In the United States, the slaughter of Christians in other countries remains, in large part unreported by the mainstream media.
Matthew 24:9 – 9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.
Yet those who love God will continue to do so, because of the love of God that now reigns within them, they have no choice but to continue to love God, and all of His Word, they see and know of no other options.
Matthew 24:13 – 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Romans 3:4 – Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”
IHS 11/23/13
by Bob withThe Lord has made you beautiful. He, who created all that is, who spread out the universe, and who also formed the tiny baby’s hand, yes it is He who has made you beautiful in His sight. The Lord does not regard you as the world esteems you. You are lovely to Him and He desires your hand in His, so that you may know His love, feel His strength, and be aware that He loves you and wants you to ever be with Him. He has given all, in Jesus Christ, to purchase your freedom from the burdens of this world. He who loves you came from the beauty of heaven to walk this earth, to walk on a road leading to great suffering and death. He walked the road to death so that we don’t have to walk that road. Now here is the best offer ever, straight from the heart of Jesus Christ, God on this earth. It is an offer of love, and an offer of freedom from the crush of this world. Matthew 11:28-30 – 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” It’s the best offer you will ever receive.
IHS 11/22/13
by Bob withAgainst our natural desires, and silly to the world, yet if we have the love of God within us, this love should shine through: Luke 6:32-36 – 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
If we don’t have the love of God: 1 John 3:16-18 – 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
God’s love is for all, the lost and the saints. If we have the love of God within us, so will we. Jesus died to save the lost, of whom we all were: John 3:16 – 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Our call is to love as we have been loved: Mark 12:29-31 – 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
So our call is uncomplicated. Is it also simple? Deep self-examination may prove that the love of God is difficult for us to live out. Yet not impossible with God: Matthew 19:26 – Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
May everyone be blessed to walk in the love of God, and may His love, not our love, but may His love flow though us to the world. So if we truly want a better world, that is how the world may be changed for the better.
IHS 11-21-13
by Bob withSince atheist churches are popping up in Europe and spreading in the U.S.. what does that mean? Okay, if the atheists have churches it shows what we already know, that atheism is a religion. It is a faith based belief, despite their claim otherwise. So taking God out of our government is favoring the atheist religion. So, if God is left in government then the atheist cries that the government is biased toward deists. Yet if the government takes out references to God, then the atheist religion is favored. A seeming no win situation. The deceased Pastor Gene Scott said something I greatly appreciate, “Some people are so broadminded they are flat headed!” I truly get too much pleasure from that, but I also find it profound. The government has worked itself into a corner. Why not stay with keeping God in, it’s what has brought this nation to greatness. God has given the U.S. many great men, but those men did not make the U.S. great. God made the U.S. great. Let’s not be flat heads and instead return to what made our country great, a strong belief and honoring of God. Let the minority, those who don’t believe in God, just live with it. At least those who TRULY believe in God will value all human life, unlike all atheists. Romans 1:18-20 – 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
IHS 11/15/13
by Bob withNot my words, but God’s Words. Don’t agree with these words, then your problem is with God, the real God, not some idol you created to be pleasing to you.
Psalm 53:1 – The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good. Romans 1:22 – 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. Jude 10 – But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction.
Good thing God forgives the foolishness of men…I know He has forgiven my great foolishness – Acts 3:19 – Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
FB Post IHS 11/14/13
by Bob withYesterday, our dog Jake went to the back door and then craned his neck around to look back at me. He wanted to go outside. He had seemed anxious and seemed to think that he now knew what he wanted. He had been like a fussy child who could not figure out what would settle him. After letting him out, I went back to reading the Word. Later, taking a break from my reading I got up and looked outside to check on him. It was about 9:00AM and still a bit chilly, but there he was, stretched out and laying on his side. He had found a circle of sunlight that had made it over the rooftops, through the trees, and alighted on the grass. There he lay, in the patch of light, sleeping deeply. He was at peace, enjoying the sunlight, the warmth it brought, and the soft grass. He didn’t struggle to understand the warmth and peace he found in the sunlight, he just went to it and enjoyed all it provided. Ah, the peace and rest the simple blessing brought him. He had reminded me that the best things in life are not manufactured, but are simple pleasures that God has given us. The term “Simple Pleasures” brings to mind many wonderful things. Purest, shining brightest, and providing the greatest blessings is God’s love, offered to all, through Jesus Christ. May you find rest in the Son’s light. John 9:5 – While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Matthew 11:28-30 – 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
by Bob withRomans 15:27 – 27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.
Recently a man reminded me of the resentment that many have toward Jews, men with the belief that all the Jews are prosperous and that they are greedy and hoard money to themselves, to the lack of those who are not Jews. He fully expected me to share his resentment toward Jews. When I did not join in with him, his expression seemed to be saying that he thought me obtuse; my impression of him was that he certainly was not.
