Blogging Jesus

Bringing Heaven to Earth

2011-09-15T08:43:00.000-04:00

People think heaven is a place where the good go when they die, but if you don’t bring heaven to earth before you die, you won’t be able to enter it after you die.

You can bring heaven down today, right now, this minute. Just read this prayer and mean it.

Jesus, please give me a new heart and a new spirit. Take any bad spirits out of me and put all the good spirits I need in my new heart and come and live in it. I believe your father, who raised you from the dead, gave you the power to bring heaven to the earth for all those who follow you. Bring heaven to me now. I believe. Amen.

Anarchists versus Christian Anarchists

2010-02-20T21:03:00.000-05:00

Anarchy come from the Greek meaning “without rulers”. Every nation, on the international scene, believes in self governance and rejects the idea that other nations have the right to rule them or that any one nation should rule all the others. So all nations reject other rulers and could be called anarchists on the International stage. There are many individuals within every nation who feel the same way about their neighbors, they resent neighbors taking the arbitrary title of “ leader” and trying to control them. They see themselves as free spirits who are being forced to obey arbitrary laws created by wealthy elites who have risen to leadership by less than honest means.

Generally, anarchist, freedom-seekers live as outsiders in their nations often in remote rural wilderness areas where they are less likely to have to deal with police, or governments nannies. Often these freedom seeking free spirits will form loose confederations with like minded individuals and appear at public demonstrations dressed in black with bricks in hand expressing their anger at the rogue elites, and their laws. They are then identified as despisers of government who want to destroy them. This label is for the most part accurate for they do despise the arbitrary laws and arbitrary leaders who have formed governments which exist by the barrel of the gun and the power to execute dissenters.

A Christian anarchist would not find fellowship with traditional anarchists for Christians neither use violence, nor hate anyone. When a Christians takes the label “Christian Anarchist” he, or she, means he does not recognize the right of any humans to impose laws on him, for he lives under the laws of God as expressed by Jesus. He recognizes God as his supreme King and Jesus as God’s earthly representative. Therefore, since he is a citizen of another kingdom with different rulers, he does not recognize that any humans have the right to impose human laws on him. He does not despise human rulers or governments, but loves all humans including rulers and willingly obeys the laws of any land where he is living that are not in conflict with the laws of God. He sees himself as a pilgrim passing through his country, kind of like a tourist. So he does not meddle in the politics and does not serve in the armies, or intrigues in which nations are involved. His goal is to be a blessing wherever he goes and help as many people as he meets. His goal is not to tear down governments, but to have as little contact with them as possible.

The New Covenant

2010-02-09T12:48:00.000-05:00

God made several covenants. He made one with Noah, one Abraham, one with Isaac and one with Jacob. He promised to guide and care for them and protect them. Those were individual covenants. But when Israel became a nation under Moses, God made a Covenant with Israel. It is called the Covenant of Law. Because of sin, Israel was unable to keep the Law Covenant so God in his mercy, devised a New Covenant where sin would not be a deciding factor.

Over the course of the Centuries Israel split into two houses; in the North Israel and in the South Judah.

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Hebrews 8:8 quotes this exactly and adds

Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Ezek.36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stubborn hearts and give you obedient hearts.

This a promise of the New Covenant we will get new loving, obedient hearts and we will receive a new Spirit –the Holy Spirit to help us.

Every covenant had a mediator and was sprinkled with blood. Hebrews says

Heb 12:24 Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling,

At the Last supper Jesus spoke of pouring out his blood for the New Covenant.

Luk 22:20 In the same way, he gave them the cup after the supper, saying, "This cup is God's new covenant sealed with my blood, which is poured out for you.

Mat 26:28 "this is my blood, which seals God's covenant, my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Now the question is if this covenant is only with the houses of Israel and Judah how can gentiles be part of it.

Eph 2:8 God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God. It's not the result of anything you've done, so no one can brag about it. God has made us what we are. He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do. Remember that once you were not Jewish physically. Those who called themselves "the circumcised" because of what they had done to their bodies called you "the uncircumcised." Also, at that time you were without Christ. You were excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, and the pledges God made in his promise were foreign to you. You had no hope and were in the world without God. But now through Christ Jesus you, who were once far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So he is our peace. In his body he has made Jewish and non-Jewish people one by breaking down the wall of hostility that kept them apart. He brought an end to the commandments and demands found in Moses' Teachings so that he could take Jewish and non-Jewish people and create one new humanity in himself. So he made peace. He also brought them back to God in one body by his cross, on which he killed the hostility. He came with the Good News of peace for you who were far away and for those who were near. So Jewish and non-Jewish people can go to the Father in one Spirit. That is why you are no longer foreigners and outsiders but citizens together with God's people and members of God's family. Eph 2:19

So by faith in Jesus you become a citizen of the Commonwealth of Israel, a member of God’s family.

