A season of gifts

English: child Jesus with the virgin Mary, with the Holy Spirit (represented as a dove) and God the Father, with child john the Baptist and saint Elizabeth on the right (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days people are busy trying to get enough time to do their special shopping. Now they are more concerned buying things which are not always necessary. Often they want to break their brains to get to know what they could give to the persons they like. Best solution they think would be to buy those things which they would like themselves as well. By the years it comes more and more difficult because the other person seems to have everything already.

When people are getting older an increasing number of people on the gift list already have everything that they really want and need. This tends to make the season more stressful than delightful as the would-be giver struggles to find gifts that are more than just clutter.

In the shops there is enough material which is not worth to be produced, let stand to be sold. Everywhere you can find silly attributes and unnecessary gadgets. The world of consumption has lots to offer, good and bad things, useful and useless things.

The many decorations want people to give a glorious feeling for what they consider should be the happiest and busiest time of the year for millions of Christians and some non-Christians throughout the world. Songs, films, and TV programs promote a jolly and exciting holiday mood — the Christmas spirit.

When the day comes closer people send each other best wishes and call for peace on earth. But at the same time certain Christians keep calling on to the freedom of being able to buy guns and to use them as much as they like them.They want to learn their children how to defend themselves and think a gun or stronger fire arm is the best way to do that.
They do not seem to learn from all the drama's that occurred by people using such weapons to bring a lot of agony, killing many innocent people.

Everywhere in the world they keep fighting and arguing about silly things, and at the same time they proclaim to be lovers of God.

They perhaps better review their looks on God and check if they really appreciate the most precious gift the world received.

Jesus, or the Jew Jeshua, son of Mary/Miriam/Maria and Joseph/Jozef/Josef from the tribe of King David, born on the 17th of October -4 CE, is the person many say they are celebrating his birthday. Here-for they use the 25th of December, the birthday and celebration day of the goddess of light.
Within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance.

It was not God himself or a godly being that became incarnated onto the world. In the Garden of Eden God promised already a solution for the sin of the first man. It took a long time before God found the time right and before there was a man who could totally keep to Gods commandments.

In Jesus we can find a human being who managed, though being tempted more than once (while God can not be tempted), to stay clean and without any sin (god can not sin but Jesus could if he wanted). Jesus loved His Father and knew that what He wanted more than anything else was for us, God His creation, to be reconciled to the Most High of all, the Only One God of gods.
Jesus also was prepared to give his body in the hands of his Father, trusting Him totally. Jesus died really (God is eternal, had no beginning and cannot die) and was taken out of death by his Father (not by himself) as an example to what can happen to all those who are willing to follow Jesus, the son of God, the promised Messiah.
Jesus is the best present of God the world can get.

In the West we do have the darkest days of the season, tomorrow being the shortest day of the year. Dark and cold, it is an ideal time to gather and to sit close to a source of warmth. Perhaps you put some extra lights on to have a nicer feeling. Bringing more time in the warm house it is also very nice to have some good warm meal to strengthen us to come through Winter.

So it is perhaps not a bad time to come together with the family and spend some time together, sharing all sorts of news and wishes for a better future. But do remember that whatever you do it should be in line with what you are believing and where you can stand for.
Question yourself if you can be connected to a heathen celebration or that you keep far away from heathen stories, symbols and activities.

Take time to look at the greatest gift the world received and try to offer that gift also to others.

“9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that ye might walk worthy of the Lord, in all pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12  giving thanks unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:9-14 KJ21)



Please do read:

1. Jesus begotten Son of God #1 Christmas and Christians
2. Jesus begotten Son of God #2 Christmas and pagan rites
3. Jesus begotten Son of God #3 Messiah or Anointed one
4. Jesus begotten Son of God #14 Beloved Preminent Son and Mediator originating in Mary
5. Religious Practices around the world
6. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ

In Dutch:

1. Een Groots Geschenk om te herinneren
2. Wat betreft Kerstfeest
3. Achtergrond Christelijk Kerstfeest

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OT prophesies and the NT fulfillment of them

Here are just some of OT prophesies and the NT fulfilment of them:
The Son of God,  Ps 2:7 Luk 1:32, 35.
The seed of the woman,  Gen 3:15 Gal 4:4.
Seed of Abraham,   Gen 17:7,  22:18 Gal 3:16.
Seed of Isaac,  Gen 21:12 Heb 11:17-19.

