Call It Wrath       

     Well, friends, Paul can't be with us this week, but he left us a copy of his letter to Rome, to the church where converted Jews and Gentiles were having - cough - attitude problems. 

     Like us, sometimes.

     God created the world and gave breath to his first man and first woman. It was all "very good." His words. 

     Aren't we upset when our plans fall apart? Boo hoo. 

     We can only imagine Almighty God's reaction to our disobedience - in that he created each of us. Call it anger, rage, fury, indignation, outrage, chagrin or vexation. The Bible calls it "wrath." 

    The sin problem is both human tendency and personal. We can run, but we can't hide from God. 

     We get punished for wrongdoing. Does God punish us? 

     God reveals his wrath against the godlessness and wickedness of men. "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 men are without excuse" - Romans 1:20. 

     But. 

     Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, that is by faith from first to last..." - Romans 1:16-17.

Next: What about Israel's unbelief?

     

Theology 101

     Welcome to the class. Professor Paul will join us this coming week. 

     He will teach us as he wrote to Jews and Gentiles in the Roman church so long ago. A.D. 57 to be exact. This is his most theological letter, written 25 years into his missionary journeys. 

     Is the Bible from Genesis to Revelation one book? Or is it two - the Old and New Testaments? 

     Are Christians right and Jews wrong, or vice versa? Or are they both right, or both wrong? 

     What went wrong with God's plan for Adam and Eve's descendants? Isn't God powerful enough to subdue evil and make everything right? 

     Paul will teach this week on Romans chapter 10, but his whole letter is instruction enough if we had nothing else. 

     He writes of salvation, wrath, righteousness, law, faith, works, peace, joy, death, sin, grace, life, glory, choice, unbelief, remnants, branches, graft, authority, responsibility. And, oh yes, love. 

     We wouldn't invite Paul - who once persecuted Christians - to take up our time if his message wasn't a matter of eternal life and death. Yours and mine. 

         Jimmy

The Lord's Snakes 

     On Tuesday, we took a widow to Lakeland, Florida to a MEMORIAL service for families of 23 ministers and 12 spouses who "went home" over the past year or so.

     This was held during the annual meeting of AG clergy and executives from all over peninsular Florida. There were at least a couple hundred in attendance, including visitors. When her late husband's name was read, they presented her with a Christian flag folded into a triangular box, like American flags. 

     Then an Orlando pastor went back, way back to the Torah (Pentateuch), to speak about the gospel, the "good news." 

     In Numbers chapter 21, the Israelites had departed Mount Horeb (Sinai) and traveled toward the Red Sea, to go around Edom, headed for the promised land. "But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses."    

     "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" 

     This was 40 years after they departed Egypt. 

     "Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died." 

     The people repented, asking Moses to pray the Lord remove the snakes. Instead, he told Moses to make a bronze snake and place it on a pole. Anyone bitten could look at the bronze snake and live. 

Centuries later

     Jesus tells Nicodemus, one of Israel's teachers, Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 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. John 3:14-16  

     Every one of us has been bitten by sin. 

  

Seeking Importance 

     Two disciples, James and John, brothers, were convinced that Jesus was going to be the king. Like many in our world today, they wanted in on the glory. 

     "Teacher," they asked, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." 

     "What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked...as if he didn't know. 

     "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." 

     Jesus said, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with. (But that) is not for me to grant." 

     The other ten disciples were indignant with James and John. What a put down. Jesus called them together, noting how "rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them." 

     "Not so with you. Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man (himself) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" - Mark 10.

     Many Scriptures to follow, before and after Jesus suffered for the world, remind believers to live humbly and to serve others. If God raises up a believer in authority and/or wealth, so be it. But, our calling is to follow Jesus' example, willing to suffer.

     As for John, he had no idea how glorious is Jesus. But, decades later, he was privileged to see what no one else has seen, and hear his Lord say, during his Revelation, "I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."  

 

There are Chinese "police stations" hiding in plain sight, in America. 

So... there are churches in plain sight in China. 

