We live in a fallen world! Violence, crime, natural disasters are all around us! From earthquakes, cyclones, floods, fires, pestilences and disease covers the world with tragedy! Wars and rumors of wars! From cop killers to Islamic Jihadist law and order seems like a distant hope? Political failures at home and gains by terrorists seems daunting! Guilt is the product of our fallen world! Guilt drives the Islamist terrorists! They believe the only sure way to get to Heaven is to commit Jihad! Kill themselves and others! How sad! God has a plan to defeat guilt and sin and it lead Him to the Cross! Jesus was raised from the dead for our fallen world! God shed His blood to cover our guilt! To reject God’s blood is to shed man’s blood! Guilt and sin leads to more sin! One sin to cover another! One lie to cover another lie! Bring your guilt to Jesus! Jesus said to come to Him those that labor and are heavy laden! A ship that is heavy laden will sink! Jesus bore your sin on the Cross! A yoke is designed for two oxen! Let Jesus come along side you and carry your load! Do not try to carry too much! God made you to trust Him! Not by your own efforts! Jesus went on to say He would give you rest! Rest means to pause from your own efforts! It means to refresh! That is why God gave us the Sabbath! At Creation God Himself rested from His work on the 7th day! Are you greater than God? Many have tried! The burn out of American families today is the result of not honoring the Sabbath! The 24-7 schedule takes no time for rest in the Sabbath! God not only saves us but he sanctifies us! Philippines 1:6 says we are confident that the good work He has begun in us He will perform in us until the day of Jesus Christ! Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever! His purpose within us will continue forever! Why miss out on the peace and joy of Jesus living in you? Pride and the fool says i can make it on my own! No one ever did! That was Satan’s plan! Sorrow and death is his constant companion! Do you want rest and freedom from guilt and shame? Ask Jesus! Humble yourself and ask for help! It is not that hard to do! What is hard to do and impossible is to try to live without Jesus! He will raise you up from your fallen condition! Pastor Oscar Cope, Mount Vernon Baptist Church, Fairburn, Georgia.
Tag: sin
Lot Saved By Association! 2 Peter 2:7
Lot although saved by association was also vexed by association with the wicked citizens of Sodom! Lot chose the city and separated from his uncle Abraham. It was a well watered plain and looked good to the natural eye. Lot was wealthy and needed land for his live stock. Sodom was a prosperous city with much opportunity. It was certainly the Babylon of his day! He located his herds next to the big city! Lot knew that Sodom was corrupt with the sin of homosexuality! He tried to separate himself from the sin but played the political correct game! Lot had one foot in the Kingdom of God and one foot in the world! Can you have it both ways? Remember Judas tried that! Lot was attending to his animals in his tent next to Sodom and the next thing we see is he is sitting at the gate of the city! Normally the one sitting at the gate of the city was settling civil cases and collecting taxes! Meanwhile his uncle Abraham went to Canaan which was a dry land. However God promised Abraham all that he could see would be his and his descendants forever! Abraham built an altar there on a mountain and worshiped God! Lot was worshiping money at the city gate of Sodom. Jesus quoted in the Book of John said,”Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad.” One sacrifice to end all sacrifices! Was Lot on a competition run for wealth with his uncle Abraham? Pride before the fall. God got fed up with the sin of Sodom and sent two destroying angel’s to Sodom! Lot recognized them, worshiped them and invited them to his house! He was trying to protect them from the sin of the city! An attempted cover up! He was trying to preserve his business enterprise! The homosexual’s surrounded his home and wanted sex with the angel’s! Lot even offered his two daughters but it would not appease them! Sin and self-enrichment never mix! Lot tried to warn the city and some of his family members of impending judgment but they just laughed! They did not respect him! Lot had no witness left in him! Christian’s that are just like the world will lose the respect of the world! Even though God saved Lot and his immediate family Lot’s wife still in love with Sodom looked back and became a pillar of salt! The most interesting point of this story is God saved Lot and his two daughter’s because He remembered Abraham! Pray for your children! Your association with Christ could save them! We are saved because of our association with Christ! When God see’s our sin He remembers His Son on the Cross! Lot ended up living in a cave with his two daughter’s! They got him drunk and became pregnant by their father! Lot was the father of the Moabites and Amorites both mortal enemies of Israel! Both tribes were eventually destroyed! Israel live on! Lot never learned his lesson! How many times will God save you from bad decisions? Learn your lessons and study the Bible! Don’t repeat Lot’s mistakes! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Gay Marriage and Abortion in America
When the principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then the battle is your calling, and peace has become sin! You must at the price of dearest peace lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy with all the fire of your Faith! Abraham Kuyper, Dutch Theologian, (1837-1920)
Righteousness and Sin
We do not do righteousness! You receive righteousness! Jesus received your sin! You receive His righteousness! Jesus took your sin! You possess His righteousness! The sin you had or have is on Him! Joseph Prince
Look Outside The Box!
No one has to be taught to trust in themselves! No one has to be taught that what you experience inside yourself is more authoritative than what comes to you externally, even if it comes from God! Since the Fall, it has been part of our character to look within ourselves! Michael Horton Comment: All sin comes from within. Salvation comes externally independent of our existence! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Hope for the Hopeless!
