Articles

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION ONE IN THE SAME, IS IT POSSIBLE?

II. THE MAN

C. HIS LIFE ALWAYS GIVING, ALWAYS TAKING

D. HIS DEATH THE NECESSARY ATROCITY

E. HIS RESURRECTION MAN-1/GRAVE-0

III. THE GOD

C. HIS PRESENT HE IS! A MASTER BUILDER

D. HIS FUTURE HE IS TO COME! THE LORD OF LORDS AND KING OF KINGS

IV. CONCLUSION AND NOW, THE SALES PITCH

PART I INTRODUCTION

ONE IN THE SAME, IS IT POSSIBLE?

From the ageless past, a plan of the utmost brilliance existed, to save mankind even before his creation. To us it is foolish to put into operation a plan that we know will fall apart, but then God also knew that love would conquer all. This was the purpose.

Creation began, and there, in the garden, Adam did disobey, thus causing God to place him and all that came from him under a curse. Satan, of course, was trying to prove that love could not win out. By foiling the plot at its inception, he hoped for an early victory.

In the Old Testament we read that all sacrifices to God had to be perfect. After all, God is perfect and will accept nothing less. The animals used had to be physically perfect, without spot or blemish. In order for mankind to be redeemed, (the purpose of a sacrifice is to redeem) a man, without spot or blemish must be used, but all mankind from Adam forward was marred by the curse; thus, no perfect sacrifice.

All the while, it must be remembered that whatever developed, nothing could be done to give Satan ground to confront God with an argument in his favor. If God cheated, then Satan would win.

A man had to be used to take the curse off mankind, but not one under the curse. Perplexing, isn’t it? Satan was sure he would win. He also knew that God, being no respecter of persons, could not favor one over another. Nothing new could be introduced that hadn’t been done before. If so, it had to be made available to all.

There had been angels who were followers of Satan that had taken on physical form and had union with human women. Satan had masterminded this in order to wipe out the purity of the clan of Adam, but it failed as evidenced by the flood during Noah’s day. All, except eight, being pure stock from Adam, perished in the flood.

The curse that Adam was under was transmitted through the seed of the male of the species, part of the curse; the female merely being a carrier of the seed. Eve came under the curse because she had been a part of Adam.

When the supernatural event (and it was a supernatural event for the fallen angels to take on physical form under the direction of Satan and have union with earthly women) of a holy seed was planted within Mary, Satan had no grounds for argument.

This seed was indeed a Holy one, for one of the Divine Trinity relinquished His power and glorious position as Creator in the Godhead to become the Redeemer of mankind. He could not bring any of His power, or authority; all must be given up, and was. Thus the birth of a man, both the son of man and the Son of God took place. By now, Satan was beside himself, but nothing illegal had been done.

Satan was even afforded the same opportunity of temptation with this man as he was with Adam. Adam, remember, was pure and sinless before the temptation and fall. So the God that became man was also subject to these same satanic temptations with no more to resist than Adam had; God’s instructions.

One in the same, is it possible? You tell me.

PART II THE MAN

JUST ANOTHER MAN, AND YET – –

In His day, some said that this Jesus was just another man. Merely a man, nothing more, nothing less. Well, no man is mere in the eyes of God, not you, not me. God’s love extends to all, even those who perished in the flood from which Noah and his family escaped.

From Adam to Noah, all were guilty and through Noah all were warned of this impending doom. All were repeatedly petitioned to turn back to God. Those doing so would have been saved from the flood, even the giants, the products of the unholy union of fallen angels and women of the earth. The results we know.

God’s love is tremendous, sometimes beyond our comprehension. Remember, Jesus said that we are to love our enemies as well as our friends. This was even applied then, and by God.

Because of God’s love, Jesus came into being, not to taunt mankind, but to save it for its original purpose before Adam’s fall. His birth was foretold many times throughout the Old Testament, but many eyes were blinded to this. They wanted a Mighty Warrior, not mankind’s humble servant. (Both have been foretold, but the Mighty Warrior is to come later.) Even Jesus had to learn through these writings who He was and for what purpose He was here. I imagine that would be somewhat of a shock since He was not permitted any knowledge of the past, except through the scriptures. To hold up under that made Him quite a man. Put yourself in His shoes. Would you survive?

