This word is of supreme Theological importance in the Old Testament and is central to identifying the remission of sin! The word means to cover but it does not mean to conceal. It means to impose something to change our appearance or nature! Sinners are reconciled to God by imposing something that would appease the offended party which is God! It is like writing a new contract! It means the writing over of a contract or cancelling the contract. In this case the old contract was the wages of sin was death! The sinner is covered in righteousness! God does not conceal our sin but changes our very nature! If He would just hide our sin we would just keep on sinning! Our attitude about sin is changed! We see our destructive ways are offensive to man and God. We see our selfishness displayed before us! If we view the atonement as just a covering then we are like the hog that gets a bath and then goes back into the swamp! If our nature is changed then we no longer love the swamp! Paul warned us about crucifying Jesus over and over again! That is to use the atonement as a license to sin! Jesus said we must be born again! In fact we cannot enter Heaven unless we are born again! We exchange our old nature for a new nature! When my old nature tries to come back i remind it of the Cross! God changes us without destroying our personality! We retain our soul, mind and body! Our new nature is like a miraculous transformation! Satan if permitted will destroy our mind, soul and body! The blood of Christ has redeemed us! We were redeemed over 2000 years ago and today we have to recognize Him and the atonement! When i got saved back in 1973 i did not understand all this but i knew something miraculous happened when i came to Christ! My sin and the penalty of death was judged on the Cross! Christ paid for my sin! This is the essence of the atonement! When we see the truth and act upon it we become born again! All things become new and old things are passed away! My grandfather Edgar used to say the Sasse family was good while they were sleeping! Now through Christ i am good while awake! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: blood
Blood and water! 2 Kings 3:22-24 Part 1
There was constant war between Israel and her neighbors thousands of years ago just like today in 2016! What was the source of this conflict? In this scripture the Moabites were at war with Israel. Who were the Moabites? They were the descendants of Lot! Remember Sodom and Gomorrah? God destroyed the gays living in those cities! The only reason Lot and most of his family escaped was because of Abraham! However Lot’s wife had to look back on those cities as they were burning and turned into a pillar of salt! Her heart was still in Sodom and Gomorrah! Lot hid in a cave on a mountain with his two daughters. Lot had sex with his two daughters and produced offspring that became the enemies of Abraham and the Covenant Jews! The Moabites was one of these tribes. So again what was the source of the conflict? The Moabites chief God was Chemosh and required human sacrifice! Much like Islam today which requires human sacrifice! The practice of human sacrifice was strictly forbidden by the Jews! Here is what the Jews believed! The only true sacrifice that would appease God for the sin of mankind was not going to be made by man to God but God was going to provide a sacrifice to man! If you miss this point you miss everything! All the wars of earth fought or ever will be fought are based around this difference in concept of God and the redemption of man! The war with Islam in 2016 and wars with them over the past 1400 years are all about this! Man dies for God or God dies for man? Which is it? We are dealing with opposite theology! You cannot have it both ways! Some try and become atheists! They believe this will solve the problem yet atheist leaders in history have killed more people than religious wars! We will continue that subject, :Blood and Water on next posting! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Guilt and Hope Matthew 11:28
We live in a fallen world! Violence, crime, natural disasters are all around us! From earthquakes, cyclones, floods, fires, pestilences and disease covers the world with tragedy! Wars and rumors of wars! From cop killers to Islamic Jihadist law and order seems like a distant hope? Political failures at home and gains by terrorists seems daunting! Guilt is the product of our fallen world! Guilt drives the Islamist terrorists! They believe the only sure way to get to Heaven is to commit Jihad! Kill themselves and others! How sad! God has a plan to defeat guilt and sin and it lead Him to the Cross! Jesus was raised from the dead for our fallen world! God shed His blood to cover our guilt! To reject God’s blood is to shed man’s blood! Guilt and sin leads to more sin! One sin to cover another! One lie to cover another lie! Bring your guilt to Jesus! Jesus said to come to Him those that labor and are heavy laden! A ship that is heavy laden will sink! Jesus bore your sin on the Cross! A yoke is designed for two oxen! Let Jesus come along side you and carry your load! Do not try to carry too much! God made you to trust Him! Not by your own efforts! Jesus went on to say He would give you rest! Rest means to pause from your own efforts! It means to refresh! That is why God gave us the Sabbath! At Creation God Himself rested from His work on the 7th day! Are you greater than God? Many have tried! The burn out of American families today is the result of not honoring the Sabbath! The 24-7 schedule takes no time for rest in the Sabbath! God not only saves us but he sanctifies us! Philippines 1:6 says we are confident that the good work He has begun in us He will perform in us until the day of Jesus Christ! Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever! His purpose within us will continue forever! Why miss out on the peace and joy of Jesus living in you? Pride and the fool says i can make it on my own! No one ever did! That was Satan’s plan! Sorrow and death is his constant companion! Do you want rest and freedom from guilt and shame? Ask Jesus! Humble yourself and ask for help! It is not that hard to do! What is hard to do and impossible is to try to live without Jesus! He will raise you up from your fallen condition! Pastor Oscar Cope, Mount Vernon Baptist Church, Fairburn, Georgia.
