Prophecy is one of the most powerful ways for the christian to share his or her faith. But before you can share that faith it must be learned by the believer himself. God in his WORD from the beginning has made it abundantly clear that his WORD will stand forever. God as our father loves us so much that he would never leave us to fend for ourselves, leave us wondering aimlessly in the wilderness of the worldviews, or swimming through the seas of bad doctrine which simply means "teachings" without giving us a compass for the truth. Jesus said that he was the "TRUTH". I suppose anyone can make that claim, but its a whole different ballgame when your asked to prove it. Jesus was asked by the pharasees, "the religious leaders of his day", what will you do to prove you have the authority to do all these things, after clearing out the temple in the gospels, because they were making money off of the name of God, rather than worshipping him. Jesus then answered. "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." What he ment was, i will show you by what authority i have to do all these things, when you murder me i will raise myself from the dead in three days to prove my claims to diety." And this is exactally what he did. Of course this whole event was Prophecied hundreds even thousands of years before Jesus was even born. His birth, life, minisrty, death, and ressurection all foretold, and all perfectly fullfilled. Jesus said concerning himself, "These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms had to be fulfilled." Bible prophecy is just one of the ways that we as christians can prove that the bible is divine rather than human in origin, and a pillar we can trust in that strengthens our faith. The bible being split into two parts, the OLD and NEW testiment is a book unlike any other, and within its pages is a tapistry of prophetic predictions that wieve into the most unbelievable portrate of the life of one man JESUS CHRIST. To give you just one example that every single proffesing christian should know is a prophecy written by the prophet Isaiah in the old testiment. Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of four kings: Uzziah (also known as Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. According to tradition, he was martyred during the reign of Manasseh, who came to the throne in 687 BC, by being cut in two by a wooden saw. Isaiah almost 700 years before Jesus Christ was even born prophecied of his coming, and his suffering in intricate detail as chronicled in chapter 53 of his book. Here is the prophecy.
Isaiah 53 "700 BC"
"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his escendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." This is such a powerful prediction of the coming Christ, and so detailed in his sufferings, it cant be just brushed of as coinceidence. Another prophecy about Christ in Isaiah can be found in chapter 50.
Isaiah 50:6
"I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting." and yet another.
Isaiah 52:13
"The Suffering and Glory of the Servant. See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him - his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness- so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand."
In like manner all of the prophets have much to say about the coming of the Christ. Here is another prophecy from the prophet Zechariah.
Zechariah 12:10-14 "520 BC"
Zechariah 12:10-14 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. "
These prophecies concerning the first coming of Jesus Christ are beyond vauge generalities, they are very detailed, in every way. From how he feels, to what they would do to him physically, the whipping of the back, the pulling of the bierd, the casting lots for his clothes, and even the crucifiction, detailed in the fact that they pierced his hands and his feet. Mind you at the time this prophecy was written crucifiction hadent even been invented yet by the persians which was then adpoted by the romans. Statistics alone demand a verdict other than chance.
So how does prophecy continue to be relevent and meaningful for us living today in this post-modern, post-christian culture that we live in? In ways you could never have imagined. We are now looking back from the standpoint of the cross, and the first coming being fullfilled, but at the same time we are now looking forward to his second coming, and just like the prophets gave hundreds of predictions that were signs of the first coming, there are even more with regard to his second coming. Jesus told us "When you see all these things, know the time is near, even at the door." What signs was jesus eluding too? Many of them, that are now all being fullfilled, all at the same time in one generation. This is exactally what Chrsit told us to watch for.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
So Heavenly Minded, No Earthly Good.
Over the course of my Christian walk I have been on the mountain peaks and through the valleys, like all my brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the greatest truths about our blessed faith is that we have been made righteous not because of what we have done, but because of what God's Son did for us on our behalf by embrassing the cross. I know first hand what it's like to experience the closeness of My Father and the Oneness that can be walked out, and I also know what it feels like to pray and feel that my prayers are landing on God's closed ears. All of these experiences are tests, trials, and are designed by God to grow us up. I must confess that even though I know God loves me, and the Word has promised that he will never leave me, I don't always "feel" that way, but thanks be to Christ that my faith, and the Truth of it's claims don't rest in the fragile vace of my feelings which are blow and tossed by the winds of the world, but on the rock solid words of my Lord Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our faith, who proved his claims about himself by his historical and evidential resurrection from the grave . We have been born into an exciting time in history, and we are closer than ever to Christ's second coming, so with that in mind my question to you and myself is this: How shoud we live in this depraved culture? Christ said that we are the "salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" and with all sincerity he could have only said that about us, if "He" were living in us by the power of his loving Spirit.
