Would you spend thirty thousand dollars on perfume for your girl friend or wife? How about that much money spent on perfume for a burial! Probably not! Most Christian’s today would have picked up a bottle of perfume at Dollar Tree for Jesus! The pence or denarius was a day’s wage in the first Century! The pence was equal to ten asses or donkey’s and would have the purchasing power to get this many for a day’s wages! The day laborer and the Roman soldier got one denarius or about 20 cents for a day of labor! The denarius was a small silver coin. So the woman that anointed Jesus with this precious perfume spent 300 days labor for this act of love! The average American worker makes about 100 dollars per day wage. So the American worker at 300 day’s labor would spend thirty thousand dollars on Jesus perfume! If you were a millionaire and made 365 million dollars per year then he would spend 300 million dollars on Jesus perfume! Is it any wonder the crowd got upset at this woman? She was making them look bad! The crowd said the money could have been given to the poor! Jesus said the poor you always have with you! Since the 1960’s the American taxpayer has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on programs for the poor but the poor population has grown in numbers since then? Jesus complimented her and told her this anointing was for my burial. What she did stands as a memorial to her forever! You will meet her in Heaven! Today it is just like pulling teeth to get Christian’s to tithe their income to the church? They will not do it unless they get an income tax deduction! Forget about the offering? I find it difficult sometimes when people want God’s Blessings but will not invest into His Kingdom? We get prayer requests for health and prosperity but not a penny investment into God’s Kingdom? The only rationale I can come up with is that they do not believe God exists but in case He does pray for me! It is like playing the lottery! Buy me a ticket in case you win! This woman had wisdom to invest in the Kingdom while she was living on earth that paid eternal dividends! Her memorial stands 2000 years later! Another interesting word us for perfume is spikenard. Two Greek words make up this English word! It literally means a genuine true beloved friend of foreign origin! Are you a true beloved friend of Jesus? Is He like a treasure of foreign origin to you? Like my grandpa used to say put your money where your mouth is! Put up or shut up! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Author: whoisgod
Passover! Mark 14:1
Did you ever get passed over in school? You know your grades were lousy! Ever get passed over when interviewing for a job? Ever been passed over for a promotion? Ever feel passed over when you ended up with a ugly woman on a blind date? Is the system rigged as Donald Trump would say? Sometimes being passed over is a good thing! Like being bumped from a flight and later the plane crashes with all killed on board! How about being passed over by the military due to a physical problem but yet the 156000 who were not passed over lost their lives in war! How about being bumped from a cruise ship named the Titanic in 1912? The Passover sacrifice was dedicated to the Lord! A lamb without blemish! Jesus was sharing the Passover meal with his disciples the night He was betrayed by Judas! No one names their kid Judas or Adolf! Jesus took the bread and broke it and said this is my body eat it! He took the cup and said this is my blood shed for many drink it! The Jewish Passover was celebrated thousands of years before Christ in Egypt during the Exodus! The Jews were spared God’s judgment over Pharaoh and Egypt because they applied the Passover lamb sacrificial blood over the door mantel posts of their homes! Their first born were spared from death! Because of Jesus sacrificial death for you judgment is passed over for you! You miss separation and death and eternal judgment by God for your sin! Eternal death is one thing you want to miss out on in life! Do not play the lottery with God! Lightning can strike once or twice but for all eternity? Where there is smoke there is fire! The sacrificial Passover lamb was roasted for you! Do not reject it! Partake of Christ’s body and blood and escape the fires of Hell! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Faith & Baptism! Mark 16:16 (Greek Translation)
“He that puts his faith or trust in me and is submerged in water as a profession of their faith shall be saved from sickness and death. He that disobeys shall be judged and condemned!” Comment: I substituted faith and trust for belief because it is the same Greek word. Belief is a verb and requires a response or action! Baptism is an act of obedience based upon your faith in Christ! So the old proverbial question is does baptism by itself save you or is it Christ alone who saves you or it is both? Jesus was baptized yet the thief on the Cross who was saved was not baptized? Baptism is an identification with Christ! In the early church baptism was a public identification with Christ! Baptism was not done in a church building but along a stream, river, lake or sea shore for unbelievers to see! Today we could live behind the four walls of a church and unbelievers would never know you were saved! This is where much of the American church is today! To publicly profess Christ outside a church is foreign to much of the church today? If the unbelieving world does not know you are a Christian God probably does not know either? When you enter the cultural war with gays, lesbians, Muslims and abortionist you are a target! Worship has to be more than the Sunday only crowd! Your Pastor cannot save you! You want me to serve Jesus seven days a week, 24-7? I do not have time? Remember that old hymn, “Take Time to be Holy.” The word time means to honor! If you do not worship God in this life then where? Get some Gospel tracts and start there! Distribute them wherever you go! Give them to store clerks at Walmart, McDonald’s, Best Buy, Sears, Burger King, Waffle House, Post office, Government Federal State and County offices or wherever you go! Jesus does not have a denominational name stamped on His forehead! Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved! In the previous verse 15 Jesus said, “Go out into all the world and preach the Gospel to all the world.” The Greek word used for preach means to publically proclaim the Gospel! Although they do that professional ministers was not who Jesus was talking to! Jesus was talking to me and you! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
The Barbarian Barabbas!
