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On The Other Side

(Rev from April 2007) 

Lk 16: 19-31   the rich man and Lazarus; Abraham’s bosom
Phlp 1: 23   with Messiah
Mt 8: 11-12   outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth  

Recently I have gone to five funerals of believers in Yeshua/Jesus. Three had lived to ‘full age’; two were young parents, with their infant son. For us whose sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross for our sins, and in His resurrection from the grave, we pass from death to life, awaiting the last trumpet blast for the resurrection of the dead in Christ. (1Cor 15:50-57) Then shall be the victory shout and song of the righteous! For those without that personal relationship with God the Father through saving faith in His Son, they also await a separate resurrection of the unrighteous. Both groups are waiting for the resurrection on the appropriate last day. Continue reading “On The Other Side”

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Gen 12: YHVH’s Call To Abram, Son of Eber, Son of Shem

Gen 11:31 – 13:1 

From the genealogy in Gen 11, we learn that Abraham (Abram) was born 352 years after the Flood. Noah died only two years before the birth of Abraham! Shem and Eber were still alive (even during Jacob’s life)! Truly, Shem is the father of all the sons of Eber, father of the Hebrews. We do not know for certain whether they ever met and spoke with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob (or even with Ishmael and Esau), but it is likely, and they would have had eye-witness accounts of pre-Flood and post-Flood people and events, as God maintained His witness and passed it on to His chosen persons and family. Noah was the tenth from Adam, and was protected through the judgment of the Flood; Abraham was tenth from Shem, who also was saved out from the Flood. Ch 12 carries on with God’s redemptive plan, choosing Abram – son of Eber, son of Shem, son of Noah — from among all the Gentiles, through whom He would bless the world through covenant and promise – and lots of controversy. Continue reading “Gen 12: YHVH’s Call To Abram, Son of Eber, Son of Shem”

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Gen 11: Progressing From The General To The Chosen

Gen 10:32 – 11:32

10:32 – 11:1 After The Flood, the nations, established by the 70 sons of Noah’s sons and their families, were separated on The Earth.  But before that separation took place, they all had one language and the same words. They all understood each other perfectly. Today, even in English, the words are not ‘the same’; for example, to stand in a line vs to stand in a queue. And there are many more examples of this confusion even within language groups.  Their separation become more pronounced after the Earth/Dry Land was divided in the days of Peleg, after the judgment for the rebellion of the Tower of Babel. Continue reading “Gen 11: Progressing From The General To The Chosen”

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Gen 10: History of Origins, Roots of Humanity and Nations

Gen 10

Chapter 10 of Genesis is also referred to as the Table of Nations (70, the same as the number of the children of Israel (Ex 1:5; Dt 32:7-9)). All of us come from at least one of Noah’s three sons — Shem, Japheth, and Ham (there have been mixed marriages along the way), whose own children were all born after The Flood. (The Hebrew word used for The Flood in Noah’s day is hamabool/המבול , and is not used for any other type of flood or flooding in The Bible. See also Ps 29:10) The covenant promise of God to Noah and to his sons with him, and to their descendants after them, is never again to destroy all flesh and the earth by a flood (mabool). (Gen 9:8-17) There have been many other lesser floods which have destroyed cities and islands, but none of these have been world-wide, nor are they called a mabool. Yeshua has promised to return in time to prevent all flesh from perishing during the Great Tribulation before God’s wrath. (Mt 24:21-22) Continue reading “Gen 10: History of Origins, Roots of Humanity and Nations”

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1John 3:1-12 — Sons of God, or Sons of the Devil

(Presented at Kingdom First Conference – May 2019)

1Jn 3:1-12

1. See what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God! Because of this, the world does not know us because it did not know Him.
2. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet manifested what we shall be; but we know that when He shall be manifested we shall be like Him! For we shall see Him as He is.
3. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure.
4. Everyone that practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
5. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin.
6. Whoever abides in Him does not sin; whoever sins has not seen Him, nor knows Him.
7. Little children, let no one lead you astray: he that practices righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.
8. He that practices sin is of the devil, because from the beginning the devil sins. For this the Son of God was manifested, that He might undo the works of the devil.
9. Whosoever is born of God does not practice sin, because His seed is in him; and he is not able to sin because he is born of God.
10. In this are manifested the children of God and the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, and he who does not love his brother.
11. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
12. not as Cain who was of the wicked one and slew his brother.  And why did he slay him?  Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

