, when you throw in other ‘common and bad ingredients’ found in our lower nature, like pride and envy and such, it explains why there is often so much push-back from those you know so well. It doesn’t necessarily change the frustration of it all, but it does relieve us of the false parts about the frustration of thinking that it’s because there’s something wrong with you. Don’t let the Devil discourage you by making you feel that the problem is because you are a deficient Sower, when the real problem is in the deception in the Soils. If the soils of souls are not receptive to the seeds of truth, then they will resist truth regardless of who the Sower is, even when it is Jesus the Messiah Himself.

But before we leave this powerful passage we need to see one more thing that is amazing about it. And interestingly enough, it’s something that Jesus didn’t say or didn’t read as He was reading from Isaiah. And for any who were there who knew that passage in Isaiah, this must have been very striking to them as well, because when Jesus read “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” He then closed the Book. But in Isaiah 61 it doesn’t stop there. No, there is an ‘and’ that goes along with ‘proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord’ that also proclaims this: Isa 61:2- “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God…” NKJV

Again, amazing, because the prophet Isaiah reveals that the Messiah was going to fulfill two works of God. And one would be focused on on the time when the Messiah’s mission was proclaiming the Good News and healing the brokenhearted and setting captives free…the time of providing for the salvation of all who would become saved by His grace through their faith. And that is what Jesus proclaimed was being fulfilled by Him. But the other part of the Messiah’s mission, ‘the day of vengeance of our God’, that was yet to be fulfilled. Oh it will be fulfilled, but not in Jesus’ first advent, His first coming. It would be in His second advent, His second coming. For all those who resisted His saving grace and would not repent and come to know the Messiah as their Lord and Savior when He came the first time to save them, well, then the next time He came they would then have to know Him as their Judge, because the next time Jesus will come as King of kings and Lord of lords, and will judge unbelievers of their sin. That time has not yet been fulfilled, but that time is coming when this second part of Isaiah’s prophecy will be fulfilled, when Jesus will also say to those who would not repent concerning ‘this day of vengeance of our God’: “Today, this Scripture is now fulfilled in your hearing.”

God’s Word always comes to pass. We thank our Lord Jesus for fulfilling His work of salvation in our lives and we pray that many others will respond to the convincing work and convicting work of the Holy Spirit and receive Jesus as their Messiah, Savior, and God.

Powerful Passages, Pt. 3

Study Guide, September 18, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

So what do you think of when you hear the word ‘burdens’? Everybody has some, right? And there seems to be an endless variety of burdens laid upon us in this world as well: Cares, toils, afflictions, trials, weaknesses, dejection, wants, fears, struggles, and so on. And yet, for all of these burdens there is really only one relief – and that’s what we are going to explore in this study today.

It has to do with ‘casting’. Now in connection with ‘casting’ and ‘burdens’, many people think of it in terms of like a fisherman, casting his line. Or they may think of the casting like ‘net casting’. However, the thing is, just like in either casting a line or casting a net, there’s a good chance you will bring something back in with it. And when that something is some fish, that’s really good. But when that something is the burden itself or even more burdens…that’s not so good. Instead, what we are going to do is describe another way of handling the burdens of life that each of us carry or have to deal with. But first, let’s go to one of the passages about burden bearing and we’ll see that it is powerful indeed, because it is one of the most powerful statements in the Bible about what we are to do with our burdens and also what God will do in response. Ps 55:22- “Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.” NKJV

Note first that this remedy is not just the primary resource of what we are to do with our ‘burdens’…no, it is the ‘only’ resource… “Cast your burden on the Lord…”. Now, whatever else these words mean, they mean that the Lord is calling for us include Him, to go to Him, to make wise use of Him in relation to our burdens. Whatever presses upon you and me in any way or troubles you and me, we are to take it off our shoulders and let the Lord, who is already alongside of us, now come alongside of us and do what only He can do with our burdens. One truth we are to let sink down into our soul is that God is not only our Creator – He is also our Father; your Father and my Father, who cannot help loving us and caring for us everywhere and in everything.

