The Strange & Worshipful Story-Luke Chapter 2

David Ray Jr.

This was the Introduction I wrote for the 2015 Christmas Program at Grace Bible Church, Sangerville, Maine. This wasn't read, because our Pastor, David Ray Jr., prepared a better opening.

However, this says much about God's plan to save all mankind from their sin. And if it hadn't been for the strange birth of God becoming a Man, we never would have had the Cross to celebrate at what we call Easter.

They Missed Christmas

Introduction:

Before God ever created the world, He knew everything that would happen on earth. He knew that man would sin and destroy the perfect world God created. Man would reject Him and rebel and sin would rule.  Because of this flaw, God had to destroy the sin and that meant destroying the sinners. But God so loved His wonderful creation, He had a plan to save everyone from their sins. That plan was that He would come and be destroyed in the place of all the people God lovingly created for His pleasure.

Over 2000 years ago, God fulfilled part of that plan when He became a man, born of a virgin and living here among us for 33 and a half years. Then He died the death that sin deserves so he could allow us back into His perfection again.

On the day we call Christmas, we remember the day that God came to earth. God came to earth as a small, poor baby and that was just the beginning of the life God planned for Himself. The story is strange and beautiful, full of worship, and anger, and love and murder. Several people knew and embraced the miracle of the first Christmas, and yet at the same time, many rejected it and missed Christmas.

# #

If not commenting here, for your convenience, please use this link to place comments:  SusanEstesRecommends/Facebook

Thank you.

The Sweetness Of God Changing Us, also known as, The Chocolate Pie Mix

Instant chocolate pudding mix was

created to become something more

I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  Romans 12: 1, 2

Every person born is created by God to worship Him. But does that happen? No.

Imagine a nice golden pie crust as God. He is available and ready to receive everyone. Now pour us, the instant chocolate pudding mix into this crust. Now there's just a pile of dark brown powder in the center of the crust. It has neither adhered to itself nor to the pie crust.

Doesn't do much for the appetite does it?

Can the powdered mix make itself into something more appealing, even though it's sitting inside the crust? No.

So, as this instant chocolate pudding mix, we are incapable of changing into something else. We’re just not going to make a pie of ourselves in the state we are in. Dust, powder. Nothing. No one would want to eat pie crust filled with chocolate powder.

But, God wants us to be in Him. To do that, we have to change into people who can worship Him. People who are in Him.

Imagine cold milk as the Holy Spirit. Now this chocolate powder wants to be a pie in God, so God pours in the Holy Spirit. Instantly, there is a change! God whisks us around, changing us. The instant pudding mix has now become something new. Now when in God, the pie crust, we are made a beautiful pie, sharable, sweet, and delicious.

To get to this new creation, we needed the Holy Spirit in us and then some whisking around to make us something we weren't before. But being beaten with a whisk is painful, disgusting, and messy.

Nevertheless, it had to happen. It is the only way to get us into what God wants us to be. This takes some changes we may not like, but in the end, we are better than we were before.

Because God loves us, He saves us. Jesus saves us and God immediately changes us. It is a fact of the Christian life. Otherwise, we are not part of Him. Lack of God’s changing us is visible to everyone. Other Christians know it and the world knows it. If you don’t change under God’s love and instruction, the world knows you are not a Christian. You won’t fit in the pie. You're just loose powder that can be blown here and there without the Holy Spirit, the mixed in milk, and without any adherence to God, the pie crust.

Expiration dates on packages mean that stores have to throw food away. Think of the millions of instant chocolate pudding boxes that get thrown into the dumpsters, never made into a pie. They’re lost forever, burned in incinerators and thrown on dumps.

Those people never asked God to save them or forgive them and they expired, their time was up and they are forever lost.

# #

For your convenience, please use this link to place comments:  SusanEstesRecommends/Facebook

Thank you.

A Few Thoughts on Judgement and Judging

Ultimate judgment belongs to God. The entirety of people created by God face His judgment, from Adam to the last person to die off this world. When this world ends, God will separate the sheep from the goats, (Matthew 25: 32, 33,) making the final judgment between those who are children of God saved by His grace, and those who rejected His Son Jesus’ substitutionary death in their place on the cross.

