Greek Translation: “I, John was in the spirit when the breath of God blew on me! It was on the Lord’s day! It was Sunday the day and time of life that belongs to Christ! It is his day therefore I submit to my King and Ruler this day! This day is owned by my God!” Comment: Man’s day is in opposition to the Sabbath! Fifty years ago when I was a teenager about 90 percent of all businesses were closed on Sunday! What about today in America? I hear about more and more Christians telling me they have to work on Sunday? If the businesses stay open on Sunday then the employee’s will have to work on Sunday! Where was John in the 1st century when he received this revelation? He was in the Lord’s House on Sunday! Do not expect to hear from God if you forsake the Sabbath! It is like trying to catch a fish by casting your line on a sand dune in the desert! If you want to meet God you need to be where he hangs out! Now John’s church building could have been his prison! Peter and the Apostles spent time in prison but still honored the Sabbath! Turn your prison into a House of worship! If you do not want to be where God is then you may need to repent! If you resist Christ’s church here on earth you are also resisting him in Heaven! The separation from Christ begins here on earth and continues resisting Heaven! In American culture work has become the agent of resistance to Christ and Sunday worship! Most people move away from Christ gradually taking many little steps! If you want to take a big step forward back to Christ be in church on Sunday! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: john
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
Why Suffer? Revelation 1:9
Greek Translation: I John, who also am among you a brother of the same womb (Born Again) and companion in tribulation. In tribulation of being broken, squeezed, crushed with the pressure of a burden upon my spirit in a confined space (Prison). And in the Kingdom of God under all circumstances with endurance towards people. I was in the isle of Patmos, for the Word of God and for the testimony being a witness, certifying and declaring Jesus Christ. Comment: Suffering by the world brings death! Suffering by God has brought men Salvation! John suffered for a testimony of Jesus Christ! Suffering in Christ brings purpose in your life! To live is Christ and to die is gain! We have an interesting story about India. We spent two of our three years there on a remote mountain village named Yercaud in South India. They had an old English church up there that had the graveyard surrounding the church! I explained in a previous post why the British did this. Since I had to walk through the cemetery to get to the front door of the church I noticed some of the grave markers. There were two grave markers of a missionary couple from England that spent their whole life preaching the Gospel in India! But I noticed next to their graves was a little grave marker of a four year old girl. This was their daughter who died of malaria while ministering to the people of India! I wrote there names down and then inquired of the elders of the village if anyone knew about them? An old man in the village told me the story his grandfather told him many years ago. This couple had a powerful ministry bringing hundreds of Hindus and Muslims to Christ! They had been appointed to a three year mission work to India. However after their daughter died there they spent the rest of their lives ministering in India! They decided their daughter’s death would not be in vain! Her sacrifice was not to be wasted! Jesus said, “This do in remembrance of me!” As we take the bread and the cup let us remember he did not let the cup pass from him! A sacrifice was provided to you for your Salvation! Remember him when you are suffering for he has never forgotten you! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Former Worshipers Default To?
Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion! Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) Prominent Christian Cleric, Writer and Roman Catholic Priest
Early Church on Homosexuality!
Consider how great is that sin, to have forced hell to appear even before its time…For that rain was unwonted, for the intercourse was contrary to nature, and it deluged the land, since lust had done so with their souls. Wherefore also the rain was opposite of the customary rain. Now only did it fail to stir up the womb of the earth to the production of fruit, but made it even useless for the reception of seed. For such was also the intercourse of the man, making a body of this sort more worthless than the very land of Sodom. And what is there more detestable than a man who hath proclaimed himself or what more execrable? Saint John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.)
