I Choose Jesus

“We love Him because he first loved us.”  I John 4:19

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Those two statements are some of the most important verses in the Bible.  They show us that God has pursued us.  We did not come after Him.  He came after us!

He loved us first.

He sought us first.

HE CHOSE US!!

God SO LOVED us that He sacrificed His only Son for us.  And now we have a choice.  We can CHOOSE to accept that precious gift that He offers through His Son, Jesus.  Or, we can walk away.  We can CHOOSE the world, self, and to live life the way we choose.

I CHOOSE JESUS.

I choose JESUS because He first chose me.

I choose JESUS because He first loved me.

I choose JESUS because He chose the nails that held Him to that cross.

I choose JESUS because he chose to lay down his life for me.

I choose JESUS because HE chose me for all eternity.

What is YOUR choice today?

JESUS…………….or the world?

Pat Thomas

Make Every Day a Holiday

Christmas comes the same time every year, but are we every truly prepared?  After scaring away the goblins on Halloween, many of us go into a holiday frenzy as we stock our cupboards and freezers with everything needed for a Thanksgiving feast, decorate our homes with lighted trees and holiday knick knacks, and make our shopping lists for Christmas, even though we know good and well we cannot afford it.   Even though we tell ourselves each year that this will be the year we do things right by opening a Christmas Club account in January, somehow we never manage to start setting aside the money we need to pay for the holidays.  Before long we find ourselves as cranky as Ebenezer Scrooge, reeling as nightmares of unpaid bills dance endlessly through our heads.  Bah humbug!

As Christians, we have it all wrong.  Every day should be a celebration, a day of giving thanks to God for all He is and all He has done for us.  Each day we should look for opportunities to give to others our gifts of time, affection, and service.  Since when do we need a holiday to celebrate all the blessings God has showered on us?

The past few years have been challenging for many. Above and beyond the everyday stress of coping with difficult relationships, brokenness, and poor health, our economy has made it difficult for many families to even put food on the table or pay the rent.  The thought of having to come up with money to buy our children gifts, fund a trip to visit family over the holidays, and pretend to enjoy it all is simply overwhelming.  For those who cannot afford Thanksgiving or Christmas, the pressure to meet the expectations of others is unbearable and only leads to a bad case of holiday blues.  What should be a season of joy becomes a season of guilt, depression, and regret.  So, what is the answer?  How can we make every day a holiday?

True joy does not come from being able to throw lavish parties and give costly gifts during the holidays.  Nor does it come from the gifts we receive or the time we spend with loved ones.  While all those things bring momentary happiness, true lasting joy comes from knowing the Savior whose birth we celebrate.  Without Him, there is no joy – not at Christmas and certainly not the rest of the year.      

Jesus is not only the Reason for the Season, but He is the answer to every need we have.  For those who are lonely and hurting, especially during the holidays, He is our Faithful Friend  and our Comforter.  For those who are battered by the storms of life, He is our Shelter and Refuge, our Ever-Present Help in time of need.  For those who come from dysfunctional families, He is our Heavenly Father who has engraved us on the palm of His hands and numbered every hair on our heads.  For those who are financially destitute, He is the Provider of all we truly need, according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.  He is the Healer of those who are ill and the Prince of Peace for those who are unsure and afraid.  He is the great Redeemer for all who sin and seek His forgiveness, and the Deliverer from every temptation and addiction we face in life.  He is the Lover of our souls, accepting us just as we are and lavishing His love on us.  He is the ultimate Giver of all good things, sacrificing His very life on Calvary to save us from our sins so we could spend eternity with Him in heaven, where there is no sickness, no sorrow, and no pain.

