Casting Pearls-Are YOU the follower that Jesus Loved?

The Apostle John often referred to himself as ‘the apostle (or Disciple) that Jesus loved’ . Why do you think he did so? If I was to go out to eat lunch with John Hagee and Billy Graham, I would refer to it as John Hagee, Billy Graham and the man that Jesus loved went out to eat lunch. So it was not really strange for John to refer to himself in that way. The real meaning behind that phrase is much deeper for us.

Love is what God wants us to show others and what He wants to show us as His love is unfathomable. When a High Priest presented the blood of the sacrifice for their sin to God in the Holy of Holies, God did not judge the people based on their sin or their sacrifice, He judged the High Priest who represented them. The good news for us is that we are being represented by the most perfect and Holiest High Priest it is possible to be represented by; the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His blood and His sacrifice that God judges for us.

This, by no means, is an excuse for us to sin. Jesus has already paid for everything we have done or are going to do, but this is not so that we could go on living our sinful lives, It is so we could have a second chance, a new start to get it closer to right. When we got ‘saved’ we were indwelled by the Holy Spirit that influences us to do what is right in all circumstances. We have to train ourselves to listen to the Holy Spirit and not the world around us, as it says in Romans 12:2, ‘be not conformed to the world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.’ 

Paul tried to explain this to the believers in Galatians 2:17-21 that they were not found to be acceptable before God due to their works in the flesh. You can’t pray, read the Bible, feed enough poor people, or heal enough sick people to make yourself acceptable to God. You have to be DEAD to the flesh and alive in Christ Resurrected with Him and letting the Holy Spirit live inside you. We are dead to being judged under the law, we are made acceptable to God by Jesus.

The Bible, God’s Word, says that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. We have to accept his forgiveness to get that forgiveness. In Luke 15:3-10, Jesus told His followers and those who listened, the parable of the lost sheep, Saying that if there was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep and just One wandered away, would the shepherd not leave the ninety nine alone to go look for the one, and having found it would he not put it on his shoulders and carry it back? The shepherd would then call all his friends together to have a big party to celebrate the one being found and returning to the group. Did the shepherd not go look for it, find it, carry it back, have a party for it’s return? What did the sheep do to get itself back to the flock? All it really did was agree to return. It did not run away from the shepherd when he came up to it. He consented to be picked up and carried back. We are the sheep and Jesus is the Good Shepherd who brings us back, all we have to do is accept that He will take us back to being able to have the relationship we want with God. The Holy Spirit indwelling  us leads us to do the good works and profess Jesus to the world.

Casting Pearls- Denial...

We start in Mark 14:66-72 where Peter, who has followed Jesus to the courtyard of Caiaphus the chief priest and was behind their faux arrest and trial of Jesus. Peter, who has followed with Jesus as He was led to the courtyard, stood outside the door to the courtyard. Peter was seen by the servant girl that stood by the gate and she said in “are you not one of His disciples?”. Peter quickly denied it, then went over to stand with the officers of the guard and the servants at a fire of coals they had made. 

Then we go to where Peter is again accused of being with Jesus by the servants and officers standing around the fire with him. Peter denies this as well. Shortly afterwards a servant who is related to the guard that Peter’s sword had cut off the mans ear, accuses Peter of being a friend of Jesus, again Peter denies Jesus though this time with cursing and swearing. Soon after that a cock crows and reminds Peter of the prophesy Jesus had made, and he saw Jesus being led away from the courtyard and when Jesus looked at him, Peter ran away in tears for what he had done.

Now, There are four different words in the Greek language that are translated as love, the one we most commonly think of is Agape love, which is a deep love for someone that loves them even though they don’t deserve to be loved by us. The person may even be mean to us, but we still love them. This type of love is the type most commonly associated with Jesus or God. 

The second type is eros, or physical love between people, this kind is never mentioned in the New Testament.  The third type of love is phillia which is a mental love or an affection due to friendship or family status. This type is found in the New Testament. The fourth kind is storg, which is better translated as affection, however it is a natural affection like someone would have for the family dog or pet of some kind. 