Except for Jesus everyone is a barbarian! You cannot make yourself Holy but Jesus can! Crucify Him was also your cry from your mother’s womb! You and I sent Jesus to the Cross! Religion crucified Jesus and religion today persecutes Jews and Christians! Repentant sinners have come to recognize there is no power within men to change their wicked ways only Christ has the power with love to change the heart! Atheists and world religions have one objective! That is to frame an ideology where men do not have to change their moral behavior! If you believe there is no God then you do not have to change your behavior! You have no one to answer to! If you kill and murder in the name of religion you try to use God to justify your sin! Christ has come to save you from yourself and others! Like Barabbas you should have gone to the gallows but were set free as Christ paid your penalty! Christ without sin took your sin on the Cross! The passion took away and covered your sin in His blood! Compassion means to suffer with! Christ took on the suffering of the world! Only God could do this for you! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Worship!
What you worship owns you! So what do we worship? What do you spend your time thinking about? Do we have any idol’s? Some could be sex, money, fame, fortune, sports, offspring, houses, land, religion, gambling, work, school, health, success, cars, boats, airplanes or do we worship ourselves? These things have power to enslave you but not save you! All of these will one day leave you and forsake you! Pride will cause people to surround themselves with these idol’s! There is only one who ransomed His life to save you from yourself! Is it time for new management? Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you and has proven that to you by sacrificing His life for you on a Cross! Good Friday Message, Grace Community Church, Fulton, Maryland.
Power to Change!
The Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was one of the main teaching’s of Jesus, is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever stirred and changed human thought! H.G. Wells (1866-1946)
Last Supper 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 (Greek Translation)
Verse 24; “And when Jesus had prayed over the meal and broke and divided the bread He said, “Take eat; this is my human body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance, in recollection, in repetition, to know again and recall of me.” Verse 25; “After the same manner Jesus took the cup after the evening meal and said, “This cup is new which is not impaired by time or use and is a divisor will in my atoning blood and as often as you drink it come to know me again.” Comment: Why do we take Communion? The Lord has instituted it according to His Word! Human nature tends to forget! When we honor someone it is usually in memory of the past. However the Hebrews or the Jews have a very different perception of the word remembrance! The Jews look at the word remembrance as his presence is still with us! At the Seder meal the Jews have an empty chair seated for Elijah! Jesus is with us today! I will never leave you nor forsake you! Remember Jesus has set the Communion Table before you as an invited quest! Your sin required the Table be set! You did not pay anything for the Table or the meal. You were invited even though you were unworthy! Jesus is personally sharing a meal with you! He is present with you! Why would you turn down a meal you did not pay for and did not deserve and made no sacrifice for? This meal purchased your freedom from sin, death and Hell yet you will not partake? His broken body and shed blood remind us that the Cross was very costly to God and His Son for the redemption of your spirit, soul and body! Pastor Oscar Cope, Mount Vernon Baptist Church, Fairburn, Georgia.
Cheap Grace?
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves! Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession…cheap grace is without discipleship, grace without the Cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate! Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich was assassinated by Adolf Hitler eleven days before the end of WWII.
Spirit or Flesh? John 11:25-26 (Greek Translation)
Verse 25; “Jesus said unto her I will cause his body to stand on his feet again from the grave! I am the principle of life and the spirit and the soul but not the flesh! He that will believe or give me credit though he were dead yet I will cause his spirit to dwell eternally with me!” Verse 26; “And whosoever dwells with me spiritually and eternally and believes or gives me credit shall never die on account of sin!” Comment: My first thought was how could I believe in Jesus if I were physically dead? Jesus is talking about a spiritual death! The second death! Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead spiritually and physically but Lazarus died again! Jesus is telling us that the spirit and the soul is eternal but not the mortal flesh! Yet it is the mortality of the flesh that controls most people! Remember Jesus said we must be born again! Translated from the Greek he said we must be conceived from above! That is an important reason why at His ascension He sent us the Holy Spirit! There are two things in life that can destroy you eternally! Sin and to trust your flesh! Jesus heals sick bodies but only with eternity in mind! He said go and sin no more! Your flesh is temporary but your spirit and soul will dwell somewhere eternally! Either with Christ or separated from Him! Have you ever heard a Christian say I have never sinned since coming to Christ? The big lie! Your sin past, present and future is covered by the blood of Christ! You are not Holy by your own efforts! All will be raised from the dead! No one will miss this whether righteous or unrighteous! When you appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ you if in Christ will be pardoned from judgment! You will miss the second eternal death! Are you giving Christ credit for your Salvation right now while on earth! Do you tell others or are you mute? Salvation is about what you do with Christ and what He does with you! This is what the Easter message is all about! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Lazarus Sleepeth! John 11:11 Greek Translation
The Greek word “Koimao” used here for sleep means deceased or dead! Jesus goes on in a later verse to emphasize that Lazarus is dead! There is another Greek word used for sleep in the New Testament which is “Katheudo.” This word means to lie down and rest but was not used in this passage of scripture. What may be of interest to you is this same Greek word used for sleep which means deceased or dead is the same word used in Acts 12:6. Peter was sleeping between two soldiers in chains! Verse 7; The Angel of the Lord came upon him and light shone in the prison and smote Peter on the side and raised him up, saying arise up! His chains fell off! Herod had Peter beaten badly! By definition of the word used Peter could have been deceased lying between the two soldiers! Peter may have been raised from the dead! The angel was probably Jesus Himself! The events recorded in our Bible are important to our Faith so I make an effort to go back to the original languages to see greater detail! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com