Like Water Spilled On The Ground

For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him.  II Samuel 14:14 NKJV

Here we are given deep insight into the nature of God and His heart for mankind. It comes to us in an Old Testament story about King David and his favored son Absalom.    Absalom had ordered his servants to murder his older half-brother, Amnon, because Amnon had raped Absalom's full sister, Tamar, and nothing had been done about it.

Following the murder, Absalom had fled to his mother's country of Geshur and dwelt there for three years. King David missed Absalom but he apparently wasn't comfortable with the ramifications for his kingdom if he set the precedent of letting members of the royal family be above the law. He knew justice would not be served by pardoning Absalom, and yet he pined for him.

After three years had passed without a solution, Joab, King David's nephew and the commander of his armies, decided he should intervene to help King David bring Absalom home. 

Joab hired a wise woman from Tekoa (a small town about six miles from Jerusalem) to come before King David with a petition to spare her son from the death penalty for killing his brother. 

Her plea was that her remaining son was the only one left to support her and to carry on the family line. 

King David's compassion was stirred, and he gave her an assurance her son would not be killed.

Once King David made his decision for mercy on her son's behalf, the wise woman pressed him concerning mercy for Absalom. 

She said: "For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again."

This is such a vivid and therefore haunting picture of the hopelessness of death without a Savior. Selah.                               
She reminds King David that we are all sinners without hope, but for the grace and mercy of God. The death penalty is upon us; yet, God does not pursue our death because He "is not willing that any should perish." 

She goes on to say, "God does not take away a life." She tells King David that God "devises means, so that His banished ones are not expelled from Him." And thus, she encourages King David to make a way for Absalom to come home.

The problem is that her plea was a call for King David to embrace mercy without satisfying justice.

The wise words of the woman of Tekoa were certainly true concerning our Heavenly Father. He created us to be with Him, but we turned our backs on Him by sinning. Our sin caused spiritual death and banished us from His presence. But God still longed for fellowship with us, so He devised a righteous means to bring us back into eternal relationship with Him.

Unlike King David's action, God's provision satisfied justice. It would violate His nature to do otherwise. For God to be morally consistent within Himself, He must satisfy mercy and justice! 

His means of salvation must pay the penalty for all sins committed by mankind. He could justly provide forgiveness in no other way. 

So He literally provided Himself a sacrifice! He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to die on a cross in our place. 

Consider the magnitude of that sacrifice!  Being a sinless man qualified Jesus to die for a single sinful man, but being a sinless God/Man qualified Jesus to die for all sinners!

This is good news! Because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary "whosoever will" may come to the Father for forgiveness and eternal life. We are no longer banished and expelled! All is forgiven if we turn away from sin and ask the Father to forgive us because of the price Jesus Christ paid.     
                                                
Don't be like the unrepentant Absalom who perished in a rebellion against his father's kingdom. 

"Today is the day of salvation."

I invite you to return to your Heavenly Father for forgiveness and eternal life!

Put your trust in Jesus and come home!  

Beware of Islam: It Denies the Doctrine of Christ

The Apostle John, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, could have been speaking of Islam when he gave the following admonition.

"Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God."

Many are trying to combine faiths today. Many want to embrace Chrislam. But John’s words apply directly to Islam. Christianity cannot be mixed with the doctrines of demons.

Islam denies the Trinity.
Islam denies that Jesus is the Son of God.
Islam denies the Deity of Christ, the God/Man.
Islam denies that Jesus was Crucified for our sins.
Islam denies the Resurrection of Jesus. 
Islam denies His Second Coming as King of Kings to reign forever from Jerusalem!  

Yes, Islam denies the doctrine of Christ on every level. No repentance from sin. No eternal salvation provided by the blood of Jesus. Islam does not know or serve the true God!

John said, "He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son."

Allah, in the Quran, repeatedly says he has no son. He claims to be a loner with no equal. Allah is clearly not Yahweh, the Great "I AM" of the Bible.

John said, "If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds." (II John 1:9-11 NKJV)

A practicing Muslim comes to us not only not bringing the doctrine of Christ, but pro-actively denying the doctrine of Christ and pushing the doctrine of Allah. Our Founding Fathers understood that Islam is an ungodly religion and they did not welcome Islam into our national house. While not forbidding individual Muslims from entering the country, they clearly embraced the teachings of Christ and openly promoted Christian teachings throughout the land through legislation and governmental proclamations. They supported Christian education through churches and schools and Universities. They most certainly would not have promoted mass immigration of the followers of a doctrine which has the stated purpose of destroying everyone who refuses to convert to Islam. If we care about the future of the USA as a freedom loving Christian nation, we must reject an open arm policy toward Islam and its evil deeds.