The Apostle John writes in his gospel account, and in his letters to those in the household of faith, in terms of black-and-white. There is no middle ground with him. You are either in, or out of, the Kingdom of God. Continue reading “1John 3:1-12 — Sons of God, or Sons of the Devil”

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Gen 4: Crime and Punishment, With Redemptive Hope

Gen 4:1-26

We may not realize that sin is a crime against God. Sin is lawlessness (1Jn 3:4); that is, it does not accept or live by any law that governs society, or that establishes what is good and what is evil. It is disobedience and rebellion against God and His Word. (Is 1:18-20) It began with Lucifer, now the Devil, and he brought it into Eve and Adam. Sin separates us from God our Father. (Is 59:2) Yeshua came to destroy the works of the devil, and to restore us to a relationship with God, knowing His holiness and righteousness, His goodness, His love. (1Jn 3:8) Continue reading “Gen 4: Crime and Punishment, With Redemptive Hope”

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Gen 1:14-31 — Days 4-6 of Creation

Mk 10:5-6 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

Gen 1:14-31

We have seen in the first three days of Creation how God created the heavens and the Earth, at first in a state of darkness and lack of order, and without any gap of time between the first and second verses. Then He began to speak things into existence, and made distinctions: between light and darkness, between waters and waters, between seed and seed, between kinds/species and other life in their own kind. God was forming the Earth for its unique place in His created universe, and for the unique life that He filled on it. Continue reading “Gen 1:14-31 — Days 4-6 of Creation”

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Genesis 1:1-13 — Days 1-3 of Creation

Mk 10:5-6 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

Gen 1:1-13

As we begin our study of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, I want to emphasize again: it is the Word of God; it is truth. Doubting what God says about the Creation will negatively affect us to doubt what He tells us about other matters throughout the Scriptures. It will weaken our faith in His Word, but it is His Word that He will not change, because He does not change. God’s Word judges us; we do not judge Him. (Heb 4:9-13)  God Himself lives by His Word (which also allows Him sovereign authority to do what man may not), and has magnified His Word above His Name. (Ps 138:2b) Yeshua is the Word of God, and He lived by it, and will continue to fulfill all that is written. As we trust God more to believe all that He says, our praise and worship will also enlarge. Continue reading “Genesis 1:1-13 — Days 1-3 of Creation”

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Towards Unity of the Spirit in The Bond of Peace

I returned home on Friday night from one week in Kenya. I was invited to be part of a small team for a diplomatic mission, speaking with senior church leaders about reconciliation of Gentile Christians — and church “positions” — with Jewish believers in Jesus/Yeshua, with a conference being planned in two years. For my part, my Jewish identity is not conflicted with my faith in Jesus and being also identified as a Christian, along with other believers and followers of the Messiah. But this is also something that might not necessarily have been so just a couple of hundred years ago, and even lingering until today in many quarters. Continue reading “Towards Unity of the Spirit in The Bond of Peace”

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Chosen People, or Myth?

Those who would make the Creation account given in Gen 1 and 2 (and even the history thru ch. 11) in the Hebrew Bible a myth open the door for those who say that it is a myth that the Jewish people are God’s chosen people:  the Jews created their own God and myth to compete with, and separate from, the other gods and myths of pagan nations.  (What a powerful myth!) They would be in agreement — knowingly or not — with those who claim that there is no God who intervenes in human affairs, no center of the universe or of this spherical Earth, and that there is no “specialness” of any thing, not even human beings, whom God uniquely created in His image and in His likeness.  God has a plan and a purpose for His creation, and redemption to accomplish it is at the heart of it from before the beginning. Continue reading “Chosen People, or Myth?”