Even today some think it is impossible to walk as Jesus did, do the feats He performed, to have the faith He possessed. They think that He must have had special favors and powers to accomplish all He did. But stop and think a moment. His birth, being born without sin was no advantage that we can’t have also. If we ask for our sins to be forgiven, including that one sin we carry from Adam, then our slate is wiped clean and we start anew — sinless as Jesus was when He was born. He was tempted but did not give in, by reason of the knowledge of God’s word as a defense. How many of us use the scriptures as a tool to fight Satan? The miracles that Jesus performed were not done solely by Him with some special power He had from before that we can’t have, but by the power of the Holy spirit which was given to Him as it can be given to us, if we just ask for it. How many of us give up before we get started? What if Jesus did?

Just another man, you say, and yet He had a love within Him that wouldn’t quit — thank God!

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BORN IN A BARN?

Certainly this is not a very pleasant thought, but it fulfilled foretellings of humbleness and humility to begin where most men would prefer not to begin. Of course, some do have beginnings here and never rise above it. But then whose doing is that?

The Creator of mankind, in order to become the redeemer of mankind, and an example to mankind had to take quite a step down in order to prove a point, but prove it He did. He passed every test placed before Him for you and for me. What Love! And some people actually say that no one cares!

He became an example to all. He showed us what each one of us can do if we but apply ourselves. He showed us that we must rely on God daily for the strength to meet that day. He showed us love, compassion, understanding, courage, strength, wisdom, knowledge, patience…. the list is endless.

Perhaps if we were afforded the opportunity to have been born in a barn we might look on it in a different light today. After all, what is the condition of the world today?

God is truly in the miracle business, even today. Creating the heavens and the earth from nothing was a miracle. The creating of a man was a miracle. The virgin birth of Jesus was a miracle. Is it really too much to fathom if we understand the “whys” of it all? We are expected to accept these things and more if we are to become what God intended us to become. And how much better off will we be when we do?

ALWAYS GIVING, ALWAYS TAKING

Quite an odd character by the world’s standards in His day, or in any day for that matter, was Jesus. Matthew’s description of Jesus was that of an ideal king. Mark portrayed Him as the ideal servant. Luke paints a picture of an ideal man. John’s interpretation differs somewhat from the above three accounts, in that John depicts Jesus Christ as an ideal God. Not that Jesus alone is God, but He, as part of the Godhead along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is perfection from the ageless past to the endless future.

I think that most of us would define “ideal” as “perfect” but “impossible” and yet His life was ideal. Yes, ideal according to that magnificent plan of long ago.

Jesus was the greatest man to ever experience life as we know it. From His humble beginning in a stable to His humiliating death at Golgotha, He never faltered, He never wavered. He always held His head up, and met each adversity head on with an unmatched degree of confidence. He was an example for us, an example He wishes us to copy.

In Matthew there is an account of one of His most famous discourses, the one we call the “Sermon on the Mount”. In theses teachings, He gave us many commandments, each to be obeyed. one of my favorites is Matthew 5:48. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect”. No command was given by Him that couldn’t be followed. So I am especially flattered because I know that the Father’s perfection is for us also. It is attainable or Jesus wouldn’t have commanded us to be perfect.

Is not that perfection demanded, one of conformity to God’s laws? Impossible, you say? Well, when we reach the point of exasperation, He has at our disposal tools necessary to get the job done and done right. In fact, these tools are the self-same ones He used. Remember, that everything made available for His use, according to the plan, in order for it to be legal and above board, must be made available to all. (For a list of these, see First Corinthians, chapter twelve.) Does this amaze you? We should feel honored in a very humble manner that we have such an opportunity made possible only because of His life — and death.

Jesus gave much to many. He healed the sick, raised the dead, made the blind to see, cast out demons, made the deaf to hear, the dumb to talk, the lame to walk. He taught us love, joy, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. This was His life, filled with these attributes. This is His story.

Love. The love Jesus possessed went far beyond our scope of love.  He had a strong, yet tender, compassionate devotion to the well-being of the individual. This kind of love is of a divine nature, God’s love. He expressed it so well in the healings and miracles He performed. On one particular day, after healing many within a multitude of over four thousand, because some had come so far and had that same distance to return home and had been there three days with nothing to eat, He fed them all with seven loaves of bread and a few fishes, and had more left over than at the beginning.

