Spring, Passover, Ester, and Easter

The thing that man does most efficiently is argue, not only about everything under the sun, but over it, around it and everything else imaginable. Even concerning the Bible, there’s very little that someone doesn’t misunderstand, misinterpret, and try to cast doubt upon. The same holds true (John 1:14) of opinions regarding Jesus; the “Word (that) became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Time doesn’t permit me to present the evidence defending my statements at this moment, but I’m convinced of the truth in what I’m saying (ref. my “Easter” folder under “Categories” at my Home Page). Since God created the heavens and the earth, and since he is actually God, I’m going to say that he is, therefore, the king of Spring.

He said of the lights that he set in the heavens (Genesis 1:14), “Let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and years.” The witness of nature, along with his words spoken to the prophets, his interventions in history, and the life of his only begotten son, all tell the same story if we’re observant. We should celebrate the coming of Spring for he created it.

The celebration of Passover began with God’s deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. They had been enslaved there for around four hundred years. Centuries later, after a period of captivity and slavery under the Persian Empire, their very existence was threatened by the plot of a government official named “Haman.” Countless Jewish lives were saved by the intervention of Queen Ester, the Jewish wife of King Ahasuerus (Xerxes). This deliverance of Ester occurred near the time of the Passover, and is celebrated today as “Purim.”

This very day, there are Jewish people suffering in captivity, and I am praying for God to deliver them as he did in the days of Pharaoh, and from Haman, and from Hitler and others down through history.

Under Roman rule, the failure of Jewish leaders to accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah led to his crucifixion. This event was prophetically depicted in the ancient Passover, and also in the later intervention of Ester for her people. The crucifixion took place close enough to Passover for him to be the Lamb, and there were some hours of mysterious darkness on that Spring day, just before the time of his death. This darkness in some way corresponds to the darkness that fell upon the land of Egypt (Exodus 10:21-23) prior to the institution of the Passover.

We can’t pin the suffering of Jesus on any particular person or people. We are all responsible. We all have reason to repent. Jesus said (Matthew 18:7, Luke 17:1), “It is impossible but that offences will come; but woe unto him, through whom they come.” Our offences all reached to him in Heaven, and they all brought him down to his death on Earth (John 1:29-34). His mission was to die for us.

The argument of mankind over what became of the body of Jesus began the Sunday morning following his crucifixion. The date of the beginning of that argument is a matter of recorded history and actually establishes the fact that the body had disappeared. Jesus was gone, in spite of the fact that Guards had been posted. Reports of the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his followers began to surface.

Passover and Purim celebrate historical events, just as we in the USA celebrate the Fourth of July. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is also an actual event in history. Easter is vindication of the Bible’s claims about him. It was fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies. It is verification of his identity as the Messiah. Easter Sunday also heralds the coming resurrection and deliverance of those who will believe in him, and especially of his people, the Jews.

Easter is not only the fulfilment of the words of Old Testament prophets, but a prophecy itself of a future event that words cannot describe. How could we ever describe all that is meant by the word “resurrection?” It is celebrated yearly in the occurrence of Spring, the deliverance of the earth from Winter.

Various cultures use different calendar systems in attempting to track the complex movements of Earth within the solar system. The result is some fluctuation of the celebration dates of holidays. God himself has had a hand in the timing of the Spring Equinox, Purim, Passover, and Easter. All of these celebrations center around the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

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Christmas (Let It Be)

In this world, we can seldom anticipate how much it may hurt us to love someone. Romantic love, love of family, brotherly love for neighbors, and love of God; all of it can sometimes become painful, but it is God himself who convinces our heart that love will be worth it. I think that much of our life is spent wavering between the fear of loving and of not being loved.

Love often moves people to make painful sacrifices for the sake of others. There is no way that Mary, the mother of Jesus, could have fully comprehended how much hurt would befall her for her love of God. She probably would have understood some bit of it. She could have chosen to reject it, but she knew the prophecies of good that the Jewish Messiah, the Earth’s Messiah, would ultimately usher in.

