Sometimes, a kiss just means more

When we see the word "kiss," we often think of a romantic kiss between lovers, a platonic kiss between friends, or the kisses between a parent and a child.  The Bible, however, lists six different types of kisses. 

The first type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of blessing. In the Old Testament, the father kisses the firstborn son, or the son kisses the father, to receive the blessing before the father dies. Genesis 48:10 tells how Jacob (disguised as Esau) kissed Isaac to receive his father's blessing before he died.  In 2 Samuel 19:39, King David kissed Barzillai and blessed him because Barzillai had provided David with supplies when he stayed at Mahanaim after David had escaped from his son Absalom, who had taken over David's throne.

The second type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of anointing. In 1 Samuel 10:1, the prophet Samuel poured oil over Saul to anoint him as the first king of Israel and kissed him. 

The third type of kiss we see in the Bible is the kiss of greeting. This kind of kiss is found in ten locations in the Bible. In Genesis 29:13, after Rebecca told Laban that his nephew Jacob was at the well,  Laban ran to meet him and greeted him with a kiss. In the New Testament, in one of the most beloved parables, which is found in Luke 15, the father of the Prodigal Son ran to meet his son upon his return and kissed him. In Romans 16:16, Paul instructs the believers to greet each other with a holy kiss. In 1 Peter 5:14, Peter also instructs the believers to greet each other with a holy kiss. 

The fourth type of kiss is the kiss of betrayal. In 2 Samuel 20, Joab grabs Amasa by the beard to kiss him, but while doing so, Joab plunged his sword through Amasa's stomach and killed him. This was in revenge for Absalom appointing Amasa as commander of the army instead of Joab, who was loyal to David. The most well-known kiss of betrayal is when Judas kisses Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. You can read about this in Matthew 26:48 and in Mark 14:45. That kiss was the signal for the Pharisees to seize Jesus, and you know the rest of the story.

The fifth and final type of kiss is the kiss of farewell. The kiss of farewell can be found in six different locations in the Bible. In 1 Samuel 20:41, David and Jonathan kissed each other farewell before David ran away from Saul. In Ruth 1:14, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi goodbye before returning to her people.   In Acts 20:37, the believers in Ephesus fell on Paul's neck and kissed him goodbye because Paul told them in verse 20 that they would never see him again. 

Neither the kiss of greeting, the kiss of anointing, nor the kiss of farewell is practiced in today's church, at least not that I've seen. We live in a different world today, where we are worried about propriety and/or lawsuits.  The COVID pandemic also put the kibosh on non-romantic or friendly kisses. When we all get to heaven (what a day that will be!), we will be able to greet each other with kisses for all eternity without fear. Won't that be nice? 

In case you didn't know, I have an author page on Amazon.com, where you can purchase books of my blog posts, and you can purchase a book of my Advent/Lenten monologues. The link to my author page is in the right-hand column. Thanks in advance for your consideration!

And thanks as always for reading! See you next time!

Diane

The big snip

In my previous blog post, I discussed the difference between the physical heart and the spiritual heart. In this blog post, I will discuss the difference between physical circumcision and spiritual circumcision. 

Physical circumcision is first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 17:10-14.  God told Abraham that to keep the covenant between Him and Abraham's descendants, every male child was to have his foreskin removed. The circumcision was to occur on the eighth day after the male child's birth. God also told Abraham that every male child is to be circumcised, whether he was a family member or he was bought with money; otherwise, the uncircumcised male would be cut off from his people. This is important because in Exodus 4:24-26, we read that Moses was returning to Egypt when the Lord met Moses on the road. The Lord was going to kill Moses, since Moses didn't have his son circumcised. Moses' wife circumcised Moses' son and threw the foreskin at Moses' feet. Even Jesus was circumcised, because He was a Jewish baby boy (Luke 2:21).

God is the Creator, and He had a good reason for selecting the eighth day for physical circumcision.  The level of Vitamin K in the blood is highest on the eighth day, and Vitamin K controls the clotting factor that helps stop bleeding. Today, baby boys are circumcised a few hours after they are born. Jewish boy babies are circumcised on the eighth day after birth during a religious ceremony called a bris. 

Spiritual circumcision refers to the foreskin of the spiritual heart, which I touched on briefly in my last blog post. The first time the foreskin of the heart is mentioned in the Bible is in Deuteronomy 10:16, where Moses tells Israel to circumcise the foreskins of their hearts so that they would not be stiff-necked (a/k/a rebellious) any longer. Moses also tells Israel in Deuteronomy 30:6 that if they fall away from faith in God but return to the Lord, He will circumcise their hearts and the hearts of their descendants to love the Lord with all of their hearts and souls so that they may live. In Jeremiah 4:4, Jeremiah tells Israel to circumcise themselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of their hearts, lest the Lord's fury come forth like fire.

In the New Testament, Jews are referred to as "those of the circumcision," to differentiate them from the Gentiles, who weren't circumcised. In Romans 15:8, Paul refers to Jesus as the servant to the circumcision (the Jews) for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers (i.e., the Jewish fathers). 

So, how is the spiritual circumcision of our hearts accomplished? Paul states in Romans 2:29 that circumcision is of the heart in the Spirit. He then states in Colossians 2:11 that the spiritual circumcision is made without hands by Christ Himself. When we repent of our sins and put our faith in Christ, He will circumcise the foreskin of our spiritual heart so that we have a spiritual heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone.  

