Deuteronomy 18:10-12 Let us discuss these verses first. What is meant by passing your son or daughter through the fire? This is human sacrifice! This was the practice of the Canaanites sacrificing their children to their gods! Modern day sacrifice would be abortion! Divination is divining a sentence on someone! A charmer casts magical spells on people. A witch is basically the same thing casting spells on people. Another word for this is a whisperer. A wizard conjures up familiar spirits. Remember King Saul asking the witch of Ender about his future? She did not tell him he was going to be beheaded? King Manesseh also inquired to witches and fortune tellers! A necromancer is one who raises spirits from the dead! They do this to make predictions about the future or in their ghostly help to make something happen. Kind of like the rabbits foot? How lucky was the rabbit? This occult practice was also called Black Magic and comes from the ancient Greek word for corpse necro or prophecy mancy. Comment: It is interesting I lived in India for 3 years and I saw these practices done in the Hindu Temples! I have a blog post on my experience inside a Hindu Temple. The Hindu Priests collect money from people to cast spells on other people. Say a husband wants to get rid of his old wife for he has found a young girl. Then he hires the Priest to cast spells on his old wife that she might die! This is a big money business in India! Funny thing is the opposing party will come to the same Priest and pay him money to cast a spell on his adversary! The Priest will ask more money from the second party! The Hindu Priest’s told me these spells do not work on Christian believers! They do work on everyone else! You might say it is Halloween everyday in India! Do I want to spoil some kids fun collecting candy? No! Did I trick or treat when I was a kid? Yes! What I want you to understand is the origin of Halloween! In Leviticus 18:3 God warned the Jews not to participate in the ordinances or statutes, decree’s, feasts and customes of the gentiles! Today here in America the orthodox Jews do not participate in Halloween but the secular Jews do! Now to the origin of Halloween. The druids were the members of the ancient Celtic culture! The words druid and Celtic mean magic! Remember the Boston Celtics? In the ancient Celtic culture they had Priests, magicians, soothsayers and fortune tellers! They were a high ranking professional class of people from Ireland, Briton, Scotland and Wales. When Rome invaded these area’s around 60 B.C., Caesar said the Celtic groups were performing human sacrifices! Not that Caesar was the Gold Standard for morality but this is what the Roman soldiers observed. Have you ever heard of the wicker man? The Celtics built large wooden idol’s in the form of a man. On top of the wooden beams they nailed wooden slats to form the image. So the center was hollow! Halloween! Then they put the human sacrifices inside and set it on fire! The hollow of your pumpkin has a fire or candle inside of it! The druid religious culture had no written communications only oral. It was a secret society! What are the rules? Criteria for sacrifice? The Romans pretty much wiped out the druids but their occult spirit lives on in culture! The immigration of the Irish to America during late 1800’s and early 1900’s brought Halloween and some of these cultural traditions even though most were Christians. In the Medieval age the remnants of druids opposed Christianity! Trick or Treat! I will hurt you unless you treat me? God says I love you even though you hate me! Let us close with Ephesians 6:12 “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the Rulers of darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” When children come to our door I put a Gospel Tract into their bags along with the candy! This is one way to wrestle against powers and spirits of darkness! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: darkness
Love Light or Darkness?