She probably trembled at the prophetic words of an old man named Simeon when he first saw her baby. He said to her, “A sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (NKJV Luke 2:25-35). The thoughts of many hearts; everything negative that could be imagined has been spoken against the Child of Christmas, against his words and teaching, against the truth of his death and resurrection.

To experience Herod’s attempt upon her child’s life; to see Jesus ridiculed and opposed by figures in authority, mocked, and cruelly crucified by the powers that be; all of that would indeed “pierce her soul.” But she also saw him after he had risen from the dead. She knew who her son was; that Jesus was Immanuel, God with us. I have written several posts in answer to many of the negative views concerning the Christian celebration of Christmas (see under Catagories, in my “Christmas” folder).

“Let it be.” Those were Mary’s words in reply to the proclamation of the angel, that she would become the mother of the Christ (NKJV Luke 1:26-38). Her complete sentence was, “Let it be to me according to your word.” That is a little harder saying than a simple, “Let it be.” Though translations of the verse vary somewhat, those were her words of wisdom.

Her advice on another occasion (John 2:5) in speaking of Jesus was, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” Those are words of wisdom also. Be careful of whatever someone else says to you, whether in his name, or in the name of whatever. He has said that his sheep will recognize his voice, so search the record of his words. Do some soul searching as you do, and whatever Jesus says to you, let it be. Find the true word of God, and you can trust it. Don’t hesitate to pray in Jesus name for strength in following him.

One of the stories of the origin of the Paul McCartney song, “Let It Be,” is that he had a dream of his mother, whose name was also Mary, repeating those words to him. If that is true, and his mother is said to have been Roman Catholic, then the song may actually be more religious than Paul has wanted to admit. Perhaps the dream may even have been a message to him from God. Other stories of the song’s origin may have been efforts to shift our thoughts away from underlying meanings that the writer may not be totally comfortable with. Love lingers on in memory, and sometimes old grief returns if we drift a little too deep into thought.

The celebration of the Christ’s birth can lead to a rebirth of hope in the promise of God. People who are parted will meet again. The celebration of Christ will one day last forever. I’m not Catholic, but I can begin to understand the angel’s salutation to Mary (KJV Luke 1:28), ” Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”

Mary was a brave young girl through the love of God, and for the love for her child; the Son of God. In some magnificent way that I can sense but can’t express very well, Jesus completes all of life. He gives a beauty and meaning to life that we never knew existed until we believed in him. Merry Christmas! Let it be!

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You and YHWH (Freedom From God)

Man became alienated from God in the garden of Eden, and for the moment God is staying in the background. He lets us deny his existence if that’s what we desire. In our present emotional condition, awareness of God permeating all of space could have an adverse affect upon our sense of freedom. Our true self would not show, or perhaps we would beat ourselves to death fighting the light as does a pitiful moth.

Science is correct in saying that light fills all of space, but that very little of it is actually visible to our eyes (ref. My page “Trinity” from my Home page). That same thing is true of God, so there is a reason why God remains invisible to us. In this environment we can experience a greater sense of freedom, and our freedom is very important to him. It is also important for us, of our own freewill, to come to agree with him that freedom must be governed by personal responsibility. We must learn to care for others.

We each need to understand that in unique and individual ways, we are all our “brother’s keeper.” As individuals, all of us have a much greater awareness of our own self than of any other being. Next in line would be those that we are close to, loved ones and family, friends. Anyone can claim an awareness of God, but a true consciousness would permit God to be his own self, whether we see him visibly or not.

As it is today, if one of us simply tries to exhibit the evidence for God’s existence, that person is often met by ridicule or even violence. We must become aware of the need for accepting God’s influence in our life. That event must eventually embody an acceptance of Jesus. Earth’s reaction to the advent of Jesus into this world is actually its response to God. It would actually be simple for God to subdue the earth, but it is not so easy to change rebellious hearts. Rather than to intimidate us by appearing in his power, he came as one of us. He came as one of you.

You may be at war with God at this stage of your life, but God is fighting for you, not against you. I now want to use the word “we,” because I am one of you. God is for us. If we lose, it will be because we continue hiding from the truth, fearing that it will hurt us, perhaps even kill us. But it is the truth that will set us free, and God is fighting to give us life forever, not to harm us.

