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Tag: salvation

Esau I Hated

Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord.

But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord.

“Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated.

We pray to God: ‘Give me a blessing.’ ‘I cannot do this alone?’ ‘Please help me, Lord.’ We acknowledge God as our Father and as our Lord. The Lord, our Father in heaven then blesses us. He provides a loving mate. He provide godly guidance for our misguided children. He heals a dreaded disease. He provides job after job and puts food on our table. He places us in the congregation of Christians who care for our needs and for our soul. Again, and again, the Lord brings us blessing and not curse when we are not in the low place and do not even pray for blessing.

And what is our thanks? What is our offering to the Lord? Do we cleave to our beloved husband (or wife)? Do we stand as example of Jesus in our instruction of our children? Do we give thanks to the Lord for healing our body? Do we witness at work of the Lord’s unfailing love? Do we thank Him for the food on our table as if without Him we could not be fed? Do we thank Him that someone does not have to feed us for our inability of health to hold even a spoon? Do we joyfully worship with our loving brothers and sisters in Christ on the Lord’s day? Do we gently guide our children to the house of the Lord?

We fall back into our sins. We slide back toward the pit. We revel in the ways of the world and witness against Christ as our Lord. We witness against God our Father. We offer the sacrifice of our tithes and offerings to the gods of chance, the gods of addiction and the gods of our evil desires. We bow down and worship the gods of sin!

But you say, “How have you loved us?”

Do you understand as you trespass the blessing of the Cross that you sell forever His blessing and grace and love?

Don’t you know that we are ALL lawbreakers? Don’t you remember what you were before you were adopted into the family of faith, the Household of God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord?

God is NOT your Father and Christ Jesus is NOT your Lord (for no one will lord it over you) IF you witness against the love and sacrifice and blood of the Cross.

You reject the Lord. Why, at the Day of your judgment, should the Lord not reject YOU?

Some of us reject a God that could hate Esau… a God who would hate us. (I spoke to this earlier.) We think of Esau as just a man who lived long ago. We think of Israel as only a land and not a people chosen once by God who rejected God continually and rejected Christ Jesus forever.

Paul, the Apostle to the gentiles, was once a man of Jacob, chosen by God over Esau. He hated Christ Jesus, the Messiah of Promise and Blessing of the gentiles. God so loved the world; yet Saul of Tarsus hated the church.

What if Saul of Tarsus had not finally bowed down to Christ Jesus as Lord? Would he not also be judged with Esau?

Abram was changed to Abraham. Jacob was changed to Israel. Saul of Tarsus was changed to Paul the Apostle.

Has God changed you for all eternity by the Cross of Christ Jesus?

Or do you ask for God’s blessing, then quickly turn from the Lord?

The books of the Bible, which we so carelessly neglect along with the armor of our salvation, point us so diligently toward salvation (being saved from our great curse of sin and death). Over and over the books of the Bible instruct us in that which we ought to have instructed our children and heeded in our own lives.

GOD IS a Person. God our Father may hate, but most certainly God our Father does love those who truly love Him.

Genesis 4: And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

Does the Blood of the Cross not cry out against you when you offer to your sin that which is the Lord’s?

13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. 14 Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden…

Deuteronomy 11: 26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

Joshua 8:30-35

Joshua Renews the Covenant

30 At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the servant of the Lord…

34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

Revelation 16

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath

7 And I heard the altar saying,

“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”

15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

3 John 1:2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

Colossians 1:3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…

Pray also for me, that the blessings of God our Father, the Son Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit will continue through His work in me, and that His own Blessings to my life may be renewed in His Spirit, obedience, faithfulness and love.

February 8, 2014
Kaph

What does it mean to be saved? (What is salvation?)

The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,

And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death

Light has dawned.” – Matthew 4:16 NKJV (quoting Isaiah 9:2)

Luke 3:6 KJV And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Psalm 119

English Standard Version (ESV)

Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

Kaph

81 My soul longs for your salvation;
I hope in your word.
82 My eyes long for your promise;
I ask, “When will you comfort me?”

The word salvation occurs 164 times in the KJV of the Bible. Do you realize the importance of your salvation in Christ Jesus?

In the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) salvation of God is hoped for and anticipated in the Person of the Messiah. It is a time of darkness and sin into which Jesus was born as a Son of Man in a manger in Bethlehem and sacrificed for our sins on a Cross in Jerusalem. Jesus IS our salvation.

A thousand years before Christ, when David and Solomon ruled as Kings of Israel, the Law of God and His statutes were the present hope of Israel. The true hope of Israel was born in Christ Jesus, prophesied and predicted in the Psalms and by many Prophets during and following the fall of the earthly Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

83 For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,
yet I have not forgotten your statutes.
84 How long must your servant endure?
When will you judge those who persecute me?