Joy. (Read Luke 7:1-10 on the healing of the centurion’s servant.) How joyous Jesus felt that day! Filled with a gladness and delight, not only that the centurion had asked for the healing of his servant, but also that the centurion knew that Jesus had only to speak the work and it would be done.

This is what Jesus was trying to instill in people, the centurion’s great faith. This is what He desires for us today. It must please Him greatly to see it in those releasing it.

Peace. This inner peace is something searched for, long and hard by many, then and today. If you are like me, this eludes us most of the time, seems like an impossible dream. But if Jesus had it, then so can we, if we work at it. And He did have it. He possessed this ability to remain calm and tranquil within, even in the face of trouble and temptations. This inner peace is a direct result of faith in God and God’s work. We must believe and have confidence in Him and His word. When we do, the peace will be there.

In each of the three recorded temptations of Jesus by Satan, the work of God was used effectively as a weapon against Satan. Knowledge of the word and the faith knowing it would suffice, was enough, and after forty days of not eating. What peace of mind!

After diligent study and ever-increasing faith (which increases by additional knowledge of the word), we all can have the inner peace we desire. Jesus had it. So can we.

Longsuffering. How many times have the words and the actions of others, created within you, feelings of resentment and bitterness? How many times have you brought forth those emotions? And yet “to err is human, but to forgive is divine.” It takes an extremely understanding individual to put to use the patient endurance necessary to overlook those words and actions. Can you? Can I? But should we?

God created man in the image and likeness of God, to have dominion over all of God’s creations. But because of the fall of man in the garden of Eden, he became “A little lower than the angels”, but still had dominion over the animals. If we become observant, we can lean both from above and below. I’m referring to my pet, a female Doberman, named Tammy. The love she has for me is sometimes beyond my understanding. I can have anger within me, and while it is not meant for her, I take it out on her. She goes away crouching and groveling, with her tail between her legs, if she had a tail. But the moment I call her name or whistle for her, she comes on a dead run. instead of carrying resentment, she is overjoyed to be with me again. Do you suppose that even though she is just a dog, these reactions placed there by God, could also be the very reactions of God and the same ones He expects from us? Tammy is willing to bear this because she loves me, and incidentally, I love her, too.

Jesus, also, was able to bear the burdens placed upon Him, even though they weren’t His, they were ours! The pain and agony He suffered just prior to His crucifixion had to be the sum total due mankind, not him. Yet He took it all gladly and without a whimper. He put the icing on the cake when nailed to the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34.

Gentleness. Let me paint a verbal picture for you. Imagine two of the roughest, toughest linemen in professional football. Picture them on opposing side just before the ball is snapped. Then, “hike”, and crash, they come together with the impact of colliding freight trains. Now another picture, after the game, each going home and picking up their son or daughter with all the gentleness a father can muster. He speaks softly and quietly to his child, imparting comfort and security to him. To me that is gentleness.

When His disciples tried to keep the children from bothering Him, Jesus rebuffed them, and took the little children into His arms, and put His hands on them and blessed them.

Goodness. Someone who is good is a kind, benevolent, and generous person. Jesus was all of these.  He expressed it totally saying that we should “love our enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”. Matthew 5:44. He not only told others how they should be, but He, himself did likewise, remember, these words?… “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:24.

Faith. An easy thing to talk about, faith, but very difficult to display. It is one hundred percent confidence, trust, assurance, and reliance placed in God. Paul told us that we walk by faith, not by sight. The straight and narrow path is strewn with obstacles, but if we keep our eyes upon the obstacles, we will surely fall. If we keep our goal up front, we’ll make it. anyone who has ever run track knows that the race is won or lost either by concentration of the finish line, not on the hurdles.

Peter, after asking for and receiving permission from Jesus to walk on the water as Jesus was doing, did just fine until he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the water.

Yes, faith in God is a mountain-mover, Jesus certainly moved a mountain of sickness and disease with this tool. Men who had never walked before were made whole and perfect by faith. And look what his faith in mankind gained us. Now is an excellent time to read chapter eleven in the book of Hebrews. It was a necessity to Jesus and it is for us.