Brothers and Sisters i challenge all who confess Christ's name to trust him more today than you did yesterday, and to give someone a glass of water in the name of Christ. Lets be "REAL" christians and not the "Luke-warm" worldy people that we can so easily be. The grace of God is upon us not because of our goodness, for the word says that "God displayed his love toward us in this, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us"! Lord Please help us to become less, so you can become more. Being the son of a great bible teacher, my father Frank has always taught me the one truth about Jesus, and that one truth was always lived out clearly in his life so simple but so profound. That truth is this: To Love One Another! People lets rise up in this generation and throw off everything that hinders us. The drugs, sex, materialism, man-made tradition, false-religion, the drive to have more of the world rather than to have more of God. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Let us never be like the pharisees who praised God with thier lips, but there hearts were far from him. There truly is nothing new under the sun, but with the SON his mercies are new every morning. My heart breaks because of the selfishness in my heart, I need God to truly take my heart of "STONE" and replace it with a heart of "LOVE".
Being raised with bible prophecy as my main study by default because of my fathers ministry, I for many years was always looking up into the sky for Christs return, which is good. But I fear that if we dont ever bring our eyes back to this lost world so that Jesus can show us his heart for the dying people he wants to save, we truly have missed the heart of Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I also know that if we don't work out the great commission, we ourselves in our own spirits will die along with all the rest. What I mean by that is this: God made us to be "Living", "Walking", "Talking", testiments of his Son to a lost world, and if we aren't like Paul the Apostle said "being poured out like a drink offering" than what exactally are we doing? More than likely we are living for our own idols, and not the One True God! This is my heart, to be in Gods will for my life, and to be used by him to advance the "Kingdom of Light", in a dark world. Lets be who he called all of us to be, his hands to give a thirsty person water to drink, his feet to walk with someone down the path of life who is all alone, his mouth to preach the good news of the gospel even if it costs us everything. Paul was so right when he called himself the "Cheif of Sinners", but with the same breath we are also called the righteousness of God. I love the Gospel for it is the power of God for all who believe, and a stumbling block to the proud. I love you all. Lets walk it out in Faith, in Hope and in Love, Adam.
Please click here if you want to be edified, and encourage to truly live for Christ! But i warn you this is the real thing folks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8
Also as an FYI anything in red is a link to a video for your edification so please watch them!
Brothers and Sisters i challenge all who confess Christ's name to trust him more today than you did yesterday, and to give someone a glass of water in the name of Christ. Lets be "REAL" christians and not the "Luke-warm" worldy people that we can so easily be. The grace of God is upon us not because of our goodness, for the word says that "God displayed his love toward us in this, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us"! Lord Please help us to become less, so you can become more. Being the son of a great bible teacher, my father Frank has always taught me the one truth about Jesus, and that one truth was always lived out clearly in his life so simple but so profound. That truth is this: To Love One Another! People lets rise up in this generation and throw off everything that hinders us. The drugs, sex, materialism, man-made tradition, false-religion, the drive to have more of the world rather than to have more of God. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Let us never be like the pharisees who praised God with thier lips, but there hearts were far from him. There truly is nothing new under the sun, but with the SON his mercies are new every morning. My heart breaks because of the selfishness in my heart, I need God to truly take my heart of "STONE" and replace it with a heart of "LOVE".
Being raised with bible prophecy as my main study by default because of my fathers ministry, I for many years was always looking up into the sky for Christs return, which is good. But I fear that if we dont ever bring our eyes back to this lost world so that Jesus can show us his heart for the dying people he wants to save, we truly have missed the heart of Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I also know that if we don't work out the great commission, we ourselves in our own spirits will die along with all the rest. What I mean by that is this: God made us to be "Living", "Walking", "Talking", testiments of his Son to a lost world, and if we aren't like Paul the Apostle said "being poured out like a drink offering" than what exactally are we doing? More than likely we are living for our own idols, and not the One True God! This is my heart, to be in Gods will for my life, and to be used by him to advance the "Kingdom of Light", in a dark world. Lets be who he called all of us to be, his hands to give a thirsty person water to drink, his feet to walk with someone down the path of life who is all alone, his mouth to preach the good news of the gospel even if it costs us everything. Paul was so right when he called himself the "Cheif of Sinners", but with the same breath we are also called the righteousness of God. I love the Gospel for it is the power of God for all who believe, and a stumbling block to the proud. I love you all. Lets walk it out in Faith, in Hope and in Love, Adam.
Please click here if you want to be edified, and encourage to truly live for Christ! But i warn you this is the real thing folks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8
Also as an FYI anything in red is a link to a video for your edification so please watch them!