Take another look at the world’s rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. Those are the wounds he received in his battle to win our hearts. There is a question in Zechariah 13:6, a prophecy from around 500 years prior to the advent of Jesus; “What are these wounds in your hands?” And the answer is, “These are the wounds I received in the house of my friends.” Though he was fighting for us, we resisted, and it brought about his suffering and death. Our ability to change our mind may seem to grow weaker as time passes, but Jesus can yet free us (John 8:36) , and only he can. Exercise faith in him and keep calling on him as long as it takes.

The serpent’s lie to Adam and Eve was that we could be like gods (Genesis 3:1-5). God wants you to be you, and me to be me, but a paradise cannot exist where every living being is behaving as if it were an autonomous god, fighting over every concept of right and wrong. Even if an Antichrist forced all humanity into agreement, as some tyrants have attempted to do, that wouldn’t make us right, and it wouldn’t make us into God.

…I have said before that I believe the personal Hebrew name for God (YHWH) is the origin of our English word “you.” One Hebrew symbol represents our letters v,w,u, sometimes o, and ou. The Hebrew symbol for “Y” becomes an “I” when transliterated into Greek, and a “J” in modern English. Hence, “YHWH” sometimes appears as “JHVH,” and is written out as Jehovah. The Hebrew “H,” sometimes becomes an “E” in words transliterated into Greek. So “YH” could become “You,” or “Ye.” An “H” at the end of names and such sometimes becomes an “S” when transliterated into Greek, and is also one of those letters that can become silent in English.

As the word “you” is probably derived from “YHWH,” so it is in a fashion that your life also comes from his. As I’m using the word “you,” I’m trying to make a point and not excluding myself; I am one of you. As is the case for each of us, one day you must meet YHWH, and the mystery of both you and YHWH will be solved. God has come into our world as Jesus, and our first reaction to him wasn’t positive, but his mission was to create peace between man and God. We all need forgiven and now is the time to ask of him.

We would probably feel compelled to beg forgiveness upon suddenly coming face to face with God; but would repentance under such circumstances be real? Would that really be our desire and our will? Receiving Jesus here and now, is receiving God (John 14:6,7) of our own freewill. The world is flaunting its freedom from God, reveling in its belief that we are free to remake God in our image. But saying “freedom from God” is like saying “freedom from freedom,” for it cannot exist outside of God.

When we declare our independence from light and proclaim our own concepts of love and truth above that of God, we are enslaving our hearts to darkness. Now you can be you, but you can’t be YHWH; neither can I, but God can be a part of us. He must be if we are to live forever, and that’s a good thing, whether we realize it or not.

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The Sacrifice Of Christmas

None of us are perfect, which is why Jesus came to this world to begin with. He also knew that “Christmas” would not make our world perfect overnight. Some ancient prophecies heralded his advent into this world (Isaiah 9:6 and 7:14 KJV), but others foretold his suffering and sacrifice (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). Biblical prophecies of lasting peace on Earth are yet beyond the immediate future (Isaiah 11:6-9).

How long can God let this hurtful world go on? Yet to stop rebellious man by force would be the last resort for God. God doesn’t desire the sacrifice of something else (Hebrews 10:5-10), but rather gives us his own self. Immanuel! What has this world cost God? It isn’t just the suffering and death of the only begotten Son of God; it is Christ’s living, his existence, and all that he has created.

It is also the sum of all the selfless acts of love by our fellow creatures, much of it entirely thankless. It is the work of every caring responsible person, each loving parent, and of every such kindness throughout all generations. God has inspired it, and much of it is done without a second thought. The sum includes all things done to preserve neighborliness, life, truth and goodness. It includes every mercy, every forgiveness, and we tend to think a little more on these things in the season of Christmas.

Never forget that someone who forgives another has often paid a heavy price for loving that person. Jesus said that the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Luke 10:25-28). Wherever we fall short of this, we then become dependent upon God’s forgiveness and sacrifice. If we cannot love God, then our love for those around us can become little more than a bargaining tool, an “I will love you if…,” rather than an act of giving. The price of sacrificial love may be great, and but for one thing the rewards might seem pitifully small; this kind of love is actually life-giving and makes life worth living.

