My many thanks to both the author and Signs magazine, for this work. (John B)
Note(JB): Sorry to all who have been deceived by men, but Jesus was NOT born on December 25th, That's the Pagan Winter Solstice you are celebrating! Read carefully Luke chapter one, and knowing that the Course of Abia, a Jewish festival week, falls on our June 13-19th, then use the information found in Luke chapter one, and come to see that Christ was born around August 25th, John the Baptist was was conceived 6 months previous, Vs.24, 26, 36, 41, 44.67-68, 80.
December 25 th being the birthday of Jesus, is but a Pagan myth, a holdover from Babylon, perpetuated by Rome, as one of their many "Traditions.," of men! Sunday worship, infant baptism, eternal soul, at death go up or down, priestly forgiveness, { JB, If this is total forgiveness, then why do they have purgatory? One is forgiven or not?}indulgences { prepaid sins??}, plus 100's of their laws, not found in scripture?+
Matthew 23:9 " And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."
Mark 7:9 " And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition."
John 14:15 " If ye love me, keep my commandments."
Exodus 20:1 " And God spake all these words, saying, Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. "
What day is this?
Genesis 2:1-3 "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."
Note(JB) Please do not tell me, that nobody in the Catholic Church, not ever read these verses? Instead they reject the Words of the Bible for their own "Traditions", and call the Sabbath a Jewish law from the Old Testament! All the4 while there's not even a hint, in any verse of Scripture that authorises the change from Sabbath ,meaning REST. [ He had rested from all His work, which God created and made] Do Y O U really need to be hit over the head, with a hammer, before these facts sink in?
NOTE(JB): CChristianity, with Seventh-day worship is the true faith that Jesus gave all, ALL the others are but man-made, period! Question: "Can man save man, or self?"
NO!
Glen Robinson's reflections of Christ's decisions:
A mountaineer got lost while climbing the Alps, or so the story goes...... After days of stumbling around in a blizzard, he found a mountain pass that led into a valley that no one from the outside world had visited for centuries. In this valley he found a community of people who had survived for generations with no eyesight.
When he tried to describe to these people the beauty of the night sky, the color of a sunset, the joy of seeing an other's smile, the valley people were at first confused, then convinced that he was insane. Because no one they knew, could see, thus this experience was far beyond their understanding. In fact, they had no words in their vocabulary to understand what he was describing.
Over time, the mountaineer met a young woman of the valley and they fell in love. When they told the villagers, that they wanted to get married, and knowing the joys of that young man's sight, and of the outside world, would over time corrupt their community. They told him that he could stay, and get married only if he agreed to have his eyes blinded, so that he would be as everyone else. Torn between his appreciation of his eyesight and his love for the young woman, the mountaineer, finally agreed to meet their condition. The night before the wedding ceremony and the ceremony that would blind him, he took a walk to enjoy the night sky one last time. He climbed ever higher and higher on th4e mountain that he rose far above the village, That's when he spotted that he had come to the very pass through which he entered the valley. Keeping his sight would be but a simple matter, of walking through the pass, and keeping his sight,j and return to the outer world.
The conflict between his love for his fiance` and his love for his sight raged within him, but finally his love for the lady, was the greater, and love of the heart won out. He returned to the valley and have his sight removed, for ever, and become a married man.
What a conflict! What a decision! What a great love he had!
Yes, this is only a story and a fictional one at that, but the Bible tells a story, in which the Hero, of it, accepts a handicap that will restrict Him for eternity--- all because of love!
NOW LET'S SUPPOSE...... THAT ABOUT 2,000 years ago God the Son had looked at the sacrifice He would have to make. To be born of a woman,as a helpless babe, born in a manger, and then to die on a Cross, after being wiped so badly that His ribs were exposed, and decided that the price was far to high? Can Y O U just imagine, what life would be like for humanity, if this was His decision?
(Note(JB): Then He'd go back to heaven with which He was so familiar with! How long would it have taken Satan the devil, to have convinced one-half of the people to murder the other half? Surely by then, Satan would have seen the last man living to be killed!