Seven Spirits! Revelation 1:4
John to the seven churches which are in Asia; grace be unto you, and peace, from which is and which is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his Thrown. Comment: The seven churches in Asia Minor were not the only congregations there! They were the nearest churches to John who was exiled on the island of Patmos. The phrase “from which is and which is to come”, refers to Jesus Christ. Grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ. Where some controversy can come is the phrase, “Seven spirits who are before his Throne”. Some believe these are angels! However the problem here is the word used is not angels but spirits! The word spirits, Strongs #4151, translates breath of God or the mighty rushing wind of God! This leads me to believe this was the Holy Spirit part of the Trinity! Remember the Holy Spirit was already sent to the church at Pentecost! Jesus said I must go back to my Father to send the Holy Spirit! Where is the Holy Spirit sent from? Heaven! From the Throne of God where He resides! Remember the Holy Spirit is not a created being like humans and angels! However the Holy Spirit resides in created beings like me and you! Why? For God’s purposes! Remember Lucifer who became Satan and 1/3 of the angels rejected God and His Holy Spirit! God does use angels like Gabriel and Michael and are his servants! They have a choice just like we do! Some believe these spirits are the gifts of the Holy Spirit! The Catholics believe there are 7 gifts and the Protestants believe there are 9 gifts! The gifts are for His church! Later in this Book of Revelation we see these 7 spirits help the churches is Asia Minor! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Read! Hear! Speak! Revelation 1:3
Blessed is he possessing the character of God expressed as a believer in Christ who is well spoken of and is fully satisfied regardless of the circumstances. God’s Kingdom is in your heart. These blessings come when you read and hear the word of this prophecy. The prophecy of telling God’s word where His grace and empowerment are to be exercised in the church. You are to keep those things which are written therein: For the time or season of opportunity is given for these events to take place. Comment: The word Blessed used here could not be better expressed than in the life of the Apostle John! Regardless of circumstances! A lot of 21st Century preaching today says you are blessed only if your circumstances of money, wealth and health reflect it! John was boiled in a pot of oil! When that did not kill him the Roman Emperor had John exiled to a slave labor camp on the remote Greek island of Patmos working in a stone quarry! The 21st Century Christian would have trouble understanding his blessings? Lord if you just help me win the lottery I will serve you! The word Blessed has nothing to do with your external circumstances but everything to do with your internal condition! Your soul. It is all about Christ living and dwelling in you! His presence comes through reading his word and hearing his word and then speaking His word to others! Evangelism! The word time used in this scripture passage is not the word chronology and does not mean a succession of time! The Greek word for time, used here, Strongs #2540, means a season of opportunity for events to take place. You might call it grace! Your season and my season of opportunity will only come by once in your life! Use your opportunity today and the rest of your life to read, hear and speak His Word! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Democracy Produced Adolf Hitler!
We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with it’s own weapons. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this bear’s work, that is it’s affair. We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come. Joseph Goebbels, Propaganda Minister for Adolf Hitler. Comment: Democracy cannot save America! Here is a quote from one of our Founding Father’s of America: “We have no government…capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale going through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” President John Adams.
John Calvin on Abortion!
For the fetus, though enclosed in the womb of it’s mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in the field, because a man’s is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light! John Calvin, French Theologian (1509-1564)
Biblical versus Civil Law!
But hereof be assured, that all is not lawful nor just that is statute by civil laws: neither yet is everything sin before God, which ungodly persons allege to be treason. John Knox (1514-1572) Comment: No one could probably understand this better than the Colorado Bake shop owner who was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for refusing to bake a cake for a gay couple! Then after a Supreme Court victory is still being harassed by Colorado State government? This is another ungodly civil law that when passed into statute the ungodly go after the Godly with harassment, threats of violence and civil court actions! John Knox also experienced this first hand as one of the leaders of the Reformation as Queen Bloody Mary of England took him to task! No history is new with man but just repeats itself! This is why God’s only Son Jesus Christ had to make a one way trip to the Cross for our sin! Many civil laws such as slavery, Jim Crow and others were at one time civil statute in our nation! Through a costly civil war the tide was turned! All civil laws that oppose the scriptures will be eventually overturned like abortion but often it comes with a great price! To oppose God is stupid and very costly! The unrighteous cause the righteous to suffer! That is best illustrated by Jesus to the Cross! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com