Jesus Christ

Book Review : 1000 Days

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Jonathan Falwell, son of the late Dr. Jerry Falwell, has written a new book entitled, 1000 Days; The Ministry of Christ. This book takes a chronological look at the three and a half years of Jesus’ earthly ministry leading up to His death and resurrection. The focus of the book is more than just the facts that Jesus came and died. 1000 Days focuses on what Jesus did while on earth. Falwell draws the reader into the personal and public ministry of Christ as it was directed toward others. Jesus’ preaching, teaching, and healing are highlighted to show that Jesus came to impact the lives of people, and this care for all people was in stark contrast to the Jewish religious leadership of the day.

One of the things I appreciated about the book is that direction that Falwell chose to address Christ’s 1000 days. This direction can be summed up in the word “intentional”. Jesus was intentional and did everything with a specific purpose in mind. Falwell explains Jesus’ purpose  in everything from why Jesus chose the disciples that He did, to the timing of His miracles and confrontations with the Pharisees and other leaders, to the language and wording of His teachings. All of these were for a specific purpose. Falwell’s use of Greek word study throughout the book captures the truest sense of what Jesus spoke to the people He came to minister to. 1000 Days is a great read for both long-time Christians and new believers as well. This book is not a complicated read, nor is an exhaustive account of every action of Jesus Christ. The personal stories in each chapter are relatable to the topic at hand and introduce specific actions. Each chapter contains study questions that enable this book to be used a good small-group resource. This book will be well worth your time.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Missing God’s Visit

/ Steven Ruff / 3 Comments

Palm Sunday, The Triumphal Entry, is a day of visitation. As Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, we see one last applaud from the Father meant to spur Jesus on for the days to come.  Jesus knew that His disciples would desert Him. He knew the crowds shouting His praise on Sunday would be shouting for His death on Friday. Luke gives us a glimpse of the sadness that was on the heart of Jesus.

 Luke 19:42 “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes”

 What sad words. Regret and remorse heavy on his mind and heart. The people of Jerusalem missed what God wanted to do through them. They were making big business out of religion, while trying to manufacture peace. Amid the sadness, Jesus gives a sobering picture of what was in the store for the city of Jerusalem.

Luke 19:43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another

The foretold events would happen less than fifty years later. Luke records the reason why, “because you did not know the time of your visitation.” The people of Jerusalem missed God. What causes a person to miss God’s visit? What leads a person to overlook God’s plans? How does a person miss God when He speaks to them? I think there are at least three ways in which we can miss God’s visitation.

1. Pre-conceived ideas causes us to miss God’s visit. The people had already figured out what their Savior was to be. They pictured a social upheaval and a revolutionary. They pictured a mighty hero that was reminiscent of an OT judge. They were wrong. When the Savior come, He proposed a heart revolution, a changing of the inside, which would eventually change the world. They missed it .Today people miss Him because they figure He should take all their pain away, but He doesn’t. People miss Him because they think His followers should all be just like Him, which we aren’t. People miss Him because they think that a dying Savior is weak, but in reality brokenness leads to being filled with his strength.

2. Pride causes us to miss God’s visit. Who likes to change? Who enjoys being told they are wrong? The crowds did not, we don’t either. We are a most prideful people. When we reject the message because it’s unpleasant, we miss out on God’s purpose for coming to us. He came to us to change us from the inside out. However, a life that refuses to admit it needs changing will always miss God’s visitation. Agreeing with God about our sin is the first step to forgiveness and recovery.

3. Activity causes us to miss God’s visit. People are busy. We are in a hurry going from here to there, not really knowing why, and at times, not really wanting to go. Our calendars are full. Our days are filled with activity.  The people of Jerusalem were going about their daily activities, not realizing what was happening in their presence. If we never squeeze some moments into our day with the express purpose of spending with God, we’ll dry up. Along with activity comes noise. Silence is a premium. We must pursue the quiet life in order to hear God. Think for a moment of the noise coming from the crowds that surrounded Jesus as He made His way into Jerusalem, and beyond. I’ve often wondered how a person could go from shouting commendation to shouting condemnation in a week. To go from love to hate in 5 days. How sad are Jesus’ words in v.44. Let’s not miss Him. I’m reminded of the words from Casting Crown’s song entitled “While You Were Sleeping”.

Oh little town of Jerusalem
Looks like another silent night
The Father gave His only Son
The Way, the Truth, the Life had come
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save
Jerusalem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
The Savior of the world is dying on your cross today
Jerusalem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping

Let’s not miss Him.

