Jesus calmed a storm which really messed up the weather forecaster’s prediction and then the very next day met a naked crazy man on the beach. Even the crazy man knew someone messed up a perfectly good storm. The Gadarene area was a Roman colony made up of soldiers and gentile pig farmers. This story has helped advocate for the mentally ill over history. Jesus was and is today an advocate to help the mentally ill. The mentally ill are usually pushed to the outer fringes of a culture. Yes, all the way to the cemetary! Then bound with chains to be sure they do not disturb the dead! Satan will always try to isolate people. Whether through divorce, institutions or popular culture. Satan hates marriage and any unity that brings people together under righteousness! There are 4 area’s of theology in American culture. Area #1-No God, No Demons. Area #2- Big God, No Demons. Area#3- Big God, Big Demons. Area#4- Big God, Defeated Demons. The first 3 categories isolate people in our culture. Category 4 brings balance and unity to our culture. Jesus wanted to know the crazy man’s name? Jesus is interested in people not demon’s. A Roman Legion is about 5000 soldiers. The demons did not want to go to the abyss? Why? Their evangelism program would be over! They needed to take someone with them. They were pro-porkchop and wanted deviled ham! Jews considered pigs unclean and not redemptive. The local gentile community was making a living off the unclean. The next thing we see in this story is a man walking around in his right mind wearing clothes. Who gave clothes to this naked man? Does your church have a clothes bank? A wild man gets tamed! Jesus is more than a lamb he is a lion! Never try to tame God down and domesticate Him! Remember all this took place before the Cross! The Demon’s recognized Christ’s Divinity! The sane man wanted to go with Jesus and get out of town! Jesus wanted him to be a witness in his own community. If you are not a witness where you are do not waste time and money running somewhere else! Can you imagine the story he had to take back to his community? The community had to trade in 2000 pigs for a sane clothed man. The Gadarene’s did not like it and wanted Jesus to leave town! Their money was more important than this lunatic! Never get over your salvation! Others may try to tame you down but be wild for Christ! Christ will always make you a testimony of His love and power! Let Christ through you serve Satan a plate of deviled ham! Source; Personal notes from message given at New Life Church by Pastor Brady Boyd, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: satan
God’s Best Gift? Satan’s Best Gift?
A conclusive list of God’s Gift’s are listed in First Corinthians Chapter One and Chapter 12. Also Romans Chapter 12 and Ephesians Chapter 4. Pastor Brady Boyd at New Life Church in Colorado Springs gave us two important purposes of our spiritual gifts in his Sunday message. They are; 1. Our gifts bring others to God! 2. Our gifts help us to grow up! There was much more in his message Sunday and you can go to their web site if you want more. NewLifeChurch.Org Commentary; When I was reading First Corinthians Chapter 12, verse 31, I noticed that Paul said to covet earnestly the best gifts, and i will show unto you a more excellent way. Then i asked myself what is God’s best gift? In the next verse i got the answer! Remember in the original manuscripts there were no chapters but a continuation of thoughts. God’s Best Gift is “Love”! What is Satan’s best gift? Remember the temptations he offered Jesus? Stones into bread-food. Show-off and jump off the mountain-pride. All the kingdoms of this world-Power,Authority,Rule Jesus said that my Kingdom is not of this world! There is competition for your soul between two Kingdom’s! The Kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God! The lust of the eyes and the pride of life is cheese on the rat trap for you and me! Satan’s gifts are death, disease, sickness, pestilence, abortion, sin, war, judgement and hell forever! God’s gifts are love, joy, peace, prosperity, long-suffering, patience, eternal life, forgiveness of sin. Choose life! Choose death? The choice is yours! Thankyou. James Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Identity Theft!