Jesus is the greatest gift that God could ever have given our world but he is certainly not the most appreciated, not yet anyway. God counted us worth it, and the real value of something is whatever it is worth to the one who desires it. This world isn’t heaven, far, far from it; but here is where the hard work of love must be done. Thank you God. Sorry for our excess in so many things and sorry for our lack of selfless love.

What is the sum of the sacrifice of God? It is God himself, who came down to this world to become one of us, one with us. Immanuel! The atonement is in Christ’s sacrifice. It is enough to bring peace with God, at-one-ment with God. It will one day bring peace on Earth. The cost may seem far “too much,” but sometimes it takes too much to bring us to our senses. I am certain that nothing less than the blood of Jesus could ever hold us strongly enough.

None of us are perfect, and we know it; these things hurt everyone around us, and God most of all. Nevertheless, God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should never perish but have everlasting life. Christ’s birth (Christmas) means life need never end.

God’s great desire is to give us eternal life, and this gift is in his son (1st John 5:11). The Christmas message from the angel in Luke 2:10-14 is “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Dear God, when we say “Merry Christmas,” let that truly be our meaning. The price is paid, let the gift be joyfully received.

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Keeper Of The Truth

God, as we travel through this threatening world, help us yet to see the wonder of your creation. We can’t take our eyes off the road, but help us not fail to see the beauty. A “falling away” is predicted for the church, and for the world (2nd Thessalonians 2:3,4). Don’t let us ever turn away from you.

In the last few weeks I think I’ve seen enough ugliness for a lifetime, but I’m afraid I’ll see more. In that evil I plainly see our need for God, and our need for love. In our scars left upon Christ and in the suffering of others around us, I better see the necessity of Christ’s mission. I see our need for forgiveness. The crude babel of this world is all noise that covers the “still, small, voice of God,” but if we listen closely we can yet hear it.

Let us see the good Lord in the good things, and that the devil is in the bad. Don’t let man’s theology get those things turned around in our mind. The cross of Jesus isn’t only the physical cross. It is all the cruelty and injustice done to every creature. It is all the personal rejection of God. Love is wounded in the rejection; love hurts when we hurt.

We live in dangerous times. It is very likely that “science,” in its experiments with germ warfare, will inadvertently loose the plagues upon the world that are foretold in the Bible. There are those who would do so purposely. There are those who would withhold a cure in order to possess power to achieve some twisted goal.

An antichrist could create disease and riots threatening all our lives, and release the cure at just the right time to appear to be a savior. People would be easily deceived by someone holding the world’s purse strings. If all money was digital and all people were chipped and their movement tracked, then whoever controls the keyboard controls the world. The stage would be set for Antichrist to claim to be God, and exalt himself above every thing that is called god.

Dear God, I am asking for a lot in this prayer; help us even in the face of all these things to go on with life. Help us to be thankful for the blessings of God that remain, and to not be deceived by the trouble that we will see around us. God is good, though the world disputes all truth, and vandalizes all beauty. Truth is important in every experience of life, not something that we have a right to manipulate to suit our every cause.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. …That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. …And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (excerpts from the first chapter of John).”

Scientists could never determine the truth of everything by experimental trial and error. They are too biased in their interpretation of what they’re seeing. John 14:6 records that Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The antichrist is not the personification of truth, nor is any other human being. None of us would have a prayer if it were not for the intervention of Jesus. The world would never be safe for man. The whole universe would be at risk. Dear God, protect us from deception and Antichrist’s control, in Jesus name, amen. A prayer that Jesus prayed was (John 17:5); Render me you, Father, with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

We of this world are only human, but though he became one of us, Jesus was different. He is the Word that John spoke of. He is the Lord (KJV Psalm 146:6), “which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever.” Jesus Christ is the Keeper of the Truth.

