“I BELIEVE”

I enjoy this familiar song, “I Believe.”     “I BELIEVE’

“I believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows,
I believe that somewhere in the darkest night a candle glows,
I believe for everyone who goes astray, Someone will come to show the way,
I believe, I believe.

I believe above the storm a smallest prayer will still be heard,
I believe that someone in the great somewhere hears every word,
Every time I hear a newborn baby cry, or touch a leaf, or see the sky,
Then I know why, I believe.”

It is crucial to believe.  All of us believe something.  I want to express some things I believe…

I believe that the Bible is God’s Holy Word, an adequate piece of His mind.
I believe that Jesus is God’s Son, the Messiah, sent to offer salvation to all mankind.
I believe that the Church, God’s people, is His dwelling place on this earth.
I believe that Christians are spiritual Israel. We are seeds of Abraham through faith.
I believe that the New Testament/Covenant is final and eternal.  It is based not on race but on grace.
I believe that all who are in this Covenant have already been “brought into the Kingdom of the Son He loves.”
I believe that the Great Commission of our Lord offers salvation equally to all mankind.
I believe what Paul said applies to us today, “We must go through many hardships (great tribulations) to enter the Kingdom of God.”
I believe Jesus is coming back to claim His own and no one knows when He will return.
I believe that we must be faithful, true to Him in spite of adversities, trials, tribulations so we are prepared for His return.
I believe that the uncertainty of ‘when’ He will return was intended to stimulate us to ceaseless watching rather than to foolish speculation.

Did you ever play “Hide and Seek?”  One blinds their eyes and the others run and hide.  The count is made and finally the shout, “Coming ready or not”.
God has been counting down –2000, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013  COMING READY OR NOT.

Believe, trust Him, who loved you and gave Himself for you on Calvary. 
God so loved you that He gave His only Son to save you.  This, I believe.

 

“POWER CORRUPTS”

  It was Lord Acton, the British historian who said: “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  The question needs to be asked, “But, does power actually corrupt people?”  Possibly, power simply reveals and amplifies what was there the whole time. Power is a truth serum that exposes our hearts at the deepest level.  Power does not corrupt people; rather corrupt people abuse their power.  Leadership, at its core, is all about power and influence.  Too often when people get power, they have a complete moral breakdown.  A person who becomes powerful will do things that he refused to do when he lacked power.

  Joann and I watched on television the movie by Oliver Stone, “JFK.”  It is all about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  It is quite convincing that a conspiracy was responsible for the death of President Kennedy.  However, we are led to believe that Lee Oswald, and he alone, killed President Kennedy.
Jim Garrison, New Orleans District Attorney, through his investigation of the death, thinks differently.  His summation of the case on February 28, 1969 was impressive.  He contended that the public has not received all the truth about John Kennedy’s assassination.  It has been ordered that the evidence about what happened to John Kennedy will not be revealed until the year of 2029.  Why does government power structure keep the truth down, in keeping the grave closed?  Garrison declared, “We do not accept the concealment of evidence with regard to the murder of President Kennedy.”  Yet, the truth remains hidden.  Garrison was fighting for the truth.  He said, “We have had enough of power without truth. We don’t have to accept power without truth or else leave the country.  If the truth does not endure, then our country will not endure.”  Only time will tell which side truth is on as far as who killed John F. Kennedy.

  Garrison is right in his insistence on truth. If we do not have truth, absolute truth, we have no foundation, no where to stand.  Life cannot be built on subjectivism, feelings. So, we ask, like Pilate of old, “What is truth?”
Remember, Jesus standing before Pilate, Pilate states that Jesus is a king.  Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”   Pilate asked, “What is truth?”  John 18:37-38  There is the ultimate issue.  I don’t know whether Pilate was jesting, mocking Jesus, as if there is no truth. Everyone claims to be truth, are you just another one?  Or perhaps, Pilate is genuinely seeking truth. He really wants to know.  However, Pilate does not wait, he immediately leaves the presence of Jesus. He stood in the presence of truth and did not even realize it.   

  Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6   We have the truth of this Jesus in the Bible. God has revealed himself through the living word, Jesus and the written word, the Bible.    We can know God’s truth and that truth can set us free, free from ignorance and sin.

GOD’S PICTURE BOOK

  The Book of Revelation is God’s picture book.  It is a divine drama.  Truth is presented in figurative language employing symbols, visions and drama.  The story of this book is about a war between God and Satan.  It is a spiritual war between truth and falsehood. It is a book of blessed assurance, ultimate victory for God and His people.