Count on this: Whenever you recognize something that has become a ‘burden’ for you, realize that it has become a burden for God, too. And He has already come alongside of you and says, “My son, or My daughter, you are not meant to carry that alone…cast that burden on Me.” In another Psalm David reinforces this point by informing us of just how our burdens affect God and what God calls us to do about them. Notice this in two versions: Ps 68:19- “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. Selah.” NASU Do you remember what we pointed out about what the ‘Selah’ means? It means that we are to pause and think about it…really think about the implications of this revelation. Now consider these implications of what is being said about our God by looking at it in the next version – Ps 68:19- “Praise the Lord! Every day He helps us with the loads we must carry. He is the God who saves us.” ERV

What an amazing and encouraging picture of our God! God is not removed or remote or reluctant to be involved in our daily lives. No, every day He is ready and more than willing to help us with the loads we must carry. David is informing us that God so knits Himself with us as that all which touches us touches Him, that He takes a share in all our pressing duties, and feels and senses all our sorrows and pains. God, in all our afflictions, is afflicted; and, in a wondrous way, He feels our infirmities, our pains, and our struggles. And He not only wants to bless us in assisting us in dealing with these burdens of our lives, but as David points out, the real blessing in the midst of burden bearing is the blessing of God Himself, who is with us in it all and through it all. He is there to share in bearing our burdens and is ready to sustain us as we bear them.

Whenever we become aware of some burden, the first thing we tend to do…and often for quite some time after, is that we become fixated on the burden. It commands our attention, it occupies our thoughts, it runs our emotions, it takes on a crown, as it were, and rules over our lives. But you see, the only thing, actually, the only One who has earned the right to wear the crown and to rule over our lives is the One who bore our greatest burden on a cross and defeated all burdens and won the victory for us.

Think about it: Isa 53:4-6- “He certainly has taken upon Himself our suffering and carried our sorrows, but we thought that God had wounded Him, beat Him, and punished Him. He was wounded for our rebellious acts. He was crushed for our sins. He was punished so that we could have peace, and we received healing from His wounds. We have all strayed like sheep. Each one of us has turned to go his own way, and the Lord has laid all our sins on Him.” God’s Word Version You see, the greatest burden we ever carried was the burden of our sins and our sentence of sin. But Jesus took that burden from us and carried it to the cross, where He paid the sentence in full and removed the greatest burden from us forever!

So we watched Him carry our greatest burden, the guilt of our sin, and He says to us now, “I can carry that one as well, whatever that burden might be. But you must bring it to Me.” Remember, burdens have no right to rule over us. Only our Savior and our King has the right to rule over us, and His rule is righteous, and He reigns in love over His children and for His children.

So what then does this ‘casting’ of burdens look like? How are we to imagine it or think about it or go about casting our burdens on the Lord? Actually, burden bearing is best thought of and pictured by thinking of it as the ‘trinity of burden bearing’. What do we mean by that? Well, let’s put this together by looking into another powerful passage: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30 NASU So for one thing, casting your burdens on the Lord involves staying in the yoke with your Lord. What a great image of a walk of discipleship, with you and me on one side of the yoke and Christ on the other. However, with us, the image would look more like a weaker and inexperienced oxen alongside of a stronger and more experienced one. But still, we can clearly catch the concept of staying in the yoke and leaning on the leading of our Lord in the yoke with us.

One of the strangest habits that many Christians have is the habit of slipping out of their yoke. It’s strange, but it is not surprising, because remember, even though we are to walk in the yoke with our Lord, like oxen together, we still have a sheep nature that is prone to wander. Mark it down: you and I are prone to wander; wander from the Lordship of Christ and from walking alongside of Him as though ‘yoked’ together with Him. The thing is, though, that we are never unharnessed from the responsibilities of life nor the burdens that often come with them or intrude upon our lives. It’s like that weaker and less experienced oxen that’s come out of the yoke, but still trying to pull the weight by himself or herself. All the while, the Lord is already alongside saying, “Cast your burdens on Me…come back into the yoke and let Me pull the greater weight, let Me lighten your load.”

Another part of the ‘trinity of burden bearing’ can be thought of and pictured like this: Heb 6:17-20- “Because God wanted to show His unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope—like a sure and firm anchor of the soul—that enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because He has become a “high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” Holman Bible

There are several amazing teachings we could pull out of this powerful passage, but for our study today, again, picture this ‘anchor for our soul’. When we are called to cast our burdens on the Lord, we are being called to recall two unchangeable things: God’s promises to us, along with the fact that God cannot lie. Both our assurance of our salvation and our assistance in our sanctification are guaranteed by God’s promises and by the fact that God cannot lie. Both are more secure than the greatest anchor that could ever hold fast a ship in the midst of a storm.

