Just Like the Days of Noah

            "So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him. Then the flood came....." Genesis 7:15-17

 

            In my last post I wrote to you about why Jesus came the first time, but I also told you that He promised to come again.  The first time Jesus came to earth, He came as a suffering servant, but the next time He comes, He is coming as a conquering King who will come to judge the world.  He has already made a way of salvation for those who will receive it; next He is coming to judge those who have rejected Him and the salvation He offers. Notice in the scripture above that God closed the door of the ark. After that came the judgment on all who had rejected the Lord's call.

            In Matthew 24:37-39 the scriptures teach that when Christ comes again it will be “just like the days of Noah.  For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”  To sum it up, in Matthew 24:44 Jesus warns “the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”  How many of us are truly expecting the Lord to come back any day now?  We should be, especially since we could draw our last breath at any time, even before the Lord's return. We need to be ready either way.

            So, what is God’s judgment on the earth going to be like this time?  The first time God judged the people on the earth it was by flood, but He promised never to do that again.  (See Genesis 9:11-17.)  The rainbow is the sign of His promise.  However, judgment will come again, only this time it will be by fire. “But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” II Peter 3:7

            Jesus tells us the day of His coming will be just like the days of Noah.  How bad were things on earth in those days?  Genesis 6:11 says, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.”  II Timothy 3:1-5 gives us a picture of what things will be like in the last days.  “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” Does this sound like today?

 

            Did you ever wonder about the terrible condition of the world today?  Well, God already knew it would get this way, but there is a way of escape, and it is through the salvation Jesus offers us.  Jesus shed His blood on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus IS the ARK! Hebrews 2:3 asks the question, “how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”  Indeed, if we reject God’s offer of His most precious only begotten Son, we shall not escape judgment.

Next time, I want to talk to you about why I believe that the Lord’s return is very near, even at the door.  Keep your eyes on Jerusalem, and get in the Ark while there is still time.

           

Is Jesus Ever Coming Back?

“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come…saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?  For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”  II Peter 3:3-4

            It has been 2,000 years since Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, walked this earth, but He promised to return.  Speaking to His followers He said, “I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:2-3  So, why has He delayed so long?  The answer to this question is found in II Peter 3:9. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” 

            I believe that very soon God’s patience is going to run out.  Some of the things we are seeing today are signs that things as we know them will soon come to an end.  Some of the signs pointing to the soon return of Christ are: rampant immorality of all kinds, homosexuality, fornication, abortion, apostasy in the church, false teachers, rape, murder, pornography, incest, drug abuse, child molestation…etc.  The list could go on and on, but basically, we have turned aside from God and His laws, and there is a limit to His patience with sinful man. Two thousand years ago He provided a way for us to be saved from our sinful state. How long will He wait for us to turn from our sin to Him?

            None of us are without sin, and none of us can be good or righteous enough to save ourselves from our plight.  That’s why Jesus came the first time, to become a sacrifice for our sins.  He paid the penalty for our sins when He died on the cross so that we could be reconciled to God.  Those of us who receive salvation through Jesus understand that the shedding of His blood was the only payment that God would accept so we could be forgiven.  Jesus was the only Son of God, God in the flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born without sin, and He also died without having ever committed a sin.  We, on the other hand, are born with a sin nature.  The Bible teaches that “there is none righteous, no not one.”  Romans 3:10  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us." I John 1:8

            Our only hope is through Jesus Christ, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”  John 3:16-18

            Seek the Lord while He may be found, “For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.” Luke 11:10  If you hear Him calling you now, answer quickly!  Do not delay!  You may never get another chance, and your eternal soul depends on your decision.  Eternity is a long, long, long time! In my next post I hope to tell you more about Jesus' second coming, which I believe to be close at hand.

 

Who Did Jesus Claim to Be?

     Jesus says to all: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”  John 14:6

            Who was this man called Jesus whose disciples turned the world upside down, whose followers were willing to suffer martyrdom, who made such an impact on the world that even today our years are numbered from the time of His birth; and what difference does it make what we believe about Him?  People have many different ideas about who Jesus was, but who did His disciples say He was, and more importantly, who did He claim to be? These may be the most important questions we will ever answer.

            First of all, let’s look at what Jesus’ disciples had to say about Him.  Peter and Thomas are two of Jesus’ disciples who are quoted in the New Testament with regard to Jesus’ identity.  In Matthew 16:15-17, Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus responds to Peter by explaining the true source of his revelation. “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”  Later on, after Jesus’ resurrection, when His disciple Thomas sees and touches Jesus’ wounds and is convinced of the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, he exclaims, “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus does not correct Thomas, but receives his worship and replies, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed?  Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” (John 20:26-29)  Jesus’ disciples believed that Jesus was God in the flesh, causing them to be willing to die for their faith.

