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  • Saints & Martyrs; Bishops & Pawns – 2

    Saints & Martyrs; Bishops & Pawns – 2

    1 Samuel 2:9 He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.

    Yet as the Lord lives, evil reigns in the dark places of the lands. No man: rich or poor, Arab or Jew, Westerner or Easterner, religious or godless – no man shall prevail. Only God Almighty!

    Attacks on God and godlessness will continue until Almighty God has prevailed, as I alluded to in part 1 of this post. Perpetrators of cowardly attacks on working civilians will continue for a time by pawns of misled leaders, frustrated religious zealots and enemies of God with hatred for their own enemies.

    Jesus Christ taught us to ‘love our enemies and pray for those who spitefully use you.” We had best remember this in these last days.

    How many of us remember (what we claimed we would always remember) the number of deaths on 9/11/2001?

    Deaths by Area of Attack Deaths
    World Trade Center 2,606
    Airlines 246
    Pentagon Building 125
    Hijackers 19
    Total number of people who died in the 9/11 attacks 2,996
    Casualties in the World Trade Center and Surrounding Area Deaths
    Firefighters 343
    Port Authority police officers 37
    Police officers 23
    Paramedics 2

    God testifies to the evil in the hearts of men.

    Genesis 6:5

    The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

    6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

    In the days of Noah  every man and woman on the earth was destroyed? The LORD prevailed with waters upon the earth for 150 days and all but Noah and seven others.

    Though we focus on the eight saved, let us not overlook the deaths of so many evil men and women, perhaps 5-17 billion people  (according to various estimates) on the earth at the time only Noah and his family obeyed Almighty God.

    world populationFor any who believe that God is not sovereign over the beginning and end of days, sovereign over the lives of men and woman, sovereign over life on earth itself; let us remember that God has promised a new heaven and a new earth for those who are victorious in Christ Jesus.

    As in the days of Noah, wars and the actions of evil men and evil women will prevail until that day. Countries and borders will be born and disappear. God will allow men temporary power over those who do not do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord.

    The Sovereign God Almighty will allow the deaths, destruction and desecration of all that is good and lawful as victims of evil and a refining of righteousness. Even now, we see and dare not ignore the signs.

    In Syria alone (separate of the deaths among refugees of the current conflict in Iraq and those fleeing Pakistan), around 5,000 to 6,000 people were being killed on a monthly basis. Latest figures put the death toll at more than 191,000 over the past three years. Men and boys account for the bulk of the deaths but nearly 18,000 women and more than 2,000 children under the age of nine are also among those killed, he said.

    [On 9/11, one day we recall as a tragic attack, 2,996 deaths.] Now, hundreds of thousands of deaths and the loss of many souls!

    Have you heard of it, or done anything to help, dear believer?

    How blind we remain to the violence of these evil men, who will stand before the Lord in judgement for their souls, rather than reap the reward of heavenly virgins. (For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. – Mark 12:25)

    Yet they would rape the women they capture on earth and hang or behead them for their witness to the Truth of Christ Jesus.

     1 Million + refugees, Muslims and Christians

    Dear believer (in God),

    Our marginal awareness of a far-distant conflict, we may believe has no affect on the body of Christ. Yet in these days of war between religions, hardly a Christian community survives openly in many areas from where refugees have fled.

    Do you not know that some will be converted by the love of Jesus Christ and the generosity of Christians in their time of need?

    The GOD of Abraham was not interested in saving the Jews from Roman occupation of Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Jesus is not of this earth, but a lasting Kingdom of eternal life for your soul.

    Since the beginning of the Church, God has accepted any who believe into our family of God, into the loving fellowship of all believers in Christ Jesus.

    The Gentiles, the Nations, sons of Esau, those who once persecuted the same Christians are welcomed (not forced) into the communion of the Blood of Christ and assurance of eternal life.

    One such former enemy of Christ was Saul of Tarsus (Turkey). He ordered the execution of Stephen, a saint and leader of the church. – Acts 7:58 

    Yet this same Saul, a Roman citizen as well, became an Apostle to the Gentiles. This former enemy of Jesus Christ witnessed to all of the mercy, love and grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ. – Acts 9

    Rest assured that many unbelievers throughout the world will come to God and Christ Jesus, our Lord. They see the love and forgiveness of Christ demonstrated through the hands of faithful Christians.