Meekness. I sometimes think we define meekness as weakness. When we display gentleness, kindness; when we indulge others; when we bite our tongues instead of speaking out something we may regret even before we stop talking; are we weak or are we strong? Who is the stronger, the man who avoids a fight, or the one pursuing it? Have there really been any winners in a war?

Yes, it was a meek person who went though the garden of Gethsemane, through the mock trial, and on the Golgotha, not a weak one.

Temperance. This, as the other virtues, are closely related and sometimes intertwined. Self-control, much like meekness, is often thought of as a liability, not an asset. But without restraint, this old world may have ended long ago.

Jesus knew well the value of self-control. Imagine, if you will, Him firing his disciples and taking on new ones every time they made a mistake. Have you ever made a mistake, then had someone help you learn form it, rather than putting you down? Appreciation, right.

Perhaps, the best example of Jesus using self-control was in the garden at the time of His betrayal. If there were ever a time in His life when He came close to loosing it, that had to be it. The satanic pressure on Him was tremendous. He even sweated blood! But to come so far and quit now —-. I, for one, am certainly thankful for restraint and self-control.

Jesus was always giving: giving love and hope wherever He went. He was always taking: always taking ridicule, slander, belittlement, persecution, even physical pain and suffering at the end. He took with Him death and gave in return eternal life.  He save mankind, at least those who will accept, from a horrible future, burning in the lake of fire forever, and gave to us a future too beautiful for human words to express.

He had something else, too. It was the secret to His success, perhaps a thing even greater than all His virtues rolled into one. His secret was constant communication with His Father! Try it, you’ll like it!

THE NECESSARY ATROCITY

Jesus often said, “Follow me”. He wants us to be like him. Our Father in heaven wants us to be like him. Let’s follow him at this point in his life. Let’s see what its like.

Follow Jesus into the garden of Gethsemane, ALONE. In fact, go one step further, experience things to come firsthand. Trade places with him. Kneel down and pray. Pray as you never have before. The ordeal that you are about to face has never been faced before and will never be faced again. This is a once and for all thing. Yow know what is coming, each minute detail is vividly etched in your mind. Each ounce of pain that you are to bear begins to throb and hurt and sting, even before it is administered. And you are to bear the pain of every single individual in the world at that time and those before and those to come after. You must suffer the sum total of the pain of the entire world. You must do it all for them, knowing full well that not one, no, not even one, is worthy of what you are about to do. And you have the full pressure of Satan and all his fallen angels, demons, imps, and evil spirits upon you, literally trying to force you to back out now before it happens. Satan and his world are trying to kill you now, short of the task you have been assigned, as terrible as it is. Satan even has you to the point of sweating blood because the agony is so great. You are in a life and death struggle between heavenly forces and satanic forces. All is on your shoulders now. The entire future lies in your hands. What would you do?

Don’t stop now. Continue on. You have been taken captive and are to be brought to Golgotha and nailed to the cross. But first, many other atrocities must take place. During the night, you are spit upon by your captors. You are beaten, mocked, blasphemed, and then scourged with this Roman implement of punishment, a whip-like device with twelve thongs each containing jagged pieces of sharp bone or metal at the ends to cut deeply into your body to inflict terrible pain. As you are beaten with this instrument thirty-nine times inflicting four hundred and sixty-eight lacerations while being chained to a post, you are not permitted the privilege of fainting away. You must suffer for all humanity. Can you imagine the pain? Can you feel those thongs lashing at your bare back? Can you feel those bones digging deeply into your flesh? Can you feel the warm blood ooze out of your body and run down your legs to the floor? Can you see the pool of blood at your feet by the post you are chained to? CAN YOU SEE IT? CAN YOU FEEL IT?

The soldiers come to take you out. They jam on your head a crown, a crown of thorns, thorns up to two inches long. You feel each one of the thorns jab into your head, piercing the skin, scraping the bone of your skull, the warm, salty blood runs in your eyes. And you cannot faint. You must not faint. For by all this, by your stripes will others be healed.

Now, and only now, are you led through the streets to Golgotha to be nailed to this cross which will become a symbol of victory to millions and millions.