            Not only did Jesus’ disciples believe that Jesus was God, but Jesus Himself also claimed deity.  Because of this, the Pharisees (religious Jews) were seeking to kill him. In John 5:18, after Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, the account tells us, “For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”

            In another dispute with the Jews in John 8:56-59 Jesus claimed deity by telling them, “before Abraham was born, I am,” implying that He existed before Abraham, even though his actual physical birth was almost 2,000 years after Abraham lived.  The Jews also understood that “I am” was the name God gave Himself when speaking to Moses in Exodus 3:14.  John tells us, “therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him.”  Later on, when the Jews were trying to convince Pilate to put Jesus to death they said, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.” John 19:7.  

There should be no doubt from these accounts who Jesus claimed to be.  Now, it is up to each one of us to decide for ourselves who or what we will believe.  C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity sums up our choices in this way: 

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic, on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.  (pp. 55-56) 

Jesus claimed to be the only way to the Father in John 14:6.  He also told His disciples, “…He who has seen Me has seen the Father….” John 14:9.  In II Timothy 2:12 Paul tells us that, “…if we deny Him, He also will deny us.”  So, in Jesus’ own words, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.  For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

My prayer is that you find “The Way” if you haven’t already.  If you have, then I praise the Lord with you!

                                               

 

                                        

My Testimony

     Since I will be sharing with you on Christian topics, I thought I should start by telling you about how I came to the Christian faith.

     I was raised in a Presbyterian Church. My parents were wonderful people who loved me dearly and took me to church, but that was as far as my spiritual education went. I don't recall ever hearing anything about "salvation" or being "born again" in my childhood church. My mother was the church treasurer and worked part time in the church office for twenty-five years, but the Bible was never read in our home, and Christianity was not discussed. Ours was a Sunday religion of good works and love for your fellow man, and that was as deep as it went. Granted, those are good things to be taught, but they won't get you to heaven!

     During the 1970's there was a lot of Eastern religion influencing our culture. I began seeking the meaning of life in places other than the church. One day I was reading a book about the Guru Majaraji. When I tried to share what I was reading with my mother-in-law, she asked if I had ever read the Bible, and gave me her own to read. Although I was given a Bible at my confirmation at age twelve, I had to admit that I had never really seriously read it. So, I began to read the Bible starting with the Book of John, and then the whole New Testament, as my mother-in-law had suggested.

     To my great surprise, I suddenly found what I had been searching for, and it had been right under my nose all the time. I now knew that Jesus was the answer to all of my questions. I believed what I read in the scriptures to be the truth, and from that time forward I began to attempt to live my life to please Him. Of course, I haven't always succeeded at that, but that is what a spiritual journey is all about: trying...., failing..., and trying again!

     I have been a Christian now for almost 40 years, and I can honestly say that I would not have wanted to live my life any other way than with Jesus to guide me. It has been a challenge even with Jesus' help, but without Him I know it would have been impossible! I give Him all the praise and glory for anything worthy that I have been able to accomplish, and I thank Him for His forgiveness for the many times that I have fallen short of His will.  He gets all the praise! Thank you, Jesus!

     "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

My Spiritual Journey

     This is my first blog, and I'm not quite sure how to begin, so I will start by telling you a little bit about my own spiritual journey. First of all, by the title of my blog, you have probably already guessed that I am a Christian. I was "saved" at age 21. By "saved" I mean that I began to believe in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God and to trust in Him to "save" me from my sins. Since that time back in the Spring of 1974, I have been on a spiritual journey of study, exploration, contemplation, adventure, and perseverance. I have come to believe that there is truly nothing that can separate me from the love of God. Romans 8:37-39 My love for Him and my trust in Him grow deeper every day. The scriptures tell us, "We love, because He first loved us." I John 4:19 Truly, to know Him is to love Him. He is love! I John 4:19
     Along my journey I have experienced many different ways of worship and heard many different teachings, which I have tried to test and discern, as the scriptures command us to do. "Examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good." I Thes. 5:21 One important thing that I have discovered along the way is that we live in a time of great apostasy. II Thes. 2:3 There are many false teachers in the world and among the Body of Christ. Jesus warned of false teachers and/or false prophets many times, three times in Matt. 24 alone. We must be "shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." Matt. 10:16 
     Over the years when topics have piqued my interest I have tried to research them biblically and write down my findings. These are some of the things I will be sharing with you in the hope that what I have discovered may encourage you to also seek the Lord, study the scriptures and come to a biblical conclusion.
     The name of this blog reflects how important the scriptures have been to me in my spiritual journey; however, the Holy Spirit is the One who gives us the ability to understand what the scriptures are saying to us. I can't stress that truth enough. I John 2:27 says, "And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him." I only hope that what I have to say may be of some help to you in your own spiritual journey. I pray the Lord will bless my efforts. 
     My favorite verse is, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32

Note: All scripture references are from the NASB (my favorite translation) unless otherwise noted.