Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Revelation 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

"God's last name is not Damn"

The apple does not fall far from the tree. I read the post on my daughter's blog and I was reminded to post the following.

May be you have heard of the tract "God's last name is not Damn". May be not, but last night I got a unique chance to give a couple of tracts to some roudy college students who were on the same bus as I happened to be.

In brief, I had a medical appointment near the University of McGill and I did not want to drive downtown so I took the bus. On the way back there were about 4 college students yapping loudly. Two boys and two girls. God d.... it, said one of them. He touched a nerve with me. Before he had a chance to say it again, I stood up and walked over to the four of them. I had four tracts in my hand. I looked at the fellow and said to him "I heard you say God d.... . God's name is NOT d.... and here's something for you to read". Stunned he took the tract from me, the girl sitting beside him took another while the other two refused it.

I went back to my seat and noticed that the lady sitting in front of me was looking at me curiously. I handed her one of the two remaining tracts. She took it. Before I left the bus, I left another one on my seat.

Boy, did it feel good afterward. It got me on fire, that I gave two more tracts to a couple standing infront of the metro, two more in the metro, left a few others on every public telephone booth before I reached my train station and finally headed home.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

False Doctrine

So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Revelation 2:15

Is anybody familiar with what exactly is the doctrine of the Nicolaitans? Who were those Nicolaitans? I did a little reasearch online, but it didn't help me much.

All I understand is that the Lord hates their doctrine - false doctrine. He also hates their works, as is mentionned in few chapters prior.

But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Revelation 2:6

I have been wondering about this for a few days now. I would really appreciate your help in having my curiosity satisfied. THANK YOU :)

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Gas station encounters

I am at the gas station (a different one this time). A handsome fellow approaches me and asks me in French to show him how the thing operates. One look at him, and I ask "Are you Lebanese" (I can tell a Lebanese a mile away), yes he replied.

Are you new in the country? Yes he said. I showed how to fill his tank and where to go and pay. Upon finishing I gave him a tract.

The fun part is the following. Once inside the store my curiosity was aroused and I asked him more questions. Now listen to this. Isn't it great that a Lebanese Basket Ball player who lives in France is in Montreal (Mountakhab Libnan he said) to play a game against the University of Quebec and God meets him at a gas station to give him the message of salvation.

I am sure the fellow expected me to ask him for his name or may be for his signature.

Instead, I gave him my all time signature tract "Eternal Life is a Free Gift".

Christianity after the manner of the nations

II Kings 17:33 They feared the Lord, and served gtheir own gods, after the manner of the nations who they carried away from thence.
v. 41 So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

The context of the above verses is the captivity and origin of the Samaritans (remember the Samaritan woman or the woman at the well). God rejects the seed of Israel and removes them out of his sight (v30) then the King of Assyria brings people over from Babylon, Cuthah, Avan, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and places them in Samaria to replace those whom he had taken captive. These settle there and inter-marry with the jews.

But these people "feared not the Lord, therefore the Lord sent lions among them,which slew some of them"(v.25). Notice the reference to lions (plural of assad in Arabic). In order to remedy the situation the King of Assyria is advised to bring back a priest and teach them the manner of the God of the land and how they should fear the Lord.

v.29 "Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places..."

v.30 "And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Mergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places....


v.34 Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, of after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded......

I pondered at these verses this morning. A lesson could be learnt. How true it is that unto this day we have nominal Christians and others who do after the former manners and they refuse to go back to the scriptures (the law and the prophets and the epistles) as their ultimate authority. People pick their own saints, from our part of the world even to its far end. Starting with the mother of Jesus all the way to heavenly beings they have chosen a god for themselves. In every Catholic/Orthodox/or other home I've been to there are idols of Mary and pictures and the so-called saints and pagan gods. They have set up groves (mazar in Arabic) in the gardens with a statue (graven images) of a woman inside it. They cling to these as they cling to life. My best friend is one of them. There is no way I can convince her that this is an abomination in the sight of our Holy God. They claim to fear the Lord, but the Bible is not their authority. I go to church, said my Spanish teacher (a stauch catholic) to me. They read passages of the gospels. That's not all I answered. "I don't need the Bible" was her sharp reply.