85 The insolent have dug pitfalls for me;
they do not live according to your law.
86 All your commandments are sure;
they persecute me with falsehood; help me!
87 They have almost made an end of me on earth,
but I have not forsaken your precepts.

88 In your steadfast love give me life,
that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth.

Even unbelievers know a portion of salvation:

John 3:16-19

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

He has not saved our life for ourselves, but for His own glory.

Jesus IS Lord and Savior.

Into the world is born a Messiah, prophesied by John the Baptist, prophesied by his father, Zechariah, the high priest of God:

Luke 1:76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

January 24, 2014
He is one of us

Psalm 10:17-18 KJV

LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

Gospel of the Birth of Christ Jesus

Mark 1

English Standard Version (ESV)

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”

Before John the messenger of the Messiah, prior to Isaiah and the Prophets calling us to repentance and announcing the coming of the Lord;

Before David and the Kingdom of Israel, before Moses and the exodus of God’s chosen from captivity;

Before Moses and the Law and Commandments;

Before Jacob and Isaac and Abraham (for Jesus said: Before Abraham was, I AM.

Before Adam, before man and before woman, before earth and before the heavens:

GOD IS.

Thus, God IS and did send unto mankind Himself His only Son, a babe in a humble manger, born of a humble woman betrothed of a humble man, for the work of our redemption, a sheep of sacrifice on the Cross for our salvation. He IS the resurrection and the life.

Are we not prisoners of our many sins? Do our hearts not suffer in the dungeons of our darkness. Is God not distant from our difficulties and silent in our sufferings?

It was no different 2013 years ago. Yet the beginning of the story of the babe in the manger begins before the beginning.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives – Luke 4:18

In the beginning, the Holy Spirit was with God. The Holy Spirit descended on Christ Jesus, Son of God and He, a man with us, taught us once more the surpassing love and grace of God our Father in heaven.

Before Jesus’ ministry and teaching in the Holy Spirit, before the Son of Man was born in a manger in Bethlehem, He IS God in creation. Now a savior is come. He IS God with man: like every man, a babe, a child, a youth, a young man, and finally a mature man teaching the very word of God. He IS the very word of God! Jesus’ teaching IS the only truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Yet by His own love and the great grace of God our Father, He IS the Lamb of sacrifice for our sins.

Think of Jesus descended into the womb of Mary and born to be worshiped in a lowly manger in this way:

John 1

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

Jesus, Son of Man, born of Mary, the Incarnate spoken Word of God the Father. He was with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in the beginning.

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Genesis 1:

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus speaks to creation as the Word taught us.

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Genesis 1: 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

In the image and likeness of Jesus we were made. In the beginning, adam (man) was without sin, as Jesus, as God: Holy and separated from sin, like the darkness is divided from the light.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Here is revealed the identity of the babe in the manger: Jesus, heralded by angels and worshiped by shepherds and wise kings; Jesus, the babe smuggled into Egypt by Joseph to escape the sword of Herod; Jesus who would return to Nazareth of Galilee announced by John the Baptist, greatest of all Prophets.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

By His Light and the cloud of His glory He led His own people from the slavery of Egypt to His land of promise. By His own Word He proclaimed His Law of holiness and light for the people of His promise.

God’s own rejected God as a people of God; therefore God came unto His own and also to those who were not His own as a light to the gentiles, to all nations and all peoples.

All who will believe in the only Son of God and truly follow the will of God have become sons and daughters of God, adopted into the household and heart of His eternal life and overflowing love.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Unto us a child is born, a son of man, the Son of God. His glory was again witnessed by His Apostles and His righteousness seen by all.

15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Luke 2

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Birth of Jesus Christ

6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths andlaid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

Thirty-three years later near Golgotha, then departed from Jerusalem:

Luke 24:

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen.

12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

Acts 1: 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Christ Jesus, from the beginning to the manger, to the cross, to the tomb, to the resurrection, to walking and witness with men fifty more days, to His ascension, to the heavens above, to return on the clouds.

Do you have a relationship with the greatest love of all, that of God our Father in Heaven, Christ Jesus the Lamb of sacrifice for our sins, and the Holy Spirit counselor of the Most High?

The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Bow down and worship the Lord our God, Who IS and was and will be: God With Us; Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

May the peace of God’s love dwell in your hearts through the grace of our Lord Christ Jesus, who came to a lowly manger that we might bow even lower to worship His Holy Name in this Holy time: Christ Mass, 2013

Amen.

December 24, 2013