Dear reader, what is the condition of your spiritual heart? Have you experienced the circumcision of the spiritual heart but have turned away from God like the Israelites did? If so, the promise God gave to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 30:6 applies to you also. Repent of your sins and turn back to God so He can circumcise your spiritual heart and you can love the Lord with all your heart and soul, and truly live. 

Thanks, as always, for reading! See you next time!

Diane

Saints alive!

There are churches, both Catholic and Protestant, with church names that start with "St.", the abbreviation for Saint. "St.", like "Mr." and Mrs.", are honorifics, which is a word that means "a title or word implying or expressing high status, politeness, or respect." You will notice, however, that most evangelical churches are not named for a saint. 

The Catholic church has a process for how a person becomes a saint, a/k/a canonization.  Here's an abbreviated Dummies.com explanation of canonization:  1.  The person must be dead for at least 5 years; 2. When a person is accepted for consideration, they are called a Servant of God; 3. After it's determined that the Servant of God lived a life of virtue, they are called Venerable; 4. After one miracle is confirmed, the Venerable is presented to the Pope to see if he/she is considered Blessed. This process is called Beautification; and 5. After a second miracle is confirmed, the Blessed is again presented to the Pope for review to be considered a saint.

Whew! That's a long process.  But the Biblical requirements for a saint are much different.  In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul addresses the church at Corinth:  “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” (emphasis mine - DMS)  In order to be called a saint, you just have to believe in God and Jesus Christ. You don't have to be dead, you don't have to have miracles attributed to you, and you don't have to have the Pope review your case.  

In the Old Testament, there are many references to believers being saints. There are 20 references to saints in the book of Psalms alone and 12 references to saints in the other Old Testament books. These saints are the Hebrew believers in God. In the New Testament, there are 70 references to saints.  These saints, of course, are believers in Jesus. Here is the link to my search on BlueLetterBible.org for "saints:" Link  Once the new tab opens, click on the link to access the search. "Saints" is a collective term for all those who believe in God and Jesus. There are halos on the heads of paintings and statues of Catholic saints, but there are no references to halos in Scripture.

In our review of Scripture, we see that there is no complicated process to become a saint of God. As referenced above, all we have to do is to call on the name of Jesus and believe in Him to become saints. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, or what your ethnicity is, as long as you believe in Jesus, you are a saint. 

One of my favorite childhood hymns is "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God." The first and second verses talk about saints of God who lived in the past and their courageous actions. In the third verse, the lyricist speaks about the saints that live in the present day and where a person can find the saints - everywhere!  The last phrase of the first verse states, "They were all of them saints of God and I mean, God helping, to be one too."  In fact, that should be every believer's goal.  There's an old saying - "You're a saint or you ain't."

Thanks as always for reading! See you next time!

Diane

Personally yours, Part 2

In part one, I wrote about Paul’s epistle to Philemon, which was addressed to a person and not to a particular church like his other epistles. The apostle John wrote three epistles and two of them are also personally addressed to a person.

2 John is the first of John's two epistles directed to a person as opposed to the church in general, as in 1 John. In modern times, we write (or type) the names and addresses of the person or people we are writing to, and put our signatures at the end of the letter, but in Biblical times, it appears that the writer puts his name first, and then addresses the recipient.  

In verse 1, John calls himself The Elder. Everyone must have known that John was the Elder and he didn't need to put his name before the title.  John then addresses the recipient of the letter, who is “To the elect lady and her children.” To be “elect” is to be a person who has repented of their sins and receives Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.  John does not mention the name of the elect lady.  The commentaries I reviewed did not know who the elect lady was either.  Was the elect lady someone that John knew very personally and that is why he didn’t address her by name?  In the book of Revelation, the Church is referred to as the Bride of Christ. Could the elect lady be the Church?  Her children, then, would be all the believers in Christ.  So this letter may have a double meaning. 

John then states that he loves the elect lady in truth and those who know the truth love her as well.  So this is not a romantic relationship -  this is agape love.  John then states that the truth abides in him, in her, and the truth will live in them forever.  If we know the truth of Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as our Savior, the truth will live in us forever as well. 

In verse 3, John gives the elect lady a blessing.  John states that grace, mercy, and peace will be with her from God and from Jesus. John refers to Jesus as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.  

In verse 4(a), John writes that he is rejoicing that some of the elect lady's children are walking in truth, which is the truth of the Gospel. Wait a minute - "some" of her children? That means that not all of her children are walking in the truth. This also has a meaning for today's church.  Not all of the people attending worship services or who are church members are born-again Christians. For some people, church is a social club where they meet up with their friends or they join a certain church to advance in certain clubs or occupations.  

Then in verses 4(b) and 5, John ends the personal greetings and writes about the first topic, which is love.  John covers the topic of love in great depth in 1 John 4. Here, John states the most important commandment, which is to love one another by walking in God's commandments.  This also applies to us in the modern church.  We are to walk in love both towards God and towards others by following God's commandments. 