You are being nailed to this tree. You can feel the intense pain as each spike is savagely driven through your wrists and feet. Yes, there is still blood within you, because it pours from your hands and feet. You hang here for six hours for all the world to see, in pain and agony, but knowing that because of what you have done Satan is defeated and man can now be deemed worthy in the eyes of God, because of you.

Can you hear Jesus calling your name? Yes, YOUR NAME, saying, “I have given my very life for you, I have shed my precious blood for you so that you might be ransomed from the terrible curse and from the clutches of Satan, I have quickened your spirit from the dead, I have given, yes, I have given my very life for you. What have you given for me?

MAN – 1 , GRAVE – 0

Three full days and nights a body was to lay before anointing it and properly preparing it; a custom at the time to insure no one was buried alive. Jesus had foretold that He would arise on the third day and so He did. The party approaching the tomb that Easter morning found it empty, except for the two who said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, He is risen.”.

To say you are going to do something is one thing, but to actually do it is another. Here is yet another example for us. Consider the grave a doorway. If we enter into it believing the miracle of Jesus’ birth, that He was truly the Son of God, and the miracle of God’s power to resurrect Him, and that He is your Lord and Master; then you, too, can come out the other side of the doorway to begin a new and wonderful life, far beyond your expectations and wildest dreams.

Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?

PART III THE GOD

 THE TRINITY IS UNDERSTANDABLE

I am not writing to prove the existence of God, neither am I defending His right to exist. No man has the right to do either. Each must come to his own terms, and the Bible provides us with the answers we seek. How could any words from the mind of man provide a better proof than the very words of God Himself?

Read Chapter Eleven of the book of Hebrews. Faith is a strange animal. It is a substance most all understand, yet few can find the words to describe. Faith is knowing that hopes and dreams can become a reality, a certainty for that which we cannot see. By this very faith, the works and power of the Trinity are accepted, but God as a Trinity is to be also understood, not just accepted.

Genesis 1:1, the King James Version, reads, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” The Hebrew word for heaven in this instance is SHAMEH, which is the same Hebrew word that is translated heavens in Psalms 33:6, for example. The Hebrew word that is translated God is ELOHIYM which is the plural of ELOAHH or ELOWAHH, and yet it would be highly inappropriate to say Gods. In Exodus 34:15-16, this same Hebrew word ELOHIYM is translated gods. When its use is other than of God, it becomes gods.

In the new testament, also the King James Version, the Greek word THEOS is translated God in John 1:1, and yet in John 10:34-35, it is translated gods.

The old testament was originally written in Hebrew, the new testament in Greek, King James merely oversaw the interpretation of each into English spoken in his day. Why, then, did Moses and other old testament writers use ELOHIYM, and Paul as well as the disciples use THEOS in the new testament. Could it be they understood.

This highly intricate Trinity reduced to simplicity for human comprehension by God has, in fact, been complicated by man to the point of confusion, certainly not God’s intent whatsoever. If one can not get a handle on this, then attempting to understand the laws, commandments, works, and the power of God becomes increasingly difficult, or, perhaps, almost impossible to comprehend. Just think of the word God as a plural one, as sheep, fish, and fruit are.

Before a child can use multiplication, he must know addition, One plus one plus one equal three, but one times one times one equal one. Are both expressions not true?

“God, grant to me the peace of mind to accept by faith those things not comprehendible by man’s mind, to obtain by Your knowledge those thing meant to be comprehendible, and the wisdom to know the difference, In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

HIS PAST: HE WAS!——AGELESS

No man can comprehend something that has had no beginning and will have no end. Any attempt to do so will only result in the worst case of frustration ever. As a child I would say to myself, and dwell on the fact, and upset myself immensely that God had no beginning and will have no end, and that the universe goes on forever and is everywhere. These are two points we must accept by faith. Knowledge is useless for the time being.

He came out of eternity past and was the Creator, creating first the heavens and then the earth. Somewhere between came the creation of the angels (Job 38:4-7) for they were present and shouted with joy at the creation of the earth.

Painstakingly, He laid out the earth with exactness. It is the proper distance from our sun so we not freeze nor cook, the moon in its proper place to precisely control the tides, the correct tilt of the earth’s axis to create the four seasons, things taken for granted by man or thought to be an accident or a happen-chance event.