The anchor was a popular symbol in the early church. At least sixty-six pictures of anchors have been found in the catacombs. That tells us right there how much the early church used that image to help them deal with their burdens. But also, this spiritual anchor is different from the physical anchors on ships because, for one thing, we are anchored upward – to heaven – not downward. We are anchored, not to stand still, but to move ahead!¹ This anchor helps us to cast the burdens of our lives onto the promises of God. And since God cannot lie we can then be secure even when we have to deal with burdens of the flesh; such as, natural weakness, sickness, pain, corrupt affections, wasting toil, poverty, and such. We have a secure anchor to face mental burdens: ignorance, confusion, deception, along with the schemes of the devil who presents himself as an angel of light to a dark world. This anchor enables us to wrestle against the cultural burdens of the tossing and turning of every wind and wave of immorality and vice. And this anchor helps us handle the spiritual burdens of falsehood and deception. Again, our anchor is sure because our hope is in Christ, Who is our anchor for the soul.

But still, there is one more part that makes up the trinity of burden bearing, and it’s portrayed in this powerful passage. Phil 4:6-7- “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” NLT

Oftentimes we think of peace as something we have after the burdens are gone, or after the burden is lifted. Oddly enough, the time when life consists of the absence of burdens is usually called ‘the After-life’; it’s not this life. In this life we will have tribulations and burdens of all kinds. And therefore, this kind of peace where burdens are few is rather rare, if not non-existent on this Earth. So the kind of peace we are talking about is more like this peace of protection, like having one of these shields that guards your whole self. The battles are daily, the burdens are constant, but God’s peace is assured because His protection is powerful, if we will practice His plan and make use of our shield, our ‘peace shield’. And we know that there is a shield of faith, but peace can be a shield and guard of our well-being also.

So put it all together, this trinity of burden bearing, and it’s like living in the midst of burdens of all sorts, but now you are walking together, yoked with the Lord, and anchored to the rock of God’s promises, and guarded with this shield of peace against the fiery darts of the devil and the troubles of the world. And although, the trials are hard and the fight is fierce, and the burdens are heavy, you are moving forward; not moved in defeat, but moving forward in victory, sustained by a power greater than you own, and also greater than any other power on earth; your Lord and Savior’s power. Again, you are able to overcome the pressures of these burdens of life by casting them on the Lord with whom you are ‘yoked’ together to help pull you through them all, as well as secured in the anchor of His promises, all the while being protected by God’s shield of peace. Selah!

1. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Copyright © 1989 by Chariot Victor Publishing, and imprint of Cook Communication Ministries.

Powerful Passages, Pt. 2 (cont.)

Study Guide –  September 11, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

It’s hard to describe the beauty of God’s Earth. And the reason we’re taking a look at our beautiful planet is because last week we started looking into one of the most powerful passages in the Bible where the Apostle John witnesses the title deed to the Earth being given over to Jesus, along with some other amazing revelation as well. So let’s go back to the future as we look at this scene in Revelation 5. Rev 5:1-5- “I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” NASU

The Apostle John witnesses the greatest title transfer of the greatest parcel of land in all of history…the very title deed to the Earth is given over to Jesus Christ. Now, of course, it also symbolizes even more than this, since the scroll included the seven seal judgments that are described in chapters 6-9, and this title deed included all rule and authority over all creation as well, including the animal kingdom and all mankind. But the major point that John is revealing, not just to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, but revealing to the whole world, since the Bible was written for the whole world (and that’s another powerful point we also need to unpack sometime soon…) is that there is only one human being who is worthy of receiving all rule and authority over all creation, and that is the one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus, who is also ‘the Christ’, the Redeemer, the Messiah and Lord.

Just think of that: all rule and authority is given to the only one who could ever and has ever accomplished this: Rev 5:9- “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” NASU

Now think about this: When considering the false teachings of the world’s false religions consider their founders: Who among them could have had that said of them? “You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” Think of some of the founders of the world’s religions, like: Siddhartha Gautama of Buddhism; like Confucius of Confucianism; like Muhammad of Islam; like Lao Zi of Taoism; like Parampara, who basically compiled the early beliefs of Hinduism; and so on. The one thing that all these founders of the world’s religions have in common is the same thing that the Bible states about every unsaved person of Earth: Rom 3:10- “No one is righteous—not even one.”; 23- “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” NLT And Eph 2:1- “In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God.” ERV

This is the spiritual description of every person who has ever lived, including these founders of the world’s religions. All have sinned and they all have needed a Savior. And when you look at life through these Biblical truths it changes everything in our world. Think about it: What was the greatest need of Gautama, the Buddha? The Buddha’s greatest need was to have his human spirit that was dead in trespasses and sin brought back to life again through receiving the Messiah, the Redeemer as his Lord and Savior. What was the greatest need of Muhammad Ibn Abdullah? Islam’s founder’s greatest need was to have his human spirit that was dead in trespasses and sin brought back to life again through receiving Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Redeemer, as his Lord and Savior. And the same goes for every founder of every religion and for simply every person who has ever lived and who ever will live, because no one else but Yeshua Ha Mashiach is worthy to redeem men and women from every tribe and tongue and people and nation on earth.