The next topic in John's epistle are deceivers, who are antichrists.  John defines an antichrist (small "a" antichrist, not to be confused with the Antichrist, who will come forward after the Rapture) as those who deny that Jesus Christ came to Earth in the flesh. John notes that the elect lady, and we as well, should not fall into this false doctrine so that we will obtain our full reward in Heaven. John states that those who don't abide in Christ's doctrine do not have God, and those who do abide in Christ's doctrine have both Christ and God.  We should abide in Christ's doctrine so we will have both God and Christ. John writes to the elect lady that if any of these deceivers show up at her door that she should not greet them nor receive them into her house, so as not to take part in their evil deeds. We in the modern church need to keep an eye out for those who come into the church with unbiblical ideas and doctrines.  We want to walk in Biblical ways and not in ways that are not pleasing to God.

John writes a personal greeting to the elect lady in the last two verses.  He states that he has more to say, but he would rather do so in person so that their joy may be full. He then states that the children of her elect sister greet her.  So who is the elect sister?  Another church?  And why are the children greeting the elect lady and not their mother? The commentaries I reviewed had no idea about who the elect sister was.  There are some things that we won't know until we get to Heaven.

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Diane

Growing your faith garden

A while back, I wrote a blog post about how sin is like weeds in our garden. You can read that blog post here. I’d like to take the gardening metaphor in another direction and write about how growing our faith is much like growing a garden.

When you start a garden, you dig up the soil (or plant in a raised garden bed or a large pot if digging’s not your thing or you’re physically unable to dig) and plant the seeds and/or bulbs.  We plant the seeds of our faith in Jesus in our hearts so that it will take root and grow larger over time, much like our plants grow larger.  

We water the ground and add fertilizer to our plants in order for them to grow up tall and strong, and also to produce fruit and vegetables if we have planted those kinds of seeds.  We feed our faith in Christ by prayer and spending time with God, worship, reading our Bible on a regular basis, and sitting under Biblical teaching.  Much like some plants grow better when they are around other plants, Christians can also grow in their faith through fellowship with other Christians.  All these things will help us grow the fruits of the Spirit, which are listed in Galatians 5:22.  

The water and fertilizer of both the garden and our faith in Jesus will produce a good harvest when the time is right.  But sometimes, despite our best efforts (or lack of effort), our faith and our gardens start to wither and die.  Maybe the weeds, both of sin and of plant, have taken over our spiritual and physical gardens and they need to be removed.  Maybe some of our plants need to be transplanted in other parts of the garden to get them growing again if they get too crowded.  If you’re in a church and you feel that you’re not being spiritually fed and the worship is dry, maybe it’s time for you to be transplanted to another church.  

Paul chastised the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3:1-22 for their lack of spiritual growth, although he used a food metaphor instead of a gardening metaphor.  But the same principle applies.  The Corinthians were not ready to learn about things that make for a deeper faith because they had not been feeding their faith correctly. 

Keep pulling those weeds (of sin and/or plant) and keep on watering and fertilizing!  I hope and pray that your spiritual garden and your physical garden are both growing well.  Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Diane

It's a family affair

I'm not sure if it's my age, but I'm getting interested in genealogy.  I think I'm going to put an Ancestry DNA test on my Christmas list.  I'm especially interested in the finger length DNA trait - I have short fingers (the fingers on mittens are way too long) and my pinky fingers are extremely short - they only come halfway up the second joint on my ring finger.  I wonder if that's a birth defect of some sort, especially since I had problems with small motor skills as a child. 

The Hebrews in the Old Testament were also extremely interested in genealogy.  In modern days, we have first names and surnames. For example, I'm Diane (my first name) Schultz (my surname). But in Old Testament times, a man was referred to as "the son of ____," and sometimes, a second "the son of _____" was added.  Occasionally, the tribe of which the man belonged was added - for example, Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.  

2 Chronicles 1-9 lists all of the generations of Jewish men up until Saul. A listing of all the people who returned to Israel from Babylon is found in Ezra 2.  Evidently, the genealogies were kept up during the exile in Babylon, because in Ezra 2:62, it states that some of the men who thought they were priests were not found in the genealogies and therefore, they were defiled.  Ezra outlines his own genealogy in Ezra 7, and it shows that he is a descendant of Aaron, the chief priest.  Therefore, he was extremely qualified to teach the law.  

Ezra 8 lists all the names of the families that returned to Israel with him.  Interestingly, there is a Daniel listed.  But is it the Daniel from the book of Daniel? The "son of _____" designation is not used for Daniel in the book of Daniel. Since Daniel was in Babylon by this point, who his father was is not important, and he may have been dead by that time. In Daniel 1:4, Daniel and his companions are listed as "young men." If Daniel was 18 years old at the time of the captivity and Israel was in exile for 70 years, that means he would have been 88 years old at the time of the first trip back to Israel.  The Daniel listed in the book of Ezra is listed as one of the sons of Ithamar, who was one of Aaron's sons. These Daniels may be one and the same, but I couldn't find any corroborating evidence in my brief research.  I will add this to the list of questions I will ask the Lord once I get to heaven.

You may wonder why the Hebrews were so interested in genealogy.  As noted above, the genealogies showed which people were real Hebrews and which people were not. The main reason, however, that the Hebrews were interested in genealogy is that the Messiah would come through one of the Hebrews' family lines.  This was predicted in Genesis 3:15 after the serpent (Satan) tempted Eve to eat the apple from the Tree of Life:  "And I will put enmity, Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” The Seed, of course, is Jesus.  Jesus was to come through the line of Adam and Eve and later, through the line of David.  Jesus is referred to as the Son of David in the Bible.  Jesus confounded the Pharisees in Matthew 22 by asking them who they thought whose son the Christ was. They replied that that Christ was the son of David, but Jesus said in verse 45, "“If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his Son?”  The genealogy of Jesus through Joseph, His earthly father, can be found in Matthew 1, and the genealogy of Jesus through His mother Mary can be found in Luke 3.  Mary's genealogy listing goes all the way back to Adam, while Joseph's genealogy listing only goes back to Abraham.  Both Joseph and Mary were from David's family line, although they were from different branches of David's family tree.  