In Romans 11 Paul describes Israel as an Olive tree that has holy roots and branches. He says most of the branches were broken off because they did not believe in Jesus, and the gentiles were from a wild Olive tree and they were broken from the wild tree and grafted onto the good Olive tree so that they are now part of Israel.

Rom 11:13 I am speaking now to you Gentiles…

Rom 11:16 If the roots of a tree are holy, so are the branches also.

Rom 11:17 Some of the branches (Jews) of the cultivated olive tree have been broken off, and a branch of a wild olive tree has been joined to it. You Gentiles are like that wild olive tree, and now you share the strong spiritual life of the Jews.

Rom 11:18 So then, you must not despise those who were broken off like branches. How can you be proud? You are just a branch; you don't support the roots---the roots support you.

Rom 11:19 But you will say, "Yes, but the branches were broken off to make room for me."

Rom 11:20 That is true. They were broken off because they did not believe, while you remain in place because you do believe.

So here you have it, believers do not replace Israel they become Israelis. They are the children of Abraham and today they number 2 billion, so the promise that Abraham’s seed would be like the sand of the seashores is coming to pass.

“It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. Rather the real Jew is the person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit. (Rom 2:29)

So Christians whose hearts are circumcised by faith in Jesus are true Jews.

Gal 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

1 Pet 2:9 However, you are the chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people who belong to God. You were chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Conclusion

When you believe in Jesus, you become a child of Abraham, and an Israeli Jew, a fellow citizen in the Commonwealth of Israel, and a lifetime member of the Everlasting New Covenant. It is a gift sealed in blood. God never takes back any gifts.

Isa 54:10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

Eze 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

Mal 2:5 My covenant was with him of life and peace

The Gift of Faith

2010-02-02T11:18:00.001-05:00

Until last night I always thought my faith was too small. My mistake was in thinking it was "My" faith. But I discovered last night what I have been calling "My" Faith is really "His" faith.

Heb 12:2 "Look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."

Do you see it? Jesus is the author of what we call Faith. The author of something owns it. I can write a book and give it to you as a gift, but you did not write it. The words are always mine. I own the copyright.

Jesus produced my faith and gave it to me as a gift. He never takes back a gift. It is everlasting and perfect. Everyone who believes in Jesus receives this everlasting gift.

What's more amazing is the nature of the gift. Not only does he give it to us, but it is an extension of his own faith. We receive Jesus's faith.

Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.

Eph 3:12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Gal 2:20 … and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference.

Now when Satan shoots his flaming arrows of doubt at me. I do not quench them with my timid faith, for I have no faith of my own. I extinguish them with the Faith that Jesus gave me, a portion of his own faith, an all powerful invincible faith, the very faith that defeated and defeats Satan every time. My shield is the same shield of faith that Jesus carried, no different, ever powerful.

Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

This is so exciting, Jesus’s Faith also becomes an additional coating on the breastplate of God’s Righteousness. My heart is protected. My mind is protected by the Everlasting Gift of the Hope of Salvation, my lower body is protected by the everlasting Truth of the Scriptures, My feet are protected by the Gospel of Peace, I have Jesus’s own faith as a shield. My strength comes from the everlasting gift of Joy, and my courage comes from the promises and oaths of God that give me confidence and a guarantee, it is the certain evidence of faith. My sword is the all powerful Word of God which I use to counter the lies of the devil.

I marvel when I realize that everything I need has been given to me. I brought nothing to the table. I was given all the gifts, and the faithful shepherd Jesus teaches me how to use them. Now that I know I have the faith of Jesus, I wonder what he will have me do to magnify the Father? I must decrease and he must increase.

I no longer see my faith as too small, it is much bigger than I realized, and Jesus is still putting the finishing touches on it. Allelu-Yah. Praise Yah. Oh Happy day!

The Unbelievable Gift

2010-02-01T10:51:00.000-05:00

1. 2Co 5:21 For he hath made him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made “the righteousness of God” in him (Jesus).

This is so wonderful. When we become believers in Jesus we receive this everlasting “gift” that no humans could ever dream of. The father’s righteousness is given to us.

By faith, our unrighteousness is replaced with Abba’s own righteousness. Put it on as an invincible armor breastplate which Satan can never break through.

I Promise to Love You

2010-01-31T08:59:00.001-05:00

I have lyric looking for a tune/co-writer.