Under watchful eyes...but not hiding.  

Not Counting the Costs

     Here we go again. Five years or even ten should allow opportunity to establish credit, save, become acquainted with the basics of home maintenance, and to learn how the real-estate and mortgage markets work. 

     The financial crisis of 2007-08 was driven by "predatory lending" to borrowers who couldn't repay. Some were irresponsible, some unfortunate, and some didn't fully understand what they were getting into. It was about benefits, not risks. 

     Lending institutions get the blame for the cascade of defaults that followed. But overlooked is the roll of the Feds in loosening restrictions and encouraging banks to pave the road to homeownership for low-income buyers, particularly minorities. 

     Now they seem ready to put the thumb on the scales again. The Federal Housing Finance Agency raises mortgage fees for borrowers with good credit in order to subsidize those with worse credit and little or no down payment. This comes when the housing market is already struggling with higher interest rates and low supply. The agency penalizes those who managed their money responsibly in order to reward those who didn't, or who need more time to establish themselves. 

     Perhaps worst of all, it incentivizes homebuying for those who may not be ready for that responsibility. 

     "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost." (Luke 14:28). Jesus was talking about the cost of discipleship, but it's still common sense.

     Woe to the government that greases the slope to even harder lessons.

WORLD magazine

    Rare is the call of faith that is smooth and easy.

    Rare is the path of righteousness that is wide and well-paved.

    The woman who has decided to stay with an unlovable husband, and to do him good and not evil all the days of her life, is not a woman who has settled for three pleasant Scriptures.

    She has dug into the Word until she is satisfied that she has found the heart of God. She has put to death the flesh. She has taken captive every thought and cast down every argument that sets itself against the will of God (2 Corinthians 10:45). 

    God has called such people those "of whom the world was not worthy" (Hebrews 11:38).

WORLD magazine

The Banking Illusion by Andree Peterson

     Here is the bargain I have with the bank: They pretend to give me money that is backed by hard assets, and I pretend they really have assets. 

     They pretend to give me money they really don't have, and I pretend to believe they really have it. I drive to the food store and they accept what's in my hand. It works, for now, because we all are in the game. 

     The U.S. government needs money too, and they don't seem any more worried than I about whether it's real. They ring up the Federal Reserve and say, "Hey, we need $10 billion to run our affairs," and the Fed says, "Sure thing, we'll buy $10 billion of your bonds." So the government takes pieces of paper and writes the words "Treasury Bond" on them and gives the pieces to the Federal Reserve. 

     The Fed takes their own pieces of paper and draws impressive designs on them and sends them over to the U.S. government. Of course, today it's not done by paper but by computers and clicks. 

     Godfrey Bloom, a financial economist and former member of the European Parliament, said the whole banking system is a scam. "All the banks are broke. They're broke because we have a system called fractional reserve banking. Banks can lend money they don't actually have. We have something called quantitative easing, counterfeiting by any other name. 

     "The artificial printing of money, which if an ordinary person did, they'd go to prison. So when banks go broke through their own incompetence and chicanery, the taxpayer picks up the tab." 

     The nations' contracts with their citizens are broken. There is no money. But the attitude is like that of King Hezekiah, when the prophet told him disaster is in his future...not during Hezekiah's own time, precisely, but his children's and grandchildren's time. 

     Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah (39:8), "The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good, for he thought, 'There will be peace and security in my days.'" 

     Meanwhile, here I am with my certificate of deposit and money market account, conjured out of thin air. But I tend to them, because I need the money. 

WORLD magazine

     

Kids in Crisis  

     Children in America living in unfavorable conditions is not news. This cause for concern is nearly 250 years and counting.

     In the 19th century, minister Charles Brace left the luxury of his New England childhood to live among the poor in the squalor of New York tenements. He watched children known as "street rats," going from one job to another, picking pockets and sleeping in corners.

     Some had parents who couldn't - or wouldn't - care for them. With help from reformers, Brace founded Children's Aid Society in 1853. He could only do so much in the city. 