There is disagreement between theologians and scientists as to the age of the earth and yet how much time passed between Genesis 1:1 and those events, and those events beginning in Genesis 1:2? King James Version renders the earth ‘without form and void’ and yet Moses wrote ‘tohu va bohu’ meaning waste and empty but in existence. If man cannot cope with or make an attempt to understand either by faith or by knowledge those occurrences and happenings for the past six-thousand years, then how can he begin to comprehend those things which came before? And yet it is all written down for us; creation of the heavens and the angels and the earth, angels ruling planets, a plot by Lucifer and his followers, complete destruction of Lucifer’s kingdom here on earth, the results of which are in Genesis 1:2 (Earth a wasteland and empty of living things, complete darkness surrounding it, and water completely cover it). How long did the earth lie dormant? The flood in Noah’s day lasted over one year and still when the waters receded, vegetation was still present. Results of Lucifer’s flood left nothing.

And the He created man in the image and likeness of God. (Image – TSELEM – resemblance; Likeness – DEMUWTH – model or shape). He originally gave title to the earth to Lucifer. Lucifer lost it. Then He gave it to man. Man lost it to Lucifer. He gave up His glorious position to become flesh. Through the death on the cross and the resurrection from the grave, He gave back to man, title to the earth. Why then don’t we rightfully claim it instead of being constantly in subjection to Satan? Jesus gave His Life for this and we throw ours away needlessly. Yes, He was —— ageless!

HIS PRESENT: HE IS ——– A MASTER BUILDER

When He was flesh and blood, He was the son of a carpenter. And while He was flesh and blood, He told the disciples after the Last Supper on the way to Gethsemane that He was to be not long in departing and that in His Father’s house there would be many abodes and that He would go and prepare a place for ‘you’. He created the heaven and the earth. True, He possessed the skill of a carpenter while on earth. True, He went to prepare a dwelling place in heaven for each of us. But it is not for these abilities that He is known as a Master Builder. It only took Him six days to re-establish the earth and all it contains, so why should it take two-thousand years to prepare dwelling places in heaven? Perhaps at the most one day! So what has He been building for two-thousand years that qualifies Him at present as a Master Builder? For all this time He has been molding the character of man, through the Holy Spirit, so that each brick fits together to form a perfect church, an audience suitable for God’s presence, a congregation worthy of spending eternity with God. Eternity is a long time and God must be very sure with whom eternity is shared. Each must be purged of all desires of rebellion even though the freedom of choice with each remains. If God wanted an audience to continually praise and glorify Him just to hear the beautiful words, then a race of robots could have been created. But yes-men are not wanted. The praise and glory must come from the heart, not the mouth. Stop for a moment and think of your reaction to the same situation. Do you appreciate those who say nice things to because they feel they have to? Or does the appreciation lie in the fact that they do it because they want to? Well, if we are truly created in His image and likeness, then He is no different.

Before a build can be erected, the building blocks must be molded. If the blocks are shabbily constructed, then the building will crumble. But the stronger the blocks, the stronger the building. Of course, Jesus Christ is the foundation, so no worry there.

This is the present tense —– He is! This is what is transpiring today —— molding men into quality blocks. If a piece of clay that is to be a beautiful pot or crock doesn’t quite seem to make it before it is completed, then back it goes to the potter’s shed. And this is the case with us. How many times must we say, “Lord, I know I’m not right according to the standards established. As much as I am going to hate it, let’s go back to the potter’s shed”? Have you ever spoken these words? Should you speak them now?

Yes, His business today is that of molding building blocks. The mold has been set. And it really isn’t hard to fit into that mold as the devil makes you think it is. After all, he doesn’t want you in His mold, he wants you to be cast aside, discarded, and rejected, or at least feel that way.

Some think that the righteousness spoken of in the Bible is an unattainable goal, so they don’t even attempt to reach it. But since we are now under the period of grace, then the righteousness is as a tight rope we must walk, and grace is the safety net. If we fall off the rope, we are caught and have another chance to finish the walk, if we ask for forgiveness. How many times does the beginner in the circus fall? And how many times does he get back up and do it again? Ring a bell, anyone? We, all, must stumble many, many times before we get it right, but each time we chalk up a bit more experience than the last time, right?