NOTE(JB):
FORTUNATELY, THAT did not happen, as Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be treated as e was, and the human part of Him died on the Cross that Friday, before the Sabbath, at 3 PM. Thus He observed the Holy Sabbath resting in the tomb! As He was both 100% God and 100% flesh Man, We will not be able to fully grasp this idea, but Jesus jis still now and evermore a flesh man, nor longer able to become in a Spirit form, as can The Father and the Holy Spirit. Yet do we humans in these flesh/clay vessels, fully understand what Jesus allowed to be done to Him? Plus the WHY?
Look at what Jesus needed to do: (1) He could have taken the place of an Angel, but did not.
(2) He took instead the place of flesh-man, as a born of woman child. Thus He made TWO STEPS DOWN!
IF you or I, take two steps down, step one equals the animals, step two equals the insects.... WHO in order to save another, would volunteer to become an insect, for the eternity? Christ took two steps down, did He not? WHY Jesus?
Genesis 2:7 " And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
John 1:1-3 " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
NOTE(JB): All can now see, that it was Jesus Christ whom was the Creative Agent, The Father used, to created all the Cosmos out of nothing! And until we allow self to be nothing, {die to self] He can't use us fully! Thus only HE was able to pay the price if sin for us all.
THE SIN PROBLEM:
Consider God's problem. During the 4,000 years from Adam to Christ, the people had been fully exposed to sins, and their views of The Father, had become increasingly distorted. Every deviate interpretation of His character had been made an object of worship. Some believed Him to be an overbearing tyrant and had come to believe that they needed to give as a sacrifice of their own children, min order to appease Him! While others viewed Him as a weak, permissive being interested only in a good time, worshiped Him with acts of prostitution, bestiality or gluttony. in drunken food and sex orgies.
In the name of their gods, the strong overwhelmed the weak, and the rich dominated the poor. Apathy and greed flourished, and love and charity withered away!
NOTE(JB) In Genesis 6-11 find the account of what God did the last time He took action against sin, in the world-wide flood!
God knew that to salvage the situation, He couldn't simply speak to the people, in over-powering tones, as He did from Mt. Sinai. NO, to teach humanity what He was really like, in such a way they'd not forget, He would provide them with a living example of His character in the terms all would understand. In a world where God was an unfocused reflection of humanity's own selfish desires, He would have to be focused into a Being who was the essence of both Divinity and Humanity.
Now, imagine that Y O U are unencumbered by time and space, able to be everywhere at once, with limitless power available to you at any time. Then Y O U can understand how being born in Bethlehem as Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, changed God the Son forever. At His birth Jesus Christ, took on also the human nature, upon Himself,permanently, including being in one place at a time.
NOTE(JB): This is how HE, Jesus became the Son of God, by being born of woman as a human yet God child! The how we can't yet know, if ever!
Before Jesus became both God and man,, we could only hear about God in the Old Testament, what He was like and what kind of character He is. When Christ became a man, humans being could, for the first time actually SEE GOD IN THE FLESH, AND WHAT HE WAS LIKE....
John 14:9 "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"
DO WE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE JESUS MAKES?
We recognize that Jesus' death on the Cross made heaven possible for us. But what of His life? What difference did it make?
FIRST:
By living on earth as a human being, Jesus challenged the conventional judgment and even the moral values of the time. Greed, selfishness, and the lust for power influence our judgments more than we realize. The concern for others that Jesus' life fully reflected was just as disturbing to the statues quo at His time as it is for you and me to reveal to the community of blind people what's it like to see. Jesus' example turned conventional wisdom, about love and morality,... on its ear.
SECOND.
Jesus taught us that motive rather than performance is what counts. Remember the story about the Emperor's new clothes? They were invisible, "Sewn" by a clever tailor who, aware of the king's vanity, claimed that fools would not be able to see them. Afraid of being recognized for the fools they were, everyone, including the king, went along with the charade. It tool a young boy's stare, to state the obvious and draw attention to the king's lack of both britches and good sense.
