A prophet to restore

Isaiah, of Jerusalem wanted to be a servant of God the Allmighty and ministered from the year King Uzziah died (740/39), through the reigns of Jotham (740/39), Ahaz (732/31-716/715) and Hezekiah (716/15-687/86).

There is no instance where the prophets regard themselves as the inspired founders of a new spiritual religion, but everywhere they regard themselves as the restorers and reformers of a religion already in being and known to their auditors. Isaiah wanted as a servant to God bring the world Gods Message. Isaiah calls the people to repentance, and are assures that blessing should follow repentance.
There shall come judgement of the wicked and a restoration of the righteous remnant. Those who want to listen shall be able to put their hopes in the Promises of God, who shall not leave them alone. The Good Tidings is about an ordinary man who shall give up his life, having done nothing wrong. He will be placed higher and shall be recognised as the Messiah who shall restore the kingdom to Israel in that day of the earth’s glory.

Do you want to read more about the first messenger, the greatest of the prophets of the Old Testament, and the other messenger, the first messenger of the New Covenant? Please do read our new articles:

Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation

Isaiah’s Book of the Messenger of Glad Tidings

Isaiah prophet and messenger of God

Heavenly creatures do they exist

We can see people around us and some of them say they have some unseen creatures on their right and left shoulder. Some people say they have a guardian angel.

What do you believe? Are there such things which are called angels, and what or whom do they present?

Are angels imaginable creations or just figments of the artist's imagination in religious paintings down the centuries? Is there really something out there we ought to know about? Is it important to know if they exist?

Several Christians believe in good and bad angels. They think devils are angels who followed the Cherub Satan who riposted against God. If devils are angels who did not follow the Will of God, you could say that it where angels who sinned, because when we do not follow the Will of God we sin. But can angels sin?

POSSIBLE ANSWERS:

- Yes. Lucifer was an angel and he sinned.
- Angels can do nothing as they are mythological creatures.
- Angel means messenger. Human messengers can sin. Heavenly ones cannot sin.
- Angels are immortal and therefore cannot sin.
- Don't know.

GO TO www.thisisyourbible.com TO SUBMIT YOUR ANSWER.

We as Christadelphians believe that for everything in life we can find the answers in the Holy Scriptures. But when taking up the Bible we do have to take inconsideration what is meant by certain words.

The English word "angel" comes from the Greek angelos, which means 'messenger'. In the Old Testament, with two exceptions, the Hebrew word for "angel" is malak, also meaning 'messenger'. The prophet Malachi took his name from this word. He was himself a messenger, and he prophesied about the coming of "the messenger of the covenant", Jesus Christ (Malachi 3:1).
Although the word "angel" in the Bible, meaning a messenger, nearly always applies to heavenly beings, it can occasionally apply to human messengers. Malachi himself said a priest was a messenger (malak) of the LORD of hosts (Malachi 2:7), and in the Book of Revelation the elders of the seven churches of Asia were called angels (1:20; 2:1 etc.). But when we meet messengers doing supernatural things, there is no doubt they are heavenly beings - God's messengers, working for Him and for the ultimate benefit of mankind.
We as Christadelphians believe that God works on man's behalf through His hosts of messenger servants.

We believe that there are forces which are God's forces. They are "his angels", "his hosts", and they are "his ministers", doing His pleasure. In other words, the Only One Creator God of gods has total control over them and all other members of His creation. Those angels which have been at work on behalf of God and man "excel" in strength and they have more than enough power to complete their commissions.

Find some further answers:

Evil in the bible

Satan or the devil

Lucifer

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• Who are the Angels?
• Why did God Create Angels?

• The "Sons of God"
• Man Made Lower than the Angels
• The "Mighty Ones"
• Angels in Old Testament History
• The Angel that Bore the Name of God
• The Angel of God's "Presence"
• Angels with Names
• Angels Preach the Gospel
• The Angels in World Affairs
• Angels at the Second Coming of Christ
• Can Angels Help Us?
• Guardian Angels?
• "The whole family in heaven and earth"
• How Can the Angels Serve Us Now?

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Bestaat er iets als engelen en kunnen die zondigen

Character is built

"Character is built,
you don't just reach up and grab it."
- Robert Rowe

Nearly all men can stand adversity,
but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
- Abraham Lincoln

"The true character of ministry is a servant heart."
- Unknown author
“A man of twisted purposes is a cause of fighting everywhere:
and he who says evil secretly makes trouble between friends.”
Proverbs 16:28

“Be free from the love of money and pleased with the things which you have;
for he himself has said, I will be with you at all times.”
Hebrews 13:5

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint us,
because God's love has been poured into our hearts."
Romans 5:3-5

God our Father, let all the trials that come to me form me.
I always give the right targets at love after
and that I with good intentions may reach to the correct character.
Give me the right good character,
that I ask you in Jesus name, amen.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Karakter wordt opgebouwd

