TEXTS:
Showing posts with label Universe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Universe. Show all posts
Thursday, December 21, 2023
Sunday, December 29, 2013
NOT SOME FANCY WORLD LEADER!
PART ONE - THE MODEL OF THE CHIEF SHEPHERD
Whenever a world leader gets ready to travel, the protocols and advance teams are a thing to behold. For instance Queen of England travels with massive luggage, four different outfits per day; her press/publicity people; doctors; nurses; special dietary counsel and a whole lot more!
Whenever a modern US president travels either to a foreign trip or a fundraiser in Hollywood, the modus operandi is the same – forty limousines; fighter jets; C-130 transport planes; support staff etc etc. Both of these two highest profile world leaders’ travel costs their countries run sometimes into the 10’s of millions of dollars, depending on the length and distance of the travel.
When the Creator of all of this; the Creator of Life; the Creator of the Universe and galaxies outside of our own; the Ancient of Eternal Days….when He decided to come to the earth; coming off the Throne of Heaven, He had no sanitized hospital room; no heated blanket and no doctor or midlife to deliver Him.
The real Commander in Chief of the Universe, the Lord of Hosts and Heaven’s Armies which cannot be defeated was not born into a religious family; a wealthy family or a famous family. The King of Heaven was not even revealed to the religious leaders of Jerusalem but rejects and outcasts whom those self-righteous priests did not even allow to come into the House of the Lord (the Temple).
Jesus Christ, the Owner of All those Titles and He Who will overrule and judge kings, presidents, chief justices and all mankind with an iron rod, revealed Himself to create a new paradigm! This paradigm involved outcasts, the Shepherds of Bethlehem becoming under-shepherds to the Chief Shepherd!
This could only make sense in the Awesome Mind of God! Why the Shepherds and not the Religious Temple trained Priest? Well, go back to Isaiah 53: …”All we like sheep have gone astray”. As smart as we think we are, we are dumb, single minded (with our heads down, instead of looking up) sheep in need of a shepherd. As we see from my previous post on the Shepherds of Bethlehem, these men were a different breed.
The characteristics of a Judean shepherd were not very flattering. The corrupt priests in the Temple in Jerusalem actually considered these shepherds dishonest; untrustworthy; unclean and just plain disgusting (and a lot, not all, were not nice people). They had to be kept out of the city, even though they provided all the lambs for the Temple Sacrifice, because of uncleanliness, under the Law of Moses.
The Lord looked at these shepherds from the Gospels and saw people like you and I – unclean (yes) but with potential. These hardworking shepherds had to be on point 24/7/365.
Sheep did not take Sunday morning off for coffee and donuts before singing three and out hymns, with an okay sermon and two pastoral prayers. Sheep were constantly getting stuck in the brush; falling down into creeks; getting attacked by wolves; or even stolen from their herds by renegades or robbers. If you look at the description of what these hard-working men had to do, you can almost say things are not much different in the church today!
These were and are the qualities Jesus, One Third of the Triune God, looks at when choosing an under-shepherd to represent Him - The Chief Shepherd. These are the qualities of a man (and pastors are supposed to be men, in order to obey the Scriptures) who is not afraid to get his hands dirty and get in the trenches to help rescue the flock. In a sense these are the qualities of a man who is supposed to look like the King of All Eternity Who lowered Himself to be born in a dirty cold cave over 2000 years ago.
So what happened....at least in the West, where the Gospel was sent out to first, via Paul, Peter and John? How did the still in force concept of the "Poimenes" of Bethlehem (Shepherd-Pastor) become more celebrity... more CEO of a church... more manager of an uninspiring Sunday morning service which is meeting almost no one's Spiritual needs....more of an insulated form of royalty, not much different from those same priests which the Lord wanted nothing to do with on that cold Shepherd's field.
What happened to cause Chief Shepherd Jesus Christ's own under-shepherds to be viewed in a favorable light by less and less people each year?
Whenever a world leader gets ready to travel, the protocols and advance teams are a thing to behold. For instance Queen of England travels with massive luggage, four different outfits per day; her press/publicity people; doctors; nurses; special dietary counsel and a whole lot more!