    These saints of the church, so concerned for the souls of others, bless friends and forgive foes by the grace of Jesus Christ. These saints of the 21st c. Church declare Christ’s love by our concern for others.

    Saint Paul and Saint Peter and Saint Stephen, along with the other martyrs, would never have had us worship them or any man of the early church above the example of Christ Jesus. Though the compassionate work of Teresa and Joan and Mary have been examples for women of faith, none would have had us revere them above the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus.

    The true saints of the church are not its Bishops or icons of the past.

    The widow’s mite and pauper’s pence have sustained the needy, while these true saints have withstood in long-suffering as pawns of the powers in true witness of the love of Christ Jesus.

    These, along with you, dear believer, are the saints of the church, equal in every way to those named and Saints unnamed.

    Christ Jesus is love, because God is love. In Him is no darkness at all, no hatred, no evil, no territory, no agenda. The mission of Christ is to save sinners – sinners like you and sinners like me; for His grace I am eternally grateful.

    We hardly remember the 3000 souls who perished on just one day: 9/11/2001; yet the war against Christ, the war against freedom continues.

    Pray for the persecuted. Open your eyes, your heart and your purse to those so in need.

    What’s happening in Iraq? What is hidden in Syria?

    Christians and Muslims and others are suffering terribly. Please READ more of this and do something, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

    Iraqi refugees tell their story

    Iraq (MNN) — ISIS continues its offensive across Syria and Iraq, leaving many victims in its wake. The stories of ISIS killing males above 10 years old, the systematic rape of women and girls, and the looting of personal possessions is shocking, even to many Muslims.

    (See the complete interview on the link above.)

    WIFE: The armed men passed by me and behind them were veiled women, wearing red clothes. And, they searched me, took my money and gold. They even searched my daughters. It was our lifesavings. They took all of it. The 450,000 dinars were in my husband’s pocket and they took it. There were six batches of money they took from me and all of the gold. My parents had sold their home. I had hidden THIS money in my house in Mosul. When we were going up from Mosul they threatened us. They took our stuff and detained us along the way, like a checkpoint.

    ANNOUNCER: So, they took all the savings and everything?

    WIFE: Believe me, they stole everything. They said, “Let your Bishops give you money.” They demanded our Bishops initiate a ransom for us. They didn’t let us pay the jizya tax. They threatened us. If you saw the situation of Christians at checkpoints, you would cry. They were bringing more armed men to add more pressure on us.

    MAKRAM: What happened is, we were leaving Mosul. All the Christians were leaving. We went to Hamdaneya, stayed about 13 days, then [we] went to Erbil. From Erbil, we came to the church here, because this is the only place with a Coptic Church. Not just because of the church, but it’s also safer here. It’s safe and the people are good here.

    ANNOUNCER: Isn’t Erbil safe, too?

    MAKRAM: Erbil is dangerous and it’s not like here.

    ANNOUNCER: There were Shiites in Mosul? And, ISIS was killing Shiites?

    MAKRAM: Yes, they knew the Shiites and were killing them, particularly the police. They turned on each other. They turned on Islam. The Muslims despise [the police].

    ANNOUNCER: So, ISIS started out against Shiites and now they’re against Christians and Yazidis?

    MARKAM: Yes, ISIS doesn’t accept equality. They despise them in Mosul.

     There is precedent for the Church in helping the saints (poor) so affected by these persecutions:

     It is in this case directed by the same Apostle to the Gentiles who had first persecuted the church.

    1 Corinthians 16 English Standard Version (ESV)

    The Collection for the Saints
    16 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

    Are you, dear believer, and your church willing to do something individually (and also corporately) now and consistently for those so in need?

    Please pray about this, my fellow saint.

    May we be the generous hands and open heart of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, to these, and to those who witness the love of Christ through us.

    Amen.

     

     

     

     

  • Redeeming the time because the days are evil – 2

    Redeeming the time because the days are evil – 2

    Do you know that God has enemies – many enemies? You don’t have to focus on a few evil men in a place far away; just look all around you.

