If all church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice; for all right of private judgment is then denied! Charles Hodges (1797-1878) Charles was an American Theologian. His father Hugh was a military surgeon during the Revolutionary War! Charles married Sarah Bache the great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. Comment: No organization ever saved anyone! Only Christ saves! Organizations are as imperfect as the people who make them up! Sadly politics is alive and well in the church! Many denomination and church splits are due to politics! On the other side of the issue people who do not want to submit to authority go out and start their own church. Abuse by the clergy and rebellion by the congregation are both destructive! Theology interpretations are also basis for divisions! However the Reformation came out of this! So it can be positive! Suggestion here is whatever your gifting is try to find a leader with the same gifting! Iron sharpens iron! If you are an Evangelist you may be uncomfortable with a leader who is a teacher? However you will still benefit from that gifting! Also find a leader who is open and transparent and not a politician who is manipulating people for his own gain! When I sense a leader is deceptive, manipulative and hides his real intensions I run like Hell! The Holy Spirit will give you discernment to be in the right place where you belong in the Body of Christ! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
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Israel Saved by a Prostitute! Joshua 2:1-3
This is one of the most fascinating stories in the Old Testament and carries over into the New Testament! This is a lesson for Christian’s to never write off a sinner! If we do that becomes a greater sin! Pride and self-righteousness! Rahab was a Amorite. The first part of her name, “RA”, is the name of an Egyptian God. The rest of her name means insolence, fierceness or broad and spacious! She was spacious and took everyone in! Rahab married Salmon one of the two spies she took in. She became the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth from whose son Obed, Jessie the father of David came, through whose lineage Jesus was born! In the New Testament Rahab is in the Hall of Fame when it comes to Faith! As Christian’s we need to remember God can use anyone and He does! The Bible says we are to confess our sin to one another! Mark Twain said if you do you will have no friends! He is right for I tried that once! If they were true friends they would still be my friend! What a friend we have in Jesus! Politics is the dirtiest occupation on earth! It got Jesus put on a Cross! However God is smarter than sin and nailed all our sin to the Cross! As we close out 2015 think about how we can think like God and look at the world through the heart of God! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Christmas Eve Withdrawal!
I went over to our bank to get some cash. In the outer lobby there is an enclosure with an ATM machine. Then the inner glass door leads to the main lobby. In the outer lobby a young man was standing there as i walked in. I was wearing my camouflaged military fatigue shirt under my jacket. This young man asked me if I were a veteran? I replied yes and then he saluted me! I saluted him back. He thanked me for serving and then I gave him a Gospel tract. He then told me he was a Pastor. He also told me he was running for President of the United States! He told me he had until March 31st to file. Then I began to wonder if he was smoking something? A lot of that goes on out here in Colorado! Then he pointed to the Walmart across the street from the bank and told me after I leave the bank to go over there and see the manager and wait in his office and I will bring a U.S. Flag in and present it to you! I thanked him and went into the main lobby to get some cash. The young lady behind the counter smiled and I wished her a Merry Christmas! I mentioned to her that sometimes we live in a strange world? She told me you mean the guy running for President? He came in here and told everyone of us he is running! I told her this is as good a place as any to begin announcing! I told her she could be his running mate! As I was leaving the bank I saw our President walking across the Walmart parking lot towards the front door! My next stop was to be Walmart but I changed my mind and went home! Christmas always brings out the best in us! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
The Word Made Flesh! John 1:14
We can all understand the word flesh as we share this as mortals! However, do we understand the word, “Word?” I went back to the Old testament where there are 9 Hebrew root words and to the New Testament where there are 6 Greek words. So when you combine this package of words this is what you get when God was incarnated in the flesh! God’s decree’s, purposes, promises, provision, conditions, utterances, pouring out, assurances, rational, logic, and faculty are released into the earth! One of the most interesting words I found in the Old Testament that means, “A pasture from the arrangement of it’s flock, fold or manner.” God’s sheep are out of order and He came to arrange them in order to protect them from danger! The lonely shepherd’s on the hill near Bethlehem were the real sheep God was interested in! You and I are sheep He came for as we have a bad habit of getting lost! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
The Christmas Party is Growing!
Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world! Islam is second. It’s spreading in Asia, Africa and South America. So the world is in a kind of religious revival, and the atheists are totally flummoxed. They thought they were winning, and now they see the are not. Dinesh D’Souza. Comment: The world is a stage for the battle between good and evil. God has only one tactic to overcome evil. Love! Love not the evil but overcome evil with good! Remember we were all on the wrong side of eternity at one time! It is righteous to punish evil! Christ took our judgment upon Himself! If you really love the Truth then point people to Christ! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
May The Force Be With You?
This was Hillary’s closing statement in the democratic debate last night? I expected the politically correct Happy Holidays but that did not happen either? What force is she talking about? The Air Force? The forced conversions to Islam? Is she talking about abortions? The forced removal of Crosses and Christmas Tree’s across America? The taking away of our guns? Is she talking about Herod who used force to murder all the children of Bethlehem two years and younger to kill baby Jesus? Is she talking about force used to murder 14 American’s at a Christmas party? She did not use any force to rescue our 4 American’s in Libya? Let me share a commentary on Star Wars. “The Force was a dark side, which feeds off emotions, such as anger, jealousy, fear, lust and hate. The Sith embraces the dark side in order to seize power.” Does God force Himself down our throats? Absolutely not! God is love! For God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son! When I was on my death bed as a young man in 1973 I knew it was my last night on earth! Believe me when it comes you will know! I called out to a name I really did not know? I had been taught in my childhood that his name was above every name! Jesus came into my hospital room that night and said just 3 words! God loves you! I walked out of that hospital room the next morning with a mission to tell the world about Jesus! Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump cannot save you! They cannot even save themselves! No man can save you! The Force cannot save you! Jesus can and will if you call on His name! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
The Folly of Politics!
At least one reason for trying to live lives that make a difference is that by so living, we hope we will not be forgotten by those who benefit from our trying to make a difference. Yet to try to insure we will not be forgotten too often results in desperate manipulation strategies that are doomed to fail! Theologian Stanley Hauerwas (Author of Resident Aliens) Comment: As we enter the Christmas season let us remember the reason Jesus will never be forgotten is that He was more than a man He was God and no man can do for us what He has done for us! He also will never forget those in Him! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Dollar Tree Christmas Music!
We have a Dollar Tree store about 3 blocks from our home. One of the clerks Annie operates a goat farm and works at the store to buy goat feed. Yes it is cowboy country out here on the front range of Colorado. They have a Christmas display on the front check out counter with motion activated holiday bulbs you could hang on your tree. When you get near the display they go off and you get the song, “We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas.” The song repeats over and over again for about 10 seconds! As each customer walks by it the song is repeated over and over again! I felt sorry for Annie because this song would play over and over for hours on end! When I suggested to her to take the battery out of the device she told me it was solar powered! I told her to turn off the lights! The lady behind me told me she liked the music! I guess she thought I was the anti-Christmas scrooge! Annie told us her husband got mad at her last night because she was whistling this tune in her sleep and woke him up! She told us she is planning to buy the whole display to turn off the sound! It was the night before Christmas and the motion detector was set off by a mouse! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Israel and Christmas! Deuteronomy 29:13-15
Verse 15 The Chaldee paraphrase reads, “All the generations that have been from the first days of the world and all that shall arise to the end of the world.” This covenant is the dispensation of grace and it is a noble testimony to the Mediator of that covenant who is the same yesterday, today and forever! Comment: The testimony to the world today is Israel as a nation and people and the Christians of the past 2000 years! Even though we have the same enemies God’s love to us and His promises to us are sure as we celebrate God’s love to us through Christ! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Christmas is a Constitutional Gift!
Pluralism is denied logically! Inclusivism is denied scripturally and that leaves us with exclusivism, you have to know Jesus died for you and believe it to be saved. Norman Geisler Comment: Pluralism; A soul cannot occupy Heaven and Hell at the same time. A soul will occupy one or the other. Inclusivism; Heaven will not include everyone and Hell will not include everyone. Exclusivism; Those that vote for Christ or choose Him will be saved to the exclusion of others! Christmas in Merry if you are saved! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com