  About 40 of us spent approximately 12 hours, the week of January 13th, studying this book under Bill Risinger.  What a blessing, even though it was a difficult study.  The safe approach in studying Revelation is to ask: what did this mean to those who first read it, who lived in the day it was written?  All Scripture should be interpreted by seeking to know the “then and the there” before you come to the “here and the now.”  It is wise to seek to understand all Scripture in the light of its historical background.

  Revelation was written to meet the needs of ‘suffering Christians,’ to encourage them in their present distress, not simply to give details of the by and by.  The Roman Empire ordered all its subjects to worship the emperor and when Christians refused, they were persecuted and put to death.  How would God communicate to these Christians a message of ultimate triumph over their Roman oppressor without getting His people into greater difficulties?  The Holy Spirit provided John with visions of the victory of Christ in words and symbols familiar from Old Testament Scripture, but meaningless to the Roman mind.  The purpose of Revelation is closely related to the policy of Domitian in insisting that his subjects worship him as god.  It rises from the conflict between Rome and Christianity.  Two sovereignties, each claiming absolute allegiance, could not exist side by side.  Christ or Caesar must win in the struggle.  Plainly, Revelation predicts the downfall of Rome and the victory of Christ over the Caesars.  This is a song of victory, seeing the end from the beginning.  Revelation speaks  forth ‘wrath to the lost’ but ‘salvation’ for God’s people.’  It reveals ultimate victory over all evil for those who are faithful to God though Christ.  It was true then and it is true now.

  The theme of the Book of Revelation is found in the 19th chapter, the 6th verse:  “THEN I HEARD WHAT SOUNDED LIKE A GREAT MULTITUDE, LIKE THE ROAR OF RUSHING WATERS AND LIKE LOUD PEALS OF THUNDER, SHOUTING:  HALLELUJAH, FOR OUR LORD GOD ALMIGHTY REIGNS.”

 

CREATION

         The Monkey’s Viewpoint                     Evolution???
“Three monkeys set in a coconut tree, discussing things as they’re said to be.
Said one to the others; now listen you two, there’s a certain rumor that can’t be true.
The very idea, it’s a disgrace, that man descended from our race.
No monkey ever deserted his wife, starved her baby and ruined her life.
And you’ve never know a mother monk, to leave her baby with others to bunk; or pass them on from one to another, ’til they hardy know who is their mother.
And another thing, you never saw a monk build a fence around a coconut tree and let the coconuts all go to waste, while all other monks go hungry.
Why if I put a fence around this tree, starvation would force you to steal from me.
Neither will a monk go out at night, and get on a stew, or use a gun, club or knife, to take some other monkey’s life.
YES, MAN DESCENDED, the ornery cuss but brother, he didn’t descend from us.”

  I am enjoying a class on “Bible Doctrine” taught by Adam Harwood, Asst. Prof. of Christian Studies at Truett-McConnell College, Cleveland, Georgia.  We meet each Tuesday morning for 12 weeks.  One of our Tuesdays, we discussed Creation.
Our text book, “Bible Doctrine” by Wayne Grudem asked this, “How do you feel about yourself if you believe that there is no God and that you are just a product of matter plus time plus chance, the spontaneous result of random variation in organisms over million of years?”   That is pretty heavy, isn’t it?  But, understand that such belief would make us just a glob of matter with no significance or eternal importance.  The question needs to be raised, how did life come to be in the first place?

  The Bible teaches clearly that God created the entire universe out of nothing.
Genesis 1:1, states: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Psalm 33: 6, 9 also tells us, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.”
John’s gospel chapter one verse three, “All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”  
We learn from scripture that all things were created by God to bring glory to God Himself.

  God’s Word is powerful.  He spoke everything into existence.  By His Word, everything consist.  By His Word, we are saved.  By His Word, God will speak everything, as it is, out of existence.

  We were created to be what God intends us to be.  This is accomplished through the NEW CREATION.  It is this new creation that is critical and essential.  2 Corinthians 5:17  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”  Jesus said, you must be born again, born anew.   Since we were created by God, He made us, then we need to yield to Him by accepting His Son, Jesus, who bought us by His sacrifice on the cross.   He paid for our sins, accept Him. 

  If we are only born once, (physically) we will die twice, (physically and spiritually.) But, if we are born twice, (physically and spiritually), we will only die once (physically.)  Be a new creature in Christ.