    Mention ‘Jesus Christ’ at work, in school, in homes of your relatives; even in your own home you and your wife claim as ‘the Lords.’  See what happens. You do not need the imagery of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Washington D.C. or any other men in any other place to know that God and Christ Jesus have many enemies in the world – far and near – who would do evil and not good.

    In fact, look deeply into the mirror of your heart and know that you are deceived into thinking you are better than others; you think that because you are not as evil as these men… as these others, that therefore, you are good. But you are not. I am not.

    Jeremiah 17:9 ESV The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

    You do not have to be the Messiah of God to know this. Men are evil and not good.

    Much of our traditional preaching has made a bigger deal that the young man with the big question for Jesus is rich – as are almost all Americans and many others. However, note that prior to answering the man’s question, Jesus goes to the man’s motivation for coming to kneel before Him (in worship) and asking Him our burning question about eternal life. (How can I have eternal life?)

    Mark 10:18 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.

    You know it is true. The man had to choose sacrifice before redemption. Yet he would not sacrifice his riches, as many a poor man will not sacrifice his pride.

    We often will not even bow down to Jesus (as did this rich young ruler), let alone obey His teachings.

    You know the Commandments, Jesus said. Yes we do (as well); yet God knows our deceitful hearts.

    Forget your “morality” for others. Forget your “morality” for any other. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in a Biblical standard of good and evil? You need look no further than your own heart. I need look no further than mine. And Jesus asks us, “Why do you call me good?”

    A mere man – a mortal man – looks at some small act or a few fine things you have done because you know that it is what Jesus would have you do as witness. And they say, “You are a good man.” (Or you are a good woman.”) You beam in the compliment, say nothing, think that you have witnessed for Christ; but you are deceived in your heart. I have done it.

    Yet we should have reacted not out of our pride, but as Paul often taught in the humility of Christ Jesus; for he confesses publicly in his letter to the Romans:

    Romans 7:18-19 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

    The church – all the saints of Christ Jesus – sinners! Yet redeemed sinners, only in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    I am a sinner. You are a sinner. Yet in addition to redemption in Christ, we have one thing more:

    By the Holy Spirit of God we desire what is good. By the Holy Spirit of God we hate all that is evil, especially that which is evil within us.

    “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.”  Yet first, preach the Gospel to your own heart.

    IF (for a moment) you have turned off the media and message of the world and tuned in to the headlines of the Holy Spirit through scripture and the Good News for your own heart, then you will truly see that ALL are sinners just like you and me – sinners in need of Christ Jesus.

    Paul writes to the Christians at Rome (not to the evil and wicked men and wicked men of the worldly culture that surrounded them; for these flesh-loving Romans were no more wicked than you and I would easily be lured by the social media of their day):

    Ephesians 5:

    8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

    15 See then that you walk circumspectly…

    It means to look around you as you walk as an obedient follower of Christ Jesus in this evil world. Use your peripheral vision, so to speak, as you walk on the narrow path to pass through the narrow gate of eternity. Walk perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect; walk diligently in your resolve to do what is right in the Lord.

    not as fools, but as wise…

    Oh, how many christian fools we have seen! and how oft have we been the christian fool!

    Yet do not do it. Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves.

    I do not want to be a fool. Do you? I do not want do be a fool especially when I know that others witness my walk in this world as a bold witness of Christ (when the Lord fills me with His boldness). I do not want to have them say of me, or of my Christian wife, or of my Christian children, “See, that Christian is just like everybody else.” See how he sins just like me. What difference does Jesus Christ make?”

    Therefore, be wise, dearly beloved brother – dearly beloved sister in the Lord.

    16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

    How do I redeem my time?

    How Christians have sadly forgotten that Jesus is our Redeemer, because our hearts have hidden from us the truth of our continued sinfulness. We do claim that slavery is a thing of the past, when slavery lives lavishly in the wickedness of these last days. We have repressed the thought that we must pay for the very slavery of our sinful flesh (if we do not accept Jesus as our Lord and Master, our Redeemer and our King.

    Yes, we must bow down to a King! And how we relish our freedom, though we are chained by the flesh to our sins.

    Pray deeply on the meaning of the word of scripture translated here as ‘redeeming.’

    exagorazō – to redeem – by payment of a price to recover from the power of another, to ransom, buy off

    So many souls kidnapped by Satan! even ‘christian’ souls.