As you prepare to observe the holidays this year and anticipate the fresh start of a New Year, take a moment to pause and reflect on your relationship with God.  Just as the city of Bethlehem was crowded and there was no room in the inn for Mary to bring Christ into this world, many of us are guilty of filling our hearts with meaningless pleasures and vain pursuits in an effort to find lasting joy.  Make room for Jesus this year.  If you have not invited Him into your heart and received His free gift of salvation, do that today!  No gift under your tree will satisfy you or bring you the lasting fulfillment that Jesus will.  Once you discover the joy of living a life of obedience and surrender to His Lordship, you will find that every day can indeed be a holiday!

by Dee Dee Wike

           

Jesus, Scourge of Demons

It is fascinating to see the way demons acted around Jesus.  According to Matthew 8:29, for example, when Jesus merely shows up where a demon-possessed man lives the demons inside him say, “What do you want with us, Son of God?  Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”  Then, because they seem to know he is going to cast them out, they beg him to let them go into a nearby herd of pigs.

In another instance Jesus was teaching in the synagogue when a demon-possessed man burst out with, “Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:34)  Jesus sternly commands the demon to come out and after the demons throw the man down they leave him unharmed.

One of the impressions that people immediately had of Jesus was that he had authority.  His teaching was authoritative, but also his command of demons.  The Pharisees could not deny that he had extraordinary authority and power over demons but because they were unwilling to acknowledge that Jesus came from God they blasphemed against the Holy Spirit by attributing Jesus’ ability to cast out demons to his being in league with Satan (Matthew 12).

The demons knew better, of course.  The sheer terror they experienced at the presence of Jesus on the occasions mentioned above indicate that they saw Jesus as their legitimate ruler, despite giving allegiance to Satan, and that they knew they were going to be judged by him and found wanting.  This suggests that Satan also knows that he is going to be condemned to a fiery hell but, like his servants, the demons, he continues to fight on.  Yet, when confronted by the Son of God, he must submit to his authority.

Jesus depicts this as tying up the strong man and taking his possessions (Matthew 12:29).  Jesus is the stronger man than Satan or his demons and perfectly capable of controlling him as he pleases.  He allows Satan to have a certain sway over the earth at this time, but a day of judgment is coming (Revelation 20) in which Satan will be cast into the lake of fire forever.  He will not be able to resist.

So why are we so scared when it comes to dealing with anything demonic?  Apparently we have bought into the very lie the demons would have us believe, that they are too powerful to resist and too scary to stand strong against.  But when we (scared as we may be) insist in the authority of Jesus that they submit to Jesus, they must submit.  We must be convinced of that, and they will be too.

There is curious case of the Jewish exorcists, the sons of Sceva, who sought to cast out a demon “in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches” (Acts 19:13ff).  This resulted in the demon attacking them and overpowering them through the human he possessed.  This teaches us that we must have real belief in the power and authority of Jesus to be the scourge of demons.  They want us to be afraid and cower before them, and they will resist submitting to Jesus, but they will have no choice, and if we know that, we will be victorious over them as well.

Randall Johnson

Who Is Jesus?, Jesus, Scourge of Demons

Jesus, the Bright Morning Star

What many people call the morning or evening star is actually a planet, usually Venus but sometimes Jupiter, Saturn, or Mars. When one of them appears close to the Sun as viewed from Earth, sunset or sunrise watchers are treated to starlike brilliance of one of our planetary neighbors, which may be brighter than any of the true stars in the night sky. The distinction between “morning” and “evening” simply refers to the time at which the planet is visible.

Due to the orbital motion of planets around the Sun, a planet might be a “morning star” at one time of the year, and then later, as its orbit carries it behind and then to the other side of the Sun, it appears as an “evening star.” [StarDate.org]

Jesus calls himself “the bright Morning Star” in Revelation 22:16.  Why?  We are helped by the context and the use of the star metaphor in other parts of Scripture.  In 22:16 Jesus also calls himself “the root and offspring of David.”  This signifies that he is the fulfillment of all the prophecies regarding David and the Messiah who would come from him.  David’s eternal kingdom has been inaugurated and is coming to completion with the coming of Jesus once again to earth.