The theme of God’s judgment goes all through the bible, giving us instructions on what pleases God and what displeases God. In the finality, God will be the judge at two thrones, two judgment seats. The Great White Throne of Judgment and the Throne of Grace, (Bema Seat)

In Revelation 20, the unsaved face God’s sentencing at the Great White Throne Judgment. This is not a courtroom where anyone pleads their defense. They are there to accept that court has already convened, and they receive sentencing to their eternal prison, the ‘Lake of Fire.’ The court trial has already taken place at the cross and the sentence meted out. After Jesus took all of the sin of mankind onto Himself, God punished Jesus, thus fulfilling the required punishment of breaking the law- that is, our sin. Romans 6: 23.

1 Corinthians 3: 7-17; 1 Peter 1: 7; The saved will face the judgment of the Throne of Grace. (Bema Seat) Exodus 25: 17-22; Hebrews 9; 1 John 2: 1, 2)). At this throne, God will judge our works done here on earth after we accepted Jesus. This judgment seat is where God tests, through fire, our works done in Jesus’ name, and for the glory of God the Father. The works that did not glorify God will burn up like wood, hay, and straw. That which we did in the name of Jesus to the glory of God the Father will shine as gold, silver, and precious stones. This is where we receive our rewards.

The saved have the distinction of not having past sins brought up before the Father because He chooses to look at us as covered in the blood of His son Jesus. Hebrews 10: 17; Psalm 103: 12. The saved accepted the punishment of Jesus’ death on the cross and God’s punishment has passed from them. Romans 8:1.

While God has the ultimate judgment, Christians are to judge between right and wrong. The bible tells us to separate ourselves from the world, that is, live a different life than the unsaved, to learn what pleases God and what displeases Him. Romans 12:2. (Be holy for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:16, (Leviticus 11:44)) We have to judge between the right things of God and the wrong things of the world. The bible is our tool to do this. Judge what is good to hear, to see, to do, and to speak. Philippians 4: 8, 9.

The commandment of Do not covet is for the purpose of distinction, this is an inner heart judgment.

We are to judge between each other. 1 Corinthians 6: 1-3, is our judgment of people we come in contact with.

Matthew 7: 16-20. This judgment also provides protection for our well-being, welfare, lives, and even our families. James 4: 1-7. We need to judge whether this person is harmful to us physically, mentally, morally, financially, or harmful to our ministries: can they make us ineffective, can they destroy our witness, or can they draw us away from God? (Do not cast your pearls before swine. Matthew 7: 6.)

The bible instructs us to judge between those who we count as friends and associates. To judge the other against what we know of the bible is acceptable. Titus 1:10-13; 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-15; Galatians 1: 8, 9; 1 Timothy 5: 24, 25; 1 John 4: 1, is to have knowledge of who we speak to, and how we act, or react to people.

If we see a person claiming to be a Christian, we are to hold up what we know from God’s word and judge if they are truly Christians. If we do not make this judgment, we can get into trouble. False brethren can bring us into God’s displeasure and His necessary judgment in a just punishment. Hebrews 12: 5, 6. Without judging, we may stumble and fall.

James warns us to keep a sense of humility when we judge. (We are not to condemn others, Matthew 7:1-5). We are not to stand in the place of God and point fingers to destroy anyone. If we judge, we are to take our knowledge from Jesus and make a distinction between right and wrong according to what the bible says. If we slander, or hurt in our judgment, we ourselves are wrong and God will judge accordingly.

If we judge, two or more people must substantiate our judgment or it is not to be accepted. 1 Timothy 5: 19; (Deuteronomy 16: 6, 19: 15)

We judge our brethren biblically to help them remain in the faith and walk in the light. Galatians 6: 1; James 5: 19, 20.

John 15: 18, our faith in Jesus is a judgment of the world. If we do not judge others, who are without faith, our witness is useless. There has to be the condemnation of sin before they accept Jesus’ salvation. We make this judgment only in imitating Jesus’ love for the lost. Do nothing without love.

So, yes, do not judge to condemn anyone and but the other-side of the coin says, yes, judge for the correct reasons.

# #

For your convenience, please use this link to place comments:  SusanEstesRecommends/Facebook

Thank you.