John 3:19-20 Words of Jesus: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” Commentary: Men reject Christ because he interferes with the way they want to live! Pastor Greg Laurie
Darkness & Light
Isaiah 50:10 “Who among you feareth the Lord, that [obeyeth] the voice of his [servant] that walketh in [darkness], and hath no light? let him [trust] in the name of the Lord, and [stay] upon his [God].” Commentary: We are going to look at five Hebrew words translated back into English here. The translators used one English word or the best single word in English to express the meaning from the Hebrew. However we will use several English words to show the concepts of these words and their applications. The first word is ‘obeyeth’. The word used here means to hear intelligently with your undivided attention! Over your entire life you will hear two voices in your head everyday! One voice from God and one voice from Satan! These voices will oppose each other! One voice says go to the right and one to the left! Which voice will you obey? One voice leads to life and the other to death! The next word is ‘servant’. This word means the worshipper of the King! The minister of the King! Your pastor! Your shepherd! Will you obey the voice of your shepherd or will you run astray! Lost sheep! Will you follow the good shepherd or the wolf? Our next word is ‘darkness’. It means a place of ignorance and misery with a blindness to the light! It includes a place of judgment! Our next word is ‘trust’. It is someone you rely upon! Always faithful never failing you! Relying on with confidence with a good expectation with no anxiety! Then we move to our word ‘stay’. It means to rest upon or lean upon! Like a staff! Our last word is ‘God’. Remember there are several words for God used in the Hebrew and the Greek depending how it is used in context of a scripture! Here it means the divine judge of all the living and the dead! Is it not interesting he took our judgment upon a Cross? There are so many examples in your Bible of saints who were surrounded in darkness yet stayed true to God and were exalted above their troubles and came out victorious! Remember at creation there was first darkness before the light! Darkness was upon the face of the deep! What about Abraham, Noah, Job, Joseph, David, John the Baptist, Paul, Thomas, Peter, Apostle John, Jesus himself but this is not an extensive list! Noah preached 120 years but did not get one convert yet obeyed the voice of God to build the Ark! The greatest thing is to discover the light in the midst of the darkness! Our present day is full of darkness because they hate the light! If you trust God and listen to his voice no matter how bad it gets he will like Joseph take you from the prison to the palace! You may be in the dungeon of the palace yet like Jeremiah he will deliver you out of it! The three Hebrew children were in the furnace yet the light of Christ the fourth man in the furnace drove off the flames from those that trusted in him! Do not fail to be faithful to God no matter what the cost! His light will push away the darkness and sin of this world! You cannot have the light without the source of the light! It cost our Savior everything to redeem us! Show his light to those living in darkness! Heaven and earth shall pass away but not his Word! His Word created the heavens and the earth! Preach his word in season and out of season! Stay true to the truth of our Christ and do not fail to be faithful to him regardless of circumstances! Those circumstances are those living in darkness rejecting the light! James & Hamsa Sasse. IndiaJesusLovesYou.com
Hate The Light! Love The Darkness!
Light & Darkness!
The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and secure was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity. Adolf Hitler Comment: Like many today Hitler rejected Christ and embraced Darwin! He rejected the light and ushered in one of the darkest days for Europe and the world with WWII of the 20th Century amassing about 60 million casualties! His atheism was founded in Charles Darwin! He believed in the survival of the fittest! You need racism and war to prove you are the fittest! He believed he could speed up evolution by millions of years by getting rid of the undesirables! Darwinism also swept across America as it is taught as a pseudo science in our Public Schools! The political divide in America is a divide between creationists and evolutionists! All the leaders of the Axis Powers of WWII were Darwinists! The increasing persecution of Jews and Christians here in America by the political left reminds us that the lessons of history are easily forgotten by the next generations! Christ is the light of the world and when you push him out of any culture the vacuum is filled with darkness and death! James & Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Wise Men! 536 B.C.
Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having Salvation: lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Comment: Yes! Zachariah lived 5 centuries before our Messiah’s arrival yet he saw him coming! He saw Christ as many other prophet’s did with great detail hundreds of years before this event! Yet 2000+ years after Bethlehem many do not see him? The alternative to a wise man is a fool! There are no fools in Heaven! The fool has said in his heart there is no God! Many still deny God! Why? Pride! There are millions of little gods running around on planet earth trying to be God! The WANNABE’S of Hell! If you try to replace God you displace yourself away from God separated forever! You forfeit your place in Heaven! Two King’s are present at Christmas! King Herod and Jesus our King! The Kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of light! No star is following us around! Zachariah looked forward and the wise men looked back! Both confirmed the truth of God’s Word! Do you want to be confirmed? Believe his word! Take Christ at his word! History confirms him how about you? Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Lead us not into Temptation!