In Balaam’s prophecy in Numbers 24:17 he says, “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.” And in Isaiah 60:1-3 we read, “”Arise, shine, for your light has come,  and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth  and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.  Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”

The morning star signals the dawn and the beginning of a new day.  Jesus identifies himself as the bright Morning Star in fulfillment of the prophecies of the coming Davidic kingdom that are all about to be fulfilled with his coming again to earth.  The process has started its completion and his coming will finish it.

Jesus is encouraging his church to hold on in the knowledge that he is coming and all that we have longed for will be realized with his coming.  Our hope is not in this world, or in what we get out of this world, but in the One who is coming to get us and make of us a new kingdom that will last forever and reflect His glory for ever and ever.

Randall Johnson

Who Is Jesus?, Jesus, the Bright Morning Star

Jesus, the Lion of Judah

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:1-5)

Way back in history, as recorded in Genesis 49:8-12, Jacob, the patriarch of the twelve sons who became the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel, prophesied about each of his sons right before his death.  When he spoke of his son Judah, he said this:

Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;  your father’s sons will bow down to you.  You are a lion’s cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness-who dares to rouse him?  The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. (Genesis 49-8-10)

Here he, Jacob, bequeaths to Judah the place of prominence among his brothers and predicts that from him will come the one who will rule over all Israel and indeed all nations in God’s kingdom.  Jesus, of course, was of the tribe of Judah and the family of David, the king of Israel from the tribe of Judah.  Judah is described by Jacob as a lion’s cub, a lion and an lioness in terms of his energy and ferocity.  Any enemies of Judah had better watch out.

So when John, the apostle begins to weep because there is no one to open the scroll of God’s judgment that must be poured out on all God’s enemies so that His people may be vindicated, John is told that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is worthy to open this scroll because he has triumphed.  Jesus is the ultimate offspring of Judah, the most terrifying of lions from that tribe, worthy and capable of pouring out God’s judgment on the whole earth.

When John looks he does not see a lion but a lamb that has been slain.  Jesus became ready to bring judgment by dying as a sacrifice for all who look to him to escape judgment.  The way has been paved for all to find grace instead of justice.  No one has an excuse to say there was no way out of paying the penalty.  But no one who has failed to embrace the sacrificed Lamb will be able to escape the fierce Lion of Judah.

If you do not know Jesus as the Lamb slain for you, if you have not laid your sins on his head and received his forgiveness for your rebellion against God’s ownership of your life, you will know the ferocity of the Lion who crouches in readiness and who dares not be roused.  Come to the Lamb and find life, not judgment.

Randall Johnson

Who Is Jesus?, Jesus, the Lion of Judah

Jesus the Lamb of God

I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:

   “You are worthy to take the scroll  and to open its seals, because you were slain,  and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:6-9) 

This rather bizarre picture focuses on one of the most important aspects of who Jesus is.  From the beginning of history God has been receiving animal sacrifices as a means to forgiveness.  Why such a gory method?  Well imagine that you are the sinner who has brought your unblemished lamb to God’s priest and you must reach a knife under its throat and slit it and allow the lamb to bleed out.  You have just laid your hands on the animal to transfer your guilt to it.  But how can this innocent animal take your guilt?  Why must such a gruesome and deadly act be done to acquire forgiveness?  What if you don’t transfer your guilt to the lamb?

By this means God has shown for millennia that the penalty for sin is an awful penalty – death.  The possibility of a sacrifice in one’s place is a divine reality.  I don’t have to pay the penalty for my sin myself if there is a suitable substitute for me.