Again, as the Apostle looked the world over and even into the heavens, no one was worthy of being the Savior and Redeemer and Ruler of all creation except the One who purchased for God with His own precious and sinless blood men and women from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And that’s also why the Apostle Peter proclaimed: “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12 NASU No wonder we call him “Savior, our Redeemer and God”.

It’s fascinating how even the Old Testament practice of the Kinsman-Redeemer pictured Jesus’ work of redeeming or purchasing our freedom and having us become co-heirs of the Earth with Him. In the Old Testament times if a man became poor and had to sell his land, or himself, he could be redeemed by a kinsman. The story of Ruth is based on this law. The redeemer had to be a near relative who was willing and able to purchase the property and set the kinsman free. All of creation has been under bondage to sin, Satan, and death; but now Christ, our Kinsman-Redeemer, alone, is able to set creation free.

God makes it clear that only Christ can redeem. No saint in it, no person on earth, no soul in the underworld of death, could take that book. No one was worthy. John wept for several reasons: (1) he longed to see creation set free from bondage; (2) he wanted the promise of the resurrection to be fulfilled; (3) he knew that the OT promises to Israel could never be fulfilled unless the scroll could be opened. John himself was sharing in the “groaning” of Rom 8:22-23. The angel dried his tears by pointing to Christ. And as we saw last time the “Lion” takes us back to Gen 49:8-10 and speaks of Christ’s royalty in the family of David. And the “Root of David” speaks of His deity, the One through whom David came (Isa 11:1,10). Christ is worthy to open the book because He has “prevailed,” which means “to overcome”, “to conquer”, or “to win the victory”. The Lamb has won the victory!²

Also embedded in this powerful passage are a couple other amazing revelations. Notice: Rev 5:8- “When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” NASU We talked about those amazing beings of the four living creatures last time. But look at what John says are stored in Heaven – Our prayers! What? Now, whether God has containers of our prayers stored in Heaven, we’re not certain of that. But we certainly do know that God does have a record of our words, which include prayers. And we do know that our prayers mean more to Him than we can even imagine.

Think about it: It doesn’t take too much imagination to imagine times ahead with God when He is reviewing our life on this Earth and says something like: “Do you remember when you prayed this prayer?” Maybe it was a prayer for someone’s salvation, or a prayer for their healing, or a prayer for the nation, or a prayer for someone’s need or well-being, or even a prayer of your own salvation. And then God will show you how it set off ripple effects and how He used your prayers or answered your prayers and so on. But especially, God is going to finally enable us to understand just what our prayers have meant to Him.

Remember, the Psalmist knew that the incense on the altar was a symbol of the prayers of God’s people. The Scriptures are clear that the fragrant fumes that ascended from the incense represented the prayers of God’s people, those in covenant relationship with Jehovah. David even prayed this:

Ps 141:1-2- “O Lord, I call upon You; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to You! Let my prayer be counted as incense before You, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” ESV Also remember that when Zacharias was executing his office as priest, he entered into the temple to burn incense. And it’s not without significance that “the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense” (Luke 1:9-10). Plus, even later in Revelation, as the judgments on Earth begin, John sees this going on: Rev 8:3-4- “Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out.” NLT

If you want to better understand prayer, a better understanding of how incense in the Scriptures symbolizes prayer will help. Incense was beaten and pounded before it was used. Notice that the Psalmist says that the kind of prayer that is like sweet incense before God is one that comes from a humble and repentant heart. Ps 51:17- “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” NLT Then, the incense was also mixed with fire on the altar. You see, when God listens to the words of our prayers, what He is also listening to is our hearts along with our prayers. In other words, He listens to the attitude of our prayers as much as the words of our prayers. That’s why He cautioned people about just praying with their words, but not with their heart. Matt 6:7- “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” NASU It’s only when you mix your heart in with your words that your prayer then becomes like sweet smelling incense coming up before God. And then the incense was understood to be part of the sacrifice that was given to God for both His pleasure and for His purposes. God wants us to understand that He considers our prayers to be like sacrificial offerings. They are both pleasing to God and of great importance to God. He counts on us joining in His works through our works of prayer. And as we do, it is like a sweet smelling aroma rising up before God.³

One other amazing point before we leave this powerful passage is what John reveals about part of our destiny. Notice: Rev 5:10- “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” NASU One of the glaring omissions in many people’s ideas about Heaven is that they tend to leave out the Earth. Which is really strange, because one thing that has been prayed for as much as anything in this world are the words: Matt 6:10- “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” NKJV And the answer to that prayer from The Lord’s Prayer is what the Apostle John is revealing to us. The King has now received the title deed to His kingdom of Earth, and His will is going to be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. The Lord’s Prayer is about to be answered. And not only will the King Jesus reign upon the Earth, so will His people.

