Posted on

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”

Posted on

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”

Posted on

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”

Posted on

Genesis 1 – 12: Introduction

Ps 19:7 (8 Heb)  The law of YHVH is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of YHVH is sure, making wise the simple.

Why study Genesis 1 – 12? The whole of the Bible is under attack from those who never believed it for what it is, and from those who have fallen from the truth they once held. This attack has become the very fabric of the educational and intellectual spheres of influence, and has infiltrated down to the general public. We want to be equipped to be faithful witnesses and stewards of the mysteries of God. Continue reading “Genesis 1 – 12: Introduction”

Posted on

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?”

Posted on

A Sign Spoken Against

One thing about Christmas is that it is not a celebration of a shadow or type, looking for the One of whom Moses and the Prophets spoke.  It is focused on Him who came — the Son has come, the Light shines brightly!

Ps 69: 5-9 (6-10 Heb)   O God, You know my foolishness, and my sins are not hidden from You. Let not those who hope in You, O YHVH God of Hosts, be ashamed because of me; let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel. Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children (Mk 3:21; 6:3; Jn 7:1-5). Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. (Rom 15:3)

Lk 2: 29-35   [Simeon] took [Yeshua] up in his arms and blessed God and said: Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel. . . .Behold, this One is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against, . . .that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

Continue reading “A Sign Spoken Against”

Posted on

Generational Transference: We and Our Fathers

The righteousness and justice of God:  His ways are not ours; His thoughts not ours.  Repentance begins with agreeing with Him and learning from Him.   The truth sets us free, and humbles us to first judge ourselves of the log in our own eyes, so that we can better help others with their specks.  Glory to our Father in Heaven and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah/Jesus Christ!

Heb 7:8-10  Here men that die receive tithes; but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.  And as I may so say, Levi also, who receives tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him.  Continue reading “Generational Transference: We and Our Fathers”

Posted on

Tola’at

(Article by Rick Delay originally published in The Concertina Wire*, a prison magazine) 

Ex 35:4-9  And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto the LORD: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the LORD; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and purple, and SCARLET, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, And oil for the light, and spices for anointing oil, and for the sweet incense, And onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the breastplate. (emphasis mine; i.e., the author’s)  Continue reading “Tola’at”

Posted on

The Kingdom of God: Significance and Expectation of the Physical Return of the Lord

Ps 45:1  A love song.  My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition for the
King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer!

Prophecy is not given just so that we can know facts about the future.  Many can give facts, but not know the God who is giving them.  Many can know them, but their lives are not impacted.  Consider the Pharisees who knew that the Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem, in answering Herod, but yet had neither fear nor joy that the event might just have happened!  Every detail will be fulfilled!  Neither did they include the part that His goings forth are from everlasting!  Prophecy is given us by the Spirit of God through the Word of God, telling us God’s heart and mind concerning future things.  And knowing and loving and believing Him who is telling us whom He loves, they are supposed to affect our lives today:  in hope, in anticipation, in learning what He loves and plans to bless, and what He hates and plans to judge – and to adjust our lives accordingly.  We love God because He first loved us, and Yeshua has come to demonstrate that love by dying on the cross for the atonement of our sins.  We love Jesus/Yeshua because He loves us.  Continue reading “The Kingdom of God: Significance and Expectation of the Physical Return of the Lord”

Posted on

The Kingdom of God Streaming Through History

Ps 145:3-5, 8-13

God has always been Sovereign King – Sovereign Lord – over His creation, both in the Heavens and on the Earth. He made His plan for Creation and for Redemption before the beginning of time, space, and matter. All things that exist were created and made by YHVH God. Nothing exists apart from Him, and it is by Yeshua/Jesus, through Yeshua/Jesus, and for Yeshua/Jesus that all things were created, visible and invisible. (Col 1:15-17) And Yeshua/Jesus is the King that the Father has ordained to inherit and to rule over all that is. In other words, Yeshua/Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of God; therefore, He will be the King of Israel, and the King of the nations, and the King of the angels. He is God of gods, King of kings, and Lord of lords! (Ps 136:1-3; Rev 15:3-4; Ps 2) Continue reading “The Kingdom of God Streaming Through History”