Repeat: “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds” II John 1:9-11 NKJV

There are many voices crying out about the immigration issue today. Most of them are deceived and deceiving others. They proclaim that open borders is an American value. They have lost touch with our Christian roots and no longer understand or promote Christianity in our nation. In fact, they openly oppose it. Beware! Do not share in their evil deeds.

Today is the day of salvation! If you don't know Jesus, turn your heart toward Him. Confess your sinfulness and your need of a Savior. Jesus hears your every cry and longs to rescue you.

"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

God bless you!

Who Wrote The Ten Commandments?

I love to read the Old Testament. There are so many foundational truths shared in its pages. It contains the only accurate story of the Creation of all things! It answers life’s essential questions. It clearly states that all of mankind came from Adam and Eve, which means there is only one race. It notes the barrier God made between species, which precludes the possibility of an evolutionary tree.  It reveals that families, laws, governments and nations (with borders) were ordained of God. It tells how sin and death entered the world and provides the remedy for them. It validates the evidence we can see today of a worldwide flood in the distant past. It tells us where languages came from. It explains why Israel is God’s chosen nation. It proclaims that the Creator God and His Son desire a personal relationship with each one of us. It contains numerous direct quotations of God speaking to individuals and nations. It showcases the lives of many noteworthy historical people, good and bad. It shares multiple accounts of encounters with angels; including Jesus, revealed as the Angel of The Lord, “whose goings forth have been from of old.” (Micah 5:2) It includes over 1200 prophecies, none of which have erred in fulfillment. And, there is so much more in those inspired books, including the answer to our question: Who Wrote the Ten Commandments?

This is a story about the giving of God’s Law to the young nation of Israel. The whole law of God is distilled into Ten Commandments, which were written on tablets of stone by God, Himself. Yes, these are the very same Ten Commandments that ungodly men are working to remove from our society today. They were written by the Creator God and given to us for our good! They were given to preserve and extend our lives, and the lives of our nations. Let’s read the passage. 

Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” Exodus 24:9-10, 12 NKJV 

This is a jewel of a passage–-literally; a blue sapphire passage! Seventy-four men, still in the flesh, saw God! Yes, I know about the objections people have to this. Many commentators say they saw smoke and fire and heard a voice but did not see God. But, what does the passage say? It says, “they saw the God of Israel.”

In Exodus 33:20 God says, “there shall no man see Me, and live.” This passage is clearly talking about seeing the fullness of the glory of God the Father as He is in Himself. He is too holy for a human body to survive in His presence. Jesus later told His disciples, “And the Father Himself, which has sent me, has borne witness of me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape. (John 5:37) And the Apostle John wrote, “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son...He has declared him.” (John 1:18)

Jewish commentators lack an understanding of the Trinity, even though the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of God are revealed in the Old Testament. Their eyes are blinded to this truth as long as they reject Jesus as their Messiah.

Many Christian commentators seem confused here too. As I noted above, Jesus is God and He has engaged in pre-incarnate “goings forth” since the beginning of creation. He walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, after personally creating them! He visited with numerous Old Testament characters; such as, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah’s wife first and later Manoah, etc. In New Testament times, Jesus allowed Peter, James and John to see Him in His Divine Glory before He was crucified. This is called the Transfiguration. He allowed hundreds of believers to see Him in His resurrected body between the Resurrection and His Ascension into heaven in the clouds. Jesus is the God of Israel, and also the God of all nations. He and His Father are One. He is the “fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Col 2:9)  Jesus is the only physical representation of God we have ever or will ever see. And these seventy-four men of Israel saw Him.

God, as revealed in Jesus, told Moses to join Him on the top of the mountain so He could give him the Ten Commandments which Jesus, Himself, had written on gemstone tablets for Moses so he could use them to teach the children of Israel God’s “law and commandments.”

Jesus gave the Ten Commandments to Moses to teach the people how to live righteously. (That simply means to teach them to do the right thing.) God’s commandments are powerful. They resonate in our hearts. Individuals who are regularly exposed to God’s commandments live at a higher level than those who are unaware of them. That’s why our culture has been deteriorating since they were taken out of schools and other public places. Only the light of God’s Word can overcome darkness and teach righteousness.  

From this passage in Exodus the Rabbis of Israel teach that God (Yahweh, the Great I Am) inscribed the first copy of the Ten Commandments on sapphire tablets from the floor of His throne room. Since God’s law is foundational to His kingdom, I can believe He would write them on the same type of precious gemstone as He used for the pavements of His throne room floor and I’m impressed! 