How amazing is that? When it is time for you to leave Earth for Heaven, know this: You’re coming back. When the King returns to Earth to establish His Millennial Kingdom and after that His Eternal Kingdom of the New Earth and New Heavens, He is bringing His people back with Him. Remember, Jesus is given title deed to the Earth, and is the true heir of it. Heb 1:1-3- “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” NASU Now, watch this: Rom 8:16-17- “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” NASU

So Jesus Christ is the heir of all things, and as children of God, we are fellow heirs with Christ. Well, that changes the picture of everything, right? So take a fresh look at this planet we call Earth, because since God has made you a fellow heir with Christ, the Earth is part of your inheritance as a child of God. And it’s only a matter of time before our King comes back to set up His Kingdom on Earth, and appoints His joint-heirs, all the saved children of God, to reign, or to once again, have dominion and stewardship over this beautiful planet we call ‘Earth’.

God’s Kingdom is coming, and His will is about to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!

1. davidreneke.com

2. Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Copyright © 1992 by Chariot Victor Publishing, an imprint of Cook Communication Ministries.

3. The Treasury of David, John Owen, Psalm 141:2 PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc.

Powerful Passages, Pt. 2

Study Guide, September 4, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

Many of you that have purchased land on Emerald Isle know that coastal property is some pretty valuable earth. I understand that the average lot and home on Emerald Isle is about $337,000. The national average is about $177,000. Now, what’s really amazing, and is also one of the most remarkable stories around eastern North Carolina, is that in the year 1954 seven investors bought twelve miles of Bogue Banks, which is now Emerald Isle, for a sum of $350,000. They bought a third of the whole island for what is now the average price of one lot with a house. That’s what you call a good investment, right?

But now, here’s a really outrageous thought…what do you think is the value of not just some earth on this Crystal Coast, but the value of the entire Earth itself? Well, how would you even figure that? Or still, who would even have that kind of worth to make a purchase like that? Or even more, who would even be ‘worthy’ of laying claim to the title deed of Planet Earth? Amazingly enough, that very question was asked in one of the most powerful passages found in the Bible. Let’s take a look: Rev 5:1-3- “I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.” NASU

What a question! And what a scene! The Apostle John is privileged to witness one of the most fascinating encounters to ever take place. God the Father, holds a book, or a scroll, that is sealed with seven seals. The seals represent the judgments that are going to come in the last days before Jesus sets up His Earthly Kingdom. But the book itself represents what was lost or forfeited by the first Adam. You see, Adam’s sin not only separated humanity from union with God’s Spirit…it also forfeited his dominion over creation…over Earth. That’s why the Apostle Paul said this about the creation: Rom 8:20-22- “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” NASU

So creation itself, with the Earth’s weather and the animal kingdom has been and is now under great duress…enslaved to a great distress, and waiting, as it were, for its own deliverance, or its own redemption. Actually, to give a really specific answer to the reason for the savagery in the animal world and the destructiveness of the weather systems and the natural world; the reason for it all is because of its slavery to corruption. The effects of the rebellion of sin corrupted all of creation to such a degree that even creation itself now groans and suffers while awaiting it’s redemption. But it’s coming.

Remember, God confirmed to Noah that He made a covenant not only with mankind, but also with the rest of the creatures He made for the Earth; the animal kingdom. And the redemption includes them as well. In fact, if we jump ahead for just a moment in this glorious scene, just look who all is included in the praising of the Lamb for their redemption. Rev 5:11-14- “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.” NASU

One thing you are going to have to get used to in the New Kingdom is this whole new level of communication from the animal kingdom. If you think that human language mimicking you hear from Myna birds and Amazon parrots is remarkable…well, as they say, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” It seems that the Psalmist David knew that the animal kingdom was capable of so much more than we have yet witnessed from them when he included them in the call for praise to the Lord: Ps 148:7-14- “Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather that obey him, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds, kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth, young men and young women, old men and children. Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For His name is very great; His glory towers over the earth and heaven! He has made His people strong, honoring His faithful ones—the people of Israel who are close to Him.” NLT

Children sometimes ask: “Why do birds sing?” Good question, right? I think the Psalmist has answered that…could it be that they are praising their Creator, even now, even though they, too, are groaning, awaiting their redemption? And what about the songs of the whales? They are quite beautiful actually. Could it be that even though the animal world is in slavery to some degree of corruption, that each still senses the reality of their Creator even now? In many ways it seems that the animal world senses the reality of the Creator even more than many creatures of the human world do!