Book Review : Nearing Home

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I recently finished Billy Graham’s new book, “Nearing Home; Life, Faith, and Finishing Well”. Billy Graham has been one of my favorite preachers, authors, and examples for many, many years. “Nearing Home”, in my opinion, was primarily written for, and directed toward, older adults. This is not a book of theology. In it you will not find the major doctrines of the Bible discussed and debated. Instead, it is a book of wisdom, advice, and encouragement written by a man who is staring the effects of old age squarely in the face. He writes with grace. It is this same grace that has marked his life as a servant of God, and it is the same grace that enables him to deal with poor health and other life-changing decisions. “Nearing Home” deals with the subject of aging, while practically dealing with subjects such as wills, retirement, and finances. Graham reminds the reader that our God-given purpose is not over until life itself is over.

 “Nearing Home” helps the reader learn how to take hold of God’s will for your life, lean on God when loved ones are lost, navigate life-changing transitions, and biblically deal with fear. The book falls into ten chapters. It does not have the standard feel and structure. Instead, this book takes on a conversational format;  mingled with scripture and personal stories.  This is a simple read written by a man who has given his life to the single purpose of honoring God and leading others to do the same. He encourages and inspires the reader to face the uncertain future with the certainly of Jesus Christ. A quote that inspired me is this one: “The most eloquent prayer is the prayer through hands that heal and bless. The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless.”  “Nearing Home” is well worth your time.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

Worth Repeating

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“There never was another Who caused all creation to be ransacked in pursuit of words appropriate to convey to human hearts and minds His glorious pre-eminence. There never was another Who was a human child and also a divine Son; Who was wounded by Satan and Who, at the same time crushed Satan; Who was appointed the Savior of men, yet was crucified by men; Who was Judge of men; yet was led as a felon from one tribunal to another.

There never was another Who died and was buried and yet lived; Who saved others and Himself could not save; Who had no sin in Him, yet all sin on Him; Who was the King of Glory, yet wore no crown but a crown of thorns; Who, in the glory He had with God before the world was, had the angelic hails of heaven and yet, on earth, gave Himself to the murderous nails of men!

There never was another Who was the Prince of life, yet died on Calvary; Who was as old as His heavenly Father and ages older than His earthly mother. There never was another Who was the victim of a Roman cross and victor at a Jewish grave.

There never was another Who poured all seas, all lakes, all rivers out of the crystal chalices of eternity, yet on a cross said with a mouth hot like a parched desert that cries for rain, ‘I thirst’”.

R. G. Lee, speaking of Jesus Christ

Worth Repeating

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“The great truths which the apostles declared were that Christ had risen from the dead, and that only through repentance from sin, and faith in Him, could men hope for salvation. This doctrine they asserted with one voice, everywhere, not only under the greatest discouragements, but in the face of the most appalling terrors that can be presented to the mind of man.

Their master had recently perished as a malefactor, by the sentence of public tribunal. His religion sought to overthrow the religions of the whole world. The laws of every country were against the teachings of His disciples. The interests and passions of all the rulers and great men in the world were against them. The fashion of the world was against them.

Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, they could expect nothing but contempt, opposition, revilings, bitter persecutions, stripes, imprisonments, torments, and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate; and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay, rejoicing.

As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only prosecuted their work with increased vigor and resolution. The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths which they asserted and these motives were pressed upon their attention with the most melancholy and terrific frequency. It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.”

 

Dr. Simon Greenleaf, Harvard Royall Professor of Law from A Treatise on the Law of Evidence

Worth Repeating : David Platt

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“There is a spiritual battle presently raging for the souls of billions of men and women around the world. The scope of this spiritual battle is universal. It covers and comprises every tongue, tribe, language, nation, person, and people group. There is no place on this earth where this war is not being waged.

The stakes in this spiritual battle are eternal. There is a true God over this world who desires all people to experience everlasting joy in heaven. There is a false god in this world who desires all people to experience everlasting suffering in hell. The enemy in this spiritual battle is formidable. He is like a lion looking for his kill, and he is dead set on defaming God’s glory and destroying God’s people. Where the church exists, he works to draw us in through temptation and discourage us in trial. He lures us with possessions and prosperity, and he lulls us to sleep with comforts and complacency. He deceives, deters, and distracts the church from knowing the wonder of Christ and declaring the worth of Christ to the ends of the earth.

Meanwhile, he holds thousands of unreached people groups captive through deceptive philosophies, hollow worldviews, and false religions. These people groups are virtually untouched by the gospel of the glory of God, and this is where the adversary’s stronghold exists. Any Christian and any church that desires to proclaim the gospel among the unreached people groups of the world can expect to be met with the full force of hell in the process.”