Whenever a modern US president travels either to a foreign trip or a fundraiser in Hollywood, the modus operandi is the same – forty limousines; fighter jets; C-130 transport planes; support staff etc etc. Both of these two highest profile world leaders’ travel costs their countries run sometimes into the 10’s of millions of dollars, depending on the length and distance of the travel.
When the Creator of all of this; the Creator of Life; the Creator of the Universe and galaxies outside of our own; the Ancient of Eternal Days….when He decided to come to the earth; coming off the Throne of Heaven, He had no sanitized hospital room; no heated blanket and no doctor or midlife to deliver Him.
The real Commander in Chief of the Universe, the Lord of Hosts and Heaven’s Armies which cannot be defeated was not born into a religious family; a wealthy family or a famous family. The King of Heaven was not even revealed to the religious leaders of Jerusalem but rejects and outcasts whom those self-righteous priests did not even allow to come into the House of the Lord (the Temple).
Jesus Christ, the Owner of All those Titles and He Who will overrule and judge kings, presidents, chief justices and all mankind with an iron rod, revealed Himself to create a new paradigm! This paradigm involved outcasts, the Shepherds of Bethlehem becoming under-shepherds to the Chief Shepherd!
This could only make sense in the Awesome Mind of God! Why the Shepherds and not the Religious Temple trained Priest? Well, go back to Isaiah 53: …”All we like sheep have gone astray”. As smart as we think we are, we are dumb, single minded (with our heads down, instead of looking up) sheep in need of a shepherd. As we see from my previous post on the Shepherds of Bethlehem, these men were a different breed.
The characteristics of a Judean shepherd were not very flattering. The corrupt priests in the Temple in Jerusalem actually considered these shepherds dishonest; untrustworthy; unclean and just plain disgusting (and a lot, not all, were not nice people). They had to be kept out of the city, even though they provided all the lambs for the Temple Sacrifice, because of uncleanliness, under the Law of Moses.
The Lord looked at these shepherds from the Gospels and saw people like you and I – unclean (yes) but with potential. These hardworking shepherds had to be on point 24/7/365.
Sheep did not take Sunday morning off for coffee and donuts before singing three and out hymns, with an okay sermon and two pastoral prayers. Sheep were constantly getting stuck in the brush; falling down into creeks; getting attacked by wolves; or even stolen from their herds by renegades or robbers. If you look at the description of what these hard-working men had to do, you can almost say things are not much different in the church today!
These were and are the qualities Jesus, One Third of the Triune God, looks at when choosing an under-shepherd to represent Him - The Chief Shepherd. These are the qualities of a man (and pastors are supposed to be men, in order to obey the Scriptures) who is not afraid to get his hands dirty and get in the trenches to help rescue the flock. In a sense these are the qualities of a man who is supposed to look like the King of All Eternity Who lowered Himself to be born in a dirty cold cave over 2000 years ago.
So what happened....at least in the West, where the Gospel was sent out to first, via Paul, Peter and John? How did the still in force concept of the "Poimenes" of Bethlehem (Shepherd-Pastor) become more celebrity... more CEO of a church... more manager of an uninspiring Sunday morning service which is meeting almost no one's Spiritual needs....more of an insulated form of royalty, not much different from those same priests which the Lord wanted nothing to do with on that cold Shepherd's field.
What happened to cause Chief Shepherd Jesus Christ's own under-shepherds to be viewed in a favorable light by less and less people each year?
NEXT: WHY ONLY 47% OF AMERICANS TRUST THE CLERGY/PASTORATE
Thursday, August 2, 2012
SO, FATHER, JUST WHO IS HE?
FIRST COMMANDMENT (Part 2)
The Lord said in Exodus 20:2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" The word for LORD here is Adonai. This is Hebrew for Master...or as in "my Lord and Master". Who is this? JESUS CHRIST! It was Jesus Who was in the Pillar of Fire that led by night and the Cloud by day. It was Jesus Who then appeared to Moses and gave Him the Law. It was Jesus Who was in the Rock that Moses struck for water, when Moses was only told to SPEAK to it (this led to Moses' death). It was Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!
They missed it! THEY MISSED IT! The Jews not just missed it in the Wilderness for forty years and were destroyed except for their children, Joshua and Caleb, but they missed it 3500 years later when Messiah showed up in Jerusalem for His three years of ministry! He was prophesied about throughout the entire Old Testament and especially in this verse below....but they missed Him!
Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in His fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name, and what is His Son's Name?
Surely you know!
(Proverbs 30:4 ESV)
How can a seemingly religious people miss the fact that the God of this Universe has a Son - whose Name is Adonai? Well, do we miss it too? We can talk as much as we want about them, and we KNOW WHO HE IS, and we too miss it! We sing about Him, write about Him, call on His Name, PRAY in His Name....some pagans even cuss in His Name, liberals and heathens are trying to stamp out His Name in the public square....but friends, as His followers, do we miss just Who He really is and what He should mean to us?
My dear brother Doc, a spiritual mentor to me as an older man in the faith, was talking to me yesterday about the Gospel of the Kingdom. I exhort you, as well, to read Matthew Chapter numbers 23-25 and ask the Lord, I mean Adonai, to not just reveal to your own spirit (who is indwelled by HIS Spirit if you are saved) not just what those 3 chapters mean...BUT AS YOU READ ASK "SO, FATHER, JUST WHO IS HE?!!!"
(image by google)
Sunday, January 15, 2012
THIRTY DAY PRAYER CHALLENGE - DAY 15
PRAY THE NAMES OF GOD
DAY 15
GOD IS SELF-SUFFICIENT
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us....
(Acts 17:24-27 ESV)
Issue 1:
For thousands of years, ancient peoples of every race, from the Greeks to the Babylonians to the Far Easterners, have built temples for their millions of pagan gods. Today - none of them are standing! They are empty ruins for two reasons: one, their gods do not exist and two, the Real God of Heaven, does not live in some building made by corrupt men and women! His laws are written on our hearts, but we have used our heads to rule Him unconstitutional in our lives!
Issue 2:
Which one of us can give God something which He does not already have or which He originally created and gave to us in the first place! God owns all the cattle on the hills of Montana, to the rice fields of China. Men may temporarily be in charge of all of that, but one day soon, it will all be reclaimed by the Creator! Mankind in its arrogance and corruption think they can sacrifice small portions from their puny material holdings, when all God is looking for is total obedience, love and commitment from us!
Issue 3:
Look at the Heavens...do you think the Creator of all of this needs anything?!!! We need Him! We, who are called by His Name, will know the answers to all Life's questions when we live with Him forever in the new Heavens and the New Earth. Until then, without question, I urge you, my friends, to please read and reread the Bible passage above. This will really bring home to us the Nature, Name and Attribute of the Awesome God of Eternity
And Father in the Name of Jesus, not only am I nothing without You, but I know I only live and breathe because of the Power of Your Word! Father, nothing in this world I bring, simply to Thy Cross I cling...the same Cross which You, the Self-Sufficient God of the Universe gave to mankind as the Greatest Gift of All.
Nothing in this world I can give to You, can compare to the Gift and Sacrifice of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! Nothing, Heavenly Father! Anything I can give You pales in comparison to that Fact, when You Yourself state in John 4:23 that You, Almighty God, are looking for those who will worship You in Spirit and in Truth.
The truth is that all You require from us is total surrender to Your Will, total submission to the Wonder of You and total commitment in response to Your calling on our lives.
You do not live in those pagan temples which other religions and some misinformed Christians create for You, but You dwell in the very souls and hearts of men who have surrendered to the Lordship of the Jesus Christ and are therefore servants of the Most High God.
For this reality alone, I surrender all for the Glory of You, I surrender all for Gospel to be spread wherever I go; I surrender all for the Goodness You have shown not just me, but my family as well.
Every good thing cometh down from the Father of Lights. God of Heaven and Earth, thank you for daily provision and for the home You have created for us all who are committed to You. Oh, Mighty King, Who sits on the Throne attended by thousands and thousands of Holy Angels, Holy and Righteous is Your Name. You need nothing from me, but I gladly, humbly and willingly give You ALL....FATHER...ALL my Praise, Worship and Adoration. I give You all my love, devotion, Honor and Glory....to the Praise and Glory of Your Name....in the Name above all Names - Jesus Christ...AMEN!!!!
TOMORROW: GOD IS OMNISCIENT
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