Plus, we have the presence of these ‘four living creatures’ that are mentioned many times in the Scriptures, like here in Rev 5:6-10- “And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” NASU

We have a lot to unpack from this marvelous revelation, but the point about the four living creatures is that now we not only have the creatures of Earth having some newly enhanced capabilities for some type of remarkable communication, but we also have this new species from the realms of Heaven that are introduced to us. And these living creatures even sing! They are singing with the twenty-four elders as they lead this massive chorus of praise to Jesus Christ! You know, scientists get all excited when they discover a new species of moths or something. Now, I’m not being sarcastic here, as discovering new species really is pretty cool. But my point is that these scientists ought to be paying more attention to what God has revealed to us all in His Scriptures about these other amazing species of living beings, that are way cooler than anything we have yet discovered. They should also be learning more about what our Creator is about to do in unleashing the full potential of the capabilities of all the creatures of the Earth! They ought to be twitching with excitement about the fact that the next major change in the animal kingdom is not some so-called evolutionary change…no…the next major change is that ‘peace’ between all creatures in the animal kingdom is about to be restored to what it was at the time when Earth was originally created! Isa 11:6-9- “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.” NASU

That’s what scientists ought to be getting excited about…that’s what they should be writing about in their zoology journals…that’s what they should be getting on National Geographic television programs and telling the world about, right? The whole course and history of the animal kingdom is about to change 180 degrees. Peace in the animal world is about to be restored! The entire animal kingdom and the human kingdom are about to be turned upside down…or we should say, right side up, because ever since the fall both the animal kingdom and the human kingdom have been upside down about everything…especially about humans not sensing, nor serving, nor praising, nor worshiping their Creator.

But all of that is about to change because of this: Rev 5:4-5- “Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” NASU Again, because of sin, mankind lost the right of dominion over the Earth. And Satan has been acting like he’s the master of this world, but he is only a usurper. He is a thief, a counterfeiter, and God has been putting up with his schemes…for now. But Satan’s time is short, and he knows it. And that’s also why the chaos in the world is getting even more chaotic and why the hearts of mankind are getting colder and more hateful. But again, all of that…all of this, is about to change. And it’s about to change because of the Lion from the tribe of Judah, and the Root of David has overcome it all.

Think about that: the Lion from the tribe of Judah and the Root of David. You know, it is beyond fascinating how intricately everything is woven together in the Bible. Remember, Moses recorded that through the seed of Abraham the deliverer, the Messiah would come. And to this Seed would belong the Scepter, which symbolized authority and rule. Notice Num 24:17- “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A star shall come forth from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel…” NASU This was a prophecy about Jesus, whom the Apostle John cited would come from the tribe of Judah. Jacob prophetically gave the scepter to Judah and made it the tribe of the kings. Remember, God never meant for Saul to establish a dynasty, because he came from the tribe of Benjamin. God used Saul to discipline Israel because the people asked for a king; then He gave them David from the tribe of Judah. The kingship was supposed to start with David. But again, notice; the Messiah would also be the Root of David. Now how could Jesus be from the tribe of Judah or from David’s tribe, but also be the root of David’s tribe? That’s what Jesus challenged the Pharisees about when they did not recognize Jesus’ deity as well as His humanity. Notice: Luke 20:41-44- “Then Jesus presented them with a question. “Why is it,” He asked, “that the Messiah is said to be the son of David? For David himself wrote in the book of Psalms: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at My right hand until I humble Your enemies, making them a footstool under Your feet.’Since David called the Messiah ‘Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?” NLT

That is one of the greatest questions ever asked! How could the Messiah be a descendant from David and yet still be David’s ancestor at the same time? How could the Messiah be the son of David, but also be the One who brought David into existence? How could the Messiah come from the tribe of David, but also be the Root of David at the same time? Of course, the Pharisees were dumbfounded by Jesus’ question. You see, the Pharisees had convinced themselves, and others, that the Messiah was only a man. Oh, he would have power from God, but he would only be a man, they taught. (By the way, the Jewish Rabbis still teach this to the Jewish people today.) But Jesus rebuked their distortion of the Scriptures by reminding them that their own King David called the Messiah his Lord. David called the Messiah his God! So how could the Messiah be a human descendant of David, but also be David’s Lord and God as well? And the answer to that was found in the hundreds of prophecies about the fact that God Himself would one day take on human form and become a human Himself. And He had to do so because the only way to redeem humanity from it’s bondage to sin and restore creation from its slavery to corruption was to have a sinless Man, a substitute Adam, live a perfect life of obedience to the perfect law of God, and then die a sacrificial death to remove the spiritual penalty of sin from all those who would repent. And then, this Second Adam would also then be worthy to redeem the earth and take back dominion over all creation. And that’s why we call Him “Savior, Redeemer, Lord, and King”!