David Platt,  from the foreword of “Spiritual Warfare and Missions” by Jerry Rankin and Ed Stetzer

Memorial Day 2011

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Memorials are a familiar concept in our society today. It is human nature to want to mark-off significant events in our lives in such a way as to remember them for a lifetime. We see physical monuments constructed at the sites of tragedy, where there is great losses of life. We also see physical monuments constructed at the sites of triumph, where there is significant human accomplishment. Upon the death of a loved one, family members may leave memorial gifts in order to remember and celebrate the causes and passions their loved one cared so much about. God’s Word reinforces this concept of remembrance. Upon the crossing of the Jordan River, a symbol of entering a new phase of God’s plan for Israel, Joshua made the following statement in Joshua 4:4-7, “Then Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe;  and Joshua said to them: “Cross over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’  Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.”

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance. It is a day set aside to remember our service men and women down through the centuries who have given their lives in the pursuit of the freedoms that we as Americans enjoy today. Today should be a day when we stop and reflect on the sacrifices of those who held our values and principles high enough to lay down their lives for. The sacrifices of our military are great. They are selfless and humble. Their lives remind us of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us. He willingly gave His life for those who may never appreciate or embrace it. John 15:13 tell us, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”. Take time today to remember and reflect on those whose lives were given for our freedom and for the Life that was given for our redemption.

Worth Repeating : Billy Graham

/ Steven Ruff / 3 Comments

“What does it mean to be born again? It is not just a remodeling job, performed somehow by us on ourselves. Today we hear a lot about recycling, reconstruction, and reshaping. We renovate houses and add on more rooms. We tear down old buildings and build new ones in our cities, calling it urban renewal. Millions and millions of dollars are spent every year on health spas, beauty resorts, and exotic cosmetics – all by people hoping to reshape their faces or renew their bodies.

 In like manner, people frantically pursue all sorts of promised cures for the renewal of their inner lives. Some people hunt for renewal at the psychiatrist’s office. Others search for spiritual renewal in exotic oriental religions or processes of inward meditation. Still others seek for inner peace and renewal in drugs and alcohol. Whatever the path, however, they eventually come to a dead end. Why? Simply because man cannot renew himself. God created us. Only God can recreate us. Only God can give us the new birth we so desperately want and need.”

Billy Graham, How To Be Born Again, 1977

Worth Repeating

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The church can, at times, communicate the need for change in peoples’ lives, and it ends up understood as some low-level therapeutic moralistic deism where a faraway God makes your life better and makes you a better person. But that is not the gospel. We don’t want to produce good religious people. We see what becomes of good religious people from the encounters Jesus had with the Pharisees. God wants–as should we–to see people transformed at a spiritual level rather than a behavioral level. Though often thought of in the same sense as a New Year’s resolution, transformation does not come from decisions made on January 1. Instead, it comes from re-creation, the re-creation that comes from new life in Christ. The change people need most is not in their circumstances, but in themselves. It is not the ability to try harder, but it is a life entrusted to Jesus. So, when you hear change, translate it to mean “gospel change.” It is not the same thing as trying harder; in fact, there is no trying involved. Transformation occurs not because we “do,” but because Christ has “done.” “

Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research

FIFS : Romans 8:31-39

/ Steven Ruff / 1 Comment

31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32. He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33. Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36. As it is written:   “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”   37. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39. nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I believe the eighth chapter of Romans is perhaps the single most encouraging and uplifting chapter for the believer in the entire Bible. It begins with “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” and ends with “nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” and the middle part gives us the reasons why. In v.31, Paul asks a question, “What then shall we say to these things?” What are the “things” he spoke of? Here are a few.

1. According to Romans 8:1, we enjoy redemption. Through Christ we stand forgiven and our sin penalty has been paid.

2. According to Romans 8:6, we enjoy victory. Christ gives the believer the victory over the carnal nature that is opposed to everything Christ stands for.

3. According to Romans 8:14-15, we enjoy adoption. Being led and controlled by the Holy Spirit, the believer is no longer an enemy of God, rather now adopted into the family of God.

4. According to Romans 8:16-17, we enjoy assurance. In the low times of life when Satan casts doubt upon our salvation, the Holy Spirit bears witness that through the difficulty we are His.

5. According to Romans 8:26-27, we enjoy intercession. Ever felt like praying but were so burdened that words could not be found? The Holy Spirit hears our heart and speaks for us to the Father.

6. According to Romans 8:28, we enjoy a promise. This verse is for believers. All things in life that happen to us may not be fun, enjoyable, or painless. However, because of our relationship with Christ, “for those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” all things that happen to us can be used by God to bring about good in our lives.

Our enjoyment and possession of these “things” should motivate us to share the gospel message. Do the lost not need redemption? They have sin that Jesus died for. Do the lost not need victory? Without Christ, they will always be slaves to the flesh. Do the lost not need adoption? They will remain outside the family, enemies, until Christ brings them in. Do the lost not need intercession? They have no avenue to approach the Father without Jesus Christ. What will we do?