Do We Worship The Sacrifice?
In the Old Testament the blood animal sacrifice was never worshiped. It was used as a means to atone for the sin of man! Remember also that human sacrifice was never allowed! It had to be innocent blood and man was a sinner! The Jews used animal sacrifice for thousands of years looking forward when God would one day provide the sacrifice! I could do a good thing but I am still a sinner! I could kill a terrorist and you might applaud me but I just killed someone! Finally Jesus comes along! The Jews and the Romans did not look at Jesus as a human sacrifice but a criminal making crazy proclamations! The Jews could not comprehend Him even though their scriptures predicted Him hundreds of years earlier! Jesus was not a human sacrifice because He was God! Today we worship the sacrifice because He is God! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Grave Yard Charm! India 1985
Sound appealing? Would any church leader surround his church with a grave yard? Probably would not be a draw for big crowds? Most people here in America today want a grave yard placed out of their sight! In our mission work in India I discovered churches completely surrounded by grave yards? It seemed foolish at first until I spent a few years there and then it made sense! What the British did in India for 200 years was take the Gospel to the people! One of the problems faced there was Hindu’s and Muslim’s taking over a church, desecrating the altar and erecting a temple or mosque over it. This same problem going on in Britain and America today. So the British surrounded the churches with grave yards especially in remote area’s of India! Halloween would have been a big hit there! The Muslim’s and Hindu’s were fearful of grave yards so they left those churches alone! So the British protected their central worship centers while reaching out to the community in evangelism. We discovered this first hand because we rented out an old fellowship hall next to the grave yard and no one would attend our meetings! So we moved our location from the church and Hindu’s and Muslim’s began to attend services! The fear of death is a bondage to men! This is why Easter reminds us and confirms to believer’s in Christ that death has been conquered! He is risen! He who also promises us to raise us from the dead! As I used to walk through the grave yard on my way to worship services I was reminded of my mortality and that Christ who I serve defeated death for me! My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Blood and righteousness! Jesus is more than a man He is God! Only God could achieve the miracle of the resurrection from the dead! O’ death where is thy sting? O’ grave where is thy victory? The opposite of fear is love! For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son! Christ will return to judge the living and the dead! No one escapes! Accept the judgment Christ took for you on Calvary! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Hope for the Hopeless!
Original sin is the only rational solution of the undeniable fact of the deep, universal and early manifested sinfulness of men in all ages, of every class and in every part of the world! Charles Hodge (1797-1878) Comment: As long as man uses religion to justify his sin the world will as always continue towards destruction. Only Christianity claims we are all sinners and require repentance through the atoning blood of Christ! To deny the sacrificial blood of Christ is to continue the unending shedding of the blood of men as history has shown us in declared and undeclared war against God and each other! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Public Service Notice Blood Pressure Machines
Be careful with purchasing blood pressure machines from retailers such as Walmart! These machines are not accurate! I purchased one years ago and then replaced it with a new one. I took the new machine to our doctor’s office to check it against their machine. They use a mechanical machine that is very accurate! The new Walmart machine measured 15 points higher on both values! This lead us to overmedicating and going to a cardiologist for expensive tests! First check your blood pressure on the machines located in your pharmacy area’s before going to your doctor! Our doctor recommended purchasing a blood pressure machine from a medical supply house. Some insurances may cover this cost. Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Treeless Worship Deuteronomy 16:21-22
“Thou shalt not plant a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Neither shall thy set up any image, which the Lord thy God hateth.” We first need to look at the Hebrew root word for the English word “groves.” The Hebrew root word translates to the word “Asherah.” Astarte is a Phoenician goddess of fertility. She was the Canaan fertility goddess believed to be the consort of Baal. The noun is most often used for the carved wooden images of the goddess. The image was associated with high places and fresh green trees. The Israelites were commanded to cut them down and burn them! False worship was a problem even to the extent that Asherah’s image was erected in God’s Temple itself! There were no trees around the temple in Jerusalem! I witnessed idol worship during the three years we spent in India. These idol’s were everywhere! Often these huge wooden images were parked along tree lines. In the Hindu Temples