The Latin and Old French roots to the word identity mean the condition of being the same with something described or asserted. Your thought’s, idea’s and perspectives allow people to determine who you are. The truth is we try to be like someone else. Either your father, mother, grandpa, grandma, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, teacher, pastor, ect. Someone who tries Identity theft on you tries to be the same as you with the same bio-data such as date of birth, social security number, account numbers, ect. Most people only care about what you have not who you are! If they think you do not have much then they leave you alone. God cares about who you are! Character counts with God! In fact He cares so much that He through His Son Jesus Christ identified with your sin on the Cross so that you could identify with Him and have the power to live like Christ! Lucifer lost his identity in being like God in his rebellion against God. Then Satan took his new identity of being unGodly and tries to get people to try to live their lives without God! Our true identity to be like God was stolen through identity theft by Satan. When we come to Christ we get our Godly identity back and the power to live in righteousness and not in sin. Then Satan and his family moves away from us because he does not want to live like us and be like God. If you have rejected Christ then your identity has been stolen and you try to live like others who are not following Him! All of us will try to live like someone else! Only one can lead us to paths of joy, peace and eternal life Only one can save you while all others will fail you! Turn to Christ and experience a love that cannot compare with any earthly relationship! In Christ’s Love. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Options!
Sometimes i wish God would have made salvation mandatory instead of optional? You know like paying your taxes is mandatory. I suppose that just like you have tax cheats you would have salvation cheats like Judas! Options are an important part of democratic liberties but when time runs out all options end! Like 2 seconds left on the clock in a football game if you are behind you finish the game in defeat! In a game you have next season but in life we play for keeps! In life the stakes are high and if we do not choose God and His Christ then eternity is a long time to be seperated from them. The options in this life is Heaven or Hell! In Hell you have no otions but in Heaven you still have options. You can choose to stay or you can rebel like Lucifer and join him in Hell! Options are about choices. We choose either good or evil. Choices determine your present future and past. We by our choices are going to serve God or Satan. Choose this day who you are going to serve! This Christmas think about God and His Mercy to give us the right choice in sending His Son Jesus to us! How we can live with love, peace and joy in the midst of a lost and destructive human race! Merry Christmas! James, Hamsa and Anita. GodWhoisGod.com
Was Jesus Married?
This subject has come up alot since about the 4th Century! The novel, Da Vinci Code was our most recent until a Harvard scholar says she has found evidence? This writing is out of the 4th Century. The 4th Century is a long way out from the Gospel’s that were written a few years after Jesus life in the 1st Century! Keep in mind what was going on in the 4th Century! One of the greatest challenges to Christianity came from the Coptic Church in Egypt! You had a non-trinitarian theology system rising and with that the rise of Arianism! Arianism said Jesus did not pre-exist His birth. All these forces lead to the Nicene Council in 325 A.D. This lead to the Nicene Creed which millions of churches around the world hold in their theology. There were many forces in the 4th Century trying to remove Christ’s Divinity and reduce Him to a mere man. The same goes for today! This letter from Harvard came out of the 4th Century. The Gospel’s of the New Testament mention all of Jesus family which includes mother, father, sisters, brothers, cousins, ect. Also the Gospel’s take Jesus lineage all the way back to Adam and Eve! If Jesus was married it would not have been left out by all these writers of Biblical and Non-Biblical Historians during the 1st Century! His disciples died promoting the truth and reality of who Christ is and would not have died for a fake! Sometimes I joke and say Jesus did not get married because He was too smart! Think about the plan God had for His Son Jesus and what it required of Him! The Cross and all that lead up to it and then after the Cross! When would He have time for a wife and kids? Then you would have generations living after Christ who would claim they are His relatives and claim special rights! Jesus is married to His Church! We are His Bride! Jesus said you must be born again! This birth is a Spiritual Birth that transforms your life and prepares you to receive the Holy Spirit! Are you married to Jesus or are you trying to live without God? The choice is yours. Love demands a choice! You either serve God or Satan! Choose the one who has created you, died for you, saved you, rose from the grave for you and is in Heaven preparing a place for you! No one else in history can do this or would do this for you! Thankyou. James Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Which Kingdom do you want?
