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Tag: Church

  • ‘adam

    ‘adam

    Genesis 2:7a  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground…

     

    Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them…

    The Creation of Man and Woman

    4 These are the generations
    of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
    in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens….

    — 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

    Yĕhovah ‘elohiym formed ‘adam of the dust of the ground [‘adamah]…

    We need to understand something here from the original Hebrew:

    Yĕhovah ‘elohiym [THE LORD GOD] IS plural (as we discussed yesterday).

    Note also the similarity of the word for ‘man (or mankind) to the word for the ground: ‘adamah. “You are dust and to dust you will return.” (Sound familiar? Yet we speak only of the bones and flesh and not the breathed-in soul.)

    Adam = man = mankind and is a masculine noun (like ‘elohiym); yet the great mystery of the complexity of man, made in the image of the One Triune God, is also a great mystery.

     Genesis 2:15a Yĕhovah ‘elohiym took ‘adam into the garden of ‘Eden…

    The LORD GOD took mankind into Eden – Man, the male and Woman, which the LORD GOD created out of man, the female. HE made them. (More of that in the remainder of Genesis 2.)

    Jesus Christ, the Word of God, ONE with the God the Father and God the Holy Spirit spoke to the great mystery of man and woman and marriage referring to Genesis 2:18, which in the KJV translates:

    And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

    Jesus said (of these scriptures and specifically from Genesis 2:

    Teaching About Divorce 

    6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

    As ‘from dust to dust’ rings in your souls the familiar truth of the burial of the body, so too ought these words of Christ Jesus burn in the hearts and souls of a man and a woman joined in marriage by our Christian vows before God.

    A man and a woman, joined to each other as one and joined as one one with God: a great and wonderful mystery!

    What is your witness for Christ Jesus in this, o ‘adam of dust and man of spirit?

    Dearly beloved Christian husband; dearly beloved Christian wife:

    What is the witness of the triune oneness of your Christian Marriage?

     

    {a personal prayer}

    Dearly beloved, my Blessing of the Lord our Savior:

    May the overflowing sacrificial love of Christ Jesus renew your vows of witness to the eternal love and joyous hope we found in His blessings of the joining of our lives with Him now and forever more. amen.

  • Are you Christ’s? Or are you NOT?

    Are you Christ’s? Or are you NOT?

    Hebrews 6:4-6 NKJV 

    4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

    Going forward, do we backslide?

    This question of our christian life, as witnessed by the church and especially others is most serious.

    What does it mean that we “were once enlightened?” Do you, fellow believer have the saving knowledge of the cross of Christ Jesus? If so, you are also enlightened.

    Have you been offered the heavenly gift of grace, forgiveness from your sins of the past? Have you tasted the good word of your redemption in Jesus Christ as your Lord IF you follow Him? Do you follow OR did you just hear of it once or more?

    Here is the point of the sharpened word (in verse 6): IF you or any fall away, it is a most serious matter of your salvation. You do NOT have salvation and eternal life (you cannot lose it, IF you have it) if by not ‘following’ Christ you actually sin against the Cross of Christ by your worldly unrepentant actions.

    Yes, christians are NOT covered by the grace of Christ’s cross IF we will not repent of our former lives of sin and turn back from our worldly ways of the flesh. Die to the flesh and live as Christ! Christ Jesus must be our Lord. We must be obedient to Jesus as our personal Lord. (It is not enough to just say that we are christians, while in fact we witness against His Holy Sacrifice on the Cross.)

    Repentance of such christians is a most serious matter for Christ’s church; for an unbeliever might be persuaded that your unholy life is one acceptable at the judgment seat where He will say to these, “I never knew you.”

    Let us, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, look to the context of this important teaching for us as we look forward into a new year (and hopefully not backward onto our sinful nature, before our commitment to follow Christ Jesus as our Lord) – personally, and in every aspect of our lives.

    Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.

    Do you, unrepentant christian sinner, sit in church week by week as a kindergartner who ought to be held back?

    Is your desire to learn the doctrine of Christ so immature that your daily life is constant witness to a grace without foundation?

    Christ’s church, His bride for whom He will return, is His constant love. Christians have a relationship of love – a constant and loving relationship with Jesus, the Groom and our Lord. And as members of His perfect royal family, Christians have constant and loving relationships with one another – this is the doctrine of His love – this is the maturity of our witness.

    This is the essence of our vow and witness: Jesus IS Lord.

    4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

    How are you ‘celebrating’ this New Year?

    Are you Christ’s? OR are you NOT?

    Happy New Year OR Blessed New Year (as our Lord would say in the Beatitudes: blessed are you).

     

  • Respect

    1 Timothy 5:1 Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father…

    I recently had an unfortunate experience of misunderstanding at a time when I needed encouragement from a brother or sister in the Lord or anyone else.

    If you look closely above my own smile you will see much white hair. 🙂 Yes, in some instances (even if I don’t like to admit to all of my 6+ decades) I am an older man.

    Of course, none of us likes rebuke. As parents we have given many rebukes of improper behavior to our children. As husbands, we have heard proper rebuke from our own wife (and they, from us). IN THE LORD, with His love I would hope.

    Just yesterday I had to rebuke a young man for a wrong attitude toward Christ. He said, “We go to church, etc., as an excuse of calling themselves ‘christians’ like those faithful to Christ Jesus by the truth of the fruit of our lives. My point to him was that “We are the church, etc.” and must live as Christ commands and live by His higher standards for us.

    Paul writes to Timothy of these higher standards for our lives.

    Christians are NOT supposed to look and behave like just anybody. We must be a man like Christ or a woman like Christ in our relationships to others — especially other Christians — our new family and His.

    Take a look at some of these standards for the church, that is: you and me.

    1 Timothy 5

    Instructions for the Church

    Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

    3 Honor widows who are truly widows. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 5 She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, 6 but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. 7 Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

    “Everyone needs compassion, a love that’s never failing…”

    During difficult times I nearly weep at the very hearing of those words.

    Think of all the deserted older men and older women in nursing homes at this time of the year. Their grown children (even christian children) often abandon them in favor of the hustle and bustle and worldly priorities of their own lives. Once, we took care of our aging moms and dads in our own homes as long as we were physically able. We sacrificed and honored our mother and our father all the days of our lives.

    Once, christians honored marriage and would never break up a home for their own ends (let alone continue to call themselves christians); but now christian divorce, hated by God, rebuked by Jesus, and a breaking of our own covenant to God and witnesses “until we are parted by death,” is as prevalent as with those who would never claim Christ as Lord. Our Christian marriages are the very symbol of Christ’s relationship He desires for His bride, the church. [SEE: Ephesians 5: ]

    Ephesians 5: 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

    32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

    As you, dear Christian brother, dear Christian sister, approach this turning of the year from the passing old to the new, consider the nature of how we are called to have changed by our taking up the cross to follow Jesus Christ, to witness His love in our relationships with others and by our own personal shining example to all others.

    Put On the New Self

    If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

    5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

    7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

    9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator…

    12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

    14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And letthe peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

    And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

    Rules for Christian Households

    18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

    19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

    20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

    21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged…

    23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

    You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

    My dear, beloved family of Christ Jesus,

    We live a new life of sacrifice and obedience to scripture, truthfulness of our word, and witness to our Lord and Savior, who offered Himself as acceptable sacrifice for our many sins. Do not live, dear brother, dear sister, in your over-bearing selfishness of your own flesh. Humble yourselves before our Groom, you His church and His Bride.

    Be Holy, as our Lord is Holy.

    Love one another, as I have loved you.  – John 13:34