Throughout the Gospels, the "son of _____" wording is still used when men are introduced into the story. But starting in the book of Acts, the "son of _____" designation is no longer used.  Why? you may ask.  I think there are two reasons.  First, Jesus the Messiah had already come (and returned to Heaven), and the Hebrew genealogies didn't matter anymore as far as the Messiah was concerned.  Second, the members of the Christian church were not only Jews but people from all over the known world, thanks to Peter's sermon at Pentecost and Paul's missionary journeys. The "son of _______" designation was no longer necessary.  As church members, we are members of the family of God and the only father that is important (besides our biological fathers) is our heavenly Father.  So dear reader, you are my brother or sister in Christ and God is our heavenly Father! 

I have traced my family line on Ancestry.com and other genealogy websites back two generations.  I would like to know a little bit more about my great grandparents.  I would also like to know what countr(ies) my ancestors emigrated from.  The results of the DNA testing will be very interesting.

Thanks as always for reading! See you next time!

Diane

Home is where the heart is

Our earthly home is the physical place we dwell in with our families, whether it's our childhood family or our adult family.  We have meals in our homes, we hang out with our families in our homes, and we sleep in our homes. We may entertain others in our homes, or they may come to stay with us for a while in our homes if necessary.  Thinking about our homes brings back memories, both good and bad.

If we are believers in Christ, we have a home waiting in heaven for us.  Jesus tells us so in John 14:2(a):  "In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you."  When we hear the word "mansion" in this modern time, we think about a large house with many rooms, luxurious accommodations, and maybe even a butler or maid.  However, the word "mansion" had a different meaning in Jesus' time. Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament defines the word "mansion" as follows:

Mansions (μοναὶ)

Only here and v. 23. From μένω to stay or abide. Originally a staying or abiding or delay. Thus Thucydides, of Pausanias: "He settled at Colonae in Troas, and was reported to the Ephors to be negotiating with the Barbarians, and to be staying there (τὴν μονὴν ποιούμενος, Literally, making a stay) for no good purpose" (i., 131). Thence, a staying or abiding-place; an abode. The word mansion has a similar etymology and follows the same course of development, being derived from manere, to remain. Mansio is thus, first, a staying, and then a dwelling-place. A later meaning of both mansio and μονή is a halting-place or station on a journey.

Our mansion in heaven, which will be our dwelling place, is where we'll be staying for all eternity.  Our mansion in heaven is our final station on our journey of faith. Paul also speaks of our future heavenly home in 2 Corinthians 5:1:  "For we know that if our earthly house, our tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Jesus states in John 14:2(b): "I go to prepare a place for you."  That means Jesus is building our heavenly homes Himself! 

When we are invited to someone's home for the first time, we are given the address of that home and sometimes directions to it.  But the way to our heavenly home is even better.  In John 14:6 in response to Thomas' question as to the way to Heaven, Jesus states that the only way to the Father is through Him.  Not only that, in John 14:3, Jesus states that He will come again (the Rapture) and receive us to Himself.  He will take us to our heavenly homes Himself!  Who needs a GPS when you have Jesus?

Have you ever wondered what our heavenly homes will look like?  Will they look like the homes we live in now?  Or does God have something better in mind?  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:9:  "But as it is written:  Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him."  Our heavenly homes will be even better than we can even imagine.

But we don't have to wait until eternity to live with Jesus and God.  In John 14:23, it reads: "Jesus answered and said to him (Judas, not Iscariot - in verse 22), 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will make Our home with him.'"  So if we love Jesus and God and keep His Word, Jesus and God will come and live in our heart.  Isn't that wonderful? Knowing that God and Jesus are living in our hearts makes us not want to sin, and makes us look forward to living with them eternally.

Given the state of our world today, I am looking forward to my heavenly home more and more each day and hoping that Jesus comes and gets us soon.  I hope that your eternal home will be in heaven and we'll see each other there. 

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Diane

Vacation, all I ever wanted

As I write this, it's summertime, and summer is vacation season.  People take vacations for various reasons - they go back home to visit family and/or friends or attend a class reunion, they want to go on an adventure, they want to spend time and pursue activities with their immediate family, or they just want to rest from an exhausting job or life situation.  Whatever the reason, a vacation is a change of pace from our ordinary lives. 

There is, however, Someone who does not take a vacation, and that is God.  God does not take a vacation because He is much too busy watching over us and the whole universe.  Omnipresence is the theological term that describes the concept that God is everywhere at the same time. I'm glad that God doesn't take a vacation, aren't you? 

In fact, there is only one place in the Bible where it mentions that God even rested.  In Genesis 2:2, we read that God rested on the seventh day after He created the earth.  Creating the earth and everything in it was a mighty big job. God also does not sleep, as stated in Psalm 121:4.