Seed of David,  Ps 132:11 Jer 23:5 Acts 13:23 Rom 1:3.
Coming at the appointed time,  Gen 49:10 Dan 9:24, 25 Lk 2:1.
Born of a virgin,  Is 7:14 Mat 1:22, 23 Lk 2:7. 
Called Immanuel (God with us) Is 7:14 Mat 1:22, 23.
Born in Bethlehem of Judea,  Mic 5:2 Mat 2:1 Lk 2:4-6. 
Great persons coming to adore Him,  Ps 72:10 Mat 2:1-11.
The slaying of the children of Bethlehem,  Jer 31:15 Mat 2:16-18.
Called out of Egypt,  Hos 11:1 Mat 2:15.
Preceded by John the Baptist,  Is 40:3 Mal 3:1 Mat 3:1, 3 Lk 1:17.
Anointed with the Spirit,  Ps 45:7 Is 11:2,  61:1 Mat 3:16 Jh 3:34 Acts 10:38.
Prophet like to Moses,  Deut 18:15-18 Acts 3:20-22.
Priest after the order of Melchizedek,  Ps110:4 Heb 5:5, 6.
Entering public ministry,  Is 61:1, 2 Lk 4:16-21, 43.
Ministry in Galilee,  Is 9:1, 2 Mat 4:12-16, 23.
Entering publicly into Jerusalem,  Zec 9:9 Mat 21:1-5.
His coming into the temple, Hag 2:7, 9 Mal 3:1 Mt 21:12 Lu 2:27-32 Joh 2:13-16.
His poverty, Is 53:2 Mk 6:3 Lk 9:58.
His meekness,  Is 42:2 Mat 12:15, 16, 19.
Tenderness and compassion Is 40:11 42:3 Mat 12:15, 20  Heb 4:15.
Without guile,  Is 53:9 1Pe 2:22. 
His zeal,  Ps 69:9 Jh 2:17.
Preaching in parables, Ps 78:2 Mat 13:34, 35.
Working miracles, Is 35:5, 6 Mat 11:4-6 Jh 11:47
His bearing reproach,  Ps 22:6 69:7,9, 20 Rom 15:3.
Rejected by his brethren,  Ps 69:8 Is 63:3 Jh 1:11 7:3.
Stone of stumbling to the Jews,  Is 8:14 Rom 9:32 1Pe 2:8.
Hated by the Jews, Ps 69:4 Is 49:7 Jh 15:24, 25.
Rejected by the Jewish rulers,  Ps 118:22 Mat 21:42 Jhn 7:48.
Jews and Gentiles combine against Him,  Ps 2:1, 2 Lk 23:12 Acts 4:27.
Betrayed by a friend,  Ps 41:9 55:12-14 Jhn 13:18, 21
Disciples forsake Him Zec 13:7 Mat 26:31, 56.
Sold for thirty pieces silver  Zec 11:12 Mat 26:15.
His price being given for the potter’s field  Zec 11:13 Mat 27:7.
Agony of his sufferings  Ps 22:14, 15 Lk 22:42, 44.
Sufferings for others Is 53:4-6, 12 Dan 9:26 Mat 20:28.
Patience and silence under suffering,  Is 53:7 Mat 26:63 27:12-14.
Smitten on the cheek, Mic 5:1 Mat 27:30.
Visage being marred,  Is 52:14 53:3 Jhn 19:5.
Spit on and scourged,  Is 50:6 Mk 14:65 Jhn 19:1.
Hands and feet being nailed to the wooden stake,  Ps 22:16 Jhn 19:18 20:25.
Forsaken by God, Ps 22:1 Mat 27:46.
Being mocked,  Ps 22:7, 8 Mat 27:39-44.
Gall and vinegar being given Him to drink,  Ps 69:21 Mat 27:34.
Garments being parted, and lots cast for His clothing,  Ps 22:18 Mat 27:35.
Numbered with the transgressors, Is 53:12 Mk 15:28. 
Intercession for His murderers, Is 53:12 Lk 23:34. 
His Death,  Is 53:12 Mat 27:50.
No bones would be broken,  Ex12:46  Ps 34:20 Jhn 19:33, 36.
Pierced,  Zec 12:10 Jhn 19:34, 37. 
Buried with the rich,  Is 53:9 Mat 27:57-60.
Flesh not seeing corruption, Ps 16:10 Acts 2:31.
His resurrection,  Ps 16:10 Is 26:19 Lk 24:6, 31, 34.
His ascension, Ps 68:18 Lk 24:51 Acts 1:9.
Sitting on the right hand of God, Ps 110:1 Heb 1:3. 
Exercising the priestly office in heaven,  Zec 6:13 Rom 8:34.
The chief cornerstone,  Is 28:16 1Pe 2:6, 7. 
King in Zion Ps 2:6 Lk 1:32 Jhn 18:33-37.
Conversion of the Gentiles to Him,  Is11:10 42:1 Mat 1:17, 21 Jhn 10:16 Acts 10:45, 47.
His righteous government,  Ps 45:6, 7 Jhn 5:30 Rev 19:11. 
Universal dominion, Ps 72:8 Dan 7:14 Phl 2:9, 11. 
Perpetuity of His kingdom,  Is 9:7 Dan 7:14 Lk 1:32, 33.