    Will you forfeit Christ’s ransom by your turning from the narrow path to eternal life? Would you have the Lord declare in tears of you, “I never knew you?”

    O, sinful redeemed one, look circumspectly about you at a world which would lure each and every Christian from Light of Salvation and the wisdom that begins with the Lord.

    How do you redeem the time – your remaining days of this mortal life? (For each day and each soul is precious in the eyes of our loving Lord.)

    This, too, is in the definition:

    … make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own.

    Tune back in; see so many lost souls (in your circumspect, peripheral vision) and you will readily see that the days are evil. The days, especially these last days, are very evil; for men are evil and not good. Only God is good, however these days in which we witness for Christ Jesus are indeed evil.

    These days are evil – ponēros – full of labours, annoyances, hardships; bringing toils, annoyances, perils; of a time full of peril to Christian faith and steadfastness; causing pain and trouble. The root word for this evil you may not know, but you will recognize its condition: ponos – 

    1. great trouble, intense desire
    2. pain

    The persecution of Christians and the diminishing of Christ in places once held for Christ has begun and increases.

    Jesus Christ is enemy of the world, yet friend of sinners – sinners like you, sinners like some yet to be won from false gods, false prophets, false spirits, false teachings, false hatred and deceitful love of the things of this world and not the love of God the Father. And I might add, lest the deceitfulness of our hearts hold up our witness for Christ as false: sinners like me.

    All are redeemed in the blood of Christ Jesus, not the blood of those opposed to God. (God will can fend for His own righteousness.)

    God will judge on the last day. God will not reward your flesh with the fruit of the flesh, but your soul for the fruit of your righteousness in the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ is the only redemption sufficient for this sinful soul.

    See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

    • Do you seek to know what the will of the Lord is in your life?
    • Do you look for the Lord’s will in your Bible?
    • Do you seek Him in prayer?

    The Lord’s will is that you would give up your love for the things of this world. Lay down all your earthly cares and belongings before your King.

    For Christ, by His redeeming love for the world, did sacrifice His very flesh and did suffer greatly the price of your punishment for sin – the punishment deserved by me and by you. He has born our sins and paid the full price: redemption for our mortal time, yet resurrection for our now immortal souls.

    In Christ Jesus we have faith and hope and love, but the greatest of these is love; therefore redeem your measured days in His love, because the days are evil.

    May our Lord, Jesus Christ, hold you near and guide your path in the Light of His righteousness.

    Please pray for me, for my wife and for our children.

    Amen.

     

  • Redeeming the time because the days are evil

    Redeeming the time because the days are evil

    Ephesians 5

    15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

    17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

    Turn off the noise and media and message of the world (for a moment). Forget about the weather, a few people with threatening disease, the lottery, your sports team and all the commercials that tell you how sick you are (but they will sell you a cure), how we have something to make you feel younger, healthier, sexier, richer and more important…

    Forget (for a moment) all of the song lyrics and TV imagery of appeal to your lustful flesh for the purchase of the world as they would like you to see it.

    Forget (for a moment) that you have to get up, go to work, make money, buy groceries, get gasoline and find some way to pay for other essentials.

    Forget (for a moment) that you haven’t quite figured out why your loved ones act toward you and others and toward God on a daily basis differently than what you have taught and in some most un-Christlike and hurtful ways.

    Do not worry about these things (for a moment) and consider this story of Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer:

    Mark 10:17 Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

    Consider the man’s request. The man ran up to Jesus, knelt before Him as an act of humility and respect. (Some of us should learn from his example of respect to Jesus, the man we claim as our teacher).

    The man asks a question to which we all want to know the answer (if we truly believe in the resurrection).  Our thoughts may proceed quickly something like this:

    You either die and that is all there is – your body and soul (if you have one) will perish. OR At the end of our bodily life, some other life for our soul remains.

    I do NOT want my soul to die. I may want this life to end. I may want to make this life better. But then what?

    And to Jesus, as the rich young ruler might think: You teach that I have a choice; at least, that is, until my God-appointed day do die, as all men will. And then what?

    Is there a way I can buy or earn this eternal life now?

    Admit it. You want something better, don’t you; and we all would like that ‘better life’ to last forever.

    Are the eternal hopes of the rich young ruler any different from your own?

     to be continued…