Friday, October 17, 2008
Jesus Christs Words Fact or Fiction?
Jesus Christ the man of all men. I remember when Christ asked Peter the mother of all questions, "who do men say that i am"? Peter replied, "some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say The Prophet." Then Jesus looked at Peter and said, "who do you say that i am?", and Peter answered, "you are the Christ the Son of God." Jesus then turned to Peter and said to him, "blessed are you for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven." And from that day on Jesus began telling them the manner in which he would die for the sins we have all committed.
Listen to the words of Malcolm Muggeridge, a man who lived a repribate lifestyle, a man who loved being a peddler with words, a man who found Christ in his latter years, after having much worldy success. Please listen to these words.
"We look back upon history, and what do we see? Empires rising and falling. Revolutions and Counterrevolutions. Wealth accumulated and wealth disbursed. Shakespeare has written of the rise and fall of great ones, that ebb and flow with the moon. I look back upon my own fellow countrymen, once upon a time dominating a quarter of the world, most of them convinced, in the words of what is still a popular song, that the God who made them mighty, shall make them mightier yet.
I've heard a crazed, cracked Austrian announce to the world the establishment of a Reich that would last a thousand years. I have seen an Italian clown say he was going to stop and restart the calendar with his own ascension to power. I've heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin, acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than Ashoka.
I have seen America, wealthier and in terms of military weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that had the American people so desired, they could have outdone a Caesar, or an Alexander in the range and scale of their conquests.
All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind. England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades. America haunted by fears of running our of those precious fluids that keeps their motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate. All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind.
Behind the debris of these solemn supermen, and self-styled imperial diplomatists, there stands the gigantic figure of one, because of whom, by whom, in whom and through whom alone, mankind may still have peace: The person of Jesus Christ. I present him as the way, the truth, and the life." WOW! What a most profound statement.
Jesus Christ: his birth, life, death on the cross, and ressurection, where all foretold by the prophets hundreds and thousands of years before he was born, in intricate detail. From Genesis to Malachi. The reality is Jesus Christ is either who he claimed to be or he isn't. There trully is no middle ground. The matter couldnt have been written any better than in this statement made by famed C.S. Lewis titled:
"Jesus Christ--a good moral teacher?"
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a good moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
The reason ive decided to begin writing this blog is because i believe that the man Jesus Christ will soon be returning to the earth to save those that are his and bring true justice into the world that he created. Its my deepest hope that by sharing my thoughts with the world about Christ that i might touch a life for his glory, that you may know him, and that he may set you free.
Listen to the words of Malcolm Muggeridge, a man who lived a repribate lifestyle, a man who loved being a peddler with words, a man who found Christ in his latter years, after having much worldy success. Please listen to these words.
"We look back upon history, and what do we see? Empires rising and falling. Revolutions and Counterrevolutions. Wealth accumulated and wealth disbursed. Shakespeare has written of the rise and fall of great ones, that ebb and flow with the moon. I look back upon my own fellow countrymen, once upon a time dominating a quarter of the world, most of them convinced, in the words of what is still a popular song, that the God who made them mighty, shall make them mightier yet.
I've heard a crazed, cracked Austrian announce to the world the establishment of a Reich that would last a thousand years. I have seen an Italian clown say he was going to stop and restart the calendar with his own ascension to power. I've heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin, acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than Ashoka.
I have seen America, wealthier and in terms of military weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that had the American people so desired, they could have outdone a Caesar, or an Alexander in the range and scale of their conquests.
All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind. England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades. America haunted by fears of running our of those precious fluids that keeps their motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate. All in one lifetime, all in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind.
Behind the debris of these solemn supermen, and self-styled imperial diplomatists, there stands the gigantic figure of one, because of whom, by whom, in whom and through whom alone, mankind may still have peace: The person of Jesus Christ. I present him as the way, the truth, and the life." WOW! What a most profound statement.
Jesus Christ: his birth, life, death on the cross, and ressurection, where all foretold by the prophets hundreds and thousands of years before he was born, in intricate detail. From Genesis to Malachi. The reality is Jesus Christ is either who he claimed to be or he isn't. There trully is no middle ground. The matter couldnt have been written any better than in this statement made by famed C.S. Lewis titled:
"Jesus Christ--a good moral teacher?"
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a good moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
The reason ive decided to begin writing this blog is because i believe that the man Jesus Christ will soon be returning to the earth to save those that are his and bring true justice into the world that he created. Its my deepest hope that by sharing my thoughts with the world about Christ that i might touch a life for his glory, that you may know him, and that he may set you free.
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