God does not take vacations from us, so we should not take a vacation from Him when we are on our vacations.  We should still continue our daily Bible readings and our prayers.  We can even spend a little more time in prayer and Bible study since we don't have work getting in the way.  Perhaps we can even take a solo vacation to get away and spend time with the Lord without any distractions.  I hope to do that someday.

I hope a vacation is on your agenda this summer and that you have a relaxing time wherever you go and whatever you do.  Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Diane

To know or to know about?

That is the question (with apologies to Mr. Shakespeare).  There is a difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone personally.

This also pertains to our relationship with God.  A person may know about God by reading about God or hearing about God from others.  But when a person repents of his or her sin and believes on Jesus as their Savior, they begin a personal relationship with God, which continues through all eternity.

We grow and maintain our relationship with God by reading the Bible, by prayer, and by worshiping God.  We listen to what God has to say to us through His Word. When we fall out of the habit of doing these things, our relationship with God suffers.  We become more worldly and fleshly.  John states in 1 John 2:15 that we should not love the world or the things in the world, or the love of the Father will not be in us. James 4:4 states that if we are friends with the world, we make ourselves an enemy of God. In our relationship with God, He should be first and not us.

The Bible gives examples of persons who had good relationships with God. In Exodus 33:11, it says that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, like a man does with his friend.  We will not have the opportunity to see Jesus face to face until we get to heaven, but we can speak to Him in prayer like we would speak to our own friends.  David was also a friend of God. Even though he sinned, David prayed to the Lord for forgiveness.  He pleaded that the Holy Spirit not be taken from him,  In Acts 13:22, Paul tells the Jews at Antioch in his discussion about Jesus that David was a man after the Lord's own heart. 

But what happens to those who never repent of their sins and don't have a relationship with God? Or to those who repented of their sins but don't maintain a relationship with God?  In Matthew 7:22-23, Jesus tells those who perform signs and wonders in His name but do not do the will of God that He never knew them and to depart from Him.  I sure don't want to hear Jesus tell me to depart from Him, do you? 

Dear reader, is your relationship with God a strong one?  Do you spend time in God's Word, speak with Him in prayer and spend time worshiping God?  Or has your relationship with God slipped away through the cares and the wiles of this world?  As long as you're still breathing, there's still time to repair your relationship with God.  Go to Him in prayer and ask for forgiveness in letting your relationship with Him slide.  Make every effort to read your Bible daily and study it.  Go to church on Sunday morning to worship the Lord corporately, and worship Him privately as well.

Thanks as always for reading! See you next time!

Diane

By the book(s)

Reading is one of my favorite hobbies, and so is writing.  God is an author and as you will see below, He is also a librarian. 

God’s main book, of course, is the Bible.  Divinely inspired and transcribed by men on two separate continents over thousands of years, the Bible gives us instructions in 66 books on how to live according to God’s will: it contains the history of creation and God’s chosen people Israel, Jesus’ life and ministry and the history of the early Church; and it tells us about what will happen in the end times and the final end of all mankind.  Jesus Himself is the Word, and the Word became flesh and walked among mankind.

In the Bible itself, four different kinds of books are mentioned.  The first book is the book of the Law.  This is the two tablets with the Ten Commandments.  You will see the book of the Law referred to in the Old Testament as the Testimony, and you can find the Testimony referred to in many verses in the book of Exodus, especially in the verses that reference the ark.  The Testimony (the tablets of the Ten Commandments) was placed in the ark. The book of the Law is also referred to in Deuteronomy 28:58, Deuteronomy 30:10, Deuteronomy 31:26 and Joshua 1:8. 

The second book is the Book of the Covenant. It contained all of the civil and health laws God gave to Moses in the desert for the people to live by.  The first reference to the Book of the Covenant can be found in Exodus 24:7.  In 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 34:30, King Josiah read the Book of the Covenant to all the people so that they would live for the Lord once again.  

Every person who has ever lived has a book in God’s library.  Each book contains everything a person ever did, whether good or bad.  The first mention of this book is in Psalms 56:8, where David says, “My tears are in your book.”  In Psalm 139:16, David says that all of his days were written in God's book even before he (David) was born.  Those people who were not resurrected at the first resurrection will be raised at the second resurrection, and at the Great White Throne judgment, everyone's books are opened and they are judged according to what is written in their book. 

The other book mentioned in the Bible is the Book of Life, which is sometimes referred to as the Lamb’s Book of Life (see Revelation 21:27).  The Book of Life contains the names of those who have repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus for their salvation.  The first mention of this book (although indirectly) in the Bible is in Exodus 32:32. Moses goes up on the mountain to ask God to forgive Israel for their sin of worshiping the golden calf but if God wouldn't forgive Israel, then God should blot Moses out of His book.  God replies that anyone who has sinned against Him will be blotted out of His book. Paul refers to the Book of Life in Philippians 4:3. You can find many references to the Book of Life in the book of Revelations.  

If your name is written in the Book of Life, you will live with Jesus for all eternity.  Dear reader, is your name written in the Book of Life? If your name is not written in the Book of Life at the time of the Great White Throne judgment, you will be thrown into the lake of fire to suffer for all eternity (see Revelation 20:15).   If you don't want to spend eternity in the lake of fire, please repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus for salvation.  Read the Bible, God's main book, and learn about Jesus and about how God wants you to live. 

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to check out this blog's podcast - you can find a podcast player embedded in the upper right-hand corner, and there is a share button, so feel free to share away. 