And God has spoken through His prophets about one who will be our substitute.  Isaiah declares of the Servant of Yahweh (Isaiah 53:4-6),

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Then the day comes when another prophet of God, John the Baptist, declares when he passes Jesus (John 1:29),

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Jesus is worthy to open the sealed document containing God’s judgment on the world (Revelation 5) because he has paid the ultimate price for our disobedience.  He has become the sacrificial lamb for all who will accept his sacrifice.  For those who will not there is no one more able to say, “I gave you every chance and offered you a way out of this judgment by my own death.”  If we will but “lay our hands” on Jesus and transfer our guilt to him, he will take it.  It is our sin that has slain him.  God sees it and is satisfied with the perfect, spotless sacrifice of His Son, the Lamb without blemish.  You are forever forgiven (Hebrews 10:11-14),

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Randall Johnson

Who Is Jesus?, Jesus the Lamb of God

Jesus, the Alpha and Omega

Jesus was not part of a Greek fraternity, but if he had been it would have to be Alpha Omega.  These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and a title given to both God the Father (Revelation 1:8) and to Jesus (Revelation 22:13).  It is this last passage that defines the meaning of the symbol, alpha and omega.  Jesus says “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

For those of us who are used to thinking of Jesus as God, these words do not particularly stir our thinking or emotions.  But for those who were Jews, the idea of Jesus being the beginning and the end, the first and the last, was a notion they were used to attributing only to Yahweh.  In fact, in Isaiah 44:6, this is Yahweh’s way of identifying His uniqeness.  He is the first and the last.

For Gentiles, who were used to thinking of their gods as mostly dwelling in heaven and only occasionally coming down to earth to mess in the affairs of men, it was very strange to think of God taking on human nature, participating in both birth and, most embarrassingly, in death.  They would be equally offended by Jesus claiming to be the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

In so describing himself, Jesus is at once claiming to be Yahweh of the Old Testament, and yet a separate personage from the Father and the Spirit.  But because he and the Father and the Spirit share the same essence, each may legitimately be called God and be called the Alpha and the Omega.  Of each it may be said that they are the origin of all that is and the One who will bring all that is to its determined end.

Before anything existed, there was Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit, in the beginning (John 1:1), distinct individuals, yet one in essence, in perfect fellowship with each other and the authors of all that came to be.  Though during his earthly ministry Jesus purposely did not access his infinite knowledge (see Mark 13:32), once he ascended to heaven after his resurrection, he resumed participation in all the characteristics of deity, including infinite knowledge of all things from beginning to end.

So we have a Savior who is the author of all, the Creator God, who is at the same time in possession of a human nature just like us.  He has truly bridged the gap between us and God in his own person and made the way for us to have a saving relationship with God through his own sacrifice.  He is for us the beginning and the end of everything good in our lives.  He is the Alpha and the Omega.  What a fraternity of souls that is!

Randall Johnson

Who Is Jesus?, Jesus, the Alpha and Omega

Jesus as King

Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. (Matthew 27:37)

As a descendant of David with regard to his human nature, Jesus has the lineage and legal right to be a king over Israel.  Matthew’s genealogy in Matthew 1 is concerned to demonstrate that fact.  He is thus able to fulfill the prophecies that predict an eternal kingship for David’s offspring and predict a ruler who will bring Israel back to a place of favor and power with God among all the nations.

This is the kind of king Israel was expecting their Messiah to be.  When Jesus comes announcing that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, anticipations are that the oppressive rule of Rome will be thrown off and Israel will become the power broker in the mid-east.  But Jesus deliberately takes the edge off of that expectation.

In Luke 17 Jesus tells the Pharisees, when they want to know what the cosmic signs will be of the kingdom’s coming, that the kingdom in its present form is in their midst and is known by the lives it changes.  But then he tells his disciples that the future kingdom will come with quite impressive signs, but only after he, the king, first suffers and is rejected by the present generation.  There is a “now” aspect to the kingdom and a “coming” aspect to the kingdom.  Like when one company buys out another but only later begins to change out personnel, so the kingdom of God has come in Jesus the king, but all the expected changes are still in the future.

As king, Jesus requires full obedience and love.  “If you love me,” he told his disciples, “you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).  When we pray, as Jesus taught us, that God’s kingdom would come (Matthew 6:10) we are praying for Jesus to come (Revelation 22:20).  Paul tells us that he will deliver the kingdom over “to God the Father after destroying  every rule and every authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:24,25).

Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).  There is no one whose authority is above his, except God the Father.  His reign now is made most evident in our obedience.  We are subjects of this loving king who willing give our whole lives over to such a benevolent dictator.

O Worship the King!

Randall Johnson

Who Is Jesus?, Jesus the King

Jesus the Priest

Only those of the tribe of Levi and descendants of Aaron are allowed to be priests in Israel.  Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, the kingship tribe.  But a prophecy in Psalm 110 indicates that David’s son will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek (v.4).

Melchizedek was the king of Salem (original name for Jerusalem) and a “priest of God Most High” (Genesis 14:18).  After Abram’s rescue of his nephew Lot through a hard fought battle, Abram met Melchizedek (whose name means “king of righteousness”) and paid a tithe or tenth of the spoils of the battle to him. 

The author of Hebrews notes that no account is given of the birth or death of Melchizedek, which symbolizes his “eternal” priesthood, and notes that God would not have instituted a new priesthood order if the Aaronic priesthood had been sufficient to bring about eternal forgiveness.  Jesus is an eternal priest by the resurrection from the dead and he has presented his offering, himself, in the heavenly tabernacle after which the earthly one was modeled (see Hebrews 7-10).

Jesus is, therefore, the ultimate priest of Israel, and now for the whole world, who has the freedom now to sit down (Aaron and his offspring were not allowed to sit in the tabernacle) because his sacrifice, unlike the animal sacrifices, has perfected those cleansed by it forever.  No more sacrifice is needed.

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess” (Hebrews 4:14).  Jesus was tempted in every way like us but did not sin.  Therefore he is the perfect priest and the spotless sacrifice, who can both identify with our weaknesses and be our substitute.  Because he died, we don’t have to.  He has so thoroughly satisfied the righteous demands of God that we can come boldly to the throne of God and receive His grace and help whenever we need it.

Jesus, as priest, has ended the need for animal sacrifices forever, and the need for the Day of Atonement as a festival in Israel, and has cleansed us from a guilty conscience once and for all by his sacrifice.  He remains in heaven as our advocate (1 John 2:1) and constantly intercedes for us with the Father when Satan accuses us of sin (Revelation 12:10; Hebrews 7:25).

Randall Johnson

Who Is Jesus?, Jesus the Priest

Jesus the Prophet

“Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16:13,14)

Jesus did what a prophet did.  He spoke with the authority of God about areas where God’s people needed to repent and about future events in light of either their repentance or lack thereof.  Jesus filled the role of a prophet, a spokesman for God empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak the words of God.

Jesus’ main message is summed up in the early chapters of the Gospels:  “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!” (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15)  This was a message in very many ways similar to the message of the Old Testament prophets.  They too spoke of the kingdom coming, but they typically spoke of it in terms of the Day of the Lord, the day in which God would begin to judge the world in righteousness and establish His rule over the earth.  What was different about Jesus was that he was saying, “The Day of the Lord is here; the kingdom is here in the person of the king.”

Many of Jesus’ prophecies were about the need of the nation to repent.  He tells parables about the vineyard and the vineyard workers refusing to give the owner of the vineyard his due and the judgment the owner imposes (Matthew 21).  He speaks most directly about the need for repentance to the Pharisees in Matthew 23.  His cleansing of the temple (twice, John 2 the first time and Matthew 21, Mark 11 and Luke 19 the second time) was an indictment of the religious establishment and their failure to maintain justice even in the temple courts.

Jesus, of course, predicted the coming cataclysmic events of his second coming in Matthew 24 and 25, Mark 13 and Luke 21.  He also had knowledge about people and things no one could have unless the Spirit of God revealed it to him (for example, Mark 2:6-8; John 4:15-19).

Jesus was much more than a prophet, but that he was a prophet is without dispute.  Even Islam recognizes that he is a prophet from God.  A prophet must be obeyed.  Jesus is the prophet most worthy of being obeyed and loved.

Randall Johnson

Who Is Jesus?, Jesus the Prophet