After all that Peter had seen and been told by the others, and  having denied and betrayed Jesus that way, and having lost to death the only one who could have been the messiah. Peter was very dejected. He was really upset at how his Lord had been betrayed by Judas and the Priests, and put to death, as well as how he had denied Jesus just to save himself. Jesus rose again from the grave on that sunday, the first day of the week, and after that, the disciples and the followers of Jesus, met together to honor the first day of the week, Sunday, and they fellow-shipped. That is where the sunday worship service came from. 

Having seen Jesus a few times and being told by Him that a helper would come in His place, Peter was thinking Jesus would not be back for some time. Getting bored with waiting, he and the other disciples decided to go fishing. After being out fishing all night, which was the best time to catch something, the disciples had decided to give up and come in. when they approached the shore, they saw a man cooking a fish and some bread on a fire. Just as Jesus had done when Peter had first been called, the man called out for the disciples to try casting the net on the right side of the ship. The net was so full of fish they couldn’t pull it up. Peter then asked John if he thought it might be the Messiah Jesus. Hearing from John that he also thought it was Jesus, Peter didn’t wait for the boat to get to shore, and jumped in and swam to the shore.

Jesus was waiting for them with a fish and some bread he offered them, then they cooked some of the fish they had caught and Jesus ate with them. This was the third time Jesus had shown Himself to them, and he ate some fish and bread with them. Once they had dined, Jesus asked Peter, “do you Love(agape)me? 

Peter said back”Yes Lord you know I Love(phillas) you”. once again Jesus asked Peter, “Do you Love(agape)me?”, and once again Peter answered Yes Lord, you know I Love(phillas) you” and a third time Jesus asked, Do you Love(Phillas)me? and Peter answered again “Lord you know that I Love(Phillas)you. After each question, Jesus said to Peter, “Go feed my sheep” 

For the three times Peter had denied Jesus, Jesus had restored him to good standing by telling him three times to go feed Jesus’ sheep, and asking him three times if he loved Him. Then the Lord Jesus told Peter the way in which he would die in service to the Lord. Peter knew from what Jesus told him that he would suffer for Christ and he gladly went ahead and worshiped Jesus openly. 

Casting Pearls- In the Beginning Part 2

After six days god decided to take the Seventh day off and rest, God even commanded Adam to take the Seventh Day off to rest from whatever work he was doing. This became a regular thing for Adam and Eve to do. So on the Seventh Day, God and everyone rested and did nothing.

Now to go into more depth of how Adam and Eve were made, the next chapter of Genesis delves deeper into the facts surrounding God’s creation. In Genesis 2:5-6 the Bible explained how God had caused the mist from the seas and the land itself to water the plants so it never had to rain. The dust of the ground was gathered together by God to make the form of Man and then God breathed life into the dust and named the first man Adam, A garden was made by God with all the trees and plants in it that were good for food to Adam, and God placed Adam in it to care for it. In the middle of the garden were two trees, one the tree of life, the other the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam was warned by God that there was only one rule, never eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He was warned that the day you eat of it, you will surely cease to exist. Now, that was a very scary thought to Adam, so he had a heathy fear of that tree. 

At some time after Adam had been created, God had all the animals pass before Adam, and had Adam name them. The names we call them are based on these names Adam gave them. After a time God made Adam a helpmate to give him some company and help in caring for the Garden of Eden, when God was not around. SO Genesis says in verse 21 that God caused Adam to go into a deep sleep so he wouldn’t feel anything, and took a rib out of Adam. From that rib, God created a helper for Adam, and Adam named her Eve. She is of the opposite sex to Adam so when they joined together they might reproduce and replenish the earth as God had told them. 

Adam said in verse 23 that she was from him, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. To this day, man has one less rib than woman to help us remember that we need something to make us whole.We as men need a helpmate to make us whole in our life. Now, this is not to say that man has to have a woman to be whole. It is better for a man if he can be alone and have no yearnings for a mate. If a man does not have to take into account how an action will affect someone other than just himself, it will be easier for him to do things.If he has a mate, then he must take into account how she will be affected as well, when making a decision. 

