Bible

Do You Understand The Covenants?

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Do You Understand The Covenants?

There are two covenants in the Bible, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. What is important is that you understand that the Old Testament is not exactly the same as the Old Covenant. The same is true in that the New Testament is not exactly the same as the New Covenant.

In the Old Testament it is recorded that the Old Covenant was an agreement between God and the people of Israel. In the New Testament it is recorded that the New Covenant is an agreement between God and Jesus Christ.  This means that in order for you and me to have salvation, we must be united with Jesus Christ. As the Book of Ephesians says many times: “all those who are in Christ have salvation.”

Hebrews 8:13 NKJ 13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The New Testament reveals and explains the New Covenant very well. The New Covenant did not begin until after the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. The New Covenant was not sealed until the precious blood of Jesus Christ was shed and He paid the price for the remission of sins for all who confess and believe in Him. Jesus said that the New Covenant involved His blood being shed on the Cross of Calvary.

MATTHEW 26:28 NKJ 28 “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

HEBREWS 9:14-17 NASB 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. 17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.

You may ask why this is so important.  Because the Bible says that we need to rightly divide the Word of God. 2 Timothy 2:15 NIV 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

How can you have a clear understanding of the New Covenant and what the New Covenant is about if it is confusing to you? One of the main problems is that many teach different things regarding what is in good standing with God. One of the trends today is to preach and teach a feel good way of life. In these types of messages, the message of Jesus Christ is seldom emphasized. I must ask why the core of our salvation is taken away from the truth.

I believe that one of the best explanations of the New Covenant is found in the Book of Ephesians. The phrase “in Christ” is found 28 times. You must ask, why the Apostle Paul brought this to our attention so many times. A person must realize that Jesus is the Truth.

Let us look in Matthew 19:16 the rich young ruler asked Jesus what to do so he could have eternal life. Jesus’ answer in Matthew 19:17 to “keep the commandments” is much different than the answer in Acts 16:31 which says simply to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved,” or 1 John 5:13 which says those who believe in the Son of God may know they have eternal life. In Matthew Jesus is speaking under the Old Covenant. In Acts and 1 John Jesus is speaking under the New Covenant. Although we must not ignore what Jesus said under the Old Covenant, we must realize that we live under Grace and not under the Law.

Under the Old Covenant, keeping the commandments was required as the way to have good standing with God. Under the New Covenant, good standing with God is a gift which comes with believing in Jesus Christ  (Romans 5:17-18, 2 Corinthians 5:21).

In Hebrews 8:6 it says that the New Covenant was established on better promises through Jesus. ROMANS 6:23 NKJ 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If a person is not careful, they can misunderstand the true message of Jesus Christ. We need to realize that there was a dramatic change due to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His teaching changed between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

After Jesus ascended into Heaven, He continued to speak to us through His apostles by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, mainly by the recordings of the letters to the church, Romans through Revelation in the New Testament. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are about the life of Jesus. Acts is the history of the beginning of the Church.

The truth of understanding only comes through the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit only comes to those who have confessed their sins and received and believed in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior according to John 3:3 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Don’t be misled by thinking that Jesus is done speaking. If that were so then there would be no need for the Holy Spirit who speaks to those who have come to know Jesus as their Savior. What a promise God has given to them who know Jesus as their Savior in Hebrews 10:16-17 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Praise the Lord for the New Covenant. Love to all.

Are You Willing To Change?

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ARE YOU WILLING TO CHANGE?

Before I begin my post, I want to say that I am not out to condemn anyone regardless of your position regarding your beliefs on God, Jesus, or Christianity. You are free to believe whatever you want. You will stand before God on judgment day just as I will and answer for what you did with your life here on earth.

I am a sinner that God has shown His mercy upon. He has been with me even when I was not with Him. I have failed Him many, many times with my worldly and fleshly desires. Although I walked in my desires, I knew that there was something missing because of a nagging feeling that keep speaking to me. What is amazing is that God never stopped loving me nor did He ever leave me.

I was raised in a Christian environment. I went to Sunday School, Church, Youth Group meetings. I was baptized when I was 12 years old. I received Jesus Christ as my Savior when I was 19. Now, if you look at this picture, you will realize that something is not in order according to the Scriptures. Just out of High School, I started to follow my dreams. My life seemed to be going well. I meet my wife and we eloped to New York State as she was not of the legal age of 21 in Pennsylvania. We eventually had four daughters and life seemed to going well. By the way, we will be celebrating our 58th wedding anniversary this year.