Preexistence in the Divine purpose and Trinity

There is one God, the Father (1 Cor. 8:6), the one God of the creed of Israel affirmed by Jesus Christ (Mark 12:28ff).There is one Lord Messiah, Jesus (1 Cor. 8:6), who was supernaturally conceived as the Son of God (Luke 1:35), and foreordained from the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:20).

Many Christians are unaware that philosophical, mystical ideas invaded the church from the second century onwards via the "Church Fathers," who were steeped in pagan philosophy and laid the foundation of the creeds now called "orthodox." In several articles you from the Belgian Biblestudents you shall be able to read more about it. There and on a.o. the writing of Anthony Buzzard you shall be able to find that 'The seed of Trinitarian doctrine' was planted in the thinking of Justin Martyr, the second century Christian apologist who "found in Platonism the nearest approach to Christianity and felt that no break was required with its spirit and principles to pass into the greater light of Christian revelation."

The New Testament never suggests that the phrase ‘Son of God’ just means ‘God.’ [Yet evangelicalism and certain major groups insists on that equation if one is to be considered a Christian!]

But in the world we do find lots of serious lovers of God who accept the Nazarene Jew Yeshua or Jesus as the promissed Saviour. For them however he is the "man Messiah," the one Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). As for the apostle Paul those believers in only One God take it that "To us Christians there is one God, the Father, and one Lord Messiah" (1 Cor. 8:4-6). (Note carefully Paul’s definition of the One God.)

Human beings in Hebrew thought do not exist consciously before they are born.  In the Holy Scriptures we do also find no preexistence of souls. The notion that Jesus was really alive and conscious before his birth in Bethlehem is also a very unJewish idea.

As you could already find in our other writings on the understanding of Hebrew writings, we do have to take that language as our guide and not our modern thinking or the Greek philosophy. E.C. Dewick rightly notes in his Primitive Christian Eschatology, The Hulsean Prize Essay for 1908, Cambridge University Press, 1912: "When the Jew said something was ‘predestined,’ he thought of it as already ‘existing’ in a higher sphere of life. The world’s history is thus predestined because it is already, in a sense, preexisting and consequently fixed. This typically Jewish conception of predestination may be distinguished from the Greek idea of preexistence by the predominance of the thought of ‘preexistence’ in the Divine purpose."