Preferring to be a Christian

What more can I wish than that, while my brief term on earth shall last, I should be the servant of Him who became the Servant of servants for me?
I can say, concerning Christ's religion, if I had to die like a dog, and had no hope whatever of immortality, if I wanted to lead a happy life, let me serve my God with all my heart; let me be follower of Jesus, and walk in His footsteps. If there were no hereafter, I would still prefer to be a Christian, and the humblest Christian minister, to being a king or an emperor, for I am persuaded there are more delights in Christ, yea, more joy in one glimpse of His face than is to be found in all the praises of this harlot-world, and in all the delights which it can yield to us in its sunniest and brightest days. And I am persuaded that what He has been till now, He will be to the end, and where He had begun a good work, He will carry it on.

In the religion of Jesus Christ, there are clusters even on earth too heavy for one man to carry; there are fruits that have been found so rich that even angel lips have never been sweetened with more luscious wine; there are joys to be had here so fair that even cates ambrosial and the nectared wine of Paradise can scarcely excel the sweets of satisfaction that are to be found in the earthly banquets of the Lord. I have seen hundreds and thousands who have given their hearts to Jesus, but I never did see one who said he was disappointed with Him, I never met with one who said Jesus Christ was less than He was declared to be. 

When first my eyes beheld Him, when the burden slipped from off my heavy-laden shoulders, and I was free from condemnation, I thought that all the preachers I had ever heard had not half preached, they had not told half the beauty of my Lord and Master. So good! so generous! so gracious! so willing to forgive! It seemed to me as if they had almost slandered Him; they painted His likeness, doubtless, as well as they could, but it was a mere smudge compared with the matchless beauties of His face. All who have ever seen Him will say the same. I go back to my home, many a time, mourning that I cannot preach my Master even as I myself know Him, and what I know of Him is very little compared with the matchlessness of His grace. Would that I knew more of Him, and that I could tell it out better!

Charles Spurgeon

 

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2013 update:

Related articles (January 214 update)

• Preaching Tolerance
• 7 things that change when we follow Jesus.
• Everything I thought about being a christian was wrong!
• So what does it take to be a true Christian? You might want to share this important message.
• Learn how to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News of the coming Kingdom
• Bond Servants of Jesus Christ
• Don't Seek the Approval of Christians; Seek the Approval of Christ
• John 02:01-11, "Believing"
• Christian Masculinity and Confidence
• Peace Through Christ

A treasure which can give me everything I need

"For anything worth having one must pay the price;
and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice.
No paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service."
- John Burroughs 1837-1921

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant,
whom the master has put in charge of the servants
in his household to give them their food at the proper time?
It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions."
Matthew 24:45-47

Dear God, do give me spiritual food and blessing.
Let me carry your Word as a precious treasure
which can give me everything I need.

Dutch version / Nederlands > Een schat die mij alles kan geven wat ik nodig heb

Preaching to an unbelieving world

We are preaching to an unbelieving world, fighting rapidly falling standards in our own community, trying to build up those scattered far and wide in the earth, caring for increasing numbers of elderly and incapacitated and those who are spiritually sick, and all the time trying to overcome our own innate personal weaknesses, problems and frustrations " So much effort, so little achieved. Sometimes it seems as if, in certain areas both at home and abroad, ecclesial life is falling apart, as it must have seemed to Paul in those early years of that ecclesia at Corinth.

... it is a day of small things.We do not have the power of the Spirit. God does not manifest Himself openly in the mighty acts of power. We have the Word of God which is quite sufficient to convince those of a right frame of mind. But these are very few in number, so few that sometimes it seems as if our preaching and our exhortation is ineffective, as if we are failing in some way. The few who do respond are those whom God has reserved, as He told Elijah. That was what God told Elijah, and Paul quotes God’s words to him in his Letter to the Romans to prove that there was in his day also a remnant according to the election of grace, and surely we trust that it is so in our own day. We believe that we are part of that remnant chosen by God by His grace, called by the gospel, responsive to that still small voice.
Yet the vast majority remains totally unmoved. Even within the community of the saints there will always be those who are not responsive. But we press on, struggling to remain part of the faithful remnant, and we are sure that in time, in God’s time, judgment will be poured out on the rebellious, the hard-hearted; not by men like Jehu, men who proved in the end to be no better than were those they destroyed, but judgment will be in the hands of One whom God raised up in righteousness.

We shall remember that this was how Paul comforted the believers in the first century who were suffering persecutions, “it is a righteous thing with God” he said, “to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
...
This is the day of small things, the day for faithful service, no matter how little we seem to achieve, the day for accepting whatever difficulties and frustrations come our way as a result of that service, the day for bearing whatever burdens an all wise God sees fit to place upon His servants.