prostitution was a regular business! I was offered a teenage girl in one of these temples! If you are going to worship the goddess of sex then prostitutes come with the package! To look deeper into the root of idol worship we need to go back to the Book of Genesis. If God took a rib from the man and created a woman then when they are united in marriage there is a completeness. However if you are going to make an image of a woman and worship her through sex then this is self-worship because the woman was taken from the man! Let us look at Genesis 2:9. “And out of the ground made the Lord to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” God warned them that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would die! Why? God understood that they could not handle it! God knew that created beings with the knowledge of evil would sin! Let us look at Genesis 3:22. “And the Lord said, Behold the man is become one of us, to know good and evil, now lest he put his hand and take also the Tree of Life, and eat and live forever.” God had to block them from the Garden of Eden because to enter Heaven with the knowledge of evil for eternity would doom them forever! This was an act of Mercy by God! So what about the Tree of Life? This Tree represents Christ, redemption for man and eternity with God! So what did man do with Christ? They cut down a tree and crucified Him on it! This is what happens to all that eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! You commit evil and then try to do good? However God’s plan was engaged by the evil of men and brought redemption to the world! Without Christ whatever God has given to man as a gift turns to evil! All the religions of the world whether Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, ect, try to find God through their own efforts! Eating from the wrong tree! We all have access to the Tree of Life through Christ and our knowledge of evil is atoned for by His blood sacrifice on Calvary and we can live forever not separated from God but joined with Him in peace and love forever! We cannot save ourselves even though the world religions since creation have and still try! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Sanctuary Cities Numbers 35:9-34
God made it clear to Moses that these cities were to be provided to those who have killed by accident or by none intended error! An example would be a ox owner who’s ox breaks down a fence and then kills a small child. The sanctuary cities were not for criminals intending to do others harm! They were not for law breakers! There was always a trial and if someone murdered someone else the shedding of guilty blood was required to atone for the innocent blood. God viewed the shedding of innocent blood a pollution on the land and only the shedding of the guilty blood would remove the pollution of sin on the land! It is interesting that those who were sentenced to the refuge cities had to remain there the rest of their lives except on the death of the High Priest! After the death of the High Priest they were released and their full rights were restored! Notice it does not count if the High Priest got murdered! The blood of the innocent could only be avenged by the blood of the murderer. The death of our High Priest Jesus Christ who was innocent of our sin took our sin to free us from guilt and sin! In the Old Testament the guilty blood avenged the innocent blood! In the New Testament the innocent blood avenged the guilty blood! Just the opposite! Jesus was not murdered! He voluntarily went to the Cross! Is your sin a sanctuary living inside of you? Do you feel at home in your sin? No one knows but you and God! The High Priest has died and rose again! Do you believe He has died and rose again for you? If you do then act upon your belief! Leave the prison of your soul! Accept the work that was finished for you over 2000 years ago! Take refuge in Christ! Don’t try to make it on your own efforts! It has never been done! There will be no trial for you because He will judge the living and the dead! He has commuted your sentence! He paid it all! Let His Grace come alive in you! Grace is God doing for you what you cannot do for yourself! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Blood Moon and Signs!
Scriptures: Joel 2:31, Matthew 24:29, Luke 21:25 and Revelation 6:12-13. A Blood Moon is a total lunar eclipse. The lunar tetrad is where four lunar eclipses happen six months apart. For example they have happened on April 15, 2014, October 8, 2014, April 4, 2015 and September 28, 2015. The two April eclipses have coincided with important Jewish Festivals. They occurred on Passover! The October and September eclipses occurred during the Festival of Tabernacles. Eight of the tetrads since the 1st century have coincided on Jewish Holidays! The word sign means to reveal the character and the truth of any person or thing. It is a mark or token. It is a memorial, monument or proof. Simply the signs in the sun, moon and stars is a reminder and confirmation of Jesus promises to us! It is a confirmation that His return is on schedule! His promises to us are revealed in the Heavens and on the earth! Whether the star over Bethlehem or the earth growing dark over Calvary His signs are everywhere! Look up for your redemption draweth nigh! Take comfort and trust your yesterday, today and forever with your Christ! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com