Look at the following paradox. In v. 33 the Holy script says they feared the Lord and served their own gods, but in v.34 God described this behaviour by "they fear not the Lord".

Before you get upset at the above, may be you should stop and think about it for a minute?

Friday, May 26, 2006

The sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat

Here's something to think about.

II Kings 13:2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom.

To the casual reader, the significance of some things may not be as clear, and the deep underlying meaning may evade us. In narrating the accounts of the Kings, check and see how many times the Bible makes reference to so many Kings who "followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which made Israel to sin".

God is repeatedly tracing things back to their origin and I have a feeling he is doing this to make a point. That is why the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat are brought up again and again where the record concerns the life of kings now many years down the road. Just a reminder here, it was Jeroboam, king of Israel who fearing for himself made two calves of gold and told Israel "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods O Israel which brought thee out of the land of Egypt". (I Kings 12:28).

May be we need to take a second look at what we do concerning our worship. The sad part is that this thing became a sin for the people. Keep reading I Kings 12 and notice what this king did. He instituted a holiday on the "15th day of the eighth month which he had devised of his own heart", a feast that was not required by God. (Does 15 August ring a bell in your mind?). I wonder how often does mankind celebrate feats that men devised of their own heart? Remember God is always tracing things back to their origin and naming the sin by its father of all lies.

Do we ever stop to ask ourselves questions? What is the origin of our feast. How do we worship God. Is it pleasing to Him and according to what he has instituted? Or do we worship him by following the teachings of those who seemingly care for us by telling us "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem"?

A lot could be said here. Think about it for a moment.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Soon

A prophecy I can hardly wait for to be fulfilled:

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11

No more laboring having to persuade men and women that Jesus Christ is Lord. His name shall be exalted above all names. Amen.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Either / Or

A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight. Proverbs 11:1

Pro 11:20 They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the LORD: but such as are upright in their way are his delight. Proverbs 11:20

Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight. Proverbs 12:22

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight. Proverbs 15:8

~We are either an abomination to the LORD or either His Delight. It is either / or.~

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24


Monday, May 15, 2006

His name is Martin and he is 17

I stopped by the gas station earlier this evening. I realized it has been almost two weeks since I filled my car. The french fellow was there. He was happy to see me give him two new chick tracts. He said he had read all the previous ones and had passed them on to his mother to read.

I was overjoyed. Praise God. More than one person is now reading these tracts. I asked him for his name and age. He was Martin he said, seventeen years old. I told him my son was coming in summer and that I wanted my son to have a chat with him when he comes.

He smiled and I drove home.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Real Estate Issues

I am ready to move. This week I placed my condo on the market. I have stayed at this location for about seven years now. My daughter says I am nomadic. Can't stay in one place for very long. I look at it this way. Moving is easier than repainting an occupied house. Can you imagine the dust and mess it makes to paint while you are living in one place. Besides my son will be visiting more often and staying for longer periods. With an additional room and bathroom I can always accommodate visitors. I would also love to have a small piece of land where I can plant a few things in my backyard. A swimming pool would also be nice. I prefer charcoal B.B.Qs. for summer. A treadmill in the basement works well in winter.

So you want to visit me in Montreal. Please pray for a quick transaction. I need to sell in six or seven weeks. The market is not as hot at this time of the year, but I am trusting the Lord to find me a suitable buyer and to lead me to the property of his choice.

Friday, May 12, 2006

As a king!

2 Samuel 24:23 - All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.

I love to read through the word of God's with a fine-tooth comb.
Three letters highlighted above stunned me as I read my Bible this morning. The context is David arriving in Jerusalem and wanting to buy a piece of land from Araunah to build an altar after the plague had been stayed. Araunah gives him the threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.

I stopped at length to think about the seven letters "as a king". Why has the Holy Spirit inserted these words, I wondered? The passage that came to my mind was the following:

Revelation 4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. .. verse 10:The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

What I could see is a prophetic picture of the Christian, as a king, when all is said and done, casting down our crowns before the Lord Jesus Christ who alone is worthy to receive glory and honour and power.

Amen.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

why is Satan spoken to as cattle?

Bible Studies for Genesis 3:14

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

zoology

Genesis 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all CATTLE, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life

10 points to whoever understands why the serpent is classified as "cattle"

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Solve that one.