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Easter and Eden

In the highlands of the vast garden were the fountains of a great river. Meandering over the high plateau and gathering force along the way, it parted into four streams. Descending from the highlands these rivers traversed several thousand miles around the earth. The garden paradise was created by an artistic being of elements he had formed for this purpose. It was an infinitely great work of art as well as a wonder of science.

From inorganic matter the Being fashioned beautiful living plants. He then formed complex living creatures of all sorts. He made creatures to swim in the waters, and others to fly in the face of the heavens. He created all kinds of animals, imparting to them beauty of form and differing levels of intelligence. He gave the creatures the ability to reproduce miniature forms of themselves, and to care for their young as they grew.

The ancestors of carnivores and herbivores played together like their cubs and calves sometimes do even today. They would never have grown out of it if something had not significantly changed. The Being designed all life with potential to adapt to its environment. This soon resulted in a world of inexpressible beauty, meeting the senses in all the panorama of life. In this time of beginnings, the Being’s creatures did not prey upon one another, and the world was a picture of harmony.

Last of all the Being made creatures in his own image; intelligent, independent creatures with great potential. The first of two such creatures was a male, formed from earth, and the second was female. In a scientific sense, it might be correct to say that the Creator cloned the female from a rib taken from the male, but such a new and wonderful creature as the first woman, the mother of the whole human family (from the Latin “humus,” “soil”), cannot be considered a clone.

The first man considered her a part of himself, “…bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,” and they were created as equals. If “Adam” ever had a thought of superiority arising from the fact that his mate was created from his rib, she could have said, “Ha, God made you of plain old dirt.” But there was no contention between male and female in the beginning. They were indeed “one flesh.”

They lived in a utopia, in the midst of a world that the creator had called “very good.” If only they had understood the meaning of “very good,” but they were sheltered, and nothing in their experience provided any sort of contrast. If only they had always believed their creator, anything else they wanted to know would eventually have been shown to them. I have called the creator “the Being,” because that is how a name he called himself by in Exodus 3:14 is translated in the Greek Septuagint.

The Garden of Eden, as it has come to be called, was created to be the home of Adam and Eve. They lived for some time in a perfect paradise with no need of shelter from the elements. They could make their bed in the giant leaves of exotic plants. The Being who created them and their perfect environment visited often. I wish we knew more of what they talked about in those days. We actually know very little. We can deduce that man’s freedom was very important to the creator, and that along with freewill and freedom of thought comes the potential for danger.

Things that were “very good” could be altered for the worse, and for paradise to exist, trust and responsibility must always exist. Coiled in the branches of experimental knowledge lay the potential for the misuse and abuse of that science, and virtually every byte of the fruit of knowledge can lead to some moral dilemma.

We know that the Being warned our ancestors to leave moral decisions to him. That warning was recorded in the very first, most ancient pages of the documents now known as the book of Genesis. Dangerous misunderstandings and outright lies could arise from partial truths. Death would come into existence, not as an extreme retaliation for disobedience, but as the natural consequence of life becoming estranged from God.

Estrangement creates its own negative effects, and something like a paranoia develops, similar to the fear that wild creatures have of man. The fruit of “knowledge” that Adam and Eve ate was a deadly poison that slowly worked its evil in the earth. Everything became subject to experiment and degeneration. It wasn’t an evolution that occurred, but devolution.

From that day until now, there has been endless argument over right and wrong. Arguments arise between man and wife, between parents and children, between neighbors, politicians, church members, no one is immune. We debate everything under the sun, and everything hidden from the sun. I often wish that we could skip many pages of this story. Sometimes I would like to go straight from the garden to the new and final creation promised by our maker without taking the roundabout journey, but here we are.

We have been born somewhere in the middle of the story. But because of all this, the greatest thing that could ever be done has happened somewhere in the midst of time; something that makes a new paradise possible for us. It is a miracle of the highest love and forgiveness. It is the miracle of “Good Friday” and “Easter,” the promise of a new creation. The choice is ours.

I once dreamed that my wife and I were at the crucifixion of Jesus. In the dream, I knew he submitted to that horrible ordeal for the sake of all humanity, that it was the only way to touch us and to salvage all that could be saved. I knew he would be resurrected, but that didn’t change my emotional turmoil.