 - Bro E. T. 1986

full text > Three faithfull men

Why did Christ not reveal the exact time of his second coming?

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON

Why did Christ not reveal the exact time of his second coming? We may find the answer to this question in three places, the first of which, though not the most reliable, is simple logic. We are Christians, but at the same time we are human beings and it is our tendency to procrastinate when we feel that this can be done without great loss or damage. God is the Creator. He made us. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He knows that many of His followers would put off the needful preparation until the last minute if they knew exactly when Christ is coming. The danger inherent in this course of action is abundantly clear, for in our weak, human nature this would be too great a temptation for many of us.

  In his instruction, Christ made it very clear that one of the reasons his followers should watch and be alert is the fact that they do not know the hour when their Lord will come. To impress this on the minds of his disciples, Christ gave the illustration of the householder and the thief. “But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would not have suffered his house to be broken up” (Matt. 24:43).

  In one respect, there is a great difference between the coming of the thief and the coming of Christ. The thief hopes that the householder will be unprepared. Our Lord desires us to be watching and ready for his appearing. “Therefore be ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.” It is hardly possible to be alert and ready at all times for the appearance of a thief. It is possible however, to always be ready for the coming of the Saviour, and this is what Christ has commanded. It is his desire that his followers be ready at all times - not because they are fearful, not because they dread his appearing, not just because he has a reward for them, but because they love him and wish to be with him.

  We are not to know the definite time for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days or for the coming of Christ. The times and the seasons God has put in His own power. Why has He not given us this knowledge? because we would not make a right use of it if He did. A condition of things would result from this knowledge among us that would greatly retard the work of God in preparing a people to stand in the great day that is to come. We are not to be engrossed with speculations in regard to the times and the seasons which God has not revealed. Jesus has told his disciples to “watch,” but not for definite time. His followers are to be in the position of those who are listening for the orders of their Captain; they are to watch, wait, pray, and work, as they approach the time for the coming of the Lord; but no one will be able to predict just when that time will come; “for of that day and hour knoweth no man.” We will not be able to say that he will come in one, two, or five years, neither are we to put off his coming by stating that it may not be for many years.

  Now let us look at our third proposition, the reason why the Lord has not already come and why we are not already in his  kingdom.

  Christ spoke to his disciples of two servants. One he called a faithful and wise servant. The other was characterized as an evil servant. The faithful servant was following his master’s instructions. He was doing the work that had been committed to him. Of the other servant Christ said, “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delays his coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 24:48-51).

  What is the sin of the evil servant? Certainly it was wrong for him to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken. But these were the results of his downfall, not the cause. The greatest sin of the evil servant was the disregard of his master’s desires and commands; the inclination to do what was pleasing to himself on the theory that the master would not return soon and that there would be time to change his course of action before he returned. Notice that the evil servant did not proclaim to his fellow servants that the coming of his lord was delayed. This he said in his heart. This was his philosophy and his motivation, but he kept it covered up as much as possible. The inference is strong that this servant was a hypocrite. He pretended to be that which he was not.

  It is easy to see the sins of the evil servant. Perhaps it is not so easy to apply the lesson in the 21st century. Let us ponder the words of the servant of the Lord as we consider the reasons why our Saviour has not already returned to this earth to take up his kingdom. Had the purpose of God been carried out by His people in giving to the world the message of mercy, Christ, because of this, may have possibly come to the earth by now, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God.

  Perhaps the most important question that any Christian can ask himself is this: Am I ready for the Lord to come? If your answer, or my answer, to that question is not an unqualified yes, then there is no time to lose. God wants us in His kingdom. This is why He was willing to send His Son to die on Calvary. Too many of us may be like the boy who wanted to live with Jesus - but not just yet! As the story has it, two farmer lads walking barefoot on the dusty road met the new minister. Thinking to give them some food for thought, the minister greeted them and then asked, “Do you boys want to go and live with Jesus?” One answered in the affirmative, but the other dug his toe in the soft sand and shook his head. “You really don’t want to go and live with Jesus?” the minister inquired with a tone of disbelief. “No, sir.” “Do you mean to tell me you want to die and not be raised to live forever with Jesus?” “Oh no!” said the lad “I didn’t know you were talking about when I die. I thought you were making up a load to go to him today.”

  We may smile at this simple story, but we should be sure that our own experience and attitude could not be described in a similar, though more sophisticated, manner.

  Perhaps the second most important question that the Christian can ask himself is this: What am I doing to hasten the coming of the Lord? Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the world would be sown with the seed of the gospel and God’s number would be made up. Watching, waiting, and working - this is what God expects of us in these last moments of earth’s history. We should be “looking eagerly for the coming of the Day of the Lord” (2 Peter 3:12).

 John Aldersly