I Promise to Love You

Verse 1

Are you down in the valley alone and quite scared

Even if you cannot feel him God is still there

Are you worried you’ve drifted too far this time

Listen to the Father he will ease your troubled mind

Chorus :

I promise to love you and keep you I swear it

When the dark night is so long you just cannot bear it

Let go of your worries let go of your doubts

I promise to love you, I won’t cast you out

Verse 2

You were made blameless when you reached for Jesus hand

There’s nothing you did , or can do, to change my plan

If your heart says you’re guilty then listen to me

you’ve been forgiven for all eternity

Bridge

This promise was granted by Christ, Jesus’ love

It’s more than a promise it’s an oath signed in blood

It’s a permanent contract nothing can tear it

I promise to love you and keep you I swear it

Verse 3

I swear I won’t rebuke you or show you my wrath

If you’re weeping now my child, later you will laugh

For I have forgotten and cancelled all your sins

So Trust in the word of God again and again Chorus …I promise to love you…

The Comfort of the Scriptures Leads to Everlasting Hope

2010-01-30T08:15:00.001-05:00

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through the comfort of the scriptures we might have hope”. (Roman’s 15:4)

When we place our faith in Jesus, God sends a new Spirit, a Holy Spirit to birth us into his Kingdom and to protect us with an Everlasting New Covenant.

A Covenant is an agreement with God. Every Covenant was sealed with blood.

“Jesus picked up a cup of wine and gave thanks to God. He then gave it to his disciples and said, "Take this and drink it. For this is my blood of the new covenant that is being poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins”. (Mt 26:27-27)

These are the Permanent Gifts We Receive When We Enter the New Covenant

EVERLASTING GRACE, meaning we are loved and saved by faith in Jesus and not by anything we do or don’t do

EVERLASTING RIGHTEOSNESS because we receive the righteousness of Jesus and not our own.

EVERLASTING JOY UNSPEAKABLE unspeakable knowing our destination is final and God has established us.

EVERLASTING PEACE that is beyond all understanding knowing all things work together for good for us.

EVERLASTING COURAGE and CONFIDENCE based on “The Two Immutables”

1.God’s EVERLASTING PROMISE and

2 God’s EVERLASTING OATH

God swore to never punish us but to give us salvation. ( Heb. 6:13-19) and (Isaiah 54:9)

EVERLASTING HOPE of SALVATION when we firmly realize this, it become an impregnable helmet to protect our mind from Satan’s attack of doubts.

EVERLASTING COMFORT is gained as we read the scriptures and realize these truths.

God (Yah) never withdraws a gift. His gifts are permanent. May he fill you with grace and his joy unspeakable and full of glory.

January 23, 2010 a Turning Point in my Life.

2010-01-25T16:00:00.000-05:00

January 23, 2010 a Major Turning Point in my Life

Being raised as a Catholic had its pluses and minuses. On the plus side I heard about Jesus early and attended church 6 days a week. I went to Catholic schools for 16 years. On the minus side my religious training was about the need to never sin and obey all the rules set forth by the church. We learned very little about God’s love , forgiveness and mercy. We were taught to confess our sins to a priest or if we died before confessing we would probably go to a fiery hell full of demons, or if we were lucky we might only have to spend 15,000 years in a fiery place called purgatory.

Once it was ingrained into my head that my salvation depended upon me behaving perfectly it was hard to see it any other way.

I first heard that we are saved by faith and grace when I was about 30 and heard many preachers throughout the next ten years saying there is nothing we can do to gain or lose our salvation, it has all been done by Jesus. Somehow I thought they were off the mark and never could believe it. I then spent the next ten years among Mennonites who also worried that we might lose our salvation by bad behavior.

Here I am 66 years old and today January 23^rd after about a 12 day illness during which I poured over the scriptures the page opened wide and there was the thing I had unknowingly hungered and searched for since I first started to seriously follow Jesus in 1977. I’m sure I had read over it many times but today there was Romans 4:8 illuminated before my eyes.

“Romans 4:8 Happy, How blessed is the person whose sins the Lord will never charge against him.”

I wept when the full import of it hit me. God made a promise and swore an oath that he would greet me and my memory of my sins without wrath or rebuking, but with mercy and deliberated forgetfulness of my evil deeds. Praise God almighty, free at last. My unrighteousness or righteousness played no role in this, it was because of God’s love mercy and grace and Yahshuah’s faithfulness that this exists; it is for everyone and those who believe it are the most blessed for they can live in joy and not fear. Thank you father for healing this blind man’s eyes. I once was blind but now I see.

I wish I could be a Baptist

2010-01-15T16:49:00.005-05:00

I like it when I hear Baptists preach about Being Born Again, and I love it when they talk about

eternal life which once born into can never be lost no matter what we do.