Diane

Have you turned in your RSVP yet?

Jesus taught truths using parables, so I think I can base a blog post on a dream I had.  This dream was very vivid.  I don’t usually remember my dreams, so I thought this dream must have some sort of meaning. 

The dream started out with Mike (my husband) and I going to a friend’s house.  When we got there, our friends were sitting at the kitchen table, reading the paper, cooking food, etc.  I urged them to hurry up and get ready or they would be late to the wedding supper, or miss it altogether.  But the wife said, “Go on, we’ll see you there.”

So Mike and I went to the reception hall.  There were round tables with water goblets and china place settings.  There were tall place card holders in the center of the tables with square place cards in them. These place cards had a letter and a number (like L30).  But for some strange reason, we couldn't find the table where we were supposed to sit. 

We went to the maître d’ and asked him to help us find our seats.  He took us to a large, wooden oval shaped table.  It had black edging all the way around it.  There were no place settings and people were crowded around the table.  Pat Neshek of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team was seated at the oval table and he was showing off his baseball card collection, although what this had to do with the rest of the dream, I don’t know.  I turned to Mike and said, “See, I told you that we should have sent our reservation in earlier!”

I was puzzled as to what the dream meant.  I was pondering the dream during worship in church that Sunday and it came to me that the dream represented the wedding supper of the Lamb and His bride, the church. 

My friends in the first part of the dream thought they had plenty of time to get to the wedding supper, i.e., repent of their sins and receive Christ as their Savior.  But only God knows when your last day on Earth will be.  It could be tomorrow, or in the very next minute. Also, the Rapture is imminent – no other prophecies have to come true before the Rapture can occur.

Mike and I went to the reception hall, so it appears we had received Christ.  But we were not seated at the round tables with the rest of the guests.  Perhaps we were carnal Christians and had not grown enough in our faith?  The reason why we were at the oval table was not made clear to me.  We were not cast out of the reception hall; we were just seated in a different location.  Those who reject Christ will be tossed out into the darkness, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matt. 8:12)

When you are invited to a wedding, there is usually a card enclosed with the invitation for you to mail back to the bride (the RSVP card) to let her know how many people in your family will be attending the wedding.  The bride will then total up the number of guests who have indicated on the RSVP cards that they will be attending the wedding.  She will then advise the caterer of the total number of attendees so that the caterer can prepare enough food. 

RSVP is an acronym for the French phrase “Répondez s'il vous plaît,” which translates in English to “respond if it pleases you.”  You have a choice whether or not to attend a wedding. You also have a choice whether or not to repent of your sins and accept Christ as your Savior.  In order to attend the wedding supper of Christ (Rev. 19:9),  you have to turn in your RSVP card, which means repenting of your sins and receiving Christ as your Savior. You can respond to Jesus' invitation to trust Him for your salvation and to believe in Him if you please, or not.  It's up to you. Jesus has extended the invitation to all who would repent of their sins and receive Him as their Savior (1 Tim. 2:3-4).  I know that I have accepted Jesus' invitation and have put my trust in Him for salvation.  

So if you’re reading this and have not accepted Jesus’ invitation to the wedding feast, why haven’t you?  Time is short.  I would love to be able to hang out with you at the wedding feast.  If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and wish for Him to come into your heart and clean it up and make you a new person on the inside, all you have to do is repent for your sins (or confess that you have sinned). This is called "being born again" or "saved." Here is a simple prayer that you can pray: "Lord, I know I am a sinner, and I need Your forgiveness for my sins. I believe that You died for me on the Cross. Please come into my heart and make me new. I want you to be my Lord and Savior. I give my life totally and completely to You. Thank you for forgiving my sins and making me new."

That's all for now!  Thanks for reading!  See you next time!

Diane

Grow in the Son light

Our family recently returned from a vacation in Branson, Missouri, which is located in the Ozark Mountains. "Mountains" is a misnomer, since none of the large hills are the height of mountains.  These hills are covered with tall, lovely trees.  From a distance, the hills look like they're carpeted with trees, and I half expect to see Paul Bunyan and the Big Blue Ox to come strolling through.   They are beautiful and I love to see them every year. 

The two major highways that take you to Branson from St. Louis, Hwy. 44 and Hwy. 65, were made by carving through several of these tree covered hills.  As we drove through these hills, I looked at the trees up close and noticed that the trees were only green at the tops.  The trunks were mostly bare, and the ground was rocky without much vegetation. There isn't much vegetation on the ground of the balds because the trees are so crowded together that not much sunlight or water reaches the ground.  As you may remember from biology class, plants need sunlight and water to grow. 

The hills that look great from a distance reminds me of many megachurches today.  They look great from the outside and on the surface - large, fancy buildings, entertaining music, sermons with fancy PowerPoint presentations, but these churches are so large that there isn't a lot of fellowship or encouragement to grow in Christ.

The trees with the leaves only at the top reminded me of some Christians who are only Christians on the surface.  They go to church on Sunday and talk the talk, but don't walk the walk.  They act good in church on Sunday, but live for the world the rest of the week. When these "surface Christians" are in churches where pastors exhort them to read their Bibles more and have a deeper relationship with the Lord, what do they do?  They leave those churches and find churches that preach what they want to hear, to satisfy their itching ears.