Living in sin is much like that. We're all inadequate: we all have selfish motives. Yet we go through our lives desperately seeking to ignore the obvious. Let a little honesty creep in, and we're suddenly presented to the rest of the world as the emperor without his clothes....no longer regal, in a desperate need of something to cover us up. Jesus exposes our dishonesty, our spiritual nakedness. Yet He tears us down, to build us back up.
THIRD.
Jesus showed us that a positive approach is most effective at bringing out the best in people. Jesus didn't need to condemn men and woman as miserable sinners. His mere presence revealed to them their moral shortcomings. Then He called them to look at the world from a different perspective, to center their lives on God, instead of things, or on themselves. This message led some people to seek spiritual wholeness. Others, in turning from it, headed down the path of anger and resentment that eventually led them out of His presence and even into conspiring to get rid of Him.
IMAGINE, if you will, a cluster of flowers struggling to grow in a deep ravine, covered in junk and surrounded by tall trees, which hides the sun. Then a landscaping crew comes by, removes all the junk, thins the trees, allowing brilliant sunshine to pour down on the plants.
Overwhelmed by the full sunshine some plants wither and die-- {Perhaps wishing, if possible, that things return as they were] Others, still shaded, continue as before, but a few of the plants withstand the initial shock of their exposure to the full light of the sun {or full light of god's truth]. They soon are basking in its light... and flourishing and multiplying beyond all previous idea, as to what their potential was.
Such is our relationship with Him, we realize that His power is overwhelming. But if we welcome it and allow Him to change our characters, we'll flourish to a degree we had never before realized we could!
THE POWER OF LOVE:
NOTE(jb): God uses only truth and love, something Satan never will, but he uses all other weapons, to deceive, to separate mankind, from God! Never take the words of men for the Word of God, learn that from the Holy Bible!
Finally, Jesus' life teaches us a proper appreciation of the power of love, Jesus revealed to us that most of us love selfishly and limit our love to a chosen few. He showed us that the most important thing any of us can do in life is to reflect the love God has shown us, to reflect it by loving our fellow humans.
Modern society talks a great deal about love, and how it can change the world-- and one's personal life. But society's attempts as loving merely results in the increased rates of divorce, child pornography, incest and terrorism, making it obvious that most people have no clue or idea,what real love is! Chances are very great, they'll never understand this kind of love until they learn where it all comes from... God. Not that He created it: He is LOVE....
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 " Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."
NOTE(JB) Love and charity, are the two sides of the same coin.
When we ask for the Holy Spirit to reside within our hearts/minds, He'll teach us God's truths, and re-build our characters, to eventually reflect the character of God.
Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he [ the Holy Spirit] which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"
NOTE(JB) All of God's promises are conditional, upon one's acceptance of Jesus Christ's gift of salvation for sins.His Love for us all is unconditional, there's nothing we can do to remove this!
Our harried lifestyles the word awe, has lost its impact, when the Bible speaks to fear God, it meas to be in awe of, to revere Him, He loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins, how much more can He do to show His love for Y O U?
The community of the Blind people in the story, they could not ever understand what the loss of sight meant, to one who has it. Yet with his agreement to be blinded, MUST have showed to all the depth of His love for that woman!
Matthew 1:23-25 "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS."
Suppose He had decided that the Cross was just too high a price to pay, what would have been the result?
Fortunately, Jesus made the decision to pay the price, for all, for all time, that's why YOU and I can celebrate His birth.
Thanking Y O U for for your time. Questions? Comments? John at www.servant@frontier.com
Want more? Visit your Seventh-day Adventist Church, any Saturday/Sabbath at 9-10 AM. Knowing that Jesus died for your passage to eternal live, if you so desire it, you'll surrender your will to Him.
Other sites: AFTV.org BLBN.org redeem.international amazingdiscoveries.org itiswrittem.com
servantsite@wordpress.com
cc/jb
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