I had become a journeyman carpenter and then life seemed to start having problems. It seemed that I was unemployed more than I was employed. I left Pennsylvania and traveled to New Mexico in search of work. I returned to PA and returned to NM within a 5 year time frame. While living in New Mexico I received a job offer to become a police officer in PA. I accepted and moved back to PA. I missed NM and decided I wanted to move back so I applied to the New Mexico State Police and was accepted to enter their Academy. I graduated and I thought life was going to get better. It did for a while and then it seemed that my life was falling apart.

I have to say that during all this time that God was with me and trying to persuade me to come back to Him. Because of my selfish ambitions I continued to ignore Him but not totally as I would go to Church occasionally. I guess that my little interest in God and Jesus that He stayed with me. I have to say that there was a lot more in my life of ups and downs that I will not go into at this time. 

Well, God let me have my way until I came to the conclusion that I needed to get right with my Savior Jesus Christ. One day I was home alone and God really spoke to me and convinced me that I needed to change my way of living. I got down on my knees and prayed and poured out my heart to Him asking that He forgive me of my sinful ways and for not following Him. I wept like a baby. At this time God took over my life and I found a Bible teaching Church and rededicated my life to Christ my Savior. I was baptized again and entered His service. I graduated from Bible College and became His servant..

Before I went into His service, I had another moving experience. I was listening to a cassette tape on brokenness while traveling in my car. At the end of the message the speaker ask if there was anyone who would consider the invitation to be broken. I asked God to break me. Well, He did and I began to cry out loud, asking God to take my life and do as He wished. I had to pull over to the side of the road as I did not have control of myself. This experience lasted about 45 minutes. This was a life changing time that I will forever cherish. Finally, I was back on the right road where God was and still is guiding my direction.

I want everyone to know that I still fall and stumble as I walk with my Lord and Savior. The joy I have now is that I know Jesus is with me in everything even though it may not be according to His way. He will correct the wrong way through His love for me and for you. I know that He took all my bad and took it to the cross so I may be made clean. What is so great, He will continue to do so until I join Him in His Kingdom. Because of sin in this world there will always be ups and downs. With Jesus in your life, let Him take care of it.

You see, I had to change and come to realize that there was no hope in the road of life that I choose to travel. The only hope anyone has lies with Jesus Christ. No one can enter God’s Kingdom except through the salvation of Jesus Christ. It is a free gift if you are willing to accept Him as your Savior and change your thinking and life to coincide with His. Don’t take my word for it, all you need to do is read the Bible and it is explained in great detail.

Are you willing to make a change in your life that is guaranteed to bring you peace and joy? I hope everyone does so that they will join me in Jesus’ Kingdom for eternity. Don’t let pride or misguided information cause you to miss the greatest opportunity to rest in God’s presence. Jesus loves you and so do I.

 

WHERE IS YOUR BIBLE?

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WHERE IS YOUR BIBLE?

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If you have a Bible and I’m assuming you do as a poll shows that almost everyone has at least one Bible and some have at least four, where is it? Is it hidden away or on a shelf gathering dust? A poll shows that people realize that the Bible has value that would help them in their daily lives and spiritually, but they just don’t read it. The majority (57%) only read the Bible four times a year or less and then only in a crises. Only (26%) read it more often. What category do you fall in? You may ask, how many Bibles do I have, dozens, and many different translations along with many study aids such as commentaries, dictionaries, concordances, etc.

It is evident that America is in a moral decline. It appears that the Bible has little influence on our society today. According to a poll, a third of our population believe that the moral decline is due to lack of reading the Bible. I have to agree as in my almost 80 years, I have witnessed events that have altered the course of this country. I remember when I was in school, we learned the Lord’s Prayer, pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, learned patriotic songs of our country. We crossed our hearts when the Star Spangled Banner was played or removed our hats when the great USA Flag went by. In just my short span in life, there has been disregard for such things and is growing worse each day.

Our younger generation (18 – 28) seem to be moving away from having any connection with the Bible. It may be due to fact that parents ‘are too busy’ with their own desires that have neglected the importance of the Bible. Regardless of the reason, we are becoming a nation of biblical illiterates. The general pattern is evident in the way people are compromising God’s standards in areas of homosexuality, marriage, drugs and alcohol use, sexuality, language, and the list goes on and on.