All is foreordained in God’s great Plan and so did God created the opportunity to get a Saviour out of the tribe of David. It is not becaus God knows everything already before hand that because  Jesus who came up in the thought of God before the world was created, that Jesus actually really came into existence before everything was created. The Messiah himself was foreknown, not just his death for our sins but the person Messiah himself (1 Pet. 1:20). Peter uses the same word to describe the "existence" of the Son of God in God’s plan as he did to describe the "existence" of the Christian church (v. 2).

All Jews who looked forward to the Messiah expected a human person, not an angel, much less God Himself! Though the Jews had not understood that the Messiah was to be born supernaturally, even this miraculous begetting was in fact predicted (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23). A "pre-human" Messiah, however, is nowhere suggested. The Son of God "came into existence" from a woman and from the seed of David (Rom. 1:4; Gal. 4:4).(Note that for Arians and Trinitarians, who think that Jesus was begotten in eternity long before his conception/begetting in Mary, that would have been a second begetting.)

Read more about Foreordination Rather than Literal Preexistence : The Nature of Preexistence in the New Testament by Anthony Buzzard

Colossians 1:15-20: Preexistence or Preeminence? by William WachtelThe Nature of Preexistence in the New Testament  or Preexistensens natur i Nya testamentet (Swedish)Who Is Jesus? God, or Unique Man? or Wie is Jesus? God, of Unieke Mens? (Afrikaans)

Commitment to Christian unity

When the pope, at Westminster Abbey in London where he participated in an ecumenical celebration of Vespers on September 17, said:   "Our commitment to Christian unity is born of nothing less than our faith in Christ. ... It is the reality of Christ's person, His saving work and above all the historical fact of His resurrection, which is the content of the apostolic 'kerygma' and those credal formulas which, beginning in the New Testament itself, have guaranteed the integrity of its transmission. The Church's unity, in a word, can never be other than a unity in the apostolic faith, in the faith entrusted to each new member of the Body of Christ during the rite of Baptism. It is this faith which unites us to the Lord". did he wanted all around to believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the only apostolic church?

Speaking for a trinitarian public he could further say: "I come here today as a pilgrim from Rome, to pray before the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor and to join you in imploring the gift of Christian unity. May these moments of prayer and friendship confirm us in love for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and in common witness to the enduring power of the Gospel to illumine the future of this great nation". Because we think he would not like to see the non-trinitarian Christians in unity with their church.

Important to remember is: "Here we cannot help but be reminded of how greatly the Christian faith shaped the unity and culture of Europe and the heart and spirit of the English people. Here too, we are forcibly reminded that what we share, in Christ, is greater than what continues to divide us".
Benedict XVI recalled how this year marks the centenary of the modern ecumenical movement which "began with the Edinburgh Conference's appeal for Christian unity as the prerequisite for a credible and convincing witness to the Gospel in our time. In commemorating this anniversary, we must give thanks for the remarkable progress made towards this noble goal through the efforts of committed Christians of every denomination. At the same time, however, we remain conscious of how much yet remains to be done. In a world marked by growing interdependence and solidarity, we are challenged to proclaim with renewed conviction the reality of our reconciliation and liberation in Christ, and to propose the truth of the Gospel as the key to authentic and integral human development".

You can wounder what the Church's unity should be. Is a unity in the apostolic faith not to believe what the apostles themseves believed? And would this not mean that all Christians should keep to the first centuries believe of those who really  knew Jesus from first hand? But more important should Christians not go back to their leader they are proclaiming to follow?

Normally we all should strive to Christian unity, but we should be following all that Jesus asked us to do. We should keep to the tasks he gave to his disciples. In case Trinitarian Christians would like to their idea that Jesus is also God they should also accept those who keep to the words of Jesus and his Holy Father. In the Holy Scriptures their relationship is clearly described.

The Vatican see themselves as the “mother” church. The universal church. The word Catholic means “universal”. They see other Christian churches as wayward daughters that need to be brought back under her wings. The Pope’s ambition therefore is to become head of all Christian religion. But do we not have to look at what the Scriptures gave as warning to the next generations? Revelation 17:2 says that the “kings of the earth” have committed fornication with the harlot woman of Rome.