     So he put them on trains and sent them to the Midwest where hundreds of thousands of kids began new lives. Naturally, some people called it reckless to send them away with limited follow-up.  

     Brace is considered the father of our foster-care movement, carrying out the biblical command to care for orphans. 

     By the mid-20th century, the government took the lead role, but Christian groups still support children in crisis, from adoption to foster care to family assistance. 

Source: WORLD magazine

     We have a new crisis, children coming across the border, without adults. Some connect with relatives already living here. Others end up in slavery of some sort, including prostitution, owing money to the cartels. 

     Are we as a nation worse in this matter than we were in the beginning, despite our care programs? 

           Jimmy

 Then There Were Ten 

     Who are we Americans if not the most free people of the world..."with liberty and justice for all?" 

     So, what do we do with our liberty? Would that all of us agree. 

     Long ago, God delivered his people from Egyptian bondage. Well, they had to hike it to Mt. Sinai. After a display of fear - thunder, lightning, a loud trumpet, fire and smoke, while the mountain trembled - God gave Moses ten commandments. Exodus 20:1-17.

     Law wasn't salvation. They were already saved by the blood of Passover lambs and delivered from slavery. The law was to teach them how God wanted them to live - toward both their Redeemer and their neighbors.  

     In the old and new testaments, trust in God and his word and heartfelt love for him is the foundation for keeping his commandments. Salvation was never about perfection. A sacrificial system that provided forgiveness was necessary. 

     In my youth, our church in unison quoted the Ten Commandments every Sunday. They were/are, good for behavior. Jesus said the law will not pass away...not even a jot or tittle (tiny marks). 

     What I should have learned - sooner - was that the law was not complete. It was a guardian for God's people until the old covenant was replaced by the new. We all need to repent. Jesus is our Passover Lamb. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." 1 John 1:7. 

     Back to America. The more we ignore our Passover Lamb, the darker will be our national walk. We will join the list of history's "has-beens."   

 

The Hilarious Irony 

     "People don't like commands because they think happiness is doing whatever they want to do," writes Andree Peterson. "By which they mean following their urges."

     "If you want a miserable, self-destructive life, go ahead and follow your urges. Paul calls such a life being 'taken captive to do his (the devil's) will'" 2 Timothy 2:26. 

     "What if the hilarious irony is that happiness comes through having a Master, not freedom? What if God's commands in the Bible are designed to create in us the character God wants us to bring into heaven?"

     "What if they (commands) take us on a journey where all our self-destructive tendencies are dealt with? Jesus our Savior becomes Jesus our Lord. His ways are a yoke to wear, side by side with him in the other collar, showing us the traces, and actually doing the heavy lifting, if we yield to Him."  

     "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life" (Romans 6:22). 

     "Call me a happy slave who's found her Master," Peterson concludes.

Serving a Good Master 

     "Jane Russell was a Hollywood sex symbol in the 1940s and 50s," writes Andree Peterson. "She learned the hard way that serving a Good Master was a much better deal than wallowing in so-called freedom." 

     Russell later wrote in her Autobiography:

     "Mom had to be upset...but she prayed for me and read the Bible. All I could see was the good Lord and how much He loved me in spite of myself. Mother said, 'Daughter, the Ten Commandments are like the guardrails on the mountain passes. The Lord puts those white guardrails there to protect you, not to restrict you.' 

     "If you crash through, you go over the side, but if you give Him all the pieces, He'll put you back together."  

     "I did, and He slowly healed me. (She had a serious infection) No one, but no one, could ever tell me again that there wasn't a God and that I didn't need Him." 

Next: A happy slave

Who Wants a Master?  

     A 19th-century theologian said, "The first duty of every soul is to find - not its freedom - but its Master? 

     Who wants a master? A Canadian psychologist with 40,000 hours of counseling experience, says:

     "You don't get away with anything. You will pay the piper. People's lives take a twist, and they go very badly wrong. And when you walk back their lives with them, you come to choice points where you meet the devil at the crossroads. You find out that you went left, and downhill, when you should have gone right and uphill. Now you're paying the price for that."