In the third chapter of Genesis, we see the fall from goodness and innocence of men. The devil, another word for Lucifer, was allowed into the Garden by inhabiting the serpent. Even back then, Lucifer knew how to use another persons body by taking it over and possessing it. The serpent was just another animal allowed in the garden with Adam and Eve. It was fitting that Lucifer possessed a serpent because as the Bible says, it was more cunning or subtle than any of the other beasts of the field. 

This is also where some people are at odds as to how the serpent was used by Lucifer or if he was used by one of the Demons, Fallen angels that fell with Lucifer, and was used by him or actually did this alone. I believe that he was possessed by a demon and used by the demon. Unfortunately the Serpent received the blame for doing wrong, maybe so God could put him in the place he wanted him in the first place.

If we were approached by an animal that spoke to us we would immediately know that something was wrong, but as I said, Adam and Eve were both newly created and innocent. The serpent approached the woman, as the man had a direct relationship with God and would be harder to fool. The serpent, Satan, misrepresented how God had told them not to eat from the tree of Knowledge of good and evil and after Eve told him what God had told Adam, Which she did not repeat correctly, though only one person had come between her and God, since she added to what He said, that God said not even to touch it. This was to show us that even with only one person between the original speaker and us the saying can and will change. 

Satan, as the serpent, told Eve that if she ate of that tree, she would not die that same day, he told her that God wanted to keep Adam and Eve from becoming as intelligent as God by not letting them eat from that tree. Eve’s pride and selfishness had her go ahead and as she saw that the fruit if that tree looked good, she picked and ate. After Eve ate of the tree, she offered it to Adam, who was right there the whole time and he ate it as well. 

Some people try to blame the woman for the original sin of man, but as we see in Genesis 3:6 Adam was right there with her, heard all the serpent had to say and never objected to any of it. Satan took advantage of the innocence of Adam and Eve and had them sin against God by eating of the tree. 

God was all knowing so he knew what had happened, but wanted Adam to admit it himself so as to see if Adam was truly repentant of his sin. God came to walk with Adam as He normally did in the cool part of the day, and called to Adam when he didn’t appear. Adam finally came out and admitted to God that he knew he was naked and when God said so you have sinned and eaten of the tree I said not to eat from, Adam started to blame God for giving him the woman and that he was only doing what she did. 

This is why there is a order that God instituted like umbrellas of different sizes. The largest is held by God, the next largest is held by the man, next largest is the woman’s and the smallest is the children’s. The children will be sheltered from this world as long as they stay beneath their parent’s umbrellas. The woman and her children will both stay safe from the rain of sin in this world as long as they reside under the husband. They will all stay safe from the sin in this world by staying under the shelter of the umbrella of God. This is the natural organization of things.

God had to punish sin, so He went down the list of who had done wrong. When God asked the woman what had happened, she blamed everything on the serpent. God started with the serpent, He said to the serpent, that he would have to move around on his stomach and be right where the dirt of the earth would get in its mouth all it’s days. The Lord went on and said, that he would make the serpent to be at odds with the woman and her offspring all their days. He said the serpent would bruise her heal and her offspring would bruise the serpent’s head. Showing how the man and the serpent would be at odds for all time. There are many people who say, still today, that the only good snake is a dead snake.

God then went on to the Woman and said that from now on she would have troubles with discomfort in carrying and bearing children. It was also at this time that God made  the husband to be the head over the woman, not because she needed someone to lead her, but because the man,Adam, should have known better than to have let her fall for the lies the serpent told her. He was to be her protection from the sin in this world. 

The man Adam actually received the worst of all punishments though, he was made to toil in the ground and hunt wild animals, as well as deal with serpents nipping at his heels, and a woman that he had to protect and provide for. God cursed the earth to make thorns and thistles come up wherever the man planted vegetables to come up and that he would have to struggle hard to make food for them to eat.God then killed some of the animals to fashion garments of skin for them to wear, and thereby the  first man brought death into the world. 