What happened yesterday is important for Christians to see in the light of the Bible.
As the Anglicans and Catholics all sang together in London (latter day Tyre) we heard not joyful words but the singing of “an harlot” as prophesied in Isaiah 23. “Tyre shall sing as an harlot”. The singing which began in 1996/7 is reaching a crescendo. The judgement of latter day Tyre will soon come. The next chapter says “the noise of them that rejoice endeth…” Isaiah 24:8

Get to know more in the  Weekly World Watch 12th - 18th Sept 2010‏

Yeshua a man with a special personality

We can find in the New Testament a man with an outstanding personality. One who gives striking evidence of extraordinary powers in the miracles he performs; he makes the most penetrating observations about human life, and faith, and the true worship of God; and his claims concerning himself, as the only source of life to come, are such as no one else would dare to make.

Who is that man?

Survey question for April:

Is Jesus or Jesus / Yeshua Really God?

Possible Answers:

- Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.
- Jesus is the Son of God but pre-existed as an Archangel.
- Jesus was a great teacher but merely human.
- Jesus is the Son of God, a unique man who did not exist before his birth.
- Don't know.

Go to www.thisisyourbible.com now to submit your answer.

"Jesus: God the Son or Son of God?"

They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion – except for their belief in Christ, if you please! For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that God is one, and that his Son is Yeshua Mshikha (jesus christ in the original writings).

– Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 29.7.2

A man with an outstanding personality

We can find in the New Testament a man with an outstanding personality. One who gives striking evidence of extraordinary powers in the miracles he performs; he makes the most penetrating observations about human life, and faith, and the true worship of God; and his claims concerning himself, as the only source of life to come, are such as no one else would dare to make.

Who is that man?

Survey question for April:

Is Jesus Really God?

Possible Answers:

- Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.
- Jesus is the Son of God but pre-existed as an Archangel.
- Jesus was a great teacher but merely human.
- Jesus is the Son of God, a unique man who did not exist before his birth.
- Don't know.

Go to www.thisisyourbible.com now to submit your answer.

"Jesus: God the Son or Son of God?"

Do not be afraid. Good news because a Saviour has been born

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."

Luke 2:10, New International Version

---

Thought:

Don't be afraid! What can cast away all fear in the presence of God's glorious messengers? The joy of knowing that God has brought His son to earth to bring an end to sin and the curse of the first sin in the Garden of Eden and to bring salvation to all people!
Fear must not master our hearts when we know that God has broken through every barrier to reach us with his overwhelming grace.
We may also look up to that child in the manger that grew up to become a great teacher and an example for us.

I praise you, Almighty God, for the gift of joy that chases away all fear. Fill my heart with that joy and fill my mind with wonder as I try to comprehend your love for me. Stir me to greater concern for those who have not heard, or who have not yet accepted, your offer of grace in your Son Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Wees niet bang, er is goed nieuws want een redder is geboren
+++
2013 update:

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Christ begotten through the power of the Holy Spirit

Christ was begotten by the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Unlike human beings, He had no physical father. What we can glean from this event, however, is that the Holy Spirit is the means by which the Father begets His sons. Just as Christ was begotten by the Father, Christians also are begotten by Him. The only difference is that Christians are begotten outside the womb. We do not possess the Holy Spirit until after baptism (Acts 2:38). Once we are baptised and receive the Holy Spirit, we become begotten sons of God.

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that God teaches us: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, [it] shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). “Howbeit when [it], the Spirit of truth, is come, [it] will guide you into all truth…” (John 16:13).

A mind without the Holy Spirit cannot comprehend spiritual things and has no hope of understanding God’s Word — the Bible. It is only through the indwelling of the Spirit that one is able to understand the mind of God. Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 2:9-16.