Revelation 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

And it isn't about v.18.

I was commenting with one those verses on Carey's Journal when I was struck by something in v.14.
Here's what's odd: verses 16-17 describe a MARKET ECONOMY. So why in the world would the beast out of the earth tell people
"that they should MAKE an image to the beast"?

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

The French fellow at the gas station

What a joyful experience it is to fill up gas (I actually hate it).

Last night was different though. It was rainy on my way back home, and I didn't want to, but I decided to stop by and fill up my car. The usual place I visit once a week. When I went in to pay, the young French fellow recognized me. He looked up and said, Aren't you the lady who gives me tracts all the time. What do you have for me tonight, he added.

What a pleasant surprise. How often do you get people asking you for tracts? I had none left in my purse having given them all out that day. But he was willing to wait. I ran to my car, popped the trunk open (always plenty of ammo there) grabbed about four French tracts and went back inside. Do you have this one? No. Do you have this one? No. Do you have this one? No. He took all four of them. Do you go to church, he asked (If only he knew, I thought. I go there five times a week). Sure, I do. I love God, I said. My mother goes to a seminary where they teach priests, he said. I go to a Bible teaching church, I replied. I am a born-again Christian. Evangelical, Baptist. I was so thrown off at his questions that I just stuttered and didn't know what exactly to say.

What is that, he asked. I explained that whatever is in the Bible we teach and do. What is not in the Bible we don't teach or do. Have you read the Bible, I asked? No. I don't have time was the standard reply. I quoted the verse to him: What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses himself. Next time I come around, I am bringing you a small gospel in French, I said as I was about to leave.

He bid me good night. He looked happy, and there was a sweet glow on his face. I felt so overwhelmed just to think that he actually asked me for literature. I hope and pray that he'll want to come to church with me some day. Praying for his salvation.

Monday, May 01, 2006

his angels he charged with folly

I am not sure what to write. I witnessed some things over the past few days that I can not fully discuss here. It has to do with how carnal a saved Bible-believer can get, including me. It has to do with church elections.
I am burdened, more wistful than sullen. What was right took place, but at great cost. A Pyrrhic victory. I have prayed that God would shut us all up, seat each of us down and have a one-on-one talk with every individual. It is good to shut one's mouth in the presence of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

Where is the profitable servant? It ain't me I'll tell you that. Believers often forget to shut up and know that He is the Lord (Psalm 46:10)
Isaiah wept not only because he was a man of unclean lips, but because he lived also in the midst of a people of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5). Fatally, as a mere lump of clay, he was in a sense vicariously guitly. It makes perfect sense. I always knew it. But now I know it a little more.
Even when I think I have acted well, wisely and with circumspection, having prayed and sometimes fasted; unfailingly, every single time I mess up some "little" thing which gnaws at my conscience.

Job 4:18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
:19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?


Job 15:15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

Precisely. Then you face a flood of doctors of divinity and doctors of theology, and respected dedicated scholars, and pre-eminent textual authorities, experts of greek and hebrew, engineers and doctors and lawyers, and rubbish, utter rubbish. Vanity of vanities all is vanity.

Psalm 62:9 Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

Also the unsaved world, with its driveling theories and paradigms of thought and dialectic materialism and ZeitGeist and periodization and self-actualization, and the progress of the human mind, the development of civilizations blablablablabla

Oh yeah?! well you still are a piece of dirt in the most literal sense of the word, buddy.
You still live in huts. And when you move to Mars, you will still live in huts! (Obadiah 1:4)
And you still die. Try to get around that one. Go on, bable on about the progress of science; you will rot in the grave before you get any news of some immortality-imparting drug.
The only divine spark you will ever experience is the raging fire of hell nourrished by the eternal wrath of God against your sins.
Oh I'm sorry, after you are buried you will be a flower?
You blithering fool have you ever entertained that idea for more than 10 consecutive seconds? Don't you know that flowers also burn? (Matthew 3:20)