No wonder David called for ‘all the creatures of the ocean depths, and the wild animals and domestic animals, and small scurrying animals and birds, and for all the kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth, young men and young women, old men and children to all praise the name of the Lord. For His name is very great; His glory towers over the earth and heaven!’

And such is our God. And this event that John revealed to us here is just on the horizon of Earth’s future. Aren’t you glad you are going to be a part of the redemption of the Earth because you have been redeemed by the Savior and King, our Lord Jesus Christ?

(There is still more we need to uncover in this powerful passage of Revelation 5, so we will plan to do that next time.)

Knowledge and Wisdom

August 7, 2016

Pastor Robert Kornegay

This morning we will briefly explore these two critically important aspects of God’s nature commonly referred to as His omniscience. Our faith and hope in Christ is grounded in our understanding of God’s omniscient nature.

Please join me in reading aloud the Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Christians:

“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him, and the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints….”

(Ephesians 1:17-18 NKJV)

1. Obviously the knowledge of God differs in some important points from human knowledge. God knows Creation as it exists in His own eternal idea prior to its existence as a finite reality in time and space; and that His knowledge is not, like ours, obtained from observation or by a process of reasoning.  It is a knowledge that is characterized by absolute perfection; it is also simultaneous and not successive, so that God sees things at once in their totality, and not piecemeal one after another. Picture in your mind an immensely high mountain in the middle of a vast, open plain. Now imagine yourself standing at the peak of the mountain, and as you enjoy the amazing view you notice train tracks at the base of the mountain stretching out to the horizons. You then see a long train below you passing by the mountain with the smoke from the engine disappearing in the distance one way and the caboose appearing in the distance from the other.

Now imagine you enter a dark cave at the base of the mountain with a narrow opening within a few feet of the train tracks. Imagine yourself looking out of the cave as the long train rushes by. From your vantage point now, you cannot see the beginning or the end of the train, only the blur of the passing cars.

So what’s the moral of our illustration? The knowledge of God is always complete, reflects reality, and is fully conscious, while human knowledge is always partial, frequently indistinct, and often fails to rise into the clear light of consciousness.

Additionally, the knowledge of God is not only perfect in its nature, but also in its inclusiveness. It is called omniscience, because it is all-comprehensive.  He knows all things as they actually come to pass – past, present, and future – and knows them in their real relations. He knows the hidden essence of things, to which the knowledge of man cannot penetrate. The omniscience of God is clearly taught in Scripture, that God sees not as mankind sees, who observe only the outward manifestations of life, but God penetrates to the depths of the human heart. Moreover, God knows what is possible as well as what is actual – all things that might occur under certain circumstances are present to His mind.

2. The wisdom of God may be regarded as a particular aspect of His knowledge.  It is evident that knowledge and wisdom are not the same, though they are closely related, and, in humans, they do not always accompany each other. You may have noticed that an uneducated man may be far superior to a scholar in wisdom. Human knowledge is acquired by study, but human wisdom results from an intuitive insight into things.  Both are imperfect in man, but in God they are characterized by absolute perfection. God’s wisdom points to the fact that He always strives for the best possible ends and chooses the best means for the realization of His purposes. Biblical scholar H. B. Smith defines the divine wisdom as “that attribute of God whereby He produces the best possible results with the best possible means.” It implies a final end to which all secondary ends are subordinate; and according to Scripture this final end is the glory of God. Scripture refers to the wisdom of God in many passages, and even represents it as personified in Proverbs 8.

       1Does not wisdom call,
And understanding lift up her voice?

2On top of the heights beside the way,
Where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

3Beside the gates, at the opening to the city,
At the entrance of the doors, she cries out:

4“To you, O men, I call,
And my voice is to the sons of men.

5“O naive ones, understand prudence;
And, O fools, understand wisdom.

6“Listen, for I will speak noble things;
And the opening of my lips will reveal right things.

7“For my mouth will utter truth;
And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

8“All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness;
There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.

9“They are all straightforward to him who understands,
And right to those who find knowledge.

10“Take my instruction and not silver,
And knowledge rather than choicest gold.

11“For wisdom is better than jewels;
And all desirable things cannot compare with her.