Certainly the Lord has blessed the Jews, even as they have been punished for their rebellion and disobedience. As we look through Old Testament times we see that even when the Jews were in exile because of their disobedience, God often blessed them wherever they went. Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Joseph, amongst others, were blessed while their country was being judged for the sins it had committed. Certainly the Lord showed favor to His children then, but what about now? What about throughout history leading up to now? If it is so that the Lord shows favor to the Jews, then what are we to make of it? We can choose to be jealous and hate them for the favor they have received, or, we can wonder what God is teaching us through this. Romans 11:39 teaches us that gifts from God are irrevocable. So is it possible that God, who has chosen, from His love, to bless the Jews, continues to do so (including His 20th century restoration of the nation of Israel, as He promised)? God does not love and then take His love away from us at every sin we do. Instead, He continues to love us, and to pursue us, always urging us back to the path to Him. Even if takes a couple thousand years, our God is relentless in His love! His Word, the bible, makes it clear that God had made a promise to Abraham and after these thousands of years, His promise still stands…amazing!
Romans 15:27 states that we owe a great debt of spiritual blessings to the Jews whom God first chose to be the priests that would reveal Himself to the world. It is they who cherished and guarded the words of God that we might have them now. It is through them that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was revealed, and His future as a man on earth, was predicted. Weren’t all the apostles Jews? In the Old Testament we find a great revealing of God and His promises to us. Haven’t we looked deeply into the writings of the Old Testament books and received insight, blessings and comfort? Certainly what the apostle Paul wrote, that we owe the Jews a great spiritual debt, is true. Paul was stating that the gentiles should gladly give of their blessings of this world to Jews, who gave us, from God, blessings from heaven. What was given back does not compare to what God has given to us through them! In gratitude for what God has given through the Jew to the gentile, the gentiles were asked to give what is temporary and fleeting for the permanent, eternal and secure.
What we learn is that God may bring punishment to a country for the sins it has committed, but He still loves those He has chosen to love (Hmmm, this brings to light why the marriage between a man and a woman illustrates the relationship between God and His church, and is therefore sacred, and not to be severed). He has loved Israel, that was His choice and His will, and not something they deserved. His love is given because He is a loving God and it is who He is to give love; none of us deserve His love. God gave us the bible to reveal Himself and His ways so that we might know Him. In it, what He reveals and commands are strips of the veil between us and the Holy of Holies. As we learn His word, these strips are being removed to see Him more clearly. He has chosen to reveal Himself to all who would want to know Him (and likewise to give those who don’t love God what they want, their own lives free of Him and living in darkness of knowledge of Him 1 Corinthians 2:14). Now as a husband, or wife, should not divorce their spouse because they fail to do their household chores as frequently as they ought to, likewise God does not divorce us because we don’t live perfectly as we ought to. God continues to love.
When we must discipline our children, it is not something we look forward to. Likewise the discipline is not evidence of our lack of love for our children, but rather a very strong effect of that love. We may tell a child that he must stay in his room for the rest of the night, but it doesn’t mean we don’t bring the child a dinner to eat while exiled to his room. We continue to love and bless the child even while we discipline him. If we, who are imperfect do this, isn’t this an example of how our perfect Father in heaven is? Indeed, God had exiled the Jew for their rebellion. He has given salvation to the gentile, who have shared His gospel to the world, when it was initially meant to be a blessing the Jew would do. Yet, in the disciplining of the Jews, God’s love and blessings are still seen. Also consider, that even now, with Israel as a nation once again, the restoration of the Jew is being birthed by God. The dispensation of the gentile is ripe and ready for harvesting, and the favor and knowledge of God is beginning to be restored to Israel.
God has said of Israel in Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” God’s promises don’t disappear. To be jealous of, and hate the Jew, is to bring cursing on oneself, or one’s country.
To all, the fact that the Jew continues to be blessed by God is proof of the wonder of God’s love, first to the Jew, and also to us. Also, however, the disciplining of Israel is a warning to us. What is the greatest sin in the world? We can think of a lot of very terrible sins! Yet, what is the worst sin? It is the rejection of the grace of God, offered only through Jesus as recorded in the bible. While we are here on earth, if we reject Jesus and want no part of Him, then God honors that decision throughout eternity. However if you do not now claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He continues to love and call to you. It is not too late. If you do know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then as we strive not to sin, yet surely do, we have the confidence that He will continue to love and forgive us. Just as He has with the Jew. John 1:9 – 2:2 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
So, God continues to use the Jew to teach us. Even now they show us that God has loved us, from eternity past, and He continues to offer us hope. As God has kept His promise to Israel, so will He keep His promise of peace between Him and us, if we accept His offer of peace. His offer of peace is extended only through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Praise God who makes a way where there is no way! Praise our God who continues to love Jews and thereby gives us a living illustration of a God whose love is faithful and ever seeks us out. Praise our just and righteous God who loves beyond measure! Praise God.
by Bob with