Original sin is the only rational solution of the undeniable fact of the deep, universal and early manifested sinfulness of men in all ages, of every class and in every part of the world! Charles Hodge (1797-1878) Comment: As long as man uses religion to justify his sin the world will as always continue towards destruction. Only Christianity claims we are all sinners and require repentance through the atoning blood of Christ! To deny the sacrificial blood of Christ is to continue the unending shedding of the blood of men as history has shown us in declared and undeclared war against God and each other! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Treeless Worship Deuteronomy 16:21-22
“Thou shalt not plant a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Neither shall thy set up any image, which the Lord thy God hateth.” We first need to look at the Hebrew root word for the English word “groves.” The Hebrew root word translates to the word “Asherah.” Astarte is a Phoenician goddess of fertility. She was the Canaan fertility goddess believed to be the consort of Baal. The noun is most often used for the carved wooden images of the goddess. The image was associated with high places and fresh green trees. The Israelites were commanded to cut them down and burn them! False worship was a problem even to the extent that Asherah’s image was erected in God’s Temple itself! There were no trees around the temple in Jerusalem! I witnessed idol worship during the three years we spent in India. These idol’s were everywhere! Often these huge wooden images were parked along tree lines. In the Hindu Temples prostitution was a regular business! I was offered a teenage girl in one of these temples! If you are going to worship the goddess of sex then prostitutes come with the package! To look deeper into the root of idol worship we need to go back to the Book of Genesis. If God took a rib from the man and created a woman then when they are united in marriage there is a completeness. However if you are going to make an image of a woman and worship her through sex then this is self-worship because the woman was taken from the man! Let us look at Genesis 2:9. “And out of the ground made the Lord to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” God warned them that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would die! Why? God understood that they could not handle it! God knew that created beings with the knowledge of evil would sin! Let us look at Genesis 3:22. “And the Lord said, Behold the man is become one of us, to know good and evil, now lest he put his hand and take also the Tree of Life, and eat and live forever.” God had to block them from the Garden of Eden because to enter Heaven with the knowledge of evil for eternity would doom them forever! This was an act of Mercy by God! So what about the Tree of Life? This Tree represents Christ, redemption for man and eternity with God! So what did man do with Christ? They cut down a tree and crucified Him on it! This is what happens to all that eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! You commit evil and then try to do good? However God’s plan was engaged by the evil of men and brought redemption to the world! Without Christ whatever God has given to man as a gift turns to evil! All the religions of the world whether Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, ect, try to find God through their own efforts! Eating from the wrong tree! We all have access to the Tree of Life through Christ and our knowledge of evil is atoned for by His blood sacrifice on Calvary and we can live forever not separated from God but joined with Him in peace and love forever! We cannot save ourselves even though the world religions since creation have and still try! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Sanctuary Cities Numbers 35:9-34
God made it clear to Moses that these cities were to be provided to those who have killed by accident or by none intended error! An example would be a ox owner who’s ox breaks down a fence and then kills a small child. The sanctuary cities were not for criminals intending to do others harm! They were not for law breakers! There was always a trial and if someone murdered someone else the shedding of guilty blood was required to atone for the innocent blood. God viewed the shedding of innocent blood a pollution on the land and only the shedding of the guilty blood would remove the pollution of sin on the land! It is interesting that those who were sentenced to the refuge cities had to remain there the rest of their lives except on the death of the High Priest! After the death of the High Priest they were released and their full rights were restored! Notice it does not count if the High Priest got murdered! The blood of the innocent could only be avenged by the blood of the murderer. The death of our High Priest Jesus Christ who was innocent of our sin took our sin to free us from guilt and sin! In the Old Testament the guilty blood avenged the innocent blood! In the New Testament the innocent blood avenged the guilty blood! Just the opposite! Jesus was not murdered! He voluntarily went to the Cross! Is your sin a sanctuary living inside of you? Do you feel at home in your sin? No one knows but you and God! The High Priest has died and rose again! Do you believe He has died and rose again for you? If you do then act upon your belief! Leave the prison of your soul! Accept the work that was finished for you over 2000 years ago! Take refuge in Christ! Don’t try to make it on your own efforts! It has never been done! There will be no trial for you because He will judge the living and the dead! He has commuted your sentence! He paid it all! Let His Grace come alive in you! Grace is God doing for you what you cannot do for yourself! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
What is Political Correctness? John 14:6
Political correct speech is speech that is intended to hide the truth! What is truth? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.” The word truth here translated from the Greek means what is not concealed but open and known! God’s truth embodied in His Son Jesus Christ reveals our sin rather than conceal it through political correctness! Christ exposes our sin so that we can confess it to Him and be reconciled to God and come into relationship with Him! Political correctness is the modern day version Adam and Eve hiding in the Garden of Eden! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
The Church and the State!
Since politics fundamentally should be a moral enterprise, the Church in this sense has something to say about politics! Pope Benedict XVI Comment: The Church in America used to be called the Bully Pulpit! That is before then Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas shut up the Pastor’s across America with the 501c tax exemption. Back in the 1950’s the church pastor’s got on him for his illicit affairs. So he introduced the 501c. The 501c has worked to mute Pastor’s on almost every moral issue! Another fear they have is how many Christians would donate to a Religious organization if they got no tax deduction? Remember the 501c was instituted to cover up sin. Do we want to participate? We all will face God one day and we want our actions pleasing to Him! Thankyou. James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com