I am not impressed; however, that Moses broke those precious tablets inscribed by the finger of God when he came down from the mountain and discovered the idolatry of the children of Israel.  Apparently, Jesus wasn’t too impressed either. He required that the next set of stone tablets for the commandments be prepared by Moses. Then Jesus wrote the Ten Commandments again. After giving that scenario some thought, I told my husband that no woman would have broken the Ten Commandments like Moses did because they would have valued the sapphire stones they were engraved on. Lol  How much more should we value the wisdom and blessings to be gained by keeping them.

The 10 Commandments      Exodus 20:2-17

1.   You shall have no other gods before me.
2.   You shall not make idols.
3.   You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4.   Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5.   Honor your father and your mother.
6.   You shall not murder.
7.   You shall not commit adultery.
8.   You shall not steal
9.   You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

No nation shall long endure if it rejects the Law of God. Sin deceives and enslaves those who embrace it. Righteousness exalts a nation! God’s Ten Commandments are the bedrock of freedom. Let’s remember to obey, defend and promote them. It’s not a good time to be removing them from public spaces. We need them now more than ever before.

Who wrote the 10 Commandments?

 God in Jesus Christ wrote them!

Islam Is Not A Religion Of Peace

With ISIS in the news so frequently now, I decided to repost a portion of a blog I wrote in 2011 called Islam’s Days Are Numbered. So, here it is.

Contrary to all the reassuring voices abroad in the land today, Islam is not a religion of peace. Rather, it is a tool of the devil. Islam will have no peace with any other belief system, religious or otherwise, because Islam demands submission from all to Allah and his requirements. And, since even Muslims differ about what those requirements are, they can’t even make/keep peace among themselves– much less will they ever bring peace to the world. Again, Islam is not a religion of peace.

Islam not only lacks peace, it also lacks the freedom it purports to offer. According to Islam, its followers are freed from all the requirements of other religions and the traditions of men. The catch is, all the world must live under the  Sharia Law of Allah, and those laws are strictly enforced with all the authority of the government.

Yes, Islam is a tyrannical religious/political system. It favors Muslim males. Its laws are especially hard on women and Non-Muslims (second class citizens who are denied basic human rights and only allowed to live as long as they honor and obey Muslim males, and pay the special taxes required of them), but no one is truly safe under such a system. Corrupt officials endanger the lives of all who find themselves subject to Sharia Law and there is no higher authority to appeal to.

Islam not only lacks peace and freedom, it fails to place a high value on human life. Islam is not grounded in moral teachings from a God who values all human life. Rather, it is a religion that glorifies death! Its adherents rejoice when “unbelievers” perish. And, they celebrate the death of their own who die killing others.

Untold millions have already perished globally in the 1400 years since this bloody, tyrannical system arose in the desert land of the Hagarites, known today as Saudi Arabia. How many more will be destroyed before the light finally conquers this malignant force of darkness?

Islamic Jihadists kill without provocation. They kill randomly and they kill based on the clear teachings of the Quran and as the obedient warriors of Allah. They are not Islamic extremists. They are actually Islamic fundamentalists. In fact, imitating their prophet, they kill without compassion or remorse and even rejoice in the name of their god; before, during and after their deadly attacks.

Jihadists actually believe they are blessed for the murders they commit. Those who die in the act of killing are martyrs and are promised they will bypass any suffering in hell and go straight into the arms of 72 virgins prepared especially for them. They also hope to be able to deliver 70 close  relatives from hell, as well. That’s a powerful incentive! (Without Jesus to save them, they have no other hope of avoiding suffering.)

What kind of a god makes promises of such base sensual gratification to his followers for laying down their lives to murder unsuspecting innocents who are given no opportunity to repent? Allah is not a loving God, like Yahweh, of the Holy Bible, Who is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance!” It sounds more like the being described by Jesus when He said, “Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.”

Who but Satan could be behind such a deceptive, destructive religious/political system? Yes, Satan is the god and father of Islam. He, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour.

The world will have no peace until Jesus Christ, the Jewish Prince of Peace, comes to conquer the destroyer and beat the swords into plowshares as He rules the world in peace from Jerusalem. That’s why Satan, working through Islam, hates Israel and seeks to destroy it. But don’t worry, Islam's days are numbered and Jesus is coming soon!

The LORD (Jesus) will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. Micah 4:3 NLT

I urge all readers of my blog to seek eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone. He died on the cross of Calvary for the sins of all mankind to set us free from sin’s penalty and to give us abundant life now, and forever!  Please turn to Him. He loves you! Today is the day of salvation!

For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2  NLT