I really need assurance especially when I am sick, or feeling low.

I am about 95% convinced that they are right and once you become "born again"

you can never lose your salvation and there is no condemnation

unless you allow the devil to condemn you, but God and Jesus do not condemn you.

I am guilty of condemning myself. I hate sin and when I sin, I beat myself up,

or spend time rationalizing what I did. I feel very uncomfortable and fearful. I always have.

The Baptists say that is just your sinful flesh and it will act up until you die.

Well it certainly has been acting up my whole life and I am closer to 70 than 20.

I wonder if Baptists really feel no condemnation???

But there is a major stumbling block for me with the Baptists and that is their extreme patriotism

and willingness to fight in their country's wars. To me that is so incongruous with

the call by Jesus to be as harmless as doves.

I say I am 95% in agreement with their salvation stand, but there are the nagging scriptures about

building your house on the sand by not doing what Jesus taught. I hear Jesus saying

" why do you call me Lord Lord and do not do what I said to do?"

The Baptists say you can deny Jesus and still be saved. Jesus said if you deny him,

he will deny you before the angels. I can't quite close that 5% gap. But I would like to. Sometimes that 5%

like a door left open a crack on a cold winter night, can send a chill through me.

I want to believe that no one including myself can pluck me out of the Father's hands. Jesus did say:

John 10:29 "My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. "

2012 Hoax

2009-06-13T11:42:00.003-04:00

For those of you expecting the world to end in 2012 come back here on 2013 and listen to me say I told you so.

It is so preposterous to think that if God would not reveal the date to Jesus or the angels, he would reeal it to a tribe of blood -thirsty Cannibals living in the jungles of Mexico.

The world will not end in 2012. Mark my word.

What is the Father Like?

2008-03-13T21:17:00.004-04:00

Yahshuah was Never an Angel

2008-02-28T08:58:00.003-05:00

Some believe Jesus was God before he became a man. Some believe he was an angel before he became a man. In this video I logically show that those two options are immpossible and theat Yahshuah was not in existence until he was begotten in Mary's womb.

Music Video by Troy and Genie Nilsson

2008-02-09T13:09:00.000-05:00

Moses and Pacifism

2008-02-01T23:42:00.000-05:00

Moses portrayed almost all the heroes in the Torah as peacemakers, who rejected solving their problems with violence.

My God and Your God

2008-01-23T08:42:00.000-05:00

After his resurrection, Yahshuah met Mary of Magdala and said,

“Go and tell my Brethren that I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God.”

By saying “my God” he clearly cannot be God. God cannot have a God.

My is a possessive adjective meaning something that belongs to me like my book, or my child. You cannot be the thing you possess. I am not my book , my child, or my God. Yahshuah cannot be God if he has a God. He never once claimed to be God. He taught us to call his God "father" and described him as a kind, loving, merciful, forgiving father who is like a generous farmer, or a shepherd seeking lost lambs. He sends the rain and the sun on the just and the unjust . He is not an angry judge, but a peacemaker. Yahshuah told us to imitate God (Yah) as good children imitate their father.

Was Jesus Mortal or Immortal?

2008-01-22T18:05:00.000-05:00

Mortal means you can die.
Immortal means you cannot die.
God (Yah) is immortal.
Yashuah died so he was mortal. therefore he cannot be God.

It is impossible to be mortal and immortal at the same time. So Jesus cannot be both God and Man. He is one or the other. You cannot be a being which can die and at the same time be a being who cannot die. It's like being pregnant. You can't be half pregnant. The modern preacher says Jesus was fully God and fully man. That's like saying the woman was fully pregnant and fully not pregnant. You have to be one or the other. Jesus was a mortal.

Yahshuah's favorite description for himself was "son of Adam" (son of man-a mortal).

Who Do You Say Jesus is?

2007-08-04T14:57:00.001-04:00

Recently someone asked me who I think Jesus is and so here is my answer: Jesus (Yahshuah)

He is the Messiah
The human, mortal son of the God of Abraham.
He is the appointed ruler (lord) of all things visible and invisble (although not in complete command yet)
He is tour shepherd who never loses a sheep.
He is the one who sends the Pure, Holy Spirit to us to rebirth us.
He is the one who paid the ransom to free us from the Land of Death on the Resurrection Day.
He is the one who by not sinning broke the devils's power (although it is not over yet).
He is our elder brother and friend and the first man to gain immortality.
He is the chief prophet who gave us the full Torah.
He is our rescuer.
He is our sin bearer.
He is our healer.
He is our elder brother
He is the mediator of a new covenant in which God does not count our sins.
He is our king
He is the first of many humans who will become spirit beings.
He is the man who loves us the most.