The above scriptures, including 1 Corinthians 2:9-16, can be summarized in the following way: Those who are being guided by the Holy Spirit can understand spiritual things, and those who are not being led by the Holy Spirit cannot understand — it is impossible! Just as you cannot know the thoughts and ways of another man, neither can you know the thoughts and ways of God. If one could somehow “project” his spirit into the mind of another person, then he could know that person’s thoughts. In a sense, it could be said that the “projection” of God’s Spirit into our minds is what allows us to comprehend “the things of God.”

The Holy Spirit also strengthens Christians in a number of important ways. It describes how God’s Spirit directly empowers — strengthens — those who have it: “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…” (Ephesians 3:16-20).

Christ gives His servants the strength needed to overcome what could be called the three “S’s”—self, Satan and society, which are the three things that produce a fourth “S,” sin. All real overcoming is done by the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as Christ could only overcome by the Father dwelling within Him through the Spirit, it is through that Spirit dwelling within a person, that overcoming anything spiritual is made possible.

Clearly the Spirit is not a person, but it is the action and the power. You must be willing to admit that the realm of traditional Christianity (and the world in general) has remained ignorant of what the Holy Spirit is. Naturally, this has directly contributed to why the nature of God so completely escapes their comprehension.

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Christus verwekt door de Kracht van de Heilige Geest

How do trinitarians equate divine nature

2 Peter 1:4: 

⁴For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent ^(A)promises, so that by them you may become ^(B)partakers of the divine nature, having ^(C)escaped the ^(D)corruption that is in ^(E)the world by lust.   (NASB)

The conservative Evangelical definition of the Trinity is the standard, the
orthodox doctrine. They are:

a.. Separate in person
b.. Equal in nature
c.. Submissive in duty
Nicene Creed of 325, which basically teaches that:

* the Son (Jesus) is God
* the Father is God
* the Holy Spirit is God -

yet -

* the Son (Jesus) is not the Father
* the Father is not the Holy Spirit
* the Holy Spirit is not the Son

All three persons distinct individuals, yet all equally God. They are of the
same substance (homoousia).

They are separate persons, all holding the position of being God, but one being.
There are three persons in one being.
There is also the Oneness trinity - which says that Jesus is God, and that Jesus
is also the Father. There are no distinct personages in the Oneness version.
Jesus is everything in that version.

The mistaken view is that there are three persons, but one person, for this
would be self-contradictory.
If Peter says that those with the heavely hope aquire such divine nature, does that mean that these individuals will be part of the godhead? How do trinitarians equate this scripture in relation to the godhead once those in heaven aquire this divine nature?

Who was Jesus?

A (very) brief look at who Jesus was? Is Jesus God? Should we call him 'God'? What does the bible say?

***


***

Can we not do what Jesus did?

"We cannot do what Jesus would do because we are not divine." (popular saying)

Of course mainstream theology attributes the sinless obedience of Jesus to the superior moral attributes of his alleged "divinity". But think about it. That amounts to a serious a slander against the justice of God!  What justice would there be in a God who condemned humans who were born unable to obey because of their lack of divinity? How could one ever truly love a God like that?

The Scriptures are clear that Jesus was NOT divine, but totally human, just like us; and that His victory over sin was achieved with exactly the same human resources available to all other men. His obedience is the standard against which all other men will be judged. That is a fundamental issue in the Gospel call to repentance and obedience. Other humans are called to forsake their sins and learn the same obedience as that rendered by the human Son of God.

"If you love me keep my commandments". (John 14: 15)

Praise God! It is NOT too hard! (Deut 30:11) Jesus has shown us how to do it,. And GRACE comes complete with a "training course" which makes it possible. (Titus 2:11-12)

Paul also says that the goal for completed growth is nothing less than:1. ALL the fullness of God. (Eph 3:14-19)
2. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:11-15)

Now that contains a promise which really is GOOD NEWS.


Allon Maxwell

People could argue that there are 

significant ways in which Jesus differed from us, which enabled him to "overcome" and be the acceptable sacrifice which took away the sin of the world. 

Jesus was the son of "The Father"  in the fullest sense as he said on numerous occasions. Jesus being conceived through the Holy Spirit, and not through any human agency.