     Columnist Andree Seu Peterson wrote, "If I were 14 again, I would ruin my life all over again because I didn't know my Master. Paul says, 'What benefit did you reap at the time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death.'" (Romans 6:21) 

     "They told us in church that Jesus paid it all. We are forgiven! True, and yet while God forgave David, the king's illicit child still died. And God sent Nathan to ensure David knew that death was the price of his sin." 

Next: Peterson quotes Jane Russell 

All Out Invasion

     It's coming this week. The pent-up emotions of hundreds of thousands of immigrants ... about to burst. 

     Some will be needy, desperate people not served by their countries of birth. Others will be criminals, drug runners, human traffickers and who knows what. All arriving after paying cartels to lead or otherwise let them through. 

     Well, not all. Some died along the way.

     The political left, which aims to destroy and remake America, is in charge. They will have their way, or bolt the Democratic Party. Moderate Democrats go along to save their seats of privilege.   

     It's cozy to be on the home team. For some, it's not about legislation. It's the millions they can make on insider trading. Supporting the political war effort are corporations, educators, legal fakes, bureaucrats and other enterprises, including most of the news media.

     Another four years of Trump might give us a break, but the fortress of Washington is not going to surrender. Ever. Look at the cities! Look at the Biden family which is skating free - so far - despite their lucrative practice of selling out America. 

     Does God save Americans. Yes. Will he save the nation? Before you answer that, read the first chapter of the book of Romans.

         Jimmy

 

     

     

     

Do the Dead Speak?  

     The disciple Peter, a fisherman, was crucified in Rome during the reign of Nero. This is not in scripture, but we're told he wanted to be hung upside down, because he wasn't worthy to die as Jesus did. This is the disciple who swore that he didn't know the man, changing his attitude three days later. If history is accurate:

     James, son of Zebedee, was executed by Herod about 44 AD.

     James, the Greater, was beheaded in Jerusalem. 

     Simon the Zealot was crucified in Persia. 

     Jude/Thaddeus was crucified in Edessa. 

     Bartholomew/Nathanel was flayed, then beheaded in Armenia.

     Andrew was crucified in Greece. 

     Thomas was speared to death in India. 

     Matthew/Levi was speared to death in Ethiopia.

     These men weren't treated savagely for who they were, but for what they were doing - taking the good news of salvation to the world. Satan couldn't tolerate that. 

     Yes, their actions speak loudly. They knew the resurrected Jesus, and threat of death wasn't going to stop them from speaking truth. John witnessed as well, and the Lord spared him for the Revelation, much of its information yet to occur. 

     This concludes our 4-part series on those who carried on despite the physical absence of their leader, Jesus Christ. 

Who Said This? 

    "Soldiers pierced Jesus' side, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony and his testimony is true. He tells the truth and he testifies so that you may also believe." 

     "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes ... and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life." 

     "Grace, mercy and peace - from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son - will be with us in truth and love." 

     "Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good."

     "Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come ... and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth." 

Do You Say...

     "John?" The dates aren't precise, but John was the last living disciple, writing his gospel, three letters and what the Lord revealed to him, soon called the "Revelation." 

     As with other disciples and numerous additional believers, including Luke, a gentile, these writings occurred long after Jesus ascended. John, the longest to live, wrote anywhere from 50 to 65 years after our Lord in resurrected body returned to the Father. 

     Same can be said about Matthew, Mark, Luke and Paul, although their writings were approximately 30 to 45 years after their Messiah had departed.

     Unlike rebels, whose survivors quit, Jesus' followers - and converts - had interacted with him following his crucifixion. Like John, they knew what they knew that they knew.

     Next, look for our list of disciples who - historians say - never quit, but took the news to the known world. Most of them were killed. But, they knew the truth and were never going to deny it to save their human lives. God protected John for the purpose Jesus hinted while answering Peter's question.