Wednesday :: 07 January 2009 :: 06:26 AM
352 days to Christmas!
You, O LORD, reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to generation. . . Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless You have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure. [Lam 5:19-22 NIV]
LORD, I have heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. [Hab 3:2 NIV]
Great and marvelous are Your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are Your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear You, O Lord, and bring glory to Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed. [Rev 15:3-4 NIV]
Big Government Vs Jesus Christ
See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low. He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him -- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD -- and He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes, or decide by what He hears with His ears; but with righteousness He will judge the needy, with justice He will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth; with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be His belt and faithfulness the sash around His waist. [Isaiah 10:33ff] Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. [1Corinthians 15:24-25]
Man reigns with great pomp and circumstance, with displays of authority, using tyranny and oppression to gain wealth, respect and power. God will destroy the kingdoms of man and His kingdom will begin almost unnoticed. And indeed, after Jesus Christ appeared, the Roman Empire fell and there have been no more world empires -- though there is one yet to come but it will be short-lived.
The meaning of this has been lost to recent generations especially since the first world war because of mans' concerted effort to rebuild the Tower of Babel -- to have an international dialogue for world peace. But that doesn't change the fact that Christ reigns above all kingdoms, powers and authority. That is what Col 2:10 tells us and the context is a warning not to be taken captive by the principles of this world (Col 2:8). Too many well-meaning Christians are too hasty to surrender the world's system to the devil's dominion. But the Scriptures tell us "the Son of God appeared to destroy the devil's work." [1Jo 3:8] Satan may have wrested the right to rule from man when man fell to sin in the garden but he never received authority over God's dominion nor His Law. Furthermore, God never rescinded His dominion mandate to man after the fall (Gen 1:26-28). In fact, He reaffirmed it after the Flood (Gen 9:7) and Christ expanded it after He completed His work, conquered death and declared His authority to rule (Mat 28:18-20). Nonetheless, the church is largely silent as Satan seeks to circumvent God's design by promoting the state, or mans' rule over man, as the ultimate savior. We do nothing to rescue our brothers from this false salvation along with its confiscatory taxation and micro-managing regulations.
Through His death and resurrection, Christ destroyed the power of death and He will reign -- even now -- until His victory is secured at the end of time (1Co 15:24-26; Eph 1:20-23). As Christians, we must recognize Christ's rule as supreme over all laws and statutes of man as Peter and John respectfully demonstrated in Acts chapter four, when they declared, "we must obey God rather than man." Jesus Christ said, "The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it." [Mat 11:12 NIV] The King James Version says, "the violent take it by force." If you read this verse within the context, you will discover this violence is not bloodshed but it is the violence of John the Baptist, who was willing to stand for the truth of God's Scripture in the face of evil and malicious bureaucrats and rulers. The Psalmist wrote, "May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the LORD." [Psa 149:6-9] Christ reigns supreme above all kingdoms, powers and authority; it is our responsibility to declare that message by our words and our life. When the state is elevated to the position of Messiah; when words change meaning so that "love" and "compassion" become the promotion of sloth and perversion, this is evil. We are obligated to stand against evil and malicious laws and regulations (Psa 119:46) -- no matter how rationally, positively and compassionately the evil is presented.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. . . Who is the head over every power and authority. -- Col 2:8-10
Random Humor: For A Chocolate Chip Cookie
As the elderly man lay dying in his bed, death's agony was suddenly pushed aside as he smelled the aroma of his favorite homemade chocolate chip cookies wafting up the stairs.
Gathering his remaining strength, he lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with intense concentration, supported himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands. In labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing wide-eyed into the kitchen. There, spread out upon the kitchen table were literally HUNDREDS of his favorite chocolate chip cookies! Was it heaven? Or, was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?
Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture, one hand on the edge of the table. The aged and withered hand quiveringly made its way to a cookie near the edge of the table; feeling the warm soft dough actually made the pain of his bones subside for a moment.
His parched lips parted; the wondrous taste of the cookie was already in his mouth; seemingly bringing him back to life. What, then, was this sudden stinging that caused his hand to recoil? He looked to see his wife, still holding the spatula she had just used to smack his hand.
"Stay out of those!" she said, "they're for the funeral."