In the dream, I was too weak to move closer to his suffering. I felt utterly helpless. I was angry with his persecutors, and I hated myself. I knew he was there because of all of us. Certainly, those who hate him put him there, but so did those who ignored him, and even those who claimed to love him. Those who loved him best were guilty.

This was the being who created the first man and woman, when he existed as God (John 1:1-5,&10-14) long before he himself was born into the human family as one of us. This was the being that in sayings scattered throughout the collection of books that we now call the Old Testament, predicted exactly what we would do to him.

I must make a short story of this, and not dig too deep into the ancient ruins of Eden. As everyone does, my wife and I have tried to build our own little utopia. We didn’t have much to begin with, and our garden is small. Our hopes are yet high, but our walls are crumbling. The longer we live, the more vulnerable we have become. Only the grace of God can defend us from the disintegration of time and the elements. Mankind cannot build a lasting paradise, and can only be allowed access to the tree of everlasting life by returning to the creator and savior. He has been seeking us ever since the Garden of Eden.

Read the twentieth chapter of John in the New Testament: Not expecting to see Jesus back alive, Mary Magdalene at first mistook him for a gardener. But he really is the gardener. East of Eden is a world of sorrow and pain, but our creator has not yet abandoned us, for Easter is also east of Eden. Christ is risen. All in spite of the fears of the night, it’s the dawn of the risen Son.

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The Compatriot

If I were to tell you that Jesus Christ died fighting for the people of your country, that might make him sound more heroic to you. You might wonder how that statement could be true, but it is. Jesus died for every man, woman, and child of your country.

Something that might confuse you is that it’s also true that Jesus died fighting for the people of my country, and of every other country. He recognizes the need for governments, of the people and by the people, for the betterment of them all.

He recognizes that no one government could serve all people fairly, and that a central world government would eventually come to demand that it be served instead. He knows that a central world government would turn out to be an Antichrist enslaving all people. Jesus Christ died fighting to free all people from such enslavement, from all deception, and from personal bondage to all things hurtful.

He was not violent in his fight; which may seem confusing to you also. When his enemies surrounded him in the darkness, one of his early followers cut off a man’s ear with a sword, but Jesus reattached the ear healing the man. You see, Jesus was also fighting for the heart and soul of that man.

On an earlier occasion, Jesus made a little whip of cords, overturned some tables, and chased some swindlers out of a building. No one seems to have really been hurt in the altercation. Their pride was probably wounded more than anything else. Jesus was fighting for their souls. Even when Jesus suffered a violent death by crucifixion, he didn’t summon help to destroy his enemies (Matthew 26:53-54).

He could have done so, but he was fighting for his enemies, not only for the people who would claim to be his friends. He was fighting to make friends of those who mistakenly were his enemies. He was defending all the people of the earth, not just from hostile forces from outside, but also from danger from within. He died fighting for the whole world, for every nation, tribe, and tongue (Rev. 7:9-10 ).

If you doubt the historical records of his life contained within the Bible and other records from the time, then you should go back, and carefully reevaluate them. You should honestly take a close look at your own reasons for opposing Jesus. Millions upon millions of people have done this very thing and their hearts have been won over to him. Jesus loved and died for each of us, and he came back to life again for the same reason. He came back to life to build a paradise for every heart that he can win.

Sooner or later, we will each meet him personally. When we each go before him, and we are confronted with the truth, no lie will stand. When we see his wounds from his battles, we cannot rise from our knees against him. We can only rise up to embrace him, our compatriot Jesus Christ, the servant and the master of every world (Philippians 2:5-11).

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The Man Who Was

A lot of people have lived on this earth since the first man and woman, but this man was different. He was different to such a degree that many people act as if they wished he had never existed. He should have had no enemies, yet those who misunderstood him took his life.

It wasn’t so much the things he did that turned some against him. Even his enemies acknowledged that he had performed great miracles before their very eyes (John 11:47-48). According to our best historical records, he healed many who were sick, gave sight to the blind, raised more than one person from the dead (Mark 5:22,24, and 35-42, John 11:1-45). Even the ancient writings of those hostile to his teachings bear witness that strange events surrounded his life.