Jesus had those kinds of folks to deal with too - the scribes and the Pharisees. On the outside, they were all good and followed the Law to the nth degree. But on the inside, they were full of darkness.  Jesus called them hypocrites, as in the following passage from Matthew 23:27:  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness." The Pharisees didn't like being called hypocrites. 

Jesus is not satisfied with us just spending time with Him on Sunday morning and not during the rest of the week.  He wants us to spend time with Him by immersing ourselves in His Word and spending time in prayer. That's how we get to know Jesus.  Jesus wants a close, personal relationship with us.  We need the water of the Word to help us grow.  We need the light of the Son to help us grow. We need to be rooted in love, as in Ephesians 3:17: "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love. . ."

So dear reader, examine yourself.  Do you have a deep, growing relationship with Christ?  Do you spend time reading your Bible daily and immersing yourself in His Word?  Do you spend time in prayer?  It's not too late to start.  Don't be a "surface Christian."

If you're reading this and you haven't repented of your sins and received Jesus as your Savior, it's not too late.  Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with you, but you have to reach out to Him.  All you have to do is ask. “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” - Romans 10:9-10, NKJV

That's all for now! Thanks for reading.  See you next time!

Diane

The write style - Biblically speaking

If you enjoy reading (like I do) you read everything that certain authors write because you like their writing style.  You may enjoy the way a fiction writer tell a story and how they develop characters.  You may enjoy how a non-fiction writer presents information.  An author's writing style reflects their personality and their knowledge of a subject or their passion for a story. 

The Bible is the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God, but God dictated His words to humans to transcribe.  (I am a legal assistant, so I do a lot of transcribing.) Each transcriber of God's Word had his own writing style that revealed his personality.  If you read the books of the Bible carefully, you will be able to see the personality traits of each transcriber. Let's take a look at a few of these transcribers. 

My favorite Bible transcriber would have to be the apostle John.  John 1:1-18 reads like prose and is beautifully written. 1 John 4 is all about love, the love of Jesus for us and our love for one another.  John also wrote the book of Revelation, with its vivid descriptions of the end times.  Since I like to write as well as read, I look forward to meeting John in Heaven to swap notes, so to speak. 

Reading Paul's epistles reveals a very different personality than John.  Paul was very authoritative. He often used athletic metaphors such as "running so that I complete the race" or "fighting the good fight" to get his point across.  When a fellowship or a person was in the wrong, Paul didn't mince words - he told it like it was.  He often comes across as harsh, yet he had a passion for people to be saved, especially his Jewish brethren. 

Luke is another transcriber with a different personality.  Luke was a historian.  He was very detail oriented, due no doubt to his training as a physician.  Luke is the only one who reported that while Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, his sweat appeared like large drops of blood.  He vividly described the Holy Spirit descending on the people in the Upper Room and the founding of the early church.  Luke also described in great detail how Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and his conversion to a follower of Christ.

Moses was one of the greatest transcribers of God's words in the Old Testament.  The first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch, were written by Moses.  Although he was not an eyewitness to the events that happened before he was born, he his descriptive words make these events come to life.  He is a huge part of the Exodus story, yet he describes himself as a humble man who loved God.

I invite you to take another look at the books of the Bible to discover who their transcribers were and try to figure out their writing styles and their personality.  It just might just add new life to your study of the Bible! 

Thanks for reading!  See you next time!

Diane

The only book you'll ever need

I'm sure you've seen those "man on the street" interviews where the people are asked what book they would want with them if they were stranded on a deserted island.  Some people would select Les Miserables, Gone with the Wind or War and Peace, since those are long novels and they would keep you occupied for awhile.  Other people would select a book that would help them survive on the island, such as the Boy Scout handbook. Still others would select books such as romance novels or adventure novels that would help them take their minds off the fact that they are on a deserted island.

There is only one book that I would take on a deserted island.  It has a little of everything.  It has romance, adventure, wisdom and epic battles.  It tells how things began and how it all will end.  It even tells what will happen in the future.  It has poetry and stories.  It was written by several different authors, but they were inspired in their writing by one person.

Yes, you guessed it - the book I would want on a deserted island is the Bible.  I'll break out the paragraph above and show you where you can find these various things in the Bible:

Romance - Song of Solomon, Ruth and Boaz
Adventure - Exodus (Israel leaving Egypt on a 40 year journey through the wilderness); Jonah in the belly of the whale
Wisdom - Proverbs, Ecclesiastes
Epic battles - Joshua and the battle of Jericho; the Egyptians at the Red Sea; David and his mighty men battling King Saul
How things began - Genesis
How things will end - Revelation
Things in the future - Daniel, the prophets, 2 Peter 2, 3
Poetry - Psalms, Moses and Miriam's song of triumph, Mary's song of praise (the Magnificat)
Stories - Jesus' parables
This is just a short list; I'm sure there is much more in the Bible in these categories than I have listed here.

For the last several years, I have read the Bible all the way through from beginning to end.  I am now a member of two Bible study groups: a ladies' Bible study group and an inductive Bible study group. I am learning so much more about the Bible and what is in it than I ever saw before.  There is so much in the Bible to be mined that one could never find everything that God has hidden in it. 

The greatest romance of all is the one between God and His chosen people Israel, and Jesus and the Church, His Bride.  These love stories will never end. 

Well, that's all for now - it's time for my evening Bible study.  The ladies' Bible study is in Exodus right now.  See you again soon!

Diane

P.S.:  I welcome comments - just keep them clean, or I won't publish them.  Thanks!