Social status, background, education, color, nationality, denomination, sex; all of these have a very significant place in how we fit into the mold created by society. However none of these have any real value when it comes to entering the mold He has created. Know what is important there? It’s not being rich or poor; college graduate or sixth-grade drop-out; red, yellow, brown, black, or white (after all what color is a soul?); Jew or gentile; any of the going church memberships today; or the superiority of the male or the female. He loves each of us independently of the other, and desires that all fit into the mold. It is our willingness to see our mistakes, the mistakes of our forefathers, and the common sense to benefit and learn from them without suffering the consequences. It is our willingness to go into the potter’s house as nothing and come out a beautiful, magnificent, special piece of finely crafted pottery, as the potter would design us, not as we would have us be.

The end result, the sight of this quality building block, is far more beautiful than we can ever imagine. And it is a goal that as impossible as Satan says it is to obtain, is one that is realistic and assessable. The description can be found in Galatians 5:22-23, a person filled with love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.

Consider, if you will, a baker making a cake. All you see is the end result, but for every cake, there is time and effort and a large pile of dirty dishes and pots and pans in the background. It’s the same with our lives. Sometimes we fear the mess much more than the finished product, but any cook knows that a good cake, well-made, is worth every bit of sacrifice put into it.

Yes, He is —– A Master Builder! Will you be the buildee?

HIS FUTURE —– HE IS TO COME!——-

The Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. All the while the world, our social systems, will stumble blindly along, and then one day much to its surprise the game will be over. Imagine, if you will, a magnificent army of innumerable soldiers clad in pure and brilliant white, each mounted on a perfect, muscular, shining white steed with swords drawn, sparkling and gleaming in the sunlight, with a leader out front, His eyes aflame with an unquenchable fire, blindlingly brilliant, His immaculate uniform literally dipped in blood from countless ages past, and on His vesture and on His thigh is the name KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS, and here they come, right at our old social system and those within it. What will be once deemed virtually indestructible will crumble within a blink of an eye. Beauty or ugliness? It depends from which side of the fence it is viewed. In an instant it will be over and the blood will run, as deep as the bridle on a horse, in the Valley of Jehosephat, Armageddon, in the not-so-distant future. Will you be a winner or a loser? At the moment, now, there is still time before the battle to decide.

After the battle, His earthly government will be established both for the soldiers in His army and those humans remaining who did not participate in the war against Him. This reign will last one-thousand years, a time of peace and goodness toward all with Satan bound in chains and cast away. At the end of this millennium, Satan is loosed for a short period of time to gather his remaining forces, but will be totally defeated by fire from heaven, from the Father, and cast into the Lake of Fire with all those who chose to do his will rather than the will of the Father, forever. And then this heaven and this earth will be re-constructed to its original state in Genesis 1:1 and this new heaven and this new earth will appear and peace and joy will reign forever with God and those who chose to love God. A fairy tale you say; no, more real than life itself!

He is to come! —– The Lord of Lords and King of Kings!

AND NOW, THE SALES PITCH

In any sale, the product worth its salt, deserves a closing. That is asking the consumer to take the product and use it for a price. Good products carry some type of guarantee, up to and including a lifetime warranty. Some shoddy imitations carry none.

The product represented here is Jesus Christ. It carrys not only a lifetime guarantee, but an eternal guarantee. No danger of ever not being satisfied.

Satan will try to high-pressure you into his line by making many promises, promises that are temporary and of the world, not of the future, He will ply you, tempt you, bargain, plead, anything he can do to convince you. He is effective because so many have fallen prey. If you find out that the product fails, to whom are you going to return it for full refund? The price you pay may be high —– eternal life, in exchange for eternal torment and hell in that place reserved for him, the Lake of Fire, every moment filled with the realization of what you could have had. Then, it will be too late, now there is still time.

You see, the product I present is eternal life. We can make an effort and own the quality product or do nothing but fall in line with the worldly system and have the other. How hard is it to say ‘I’m sorry’ anyway? “I’m sorry God, forgive me.” That’s all. He will take it from there. There will be many in the fires of that lake who will say I’m sorry after the fact and will beg and plead for His forgiveness every moment of their eternal existence there, but it will be too late.

All of us have an eternity to spend somewhere. It’s your choice TODAY that will determine your TOMORROW.

God bless you.