I want to share a few Bible verses that may show how important the Bible is:

Matthew 4:4 (NIV) 4 Jesus answered, it is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

John 15:7 (NIV) if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 4:12 (NIV) for the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

1 Peter 2:2 (NIV) like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.

I want to add that the Bible has an answer for any subject that you may have a question. It is important that you realize that in order for you to understand the true meaning of God’s Word you must have given yourself to Jesus Christ by a born again experience. The truth of this can be found in the Gospel of John chapter 3 especially in verses 3 thru 7 and it comes from Jesus himself. In order for a person to know the truth of the Bible, they must have the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit only comes to those that have received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Notice that I included Lord as that is what Christ expects to be in your life. Don’t be misled by thinking that you can worship God and worldly things at the same time. It has to be one or the other as God is a jealous God.

Today, pick up that Bible and read what God is saying to everyone. If you have a hard to understand or hard to read Bible, get yourself an easy to understand version of the Bible so you are not discouraged and neglect one of the most important areas of your life. Love to all.

HAPPINESS vs. JOY

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HAPPINESS vs. JOY

Is there a difference between Happiness and Joy?

The dictionary definition of happiness is, a state of well-being, enjoyment, a pleasurable or satisfying experience. The definition of the word rejoice, from which our word joy comes from means to feel great delight or to be glad. The Bible uses the word “happy” and “happiness” about 30 times. The word “joy or “rejoice” appears over 300 times. In the Bible. Let’s look at some of the verses so we can understand the difference between happiness and joy.

Psalm 144:15 (KJV) Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. Most often people search for happiness in all the wrong places and it is usually temporary, it last for a short time. This verse says that true happiness is only found in God.

Let us look at the word joy. The word “joy” comes from the Greek root word chara and means “to be exceedingly glad. I know that I am exceedingly glad that I have found the love of my Savior, Jesus Christ and the joy He provides.

James 1:2 (NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds. Your first reaction to this verse is going to be, how is going through trials and difficulties a reason to feel joy? The answer follows in James1:3-4, knowing that the testing of our faith produces perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. You only become mature when you feed on God’s Word. It needs to be a daily habit. Happiness depends on temporal factors and other people as joy does not.

Joy is true contentment that comes from internal factors like faith in Jesus Christ. We need to realize that true joy does not come from circumstances. The Apostle Paul teaches us that we are to have true contentment in Jesus Christ despite our circumstances. Read the first chapter of Philippians. Either we are going to trust Jesus to find true joy or we are going to depend on ourselves to find a fleeting happiness. If you believe that you can have both, you are sadly mistaken. True joy is based on our relationship with Jesus Christ. If you want that pure joy and have not received Jesus Christ as your Savior, confess you are a sinner and ask Him to come into your life. It is a free gift. It is everlasting. Love to all.

ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT COURSE?

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ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT COURSE?

I am sure most of us like to travel and see beautiful sights, explore and find exciting things. The great USA has a lot to offer as an example. I have seen a lot of this great country, not as much as I would like but I am still alive and who knows. When we travel we must take a certain course to reach a certain destiny. In order to become a born again believer, a person must take a certain course to reach that destiny. My question today is, are you on the right course? Let us look at some Scripture in order to help you determine if you are on the right course.

JAMES 3:2-5 NIV 2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. 3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.

Are the words you speak directing your life? I can assure you that the Bible says they are. What you say determines what you get in life. It did for the people of Israel. And the Bible says the things which happened to them are lessons for us (1 Corinthians 10:11).

I’m sure that many times the words you speak may in a joking manner or they may be said without thinking. Jesus said you will have what you say. He is telling us that the words we say set the course of our life. I want to point out a real important lesson regarding what you speak. For example if you curse someone, for whatever reason, the devil can take those words and use them against the person and against you. Another example is you speak negatively about something or someone, it will most often become a negative situation because the devil is out to cause trouble in any way he can. Satan uses our words to attack us. If you pray for someone or something and implement any negative words with your prayer, it most likely will not have a positive effect. Satan is looking for any way to destroy your faith or belief in God and he does so through the words you speak.

In what form you express or believe your words, the power behind them will drive you to your destination very quickly. The Book of Proverbs on several occasions calls a person a fool that cannot control their tongue. Words spoken by your tongue express your beliefs and release authority in your life. This works for everyone, whether they realize it or not. Now that you know this truth, act on it. Ask the Lord to help you always speak the right words to steer your life to victory. Love to all.