John Gordon Comments
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No matter the “season:” remain mindful of God’s Promise (Titus 1:2)!
One such dark time in history not only for Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us, but for a couple of thieves is depicted in Luke 23:39-43.
One thief, driven by God’s Spirit, acknowledged Jesus, asked to be forgiven, understood the fear of God, and was inspired to remind us of God’s promise of a future kingdom.
The thieves could have focused on their upcoming dirt-naps, a cat-of-nine-tails, or even Jesus’s visage, His flesh ripped apart, etc., but God inspired we consider other details.
When that thief opens his eyes again, it is going to seem like the same day, isn’t it? And he is going to be in the kingdom of God. What might he say? Speculating some here, he may say: “I know that man! That is Jesus, and He is sitting on the right hand of God! That’s our Father, and He brought us back to life, and Jesus didn’t lie to me, because today I am in paradise!”
Dark days of tribulation are temporary, but we may take these inspired words of the Bible (and there are many more examples) and envision a promised future, because God’s kingdom is going to be so opposite of virtually everything we experience today!
Comment was made saying: "...there is a way to lasting peace and prosperity, but it...only comes from writing the laws of God on our hearts..."
But one must first be drawn/dragged, turned to God! Peace is a fruit of God's Spirit: not something of self. Without God's Spirit this world, no one, would turn to God:
“Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive...” John 14:17
Still, God's desire is: “...that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3: 9
Only God, by His Spirit, grants/gives repentance to Israel, Gentiles, anyone!
Thankfully, "Man’s goings are of the LORD..." Proverbs 20:24
Isaiah knew: "LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in [[margin: for]] us." Isaiah 26:12
God does that for us and provides peace; we need God's Spirit (Zech 4:6), like being the workmanship (or, clay Isa 64:8) of His hands.
A link shows God's Spirit is needed to keep God's laws?
"And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes...keep my judgments, and do them." Ezek 36:27
Done deal and Lamentations 5:21?
“Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.”
God will turn us to Him!
Several comments stated: "...Dreams are nothing more than hope, and hope is something we all need...We cannot become close to God by just believing...Christians want to reach the final goal...to be part of God’s Kingdom..."
This dream of that final goal is achievable if/when one is drawn (John 6:44, 12:32) by God via His Spirit thru His Son (I Cor 8:6), but believing is also something we need: "And what [is] the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power," Eph 1:19
Hope is also necessary: "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy [[Spirit]] which is given unto us." Ro 5:5
Yes, both are achievable by God's Spirit: "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 2 Co 1:22
In fact, God strengthens one: "...with might by His Spirit in the inner man;" Eph 3:16
And associated with this dream will also be: "...righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy [[Spirit]].” Ro 14:17
Is God faithful to work out this dream? Yes, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it]..." Phil 1:6; I Thes 5:24
Concluding paragraph encourages us to: "...learn from the midwives. Let's fear ...honor ...follow God. And let's sigh with relief at the freeing thought of fearing only God Almighty..."
Oh, if only the world could/would do that, what a world this would be, but it can't choose to!
Solomon told us that fear of God was part of the conclusion of our whole duty, but God has not given us the spirit of fear! Oh, that is a different kind of fear and different from the fear of God.
So, how does one learn this "fear of God" and how do you know you have it? It is a fruit of God's Spirit and must be given to us as a gift. How so? Think about love: what is it? Godly love, a fruit of God's Spirit (Gal 5:22), is something that God chooses to give to one sealed as a Firstfruit, and one will learn to hate evil. Huh? Yes!
"Ye that love the LORD, hate evil:" Pslm 97: 10
Only God can choose to give one both fruits of love and fear of the LORD.
We also learn to know that: "The fear of the LORD [is] to hate evil:..." Proverbs 8:13
So, yes, desire to have that fear of the LORD, His Godly love, and it will become evident in our lives as we learn daily to hate evil. Let’s thank God Almighty!
Comment was made saying: "...The pleasing part of this mindset is that God loves to see it and He will always add to our positive efforts and light the path before our feet..."
I also find Paul's encouragement very encouraging, especially with the following three scriptures to complement what already has been written:
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure." Phil 2:13
And that good pleasure pleases God, and gives us much encouragement and confidence in the following:
"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:" Phil 1:6
Paul says a similar thing, with different words, in I Thess 5:24
"Faithful [is] he that calleth you, who also will do [it]."
Our loving Father is an incredible addition to each of our lives!
Well, one other verse from the OT by Isaiah spoke of our Father this way:
"But now, O LORD, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter; and we all [are] the work of thy hand." Isaiah 64:8
Thank God with His additions, because He does like to add in each of our lives!
Micah said: “..Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. But everyone shall sit under his vine and.. fig tree..”
You wrote: “It will take time to reach a point where everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree..”, but when?
Revelation 20:7 “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom [is] as the sand of the sea.”
So war will be learned after Satan is loosed from the bottomless pit, but that day of the Vine and Fig tree will come!
You wrote: "We don’t know how God will achieve it."
But God is in the details of how it will be achieved and, most importantly, He will achieve it:
Ezekiel 36:28 “And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
:30 “And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field..”
:36 “..This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden..”
:37 “..I the LORD build..plant..I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.”
Comment was made saying: "...The free gift of grace through Christ is there for the taking—but only if we pay the cost. We need to believe in this gift, repent...be baptized and then live..." etc.
Scriptures indicate God's free gift of grace is not available for the taking. God is love. God is give, and by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6), His will is accomplished through Jesus Christ: "But to us [there is but] one God, the Father, of whom [are] all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [are] all things, and we by Him." I Cor 8:6
Grace begins with God the Father, and not by an individual's taking, stealing, robbing anything "of God." Neither Christ nor God's liberty are available to an individual unless/until God the Father draws/drags (John 6:44, 12:32) one to Christ, but God the Father must always first initiate the process.
"Pay the cost" does not enter the picture, and we may be confident that God "...which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:" [{perform: or, finish }] Phil 1:6
God's Spirit makes us: "...believe, according to the working of His mighty power, [{his mighty power: Gr. the might of His power}] Eph 1:19
Regarding why Jesus observed the Sabbath, what did Jesus say/do? The God, His Father, was always uppermost in Jesus' mind and Jesus always shared with us His Father's words:
"He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me." John 14:24
Jesus took no credit for His words, but was faithful to His Father's words, and that includes any words relative to God's Sabbaths.
What did Jesus do, whether it was a Sabbath, or anything in His life? Again, He told us:
John 14:10 "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."
Jesus was the workmanship of God's hands and Jesus took no credit for any works done in His life.
Like Jesus we ought to appreciate God, the Father, for providing us His Son as an example to help us understand God's Sabbath, the seventh day, a day so significant in God's plan of salvation that it was not necessary to say "And the evening and the morning were the seventh day."
Oh, if He "saw you sitting in church on Sunday He" would recognize you: if it were Pentecost.
Comment was made saying: "...Our brain’s response to social media falls into the fight or flight responses needed when we are in danger. You are no longer thinking, just acting. Don’t let the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) control how you handle others.
“But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (Galatians 5:15)…"
Whenever other people are involved in our lives, whether one is thinking and/or acting at the moment regarding anything, I especially have found it very ViTAl to keep in mind the following verses for our own admonition:
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]." [{flesh … : Gr. blood and flesh }] [{spiritual … : or, wicked spirits }] [{high: or, heavenly } Ephesians 6:12
"He that committeth sin is of the devil;..." I John 3:8
Why keep those verses in mind?
"And [that] they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." [{recover … : Gr. awake }] [{taken … : Gr. taken alive } 2 Tim 2:26
We still live in a world held captive!
Jesus Christ, the prophesied Lamb to be slain from the foundation of the world, the First of God's sealed Firstfruits, was filled with all of the fruit of God's Spirit, including love. That was all part of God's gift of love to benefit all of us; however, Jesus knew about the generation of our enemies (Eph 6:12).
Stephen also had the same knowledge: read Stephen's similar words prior to his death:
"And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." Acts 7:60
Jesus and Stephen knew not to be bitter against flesh and blood! Jesus gave us details in Matt 23!
:34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and [some] of them ye shall kill and crucify; and [some] of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute [them] from city to city:
:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Jesus knew scribes and/or Pharisees did not shed blood from Abel to Zacharias; it was done by an evil generation of bitter spirits.
We focus on God's done-deal Kingdom to come, knowing we are as much passing guests here on earth as were Christ's disciples, but Jesus promised something that didn’t need their attention and work:
John 14:2 "...I go to prepare a place for you."
:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also."
Additionally, Paul told us about an acceptable spiritual house being built:
I Peter 2:5 “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house…acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. "
How made acceptable to God? One must be God’s workmanship (Eph 2:10) with grace!
Eph 1:6 “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
When God begins/starts (John 6:44) to make a lively stone accepted (Eph 1:6), then He will perform: finish/complete (Phil 1:6) it. He will even provide the “to will/to do!”
Phil 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
When God, by the power of His Spirit, permits this to happen it will be a done-deal, b/c He does it!
“Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” I Thess 5:24; Dt 29:4
This article shows forgiveness is powerful, and it is; however, Brandt thought the better thing for Aber Guyger was that she: “..give her life to Christ.., which is impossible for her to do (John 6:44, 65).
Thank God for His forgiveness, which is a done deal for those 2 thieves crucified beside Jesus.
Stephan (Acts 7:60) was aware of forgiveness towards those who were in the process of murdering him. What confidence Jesus, Stephan and Paul displayed! Paul? Yes!
"To wit, that God was in Christ (John 3:16-17; 7:21), reconciling the world unto himself (I John 2:2), NOT imputing their trespasses unto them;..." 2 Corinthians 5:19.
Reconciling is not all that God does. God does have the power of resurrection whereby Botham Jean, Brandt, Amber will again see one another; a big group hug is in store for them (just like there will be between Cain and Abel). Talk about forgiveness? Talk about grace!
And for those inside and outside that Dallas courtroom? In that same great Last Day there will be shock and awe, as all will acknowledge God’s forgiveness:
“But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” Isaiah 64:8
And with every passing day, we are one more day closer to that Great Day:
Revelation 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God.
:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
In the meantime, we're learning to hate evil, and all of the pain and suffering associated with it:
Psalm 97:10 "Ye that love the LORD, hate evil:..."
Proverbs 8:13 "The fear of the LORD [is] to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate."
In God's PLan of Salvation there seems to be a purpose for everything, even the following:
"The LORD hath made all [things] for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." Proverbs 16:4
One comment said "...We learn great lessons when we suffer. Patience, determination, consideration and developing a feeling toward others who also suffer are some of the benefits..."
And if those weren't enough lessons/benefits for suffering, we may consider the following words from the Apostle Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus, to those of God's Church of the Thessalonians:
2 Thess 1:2 Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
:3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;
:4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
:5 [Which is] a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
Suffer and be counted worthy!
:11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of [this] calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of [his] goodness, and the work of faith with power:
All done according to grace :12
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Lena wrote: "...We know so much about the development of a baby in the womb; we know that the baby has it's own distinct DNA from conception. ... The Bible and science both back the claim that human life begins at conception, rather than at first breath..."
And all life begins with God: "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?" Malachi 2:10
It does not matter whether people acknowledge that today, or not:
Isaiah 63:16 "Doubtless thou [art] our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, [art] our father, our redeemer; thy name [is] from everlasting."
Eventually, a day is coming when all will acknowledge that life comes from God. It will be especially obvious to all who are resurrected.
Isaiah 64:8 "But now, O LORD, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter; and we all [are] the work of thy hand."
DNA? We all have some of that DNA/genes in each of us from Adam and Eve. We are made in God's image.
God's Word gives us all the more reason why we should "love one another!"
John