What's Your Excuse?

Today, we're going to take a look at Luke 14:16-24, which is a parable by Jesus about a feast.

Luke 14:16-24 (NLT)

¹⁶ Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. ¹⁷ When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ ¹⁸ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰ Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.’

²¹ “The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ ²² After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ ²³ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. ²⁴ For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”

===========================

The subjects of this parable are the Jews, for Jesus was sent to them first. The Jews were invited to receive Jesus as their Messiah, but they wouldn't believe, so after His resurrection, Jesus sent His disciples into the rest of the world to invite them to the feast. It didn't matter about the social status of those invited to the banquet; they were all accepted. Jesus came to call not the righteous, but sinners. Because the first invitees rejected the invitation, they will not join in the feast.

This parable has a parallel for modern times. So many people have excuses not to go to church and accept Jesus as their Savior. Let's compare the excuses in the parable to some modern day excuses.

The first invitee said he had bought some land he needed to inspect. Today, people give the excuse that they have to mow the lawn, tend to the garden, or clean the house instead of going to church. Their home is more important than God.

The second invitee said he had some new oxen he wanted to try out. Today, people give the excuse that they don't have the money to give for an offering because they bought too much stuff they don't need. People put their possessions before God.

The third invitee said he had just married a wife. Today, people use the excuse of family activities to avoid going to church, such as kids' sports, theater, going to the lake, etc. People put their family before God.

Jesus is to be first in our lives, not possessions, homes or family. People today think just going to church on Sunday morning or on Christmas and Easter is good enough to get into heaven. It isn't! We need a close personal relationship with Jesus. He wants to be first in our lives. If we fix our eyes on Jesus and put Him first in our lives, everything else will fall into place.

So what's your excuse? As you have read above, there is no excuse to not put Jesus first in your life. He's calling you to come to Him and repent of your sin of not putting Him first. And if you haven't repented of your sins and received Jesus as your Savior, now is the time. You can pray this prayer: "Lord, I know I am a sinner, and I need Your forgiveness for my sins. I believe that You died for me on the Cross. Please come into my heart and make me new. I want you to be my Lord and Savior. I give my life totally and completely to You. Thank you for forgiving my sins and making me new."

Did you say the prayer? If so, congratulations! You are now my brother or sister in Christ. Your first step should be to purchase a Bible. Start by reading the first four books of the New Testament, also known as the Gospels. They will tell you about Jesus. The second thing you should do is find a Bible-believing church where you can learn about being a Christian and you can meet other Christians. I would love to know if you prayed to receive Jesus. Please enter a comment to let me know.

Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day!

Diane

Look up!

I'm going to interrupt my regular posts on prayer to post on Matthew 24. The Lord has laid it on my heart to take this passage apart verse by verse and comment on it. I will post links to articles relevant to some of the verses, and comment on others.

Matthew 24:3-14 (NKJV):
3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

With all of what was going on, the disciples thought that the end was near. But Jesus told them that it wasn't. The question "Tell us, when will these things be?" actually refers to verses 1 and 2 where Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple, which took place in 70 A.D.

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

The Cult of Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda

Maitreya

6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all[a]these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

World War I and World War II would certainly fit these verses, along with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

7b And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

Famine in Africa

More famine articles

Pestilence - Swine flu - Dictionary.com defines "pestilence" as "an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality." This newest strain of swine flu certainly qualifies as a pestilence.

Earthquakes in various places - This web site shows all the places where earthquakes occurred that were at least 4.5 on the Richter scale.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

As scary as all this stuff is, according to Jesus, it will get worse, especially during the Tribulation period.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.

Persecution Part 1 - A website listing areas of the world where Christians are being persecuted.

Persecution Part 2 - Another website listing areas of the world where Christians are being persecuted.

10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

No news articles needed for this verse - it happens in everyday life all the time.

11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

False prophets - a nice website with a list of false prophets and why they're false prophets.

12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

There are plenty of examples of this, but click here for just one example. There is another example here.

13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Good news from Jesus! There is hope for those who endure all these things and make it to the end.

14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Wycliff Bible Translators want to have Bibles in all languages by 2025. Here is an interesting paragraph:

592 new Bible Translation programs have been started in the past eight years. Wycliffe is involved in 490 of these (83%). This is an increase never before experienced in the 2,000-year history of Bible translation. Just this has reduced the timeline for reaching remaining language communities by 112 years.

Don't let all that's been written bring fear to your heart, for if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He will be with you and you will not need to fear.

If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and wish for Him to come into your heart and clean it up and make you a new person on the inside, all you have to do is repent for your sins (or confess that you have sinned). This is called "being born again" or "saved." Here is a simple prayer that you can pray:

"Lord, I know I am a sinner, and I need Your forgiveness for my sins. I believe that You died for me on the Cross. Please come into my heart and make me new. I want you to be my Lord and Savior. I give my life totally and completely to You. Thank you for forgiving my sins and making me new."

Did you say the prayer? If so, congratulations! You are now my brother or sister in Christ. Your first step should be to purchase a Bible. Start by reading the first four books of the New Testament, also known as the Gospels. They will tell you about Jesus. The second thing you should do is find a Bible-believing church where you can learn about being a Christian and you can meet other Christians. I would love to know if you prayed to receive Jesus. Please enter a comment to let me know.

Thanks for reading! Have a blessed day!

Diane