Jesus was given  the Spirit from God without measure, John.3:34.

Jesus did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth 1Peter 2:22. Whereas "all (others) have sinned and come short of the glory of God" Romans 3:33.
 
People could also utter: that during the time period between birth and the commencement of his ministry at which time he received the Spirit without measure, Jesus was "shielded" from harm. According to them there are a number of scriptures which describe this shield. Psalm 22:9, Psalm 71:6, Isaia 49:5-6.

In a certain sense I would call Jesus divine, meaning belonging to or proceeding from a god. Jesus is not God and may never be a god, but he is the only one who can say he had God has his real Father.
Though we just come from human people, and Christ was born from our Holy Father, this is no excuse not to try to become as Jesus. Because of our shortcomings we do have a harder job to be without sin, but we have to work on it. Jesus had also the choice to take other ways, which would make him also a sinner, but he did choose not, and because of his choice he stayed without sin. For our protection today we have the Holy Bible, which brings us enough Words from God to give us full guidance. We only have to read it carefully and learn from it, to incorporate it in our life.

In the New Testament we have enough examples of what Jesus did and how he reacted. Learning from that we could always say WWJD "What Would Jesus Do?" and bear it in our mind to prepare our way of living and reacting to others.

Marcus Ampe

Let God's promises shine on your problems

"Let God's promises shine on your problems."
- Corrie Ten Boom

"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, ...
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes,
and in Him Amen,
to the glory of God through us."
2 Corinthians 1:19-20

Dear God, bring a solution to all my problems
and let your goodness shine on my life.

Dutch version / Nederlands > Laat Gods beloften schijnen op jouw problemen

Frans Floris - The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Gathering and Protecting Mankind - WGA7949 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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2013 update;

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• Today's Verse for 01/17/2013
• Trouble
• "It's Not Over Till It's Over"
• When the waters are murky, He is perfectly clear...

Looking forward to God's faithfulness

"When we look back at the faithfulness of God,
we praise Him.
When we look forward to God's faithfulness,
we trust Him."
- Ken Watters

"Yet this I call to mind and
therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD'S great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."
Lamentations 3:21-24

I am so pleased that I can trust the faithfulness
of you my Creator.
On you and your son my hope is placed
and I am thankful that such an unimportant person as me
can be saved and be chosen to become
a participant of a new creation,
the coming Kingdom of God.

Dutch version / Nederlands > Vooruitkijkend naar Gods getrouwheid

Angels

ANGELS

“For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy way.  Psalm 91: 11

A.             Angels are Yahweh’s messengers that do His will.

At God’s command they protect, save, or kill.

They carry out God’s judgement upon wicked men.

Some have appeared and been seen now and then.

N.              Now salvation in Christ Jesus through God’s Word.

Is much nearer than when we first heard.

Yahweh opened our hearts in Jesus our King.

                  When with joy we were baptized into Him.

G.              God’s angels minister to our needs each day.

As we worship Him, study, preach and pray.

We each have an angel by our side.

Though unseen by us they help and guide.

     

E.              Eternity in paradise on earth is God’s prize.

Seen by our faith and through spiritual eyes.

Jesus the King will receive power and praise.

Adored by angels, and those God will raise.   

  

L.              Look and follow Jesus He is The Way.

He will grant us eternity on judgement day.

Remain in God’s love, your future is sure.

Changed & immortal like angels, if we endure.

     S.          Salvation from Yahweh by His son, only Him.

  Because of obedience to Christ Jesus our King.

  Our future transformation from the world we hate.

  Ministering angels will protect us as we wait.

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when The Lord Jesus shall be revealed

from heaven with His mighty angels.” 2 Thessalonian 1: 7

 

Bro. D Pickering  (1997)

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2013 update

Related articles

• Angels from the Realms of Glory
• Isaiah 6 - the Seraphim: burning ones (High priest)
• The Secret Place of the Most High : The Veil and the Holy of Holies (Holy Place) - Prayer
• "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels."