From Gary... Without the foam, please!!!

I have seen pictures from the inside of a wave before, but never one where the water was all full of foam.  I would like the picture better if there were no foam, but that's just me.  However, this picture did remind me of something; something less than wonderful- and also the following passage of Scripture...

1 Corinthians, Chapter 1

  4  I always thank my God concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus; 5 that in everything you were enriched in him, in all speech and all knowledge;  6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:  7 so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;  8 who will also confirm you until the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.  10 Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment.  11 For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.”  13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?  14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius,  15 so that no one should say that I had baptized you into my own name.  16 (I also baptized the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t know whether I baptized any other.)  17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Good News—not in wisdom of words, so that the cross of Christ wouldn’t be made void.  18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are dying, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.  19 For it is written, 

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”

  20  Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the lawyer of this world? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.  22 For Jews ask for signs, Greeks seek after wisdom,  23 but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks,  24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  26 For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble; 27 but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;  28 and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are:  29 that no flesh should boast before God.  30 But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:  31 that, according as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” 

The Church that Christ established is made of people. People of all shapes, backgrounds, nationalities and ages.  Some are spiritual, some are not.  When those who are lacking in spirituality cause problems- there are BIG PROBLEMS.  For me, this sort of situation is like the picture- it almost takes the focus off the Sun (Son) and churns up the waters of contentment.  Paul's solution- focus on God!!!  Even though a couple of thousand years separates us from this specific situation, the principle is the same.  We need to be a Christ-centric people and not obsessed with the idea that EVERYTHING IS ABOUT US- IT ISN'T.  To GOD be the glory, the power and dominion in our lives!!!  Lord, help us all to be humble, faithful servants, who look to you for guidance and NOT ON OUR OWN WISDOM OR IDEAS!!!! The following quote is worth repeating and putting to memory...

“He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.” 

From Bill Dayton... “How Great Thou Art….” 1A

Sermon…Song

“How Great Thou Art….” 1A

Introduction.

A. This is one of the greatest hymns of praise that was written in the 20^th century.

B. In April of 1974 the Christian Herald magazine named this the #1 hymn in America.

C. David sang God’s praises in Psalm 92:5.…O Lord how great are Your works.” Psalm 145.

D. (v 1,2) speak of The Creation, (v3) speaks of The Cross. (v4) speaks of the Coming of Christ

I. The Creation (vs 1,2)

A. Gen.1:1ff..God spoke, and it was so….6 days…then rested on the 7th

B. Psalm 148

II. The Cross (v 3)

A. Matt.1:21...”…bring forth a Son…Jesus He will save people from their sins…”

B. Jn.3:16.…“For God so loved the world…..”

C. 1Cor.2: 2...Paul determined to Know nothing except Jesus and Him crucified

III. The Coming Christ (v4)

A. Estimated, one of every 25 verses in the NT deals either directly or indirectly with our Lord’s return.

The word “rapture” is not seen in scripture…..

B. Jn.14:1-3...1Thess.4:13-5:1-2

C. Matt.24:36-44 ® “watch & be ready” 2Peter 3:1-12

D. What Will Happen When He Comes?

1. Jn.5:28,29; 1Cor.15:51,52 ®

2. 2Pet.3:10. “…thief in the night..heaven and earth will pass away, great noise fervent heat…”

3. Heb.9:27 death is an appointment, then the judgment. 2Cor.5:10 All appear judgment seat of Christ.”

4. 2Tim.4:7,8 “..fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith. Laid up , crown of righteousness

The Lord will give to me on the Day, not only me, all who LOVE His appearing.” 

From Jim McGuiggan... The dead know nothing?

The dead know nothing?

The “Preacher” said (Ecclesiastes 9:5): “The dead know nothing at all.” That looks plain enough. It would be easy to say: “The Bible teaches that the dead either no longer exist or that after death while they might continue to exist they must be unconscious.”

Both those views are widely held. Atheists and “Conditionalists” (for very different reasons) share a similar view. The atheist believes that when a human dies he/she is obliterated; never to return. The Conditionalist believes that when a human dies the human ceases to be but that God will bring back into deathless life all those of all the ages who are embraced in his work in Jesus Christ. In the meantime however, on the Conditionalist view, humans cease to exist at death and that’s why “the dead know nothing at all.”

Then there’s the doctrine that’s often called the doctrine of “soul sleep”. Those who hold that view think that though humans experience biological death they continue to exist in a disembodied form. “The soul” survives biological death but it is unconscious until the resurrection when God re-embodies humans.

There are other ways to view the Preacher’s remark.

If he meant that at death the human simply ceased to exist, it’s possible that he was mistaken. We’re all aware that we mustn’t simply quote a text and say: “See? There’s what the Bible teaches as truth.”

In his confusion and agony Job said many things about God that were false to the core and in 7:9-21 he not only denies life after death he denies any possibility of restoration (see especially 7:9 and 21). It’s true he wrestles with the problem but in the end he gives more hope for a cut-down tree than for a cut-down human (14: 7-22). Without going into details God said Job’s friends had not spoken the truth about him (God)—42:7-8.

Good men and women can be mistaken in their beliefs and the Bible is perfectly willing to include their errors as well as truths. If this makes the Bible a more difficult book to work with and if it suits God for it to be that way then so be it. We’ll just have to become better students and listeners.

Then again, the Preacher might not have meant that death ended everything, only that death cut a person off from all knowledge of what is going on in life under the sun as well as cutting him off from the activities of this life as we now experience it. See Ecclesiastes 9:4-6. His language may only be the language of appearance in this life.

A psalmist in Psalm 89 responds to the praise God is given in 89:1-37 which concludes with God’s promise never to forsake David’s house or go back on his covenant with him (89:33-37). This psalmist protests that God hasdone what he said he wouldn’t do! He says (89:38-39, NRSV): “But now you have spurned and rejected him…You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust.” But this is the language of appearance resulting from actual experience during a particular period of trial. The psalm doesn’t end with an accusation that God is faithless so we need to be careful how we understand his earlier words.

A deeply troubled psalmist in 6:4-5 asks for deliverance from death because, he says, “No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave?” Psalm 88 is one long plea for rescue from a very ill man who has been forsaken even by his closest friends. He wants to know how his death can profit God and how God can show him wonderful things while he is lying in the grave (88:10-12). He wants to know if people in the graveyards sit up and sing God’s praises (88:10). None of this has anything to do with his views about life after death or a coming resurrection. He sees death as the disruption of life and all the things he regards as precious in this life. If we had said to him, “Do you think there is life after death?” he would probably have said, “I’m not in the least interested in that issue at the present time. I want life before death!”

I’m one of those who believe that something identifiable as us survives biological death. [Call it “soul” or “spirit”.]

I’m one of those who believe that Christians in some ways enter a deeper level of intimacy with Christ when they die (see Philippians 1:21-23 and click here for a little on that text).

I believe that mere “life after death” is profoundly less than the whole marvellous human story which comes to completion in a glorious resurrection when Jesus returns to obliterate death by resurrecting his redeemed to embodied immortality.

There are a number of profound truths that are not made known or fully developed in the OT scriptures; truths that have been made known and/or developed with the coming of Jesus. (See, for example, Ephesians 3:1-5, Acts 17:30-31 and 2 Timothy 1:7.) This means we should be careful how we use OT texts.

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

From Jim McGuiggan... Sleepy-heads going to bed

Sleepy-heads going to bed

I really like Longfellow's poem Nature. It doesn't say enough about death; death is so much more than a "natural" thing, but what a thankless wretch I'd be if I didn't thank God for this fine way of looking at one of death's facets—especially in light of the resurrection of Jesus. It'd be poisonous to demand of every speaker/writer or thinker that he/she should give a full Christian perspective on anything when they open their hearts. Do we ever do anything but tell part truths? The truly hungry won't complain if in kindness they've been offered something substantial; they won't peevishly complain it wasn't all they would have wanted. No, with grateful hearts they'll please the giver by wolfing it down with a smile and then licking their lips and wishing.

 As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,

Leads by the hand the little child to bed,

And leave his broken playthings on the floor,

Still gazing at them through the open door,

Not wholly reassured and comforted

By promises of others in their stead,

Which, though more splendid, may not please him more;

So Nature deals with us and takes away

Our playthings one by one, and by the hand

Leads us to rest so gently, that we go,

Scarce knowing if we wished to go or stay,

Being too full of sleep to understand

How far the unknown transcends what we know.

I've no wish to suggest that the sight and smell and sound of death is a pleasing experience for I take no pleasure in the thought of my own death though I have no particular fear of it. (When I seriously think of Ethel leaving I tremble.) Just the same, to have lived and by God's grace to have had an honest shot at it; making no great waves, no name in lights, no footprints in celebrity cement, no household name—just an honest simple go at it—to have done that and then for "Nature" to take you by the hand to a well earned grave with the assurance of better things, that's living and that's a fine death. What more should we expect who are blessed with that?

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

From Jim McGuiggan... Paradise: what about it?

Paradise: what about it?

What about "Paradise"? a reader asked. Scholars tell us that it’s a Persian/Iranian word and means something like "a park". Greek writers used it of Persian public parks and in mythology there are stories from various nations about places where the heroes and righteous dead lived with the gods in idyllic conditions. The word is used nearly fifty times in the OT Greek—usually translating the Hebrew word for garden. It’s no surprise that it is used in Genesis 2 & 3 of the Garden of God (Eden). And prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah spoke of a restoring of Israel’s land so that a paradise state would return (Isaiah 35 develops that kind of picture). Those promises are of an earthly state of affairs (though, in light of the fuller biblical witness not merely a return to "how things have been"—compare Romans 8:18-23).

But it’s clear that the word Paradise came to mean more than any earthly location since the dying thief went there with Christ the day he died and Paul was caught up into it—he was unsure if it was a bodily ascent. See Luke 23:43 and 2 Corinthians 12:2-3.

Because there are some tricky little questions generated by equating Paradise with heaven itself there are those who think that Paradise is some kind of waiting-room where the forgiven wait until after the judgement and then they get into heaven itself. The tricky little questions—maybe another time. In light of 2 Corinthians 12:2-3 I see no reason to differentiate them. Paradise is heaven viewed as a garden. One of the ways the Jews expressed their cosmologies was in various heavens. "Three heavens" was one way. Where the birds fly, outer space and where God himself dwells (third). That’s where Paul went and he calls it Paradise.

Some scholars think that Paradise was closed until Jesus opened it by his redeeming work and his resurrection and exaltation. There is something to be said for that view. Maybe it’s correct. Maybe.

It’s difficult to speak of life beyond the usual three dimensions. Certainly I don’t think we can talk about heaven without using spatial terms, as if it were a particular geographical address. As if you might be able to take a rocket ship, travel at a jillion times the speed of light and reach "heaven". That won’t work. It isn’t a "place" "out" there or "up" there somewhere. It’s more a "mode of existence". A way of existing that doesn't depend on three dimensional realities and present earthly necessities. Paradise (speaking of it as an equivalent to heaven) is more about how we relate to God in a non-embodied existence. It makes no difference "where" we are—we live with him in a blessed relationship independent of bodies and their functions until the resurrection and then a new phase of life with God begins.

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

From Jim McGuiggan... Last letter before dying

Last letter before dying

So the old man is nearing the end in a prison and he writes his last letter to a young friend (2 Timothy). What will he talk about and what will he say about those matters? Will he tell the young man that if he had his life to live over again he'd take better care of himself? Will he say he wished he hadn't run so far so fast on so little? Will he say he regrets all the beatings and deprivations he suffered; privations that have led to being old before his time? (When you're lying on a hospital bed knowing that this is as good as it gets from here on out I suppose all kinds of thoughts come as unwanted guests. Guests you're too tired to turn away.) What will the old man ask for? Nothing but a couple of friends, an old coat that he could use when it gets cold and a few books.

And what about his message? Will he say it was all a mistake? That he'd got it all wrong? That he can hardly now believe how big a fool he was to have followed Jesus of Nazareth into what turned out to be a dead end in a Roman prison? Will he advise the younger man to jettison the faith and eat, drink and be merry for it was all one colossal blunder? And if he is indeed brought to the executioner will he apologise for anything he might have said that undermined the emperor's authority? Will he write a letter of apology to the Great Sannhedrin, renouncing Jesus of Nazareth and wishing he had pursued unchanged his Jewish heritage instead of this life-wasting pipe dream? (In prison or a nursing home, in a hospital waiting-room or in the quiet darkness of your bedroom where depression feeds on you, faith can take a beating.) How does the old man see the faith? He saw it as worth fighting for; as something worth keeping and he believed it was anything but a dead end. Life ("a crown of life," not fading laurel leaves) was ahead of him. All this he feels and is sure of because he knows Someone and that's why people like him could sing praises in prison and sleep like babies in their mother's arms before dying.

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

From Mark Copeland... The Return Of Christ (Ac.1:10-11)

                          "THE BOOK OF ACTS"

                    The Return Of Christ (1:10-11)

INTRODUCTION

1. As the disciples watched Jesus ascend to heaven...
   a. Two men stood by in white apparel - Ac 1:10
   b. With a promise that Jesus would one day return - Ac 1:11

2. Those who look for the Lord's return often differ greatly over the
   details...
   a. The premillenialist looks for Christ to come in order to
      establish a literal kingdom on the earth, over which He will reign
      for a 1000 years
   b. The postmillenialist believes that Christ will at some point
      begin a thousand year reign from heaven, at the end of which He 
      will come to judge the world
   c. The amillenialist believes that Christ has been reigning as King
      of kings, and Lord of lords ever since His ascension to heaven, and
      that His coming will be to raise the dead, judge the world, and 
      usher in the new heavens and new earth

[In this lesson, the amillenial view will be presented, which I believe
most accurately teaches what the Bible reveals about the Second Coming of
our Lord.  Beginning with...]

I. THE CERTAINTY OF HIS COMING

   A. PROCLAIMED BY ANGELS...
      1. The "two men...in white apparel" - Ac 1:9-11
      2. Who said that "This same Jesus, who was taken up from into
         heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into 
         heaven." - ibid.

   B. PROCLAIMED BY APOSTLES...
      1. Peter - Ac 3:19-21; 2Pe 3:1-13
      2. Paul - 1Co 11:26; 15:22-23; 1Th 1:9-10; 2:19; 3:13; 2Ti 4:1
      3. John - 1Jn 2:28
      4. The writer to the Hebrews - He 9:27-28

[In the OT one finds the recurring theme "The Messiah is coming!"  In the
NT we learn not only "He has come!", but that "He is coming again!"  To
the certainty of His coming, we can add..]

II. THE MANNER OF HIS COMING

   A. HE WILL COME IN PERSON...
      1. "This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will
         so come..." - Ac 1:11
      2. "the Lord himself will descend from heaven..." - 1Th 4:15-17

   B. HE WILL COME WITH THE CLOUDS...
      1. "This same Jesus...will so come in like manner as you saw Him
         go into heaven" - Ac 1:11 (referring to verse 9: "He was taken 
         up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight")
      2. "...in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." - 1Th 4:17
      3. "Behold, He is coming with clouds..." - Re 1:7

   C. HE WILL COME WITHOUT WARNING...
      1. "...the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night." 
         - 1Th 5:2
      2. "For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden
         destruction comes..." - 1Th 5:3
      3. "...the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night..."
         - 2Pe 3:10

[Of course, this unexpected coming of the Lord will not surprise the
faithful, who seriously watch for the Lord's coming (cf. 1Th 5:4-11). 
With joyful anticipation, they await the personal return of their Savior.
What will happen when the Lord returns?  To answer this question we now
consider...]

