A scapegoat refers to someone who is unfairly blamed by others for their problems! Leviticus 16:18 “And Aron shall place lots upon the two he goats: One for the Lord and the other for absolute removal.” The second goat was sent into the wilderness carrying the people’s sin’s! The two goats were chosen by lot. Why? Casting lots was used to render a decision not based on human choice but letting God decide the matter. Either outcome was not good for the goats! If I were a goat I might say, “heads I win tails you lose!” Remember Judas replacement was done by lot! The Roman soldiers cast lots for Jesus clothes at the Cross. One goat was offered as a blood sacrifice for the sin of the people and the other to be the scapegoat sent into the wilderness. Jesus really represented both goats! He was the blood sacrifice for our sin and wandered in the wilderness carrying our burdens! Since Jesus is in Heaven today the only way the world can get Him is to persecute His followers! According to the Koran the final solution is to kill all the Christians and Jews! Secular America sees the Christians as getting in the way of their agenda! Wickedness cannot prevail with Christians in the way! Christians today are fleeing for their lives in many parts of the world! Persecution is rising in America also! Remember the persecuted Church is the strongest Church! We will be more dependent on Christ as troubles rise! Remember the hope that lives in you is the only hope for the world! Paul was the greatest persecutor of the Church! Yet he became the greatest promoter of the Church! People have the greatest potential for good or evil depending on who lives inside them! Continue to take the Good News into a world filled with very bad news! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: cross
Strange Fire! Leviticus 10:1
The Hebrew verb means to be a stranger or foreigner! It can also mean to go astray. It means to do something outside the Law of God! This same word is used several times in Proverbs to describe an adulterous woman! Nothing could be more serious than to be a stranger with God! Sin will make us strangers with God! None of us want to hear the words of Jesus, “Depart from me you workers of iniquity for I never knew you!” You might think fire is fire? Water is water? Water saved Noah and his family but destroyed the rest of the world! Fire can purify or destroy! God prescribed a very detailed prescription for worship to Moses for the Tabernacle! The sons of Aron, Nadab and Abihu were careless and ignored the procedures and preparations for worship! They were also drunk! They were living outside God’s instructions and outside His plans for and purpose for them! The results were disaster! Ananias and Sapphira got into the same trouble! The Old Testament sacrificial system was a shadow of what was to come in the New Testament! Jesus Christ the Son of God made the final sacrifice for sin for us that made us friends and not strangers to God! The Cross is a bridge to Heaven! Some today treat Christ with the same contempt as Nadab and Abihu did! Some treat Christ as Judas did today! Christ becomes a money racket! Religion today tries to Crucify Christ again! Keep Christ in the grave so I can take over! God does not change so we need to change! When God sees our worship to Him through the Blood of His Son our worship becomes acceptable to Him! Approaching God any other way will make you a stranger to God and separated from Him forever! Choose Christ today! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Great Leadership!
It is characteristic excellence of the strong man that he bring momentous issues to the fore and make a decision about them! The weak are always forced to decide between alternatives they have not chosen themselves! Dietrich Bonhoeffer Comment; What was the alternative to the Cross? Failure! What is the alternative to work? Welfare. Every leader is following someone! There are two types of leaders. One will lead you to Heaven and one will lead you to Hell! Your outcome in life and eternity will be determined by who you follow! Hell is a poor alternative! The bum going through the trash dumpster is living on alternatives! God is love and Satan is fear! What method does your leader use? Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Who is the Woman? Revelation Chapter 17
It is believed the woman represents a religious system! She has birthed many religious systems! She is not a virgin but has many religious partners! Notice that the woman is drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus! She feeds on the blood of the Saints! These religious systems reject the Blood of Jesus for atonement yet feed on the blood of His followers! It was religion that killed Jesus and religion that martyrs the Saints today! Revelation chapter 17 is full of prophecy but we will just take one bite at a time! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Why Did Jesus Say Buy a Sword? Luke 22:36
I have probably read every commentary on this scripture! The words Jesus told His disciples probably have more meaning now that America is becoming more lawless ! The American Christian would have a different interpretation on this scripture than a Christian living in Iraq or Syria today! Ask the Kurdish Christian about this passage! Jesus also said those who live by the sword will die by the sword! Meaning those who use weapons for violence rather than self-defense! Peter has a knife and used it well but Jesus rebuked Peter? Why? Peter was trying to keep Jesus off the Cross! Some commentators say it is just an allegory? Like ObamaCare? The law does not really mean what it says so goes the Supreme Court! Jesus was preparing His disciples for their journey after His resurrection and ascension! They would be traveling into dangerous areas to take the Gospel! Interesting that earlier Jesus told them to take nothing on their journey? However, Jesus was with them! Now he is leaving but did promise them the Holy Spirit! Was Jesus for gun control? What would Jesus do? Question is what did Jesus say? We have that! Interesting that the cities and states in America that have the toughest strictest gun control laws have the highest crime rates! We have to interpret scripture within context and in context of other scriptures! The Bible interprets itself! Every Christian has to decide for themselves what Jesus meant when He said go buy a sword! Get provisions? Be prepared? I know what the scriptures mean for me and my house and you have to decide for your house! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
God Repented? Genesis 6:6