He taught us to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:37-40) and our enemies (Matthew 5:43-45). He taught that real love means treating one another fairly (Luke 6:31), and that we are responsible to God for our actions. The thing that bothered many people the most was concerning who he claimed to be.

He claimed to fulfil Old Testament prophecies and to be the Jewish Messiah (Luke 4:16-21, John 4:23-30,39-42), the only begotten son of God. He said in John 14:6-9, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Some of the things he said infuriated the leaders of his day (John 10:19-33, ref. John 1:1-5,10-14). That is why he was killed.

Modern doubts concerning him aren’t based upon an honest evaluation of actual history, but upon the same misguided opinions that he faced in his own day. He wasn’t widely known during his lifetime, but the impact of his life and death affected history from that point onward. That is mainly because on the third day after he was killed and entombed, the man was alive again.

The man who was, is, and is yet to come again. Eye witnesses of his return to life risked everything and told the good news everywhere. Because of this disclosure, many of them were persecuted and lost their own lives. Arguments against Christianity date from this time, and the resulting persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire is part of world history.

Many people today are taught only a distorted view of the event, if they hear of it at all. The Empire still wants to silence the news of the resurrection. Roman officials wrote to one another concerning their problem. It wasn’t enough to kill and bury him once. Too many people claimed to have seen him back alive, and even though the tomb had been under guard, the body was gone.

No doubt, these things played a part in the suicide of Pontius Pilate, the Roman official who presided over the crucifixion of Jesus. The first followers of Jesus believed his promise to someday return, and reveal himself to the world.

Much of the world continues to fear this promise as if it were a threat to our freedom, but no, the words of Jesus are the spring of freedom, and of life itself. The true Easter is all about him (ref. My April 2011 post, Dawn of the Rising Son, and The Secret Name, from February 2017). The return of Spring should be a perpetual reminder of this. “For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of the birds is come, (Song of Solomon, 2:11-12 KJV).”

One day, the man who was, and is (Revelation 1:17-18), will return to this world that he created and that he died for. After the end is the new beginning, Heaven will come to Earth (Revelation 21:1-4).

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A Christmas Panorama

“…And on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” That is from Luke 2:14 in the King James Version of the Bible. It was a message meant for all mankind, carried by angels to announce the birth of the long-expected Messiah, the peace-offering of God. Most of us use the name “Christ,” rather than “Messiah,” due to influence of the Greek language. I hope that you believe the message the angels brought.

Most ancient cultures, in the form of stories and myths, have retained some memory of God’s prophecies concerning the Savior of mankind. The mythological records don’t give us the detailed record that we have in the Bible however. I wish that all the prophetical and historical information concerning Jesus could be pulled together into one panoramic writing about Christmas. I guess it’s better to do something halfway, rather than to do nothing at all, so I’m writing a few inadequate words for the sake of Christmas.

After Adam and Eve chose to rely upon their own fragmentary comprehension of “knowledge” rather than to trust God, God gave us (Genesis 3:15) the first biblical hint of the virgin birth of a savior. It is the “seed” of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head, and finally bring peace to the earth. Only this “Seed” can fulfil the promise of God. The leaders of nations have long promised world peace, and the Antichrist will promise world peace, but only Christ can bring it to pass. Sad to say, that will only happen after mankind has brought the world to the brink of total destruction.

Unless you have studied genetics somewhat, you probably will not completely understand the following statement. According to the biblical account of his birth, Jesus would have received all of his human DNA from his mother, none at all from a human father. He would not have had the normal Y-chromosome DNA inherited from a human male, but only what he directly inherited from God. That’s why the Bible didn’t say “the seed of the man,” in Genesis 3:15 (reference Y-chromosome Adam and Mitochondrial Eve, and my April 2012 post, “Genetics and Jesus”).

The prophet Isaiah may have been considering Genesis 3:15 and other such verses when he understood that a child would be born to a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). It is foretold in that verse that the child will be called Immanuel (God with us). In that name, “El” is the short form of the Hebrew word for God, and you also see the word “man.” “Man” in Hebrew however, is the word for the bread from heaven that fed the Israelites during their wilderness trek. We get our word “manna” from this.