The year was 1985. We had been in India one year then. We had just moved from Madras(Chennai), to a hill station named Yercaud. The name Yercaud in the Tamil Language means the village of the lake and the forest. It is a beautiful place with coffee estates, mango trees and assortment of fruits! This village was so remote that there was no gas station there. The problem for us was finding suitable housing for my family. My daughters at that time were 4 and 5 years old. My concern was for their safety. A friend of ours from Salem had been searchin for us and through another friend located this Hindu man who owned coffee estates in Yercaud and also had a English hotel converted for his summer home. Rich people there would escape the summer heat and live in the cool hill stations for the season. This man owned a car manufacturing and boat manufacturing company. He was also an M.D. educated in the United States. Having lived in the U.S. he could not understand why we came to India? This mansion was remote and beautiful! It was nested on the edge of a cliff with a panoramic view of Salem Valley below! Also a clear view of Metur Dam. The clouds would hit you in the face! Yes due to low cloud elevation across south india any mountain would be covered in clouds. Yes I was walking in clouds! As I would sit in this old english chair with extended arms for your legs and view the valley below I used to feel sorry for the folks back in America. They had to get up every morning and go to work everyday! Fight the traffic, bosses and all else! What really bugged me about this Hindu man was he never asked for rent? I offered him but he declined? After we had lived there for about 3 months the owner approached me and told me he would like to make an offer to me. He asked me if I would like to live in his mansion for the rest of my life! He told me he would pay for my daughters tuition and living expenses through college in the United States. To sweeten the deal he told me he would find me alot of young girls for me down in Salem valley! He told me to think it over for about two weeks. He had to go to America on buisness and would get back with me. I thought the girls are out but the rest? What is the motive? I again began to feel sorry for the folks back home! Well, this Hindu man returned to Yercaud and asked me if I would take his offer? However he said there was only one condition? I must stop preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the people on Yercaud mountain! I politely told him this is the reason we came to India! He told me we have 3 days to vacate mansion! The hardest thing I ever had to tell my family was we had to move in 3 days! I did not tell my wife Hamsa the real reason we had to move until 25 years later! Well we ended up in a scorpion, rat and snake infested house for the next two years! I thought about those fortunate people back in America! About two weeks before leaving Yercaud and India for the United States the rich man pulled his Mercedes Benz convertible up along side me while I was walking. He asked me again why I had come to India? I told him for the last time because God has sent me here! Satan will offer you all the Kingdoms of this world if you just bow down and worship him! It gets down to two Kingdom’s! The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan! Everyday for the rest of your life you will have to make a choice what Kingdom you want? Choose this day who you will serve! Thankyou. James Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Angels Revelation 22:8-9
You would think that John would have got the message when the other Angel rebuked him for falling to worship him. It should be apparent that angels appear as if they are Gods to men, as does Satan. In any case, it is clear that Angels are not to be worshipped and righteous Angels do not want to be worshipped! That should make it clear that we should not have statues of Angels around for luck or favor. That is idoltary and it is quite insulting to Angels. Angels in scripture are never feminine, never cute and are never to be idolized: they are powerful servants of God who carry out His will. The Angel in this passage calls anyone who keeps the sayings of this book a fellow servant. That is quite an honor for people of flesh! What a destiny the redeemed of the Lord have! Source: Don Koenig
Garage Sale!
The scripture reference for this word study is First Corinthians Chapter 15, Verse 4. The word or phrase we are going to study is “Rose Again”. The Strongs Number is 1453. The Greek Word is Egeiro. This word means to waken, idea of collecting one’s faculties or rouse from sleep. The base word for this word is Strong’s Number 58. This Greek word is Agora.This word means to gather together as in a town square. It means to meet together in a market place where things are exposed for sale! Also where assemblies of people met to conduct public trials. Commentary; Never forget our sin was up for sale! Satan offered Jesus all the Kingdoms of this world if He would bow down and worship him! In America we have garage sales. We take the worthless things off the floor of our homes and raise them up on a table to sell. People actually will come and pay money for these worthless junk! We were worthless in our sin yet Christ purchased our sin with His own Blood! His life for ours! He paid the ransom to redeem us from our sin! In the phrase, “Rose again”, we find the word Rose. A perennial flower that blooms over and over again! Christ’s sweet fragrance in me manifests over and over again! Christ is the Rose of Sharon! Thankyou. James Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Concerned Priest!
A local Parish had a concern for one of it’s members? This Parish had statues of twelve revered Saints; Lucy,Luke,Martin of Tours,Monica,Nicholas, Padre Pio, Peter,Rita,Philomena, Matthew, Mary Magdalene and Michael the Archangel. On Friday’s this member would kiss every statue before leaving. The problem was the last statue before the entrance door(Michael the Archangel), had his right foot on Satan’s head. This man would kiss Satan’s head last of all just before leaving? The Priest cornered this man and asked him why was he doing this? This man explained to the Priest that if all these Saint’s fail to rescue me at least I will have one friend in Hell!