Pope Francis wants to change this section of the Lord’s prayer to: “Keep us from falling into temptation.” I do not have any problem with this semantics however the word we need to pay attention to is “Temptation.” In James 1:13 it says God cannot be tempted neither does he tempt any man! Why? Because there is no sin in him and he is Holy! Satan is the father of sin and executer of all sin! What did Jesus mean by “Lead us not into Temptation?” What Jesus meant with this model prayer to the Father is lead us not into denying Christ! The only unpardonable sin is to deny Christ! Every other sin can be forgiven! To deny Christ is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit who is part of the Trinity along with Christ! I touched on this topic in January of 2018. You can type in on our search box of our blog, “Hour of Temptation! Revelation 3:10”, and it will take you to this posting. So in Revelation 3:10 what did Jesus mean by keeping us from the hour of temptation? Keeping us from denying Jesus! The 21 Coptic Christian believers who were beheaded last year were kept from the hour of temptation! Christ will give us strength not to deny him! So what are the forces in American culture that put pressure on you to deny Christ! There are many! Popular culture in Hollywood, Political correctness, political left, liberal media and social media, educational teaching of atheism in evolution, humanism, socialism, abortion, racial supremacy, anti-colonialism, gay marriage, lesbians and transgenderism! These are not all but the more obvious! These are the principalities and powers of darkness that will tempt you to deny Christ! So how do we resist the Devil? The same way Jesus did! With the Word of God! It is written man shall not live by bread alone! It is written! It is written! If you do not know your Bible you are hanging out on a limb! An eternity at stake! Jesus came to deliver us from our sin! The only way you can thwart God’s love for you is to deny him! So who would be so foolish? Many! Do not follow them to be separated from God but follow Christ for an eternity spent with him experiencing his love forever! Merry Christmas! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Mystery Solved! Revelation 1:20
Comment: The word mystery translated from the Greek means a sacred spiritual mystery! Something that is hidden but to be revealed later. This is why a believer in Christ lives by faith! We do not see everything about our faith immediately but God reveals himself to us in steps as we progress in following him! The word angels used here simply means a messenger! Someone with a message! It could be Gabriel however this word angel in the Greek can also mean a Bishop, Pastor or a designated elder! The word churches means a congregation of believers following Christ. I believe the angels were the seven Pastor’s of the seven churches in Asia Minor (Turkey). This letter was for them! Some believe the Roman guards would have read John’s letters so he coded them so only the churches would understand what he was saying! When the Roman guards read these letters they probably thought John was crazy! I am sure the world today looks at us the same way! The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men! The reason the Romans released John from prison is probably because they thought he was not a threat to Caesar but just plain crazy! Remember the whole Book of Revelation is the unveiling or uncovering the mystery of Jesus Christ! Look for Jesus Christ as you read and study this Book! To those who have not received the Revelation of Jesus Christ this Book would look foolish yet to those who have received him it is the power of God! The stars and the candlesticks ultimately all point to Christ! There was a star over Bethlehem and Jesus is the light of the world! Let him light your path so you do not stumble in the darkness! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Real Fireworks! John 8:12
Greek Translation: “Then Jesus spake unto them, saying, I am the light of the day that is never quenched! I am the light of the sum of all person’s that have ever lived or ever will live! He that moves quickly following me in time shall not walk in the darkness of unhappiness and ruin but shall have my light in your life, in your spirit and soul.” Comment: Notice Jesus light will never be quenched though much of the world tries to snuff out the light! As the fireworks are going off in our neighborhood it is beginning to rain! This light is temporary and will die with the rain! The word life used here in this passage means the soul and spirit set apart from the physical body! Jesus is speaking to the eternal parts of us of soul and spirit! The first time light is used in our Bible is at creation in Genesis 1:3. The Hebrew word used there is associated with Salvation, prosperity, wisdom and justice! Do you notice Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these characteristics! Our life is to embody this nature of God! Since Jesus defeated sin for us on Calvary the door is open to us to receive the nature of God with all His attributes! Receive His Holy Spirit and all His love He has demonstrated to you on the Cross! Live in His power, salvation, prosperity, wisdom and justice! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Letter to Jerusalem! Isaiah 51:9
Hebrew Translation: “Awake Awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient times when you delivered us from the east. You delivered us from Babel and Babylonian captivity. You brought us out of darkness into light. You established an important point in time for our salvation. You delivered us from the sorceries and superstitions of Babylon. You took us out of the desert of Egypt. Your existence was before eternity establishing and delivering us. The beginning and end of our life cycle over generations has witnessed your good works. Our past and future is everlasting. No end! You wounded the serpent which desecrated your established laws. You have cut up and carved Rehab the god of Egypt for us. Comment: The God of Israel through Moses received the Ten Commandments from God carved in stone by God Himself! No carved stone or wooden idol object made by men can stand against those laws given to us by our God carved in stone by the finger of God! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com