Amaryah is a biblical name meaning God has promised. What has God promised? The secret is in the name itself. “Amar,” means “promise.” “Yah,” is the shortened form of “YHWH,” the personal name of God. “MarYah” is an Aramaic name for Jesus. In “MarYah,” you can see the name of the virgin mother Mary, and Yah, the name of God the Father. God has promised himself (Immanuel, or Emmanuel) to us.

When an angel informed Mary of her conception, she questioned how that could happen without seed being implanted by a man, yet she believed the answer that she was given. In Matthew 1:20-23, an angel told Joseph in a dream to give Mary’s child the name “Jesus.” The angel then reminded Joseph of the prophecy of Isaiah. I haven’t the time to go into detail but according to Old Testament prophecy, the Christ’s given name would be “Jesus,” (ref. the Septuagint translation of the name Joshua as “Jesus”). The name “Immanuel” (or Emmanuel) tells us who he really is, “God with us.”

In Luke 2:10, the announcement of the advent of Jesus the Christ is called, “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” The fact that we don’t yet see peace on earth doesn’t mean that God has abandoned his desires and plans for the earth. In the song, Bells on Christmas Day, there is a line; “Then in despair I raised my head, there is no peace on earth, I said.” We will all probably feel that way at one time or another in our lives, but the way we feel will not cancel God’s promise. Ideals should not be abandoned just because they are difficult to establish, and God is not a quitter.

Sometimes in the past, for just a little while, the coming of Christmas has interrupted the bitter conflicts of war. In some cases, common beliefs in Christ between countries have prevented them. A great monument called the “Christ the Redeemer of the Andes,” (not the great statue in Rio with a similar name) is erected at an elevation of 12,572 feet on the border of Argentina and Chile. It commemorates a peaceful resolution avoiding a war between the two countries because of their common submission to Christ.

One meaning of the word “mass,” refers us back to the communion, the bread from heaven broken for us (Matthew 26:26), the word “mass,” being taken from “maza,” a Greek word for a barley cake. Merry Christ’s mass! Spend the Holyday with your family, and remember the birth of our Lord and Savior. He will yet bring “Peace on Earth.”

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A Song In The Night

The pursuit of happiness often leaves misery in its wake. Dear God, we want to reach out to those around us who are hurting, and we pray for them everyday. We pray for those who must helplessly watch their loved ones fall deeper into despair. Many of us have been there in both situations. Even if we could go to the cross for others, as you did Lord, sometimes things can’t be helped. Sometimes the darkness gets such a hold on the human soul that there seems to be no hope.

Lord, you know the terrible nightmares I used to have, dreams of being wrestled and crushed by something invisible in the darkness. Coming to faith in you Lord Jesus changed that dream, and your name would come to me even in my troubled sleep. I was no longer paralyzed by the dream, but I became able to struggle against the grip of the darkness. I thank you Lord that now I haven’t had that nightmare in years. Hope in you Lord, made the difference. Hope is alive.

We usually don’t know how troubled those around us really are but right now Lord, I see someone sinking. Help us Lord not be as helpless as I once was in that dream. I pray Lord that you, with or without the hands of another human being, break the chains of darkness that are wearing away a precious life. Help those of us who believe in you to not be so helpless when nightfall is around us. You went to the cross for us, but you are alive again, and hope is alive.

God is love; eternal happiness is only with you, and in your kingdom there will never again be a need or desire to pursue it further. Happiness will be a bird in hand, free to fly as never before. Time, that taunts and tortures us now, will be meaningless in the light of forever.

Yet Lord, I pray for happiness here and now, and joy in our journey. I pray this for my friend. My friend confesses your name, but even Christians still need you. We yet need you almost as much as those who don’t even want to know you.

The pursuit of happiness is many times in vain, but if we follow you Lord, you will one day take us there. Your hope is a song in the night (Psalms 42:8). It wavers, but it lives. Wouldn’t we be surprised if we could see, as God has seen, the chains that hope has broken when it was thought to be dead.

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