12“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
And I find knowledge and discretion.

13“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;
Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverted mouth, I hate.

14“Counsel is mine and sound wisdom;
I am understanding, power is mine.

15“By me kings reign,
And rulers decree justice.

16“By me princes rule, and nobles,
All who judge rightly.

17“I love those who love me;
And those who diligently seek me will find me.

18“Riches and honor are with me,
Enduring wealth and righteousness.

19“My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold,
And my yield better than choicest silver.

20“I walk in the way of righteousness,
In the midst of the paths of justice,

21To endow those who love me with wealth,
That I may fill their treasuries.

22“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old.

23“From everlasting I was established,
From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.

24“When there were no depths I was brought forth,
When there were no springs abounding with water.

25“Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills I was brought forth;

26While He had not yet made the earth and the fields,
Nor the first dust of the world.

27“When He established the heavens, I was there,
When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,

28When He made firm the skies above,
When the springs of the deep became fixed,

29When He set for the sea its boundary
So that the water would not transgress His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth;

30Then I was beside Him, as a master workman;
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing always before Him,

31Rejoicing in the world, His earth,
And having my delight in the sons of men.

32“Now therefore, O sons, listen to me,
For blessed are they who keep my ways.

33“Heed instruction and be wise,
And do not neglect it.

34“Blessed is the man who listens to me,
Watching daily at my gates,
Waiting at my doorposts.

35“For he who finds me finds life
And obtains favor from the LORD.

36“But he who sins against me injures himself;
All those who hate me love death.”

In closing, when knowledge, wisdom, and omniscience are used in reference to the veracity or truth of God, this is to be understood in its most comprehensive sense:

.  He is the truth in a supernatural sense, that is, He is all that He as the Triune God should be.

. He is the truth in an ethical sense, and as such reveals Himself as He really is, so that His revelation is absolutely reliable.

. He is the truth in a logical sense, and knows things as they really are, and has so designed the mind of man that he can know not merely the appearance, but also the reality, of things.

Therefore, the truth of God is the foundation of all knowledge. Therefore, we may define the truth of God as that divine nature by which He fully confirms the idea of the Godhead, is perfectly reliable in His revelation, and sees things as they really are. It is because of this perfection that He is the source of all truth, not only in the sphere of morals and religion, but also in every field of scientific endeavor.

But there is one other aspect of God’s divine nature, and the one that is of the greatest importance. It is generally called His faithfulness, in which He is mindful to fulfill all the promises He has made to His people. This faithfulness of God is of the utmost practical significance to the people of God. It is the ground of our confidence, the foundation of our hope, and the cause of our rejoicing. God’s faithfulness saves us from the despair our own unfaithfulness might easily lead, gives us courage to carry on in spite of our failures, and fills our hearts with joyful anticipations, even when we are deeply conscious that we fall short of God’s perfect knowledge and wisdom.

Close with the Apostle Paul’s prayer. 

“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him, and the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints….”

(Ephesians 1:17-18 NKJV)

What Does It Mean? Pt. 9

Study Guide – July 31, 2016

Pastor Clay Olsen

I came across some interesting things this week…not very useful, but interesting. Did you know that a baby can cost parents 750 hours of sleep the first year? Most parents already knew that, right? But babies are worth it, of course. How about, did you know that before 1954 stop signs were yellow? What about, where did the word ‘duffel’ in duffel bags come from? It came from the city of Duffel, Belgium, where the cloth was originally made. And then, did you know there’s actually a word to describe the act of stretching and yawning? It’s the word: Pandiculation…it’s what people sometimes do during my sermons…One more…How about this…the first web-cam was used by researchers at Cambridge to monitor the coffee situation in the break room without having to get up from their desks to check on it.¹

My point is that there’s often much more connected to many things we often think we already know about or assume we know about, like for our study today on the concept of ‘Maturity’ or ‘Spiritual Maturity’. Most of us have grown up in this very individualistic culture of America, where independence and self sufficiency is pushed to the max. And so we tend to think about our lives and do life very independently, even when it comes to ‘doing discipleship’. Now as we often stress to Christians, it’s true, no one else can do your discipleship for you. You have to do your discipleship yourself. However, what often gets overlooked, because of our independent lenses through which we look at life, is the fact that in order to do our own discipleship we have to work interdependently with other disciples, not independently apart from other disciples.

Certainly, independence and self sufficiency have their place in productive living. It’s just that they are not intended to take the place of working interdependently through the joint sufficiency that’s required to develop and live out your discipleship. Let’s take a closer look at what we mean about this concept of ‘maturity’. Eph 4:11-16- “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” NASU