The controversy of this scripture and Exodus 32:14 and Numbers 23:19, is the result of the translation of the word “Repented”, from the Hebrew to the English! You can research this yourself using any Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. The word repented in the Hebrew means to be sorry. In the New testament the word “Repented”, in the Greek means to think differently or change your mind. The same two words in the English “Repented” used in both the Old and New Testament have entirely different meanings! God was sorry that He had made man! This is not a good testimony for the human race! But Noah found Grace in the sight of God! A man can feel sorry for his sin but never repent in the New Testament sense! In Exodus 32:14, the literal translation is: “The Lord was sorry of the evil which He spoke to do unto His people.” The English word “thought”, is the word “spoke” in the Hebrew. Moses in the previous verse reminded God of the promises He had made to the Jews. The slaughter came to the camp with 3 thousand slain! Forty years in the wilderness took out an entire generation! But God preserved a remnant to keep His promise! In Numbers 23:19 it says; “God is not a man that He should lie. Neither the son of man that he should be sorry! Shall He not do what He has spoken and shall He not make it good?” God’s promises are sure to us and He has saved a remnant out of the earth! I am sure I have made God sorry in my life but I have changed my mind and think differently now! If God changed His mind He would have pulled Jesus from the Cross! Don’t make God sorry today but repent and Christ will rejoice with you in your new life! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
The Strength of Great Wisdom! 1Cor. 1:20-25
Verse 25– “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” What is Paul talking about here? He is talking about the Cross! This is God’s genius plan! Christ! Born of a virgin? Sinless? Dies on a cruel Cross as a common criminal? Rose from the grave? Conquered death and hell? Seated at the right hand of His Father right now? If you could figure this out it would not be of God! Only the revelation of God through His Holy Spirit can reveal this to you! Spiritual discernment is required not man’s wisdom! Pilot told Jesus I will determine whether you live or die! Jesus told Pilot I lay down my life! Using man’s wisdom you will decide to enslave others! That is what all our wars have been about over history! Using God’s wisdom you will serve others! When you make decisions love people through the Cross! The world’s way is to use power to dominate them! God’s way is to serve men! I traveled down to Central America last week. I know enough Spanish just to get by! The people there encouraged me there to stay there for some time and learn their language! It would probably take me about two years! Why do we hear these messages over and over again every Sunday? Why do we take communion every week? Is it we have nothing else to do? We need to learn the language of God! We need to learn His language! If you are in love with God read His Bible! Study, pray and do the things that please Him! Live righteously! Hate sin! Love God! Love people! Serve others sacrificially! Praise Him! Serve Him! As we come forward for communion this morning let us receive His language of love! Excerpt from message by Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado. His entire message may be viewed by going to web site; NewLifeChurch.org
Losers Made Winners!
In the lottery it takes millions of losers to support one winner! At the Cross it took one winner to support millions of losers! James Sasse (1949- )
Good Grief! Ecclesiastes 7: 2-4
We need healing conversations this morning! Solomon says grief brings joy! American culture tries to pass by death! We want to avoid conversations about it! Solomon says in verse four that the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning. John 11: 32-35. Jesus knows how to grieve! In fact we see in this scripture that Jesus gets blamed for Lazarus death! Where have you buried him? Jesus wept! Why did Jesus stop and weep when He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead? We cannot skip over the sad places in our life! Jesus was fully man and fully God and is illustrated so plainly in these events! We cannot celebrate the miracles without paying attention to the process! Psalm 137. Two third’s of the Psalm’s are complaints and lamentations. The Jews were taken captive and taken to Babylon! The Babylonians took the best of the population back to Babylon and left the sick and elderly in Israel. Many of the grandchildren never saw their grandparents again! As the Jews sat by the rivers of Babylon they remembered Zion and wept! How do we grieve properly? First we must admit a new reality! Something is new about my life! Everything has changed about my life! It may be from a loss of a spouse, mother, father, sister, brother, job loss, sickness, financial loss, home or something else. I lost my dad in 2005. I miss dad but now a new reality. Second take time to weep. They wept in Babylon! Jesus wept! Slow down and grieve! Grieve properly! It is decompressing! Third remember the past! I have many good memories of my father! My father developed a barbeque sauce! He always wanted to get a patent on it. What my mother did not tell us for years is that she added some ingredients to the sauce so we could eat it! Tell the stories that make you smile at a funeral! See God’s imprint on our lives! Tell the stories that heal us and carry us on! What happens when we grieve properly? Our pain is confronted! We cannot ignore pain! In fact there is more pain for avoiding pain! Drug addiction is caused by trying to avoid pain! Invite the Holy Spirit into our pain! Jesus invited His Father into the pain in the Garden of Gethsemane! When we grieve properly we become available again! Your story matters! Millions of American’s have lost loved ones in battles of war in American history! Their stories matter! God is not finished with you yet! Your story is not over! Your final chapter is not the last one! God needs you available again! God will heal your heart! Even Jesus own disciples thought it was all over for them as Jesus went to the Cross! They scattered and went back to their old jobs! They could not look forward? God needs you available again! God knows what it is to grieve! Life was never the same when I lost my father! Storms are not forever! As we prepare for Communion let us remember the grieving of our Lord He has gone through for us on the Cross! Because He lives this morning we can live! He suffered so that we could have victory! He conquered death for us! Joy comes in the morning! He has Risen! Pastor Brady Boyd, New Life Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
They Do Matter! Decoration Day May 1868
They died for you that is why they matter! No life is wasted if it is expended to defend others! That is what the “Cross” is all about! From the Concord Church to Benghazi American’s have sacrificed their lives for you! General John A. Logan ordered his posts in May of 1868 to decorate graves of the civil war fallen, 620000, with the choicest flowers of springtime! We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance! Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic! Please take time to remember the fallen American’s over our history who changed history for you so that you can live in freedom today! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com