It is haunting that we naturally think so highly of the self. You'll have people teaching the depravity of man and acting as if it were a truth utterly divorced from the realm of human experience.
People you love and respect begin to forget the pit from whence they were digged (Isaiah 51:1).
Slowly, O ever so slowly, almost, almost imperceptibly, a saved Bible-believer begins to think a little more highly of himself. Like a cameleon judges his steps forward with a back and forth swaying of his body, so does the aging born-again man, eye and test the next step of the ladder of self-esteem. Fatefully emboldened, the pace of ascent increases. Eventually the foot is swift enough to apply pressure just enough on a step to reach the next one before the former breaks. A numbingly mad upward rush ensues. The higher he is the more terrified of acknowledging his elevation. The heart enters the discourse. There is nothing more insiduously sinister than the heart which consols itself (Jeremiah 17:9). Usually, it will romance its owner. It will whisper him his victimhood and infuse it into his soul. As sweetly as a cradle's lullaby it will bless and nourrish his anger.
The faculties of the mind then come in to rationalize the situation so subtly it is mesmerizing to glimpse in action. You can never catch more than a glimpse, but it is chilling.

I read over verses and discover how little I believed them, even understood them.

Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

I am terrified of being proud. This is no humility. I am terrified because I feel it like a beast in me. When I am cleaving to the Lord it whimpers like a wounded dog. But give it the oddest situation, the most off-beat compliment and it will erect itself and growl the muffled fury of the ocean.
It is soul-wrenching to have to hate your own thoughts, your own flesh.
Every painful waking second. I plead with it. please, please a cease-fire. a cease-fire I beg. The concept is alien, utterly alien to it. It cannot answer for it speaks not the language. Leaven cannot be contained or paused.
I feel it. Sin exudes out of my pores. It is an overflowing kettle I cannot contain. Even here and now as I write. You see, why am I writing? You could question the very motive of my writing this. Am I seeking gratification? Compliments? We are rarely ruthless in our honesty towards ourselves.
Or is Satan using doubt to paralyze me from doing anything? You see man is utterly incapable of discernment when it comes to God. He cannot even discern his own self through his own spirit, because the latter is dead.
What does God think? He tries my reins (Psalm 7:9, Jeremiah 11:20). What does he see and know? Surely my spirit is his candle (Proverbs 20:27), let alone the rightly seeing Holy Spirit within me.

1Co 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

I shall know myself the way he knows me. I do not relish the prospect.

Then you begin to appreciate grace, grace that is greater than all our sin.
That's when you start holding on to grace like a dying man clings to life.
Then you start to realize what great a gulf God has bridged between himself and those who die, even without wisdom (Job 4:21)

You start to get Paul's pain as he pens

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

That's when you understand that the last thing that man is trying to be is poetic! It rubs me against the grain when people start identifying methodologies of poetry in the Bible and tell you that in greek this is called "something-something -asis". Yeah, YOU tell that to Paul as his nerves were snapping because he had another law in his members (Romans 7:23) or to Jeremiah who couldn't weep enough over Jerusalem to wet the fire which burned in his bones.
(Lamentations 1:12-13)

After that you begin to grasp Paul's fiery indignation when he writes

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Yet I am pathetically weak. Sometimes I feel I just whine for help instead of getting up and quitting myself like a man (1 Corinthians 16:13).
You know I can have the opportunity to witness to someone, and I will think, allright I have the opportunity to save this person from being transformed into a worm and spending eternity in agonizing fire.
And I will do nothing. NOTHING. I will rationalize it away or console myself in others I've witnessed to.
That's when you wax hyper-calvinist.
Those things appear at the judgment seat of Christ. Knowing this I'll admit it dampens my joyful expectation of getting to heaven. Because when you first arrive, the worst moment of your existence is about to take place. Can you imagine showing up before the Seat after any given martyr for the testimony of Jesus Christ? After any saintly old lady that spent her life on her knees lifting up her church in prayer and supplication?
I'm too lazy to pray long enough (Matthew 26:41). Where will I hide? What hole will I dig? I'm saved. I know I am. But I will stand before the God from whose face heaven and earth run away, to be JUDGED, by the JUDGE of all the earth (Genesis 18:25). I cannot lose my salvation, but I'll tell you what I'll lose once and for all, any smattering of self-righteous pride. There's the upside.

"O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be"



Newer Posts Older Posts Home

Modified by Blogcrowds