Welcome

If you have stumbled here by accident let me first insist that there really are no accidents in life. If however, you came on your own free will then please by all means open your hearts and your minds to the "New Wine" that God has prepared for you!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Upgrade


If you take a brand new five terabyte hard drive and put it on a scale, it will weigh seventeen ounces.  If you then load the entire disk with all the words printed in all the books in all of recorded history, the disk will still weigh seventeen ounces. The point is that information does not have mass. It’s the same with our bodies, our earthly tents have mass but our spirit does not. We were originally designed to live forever but not in this physical universe. There is another realm, a spiritual realm where our genetic code will be reassembled. Our earthly hardware is going to eventually wear out but our eternal spiritual bodies will last forever!

Paul tackles this concept in 2 Corinthians 5:1 “For we know if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” What a great spiritual truth to understand, believe in and hold onto as God promises us a wonderful future with Him. There is a verse in the book of Hebrews 9:27 that states “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

So what is going to happen when you die? When you stand before a holy, righteous God at the great white throne what will be your judgment, guilty or not guilty? Are you willing to chance it? All people have sinned at least once in their lives; actually we all sin multiple times throughout the day. But the fact is that when you stand before God you’re not going to measure up to His measuring stick! Human beings have fallen short of righteousness, perfection and living a sinless life.

It’s interesting that in this age of information science geneticists are discovering how very complex our DNA really is. Our DNA contains all our genetic information which is used to duplicate new cells over and over again as old ones need to be replaced. This information is stored in each cell and is all that is necessary to construct a new you! All your memories, relationships and characteristics that make you unique are already recorded and stored inside your earthly tents. So are ready for an upgrade before your hard drive crashes?
Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 5:2 how our earthly bodies groan wanting to be clothed in our eternal bodies.  Paul is looking forward to being in the presence of God in his incorruptible eternal hardware but is also reminding us that this present life is not all that we were created for.  We have an opportunity while still here on earth to decide to follow Jesus, then once saved to share the good news of the gospel with others around us before returning home to the Father.

“So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

I believe it’s time to become more heavenly minded so that we can do more earthly good with the time that we have been given. All the money in the world won’t buy an extra breath of life or save you from your appointed time to face judgment.  Please make a choice now to ask God to forgive you. Then start reading the bible where you will discover all that you have to look forward to. The promises of God are true and solid as the rock on which the church was  built, the rock of Jesus Christ!

The last part of this passage is really one of my favorite word pictures. 2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body,” So the Bema judgment is basically a reward ceremony for all Christians for what you did for the kingdom after receiving salvation from Christ. 

All others who did not come to Christ will stand before God at the great white throne judgment. When the books are opened their sins will be read. Without the blood of Christ to cover your sins you will be sent away from God and into hell that was prepared for the devil and his angels. Your name must be written in the book of life to escape this judgment.

So don’t wait until your hard drive starts to act up to get the upgrade, save your data, and just accept the free gift of salvation that God offers you; accept Jesus.






Tuesday, April 8, 2014

God prophecy


“Prophecy is God’s way of allowing us to look back at what He has said and, seeing the accuracy of His word, to know that we can trust Him for the future as we listen to Him today.” Chuck Smith 2005. 

There is a great prophecy recorded in Genesis 3:15, which took place between God and Satan in the Garden of Eden where God said to Satan “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head and you shall bruise His heel.”  Ever since this prophecy was given Israel has been awaiting their Messiah’s return. Christians acknowledge that the Jewish Messiah has already and that Jesus Christ will return a second time to receive His bride, the church. Most agree that His second appearance is close, on our horizon and imminent.

 Jesus Christ was born into the world to redeem it. He alone will one day receive and open the scroll or deed to the entire planet. All people, at that time, will be subject to Him and have to stand before Him at only one of two judgments. For Christians, or “Little Christs”, we will all stand before Him at the Bema judgment to receive rewards for what we did with our time, gifts and resources God has given to us during our lives.
Every other soul who has cursed God, turned their backs on Him or worshiped other gods will stand before the Great White Throne judgment. If you find yourself standing before God at this judgment I’m very sorry for you. First your name will not be written in The Lamb’s Book of Life. Second, you will be judged for what you did during your life. And lastly, you will be separated from a loving God and cast into a place created for Satan and the fallen angels. A place so wicked Jesus described it as a lake burning with fire and brimstone where the worm never dies and where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

Have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen anything or manipulated your tax returns? Have you ever committed adultery, fornication or murder? Maybe, you have lived a sinless-perfect life in all areas? Let me answer that last question for you, NO!  It’s of the utmost importance that you settle this question about God now, because today is the day of your salvation. As Easter approaches some of you will go to church for the very first time this year and hear the gospel, the good news of how Jesus Christ died in your place and then came back to life promising, all who receive His gift of salvation, eternal life!

There are three incredible prophecies recorded in the Old Testament hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In Matthew 21:1-11 we have a picture of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey that was foretold would be waiting for Him. He also was received as the Messiah as thousands of people cut and laid down palm branches and their own clothing for Him to ride over. All the while the crowd shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest”.

The first prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 says “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah recorded this prophecy 520 years before the birth of Christ. 

The second prophecy in Psalm 118:25-26 ““Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest”. Was written 675 years before the birth of Christ and literally fulfilled by the crowd that day Jesus of Nazareth rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

The third prophecy is recorded in Daniel 9:24-26; written 536 years before Christ was born pin pointing the exact day that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey presenting Himself as the Messiah. The text requires some intense study through mathematics, knowledge of Babylonian and Julian calendars and the starting date recorded in the book of Nehemiah.  Sir Robert Anderson and others were responsible for the research that proved that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on April 6, A.D. 32 fulfilling the prophecy given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel to the exact day.

At the last supper, Jesus would have sung this hymn (psalm 118:21-24) with His disciples gathered together at the table (Matt 26:30) before leaving for the Mount of Olives. “I will praise You, For You have answered me. And have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”