III. THE PURPOSE OF HIS COMING

   A. TO RAISE THE DEAD...
      1. "...for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves
         will hear His voice and come forth..." - Jn 5:28-29
         a. Note that there is but one resurrection, including both the
            good and evil, that will occur at one time ("the hour")
         b. As Paul said, "...there will be a resurrection of the dead,
            both of the just and the unjust." - Ac 24:15
      2. Those who are alive at the Lord's coming...
         a. Will be "changed" in "the twinkling of an eye", being
            clothed with immortality and incorruption - 1Co 15:50-54
         b. Then "caught up...to meet the Lord in the air." - 1Th 4:16-18  

   B. TO DELIVER UP THE KINGDOM TO GOD...
      1. Contrary to the view that Jesus has yet to establish His
         kingdom on earth, He has been ruling over His kingdom since He
         first ascended to heaven!
         a. In fulfillment of the prophecy that God would raise up the
            Christ to sit on the "throne of David", Jesus was raised from
            the dead and made "Lord" - Ac 2:30-36
         b. All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto Him 
            - Mt 28:18
            1) He is far above all principality, power, might, and
               dominion, with all things placed under His feet - Ep 1:20-22
            2) At the right hand of God, angels and authorities and
               powers are made subject to Him - 1Pe 3:22
         c. Christians are said to be "in" His kingdom
            1) Having been "delivered...from the power of darkness and
               translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love" - Col 1:13
            2) They are "in the kingdom...of Jesus Christ" - Re 1:9
         d. Christ will continue to reign "till He has put all enemies
            under His feet" - 1Co 15:25
            1) Note that His reign will be concurrent with the fact
               enemies are still present
            2) As prophesied by the Psalmist:  "Rule in the midst of
               Your enemies!" - Ps 110:1-2 
         e. Thus Christ is NOW "the blessed and only Potentate, the
            King of kings and Lord of Lords" - 1Ti 6:15; cf. Re 19:16
         f. And He will reign "till He has put all enemies under His
            feet" - 1Co 15:25
            1) The last enemy that will be destroyed is death itself 
               - cf. 1Co 15:26
            2) Which we have seen will be destroyed at the coming of
               the Lord when He will raise the dead - 1Co 15:51-54
      2. So when Jesus comes, it will not be to set up His kingdom, but
         to deliver up His kingdom!
         a. As Paul clearly told the Corinthians - 1Co 15:23-26
         b. As taught by Jesus in His Parable of the Tares - Mt 13:36-43
            1) His kingdom will last until "the end of this age"
            2) After which "the righteous will shine forth as the sun
               in the kingdom of their Father" (i.e., the heavenly 
               kingdom)

   C. TO JUDGE THE WORLD AND PUNISH EVIL...
      1. God has appointed a "day" in which He will judge the world 
         - 2Pe 3:7
         a. The one appointed to be the Judge is Jesus Christ - 

            Ac 17:31; 2Co 5:10
         b. The standard by which He will judge will be the words He
            has spoken - Jn 12:48
      2. It will be a day of perdition (utter destruction) of ungodly
         men - 2Pe 3:7
         a. Those who know not God and have not obeyed the gospel will
            be punished with everlasting destruction - 2Th 1:7-10
         b. Those not in the "Book of Life" will be cast into the "lake
            of fire" - Re 20:11-15

   D. TO USHER IN THE NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH...
      1. As taught by Peter - 2Pe 3:10-14
         a. This will follow the "passing away" of the present heavens
            and earth
         b. It is in fulfillment of God's promise - cf. Isa 65:17-19;
            66:22-23
         c. It is something we are to "look for" (13-14)
         d. It will be a realm where righteousness dwells, therefore
            the need for us to be found "in peace, without spot and 
            blameless" when Christ returns (13-14)
      2. As taught by John - Re 21:1-22:5
         a. It will follow after the first heaven and first earth have
            "passed away" - Re 21:1; 20:11
         b. It will be the place where the New Jerusalem will abide
            when it "comes down out of heaven" - Re 21:2; 3:10; 21:10
         c. God will dwell with us in this "New Jerusalem" that has
            "come down out of heaven" - Re 21:3-27; 22:1-5

CONCLUSION

1. The purpose of Jesus' second coming can be summed up by His
   statement in Re 22:12...
   
   "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, 
   to give to every one according to his work."

2. That Jesus has not yet come is only an indication of God's
   long-suffering, but rest assured "that day" will one day come! - 2Pe 3:8-9

3. In the meantime, what should be our attitude be toward the coming of
   our Lord?  One of...
   a. Prayerful preparation - Lk 21:34-36; 2Pe 3:14
   b. Joyful expectation - Php 3:20-21
   c. Patient endurance - He 10:35-39

Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2012