The serpent, or Satan, twisted the truth, or spun the story to make it appear how he wanted it to so he would be telling the truth while still lying. When satan told Eve that if she ate the fruit, she would not die that same day, he was telling the truth from her point of view. She and Adam did not die that day as Eve saw days. A day to God is as a thousand years the scriptures say in Psalms and in 2 Peter. 

Casting Pearls- Reasons

There is a reason that I find myself writing these articles, I feel the urgent need to communicate the Gospel of Jesus to a lost and dying world that needs to find Jesus before it is too late. I am  unsure as to how my articles might find their way into the hands of someone who needs their encouragement, but how is up to God. The why is still up to me. It is the same in our lives, we are given tasks by the Lord and others, if we do them we will receive a reward, if we don’t we get left out. I feel the urgency to do all I can to influence the people toward Christ before it becomes too late.

The signs of the times continue to come faster and faster as we drop lower and lower in our evil and contemptuous ways. The world around us grows darker and darker as we go. As with a tunnel, there is a light up ahead. I am attempting to help people keep moving toward the light, and not stop where they are and give up. One of the tricks that Satan uses is depression. We can become discouraged and depressed by the things around us. Instead, I am encouraged by the fact that it shows we don’t have long to suffer in this world. Some might say that I am suicidal and want to die, while it is true that I find the idea of dying and getting to be with Jesus appealing, I do not wish to hasten that happening. If my time comes, then I will not be afraid as it is no longer the great unknown. 

  Many people think that when you die, thats it, you are finished right there. I believe that it is only the beginning of the great forever. We have the right to choose where we will spend forever. Personally I  believe that there is only one way to Heaven, Though faith in Jesus Christ and His blood being shed for us. If we profess Him before others, as I am doing here, and have faith in Him to save, He will. What gets me is that it is a free gift out there for all to accept, but many don’t want to accept it because the world has taught them that if they do, they will have to give up too much of what they have. The thing is that what we have, is going to stay here when we die. One of my favorite quotes is, ‘You have never seen a moving van in a funeral procession, have you?’.

The world is simply some dust that the Lord once formed into something and all things we have, including the computer I’m using right now, and the one you are on is made from the same dust. It has been formed together by our hands, but is still just dust. All the things that we fight over are nothing more than dust, the money, the oil, the land, the many various things we fight and have wars over are nothing more than the dust of the earth. The only thing in them that is truly important is the life of a person. That is why I feel led to tell people about the only way they can save themselves. When we have a war over one of these things, we endanger the people involved, over dust!

We can continue fighting over things, foolishly, or we can recognize things for what they are, DIRT. Is dirt more important than someone's life? NO. We suffer and struggle in our lives collecting and preserving dirt! We fight and have wars protecting and preserving the rights we have to our dirt! When we we realize that there is no dirt that is worth fighting for. 

Some people may say, ‘ we are fighting for ideas, not just dirt.’ The thing is these ideas will not trump the one Ideal of Jesus. The one Ideal of eternal life. The one Ideal of the one true God. When you leave this place, what ideas will you take with you? What ideas will you make so important that another person won’t change them to what they believe? In Genesis 3:3 Adam had told Eve not to eat of the tree of Knowledge. When Eve was talking with the serpent, she told him they were not to eat of that tree, much less even touch it. God never said that anywhere in the scriptures. Eve just changed the idea to her beliefs. Are your ideas more important than God’s

That is the biggest problem with the world around us, we have made IT more important than God Himself. We have twisted and changed God’s words into what we believe instead of the ideas that God put forth to man.  Test everything you hear and see against the word of the Lord and the truth will come out eventually. 

Casting Pearls- Is God Mean?

                      God has been accused by many of being a murderous and violent God. Much of the Bible would seem to back up that claim. Only in the writings of the New Testament do we see God referred to as a God of Love not of violence. God has not changed, only the covenant between God and man has changed. We see if we look at the beginning in Genesis 1: 31 that God saw everything He had made and it was VERY GOOD. There is no record of the time between then and when Satan came into the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve and Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, but we know that he did. from that point, because of the sin of man, death came into the world.

                     First, Adam and Eve began dying and from that point neither of them, or anyone else, lived more than a thousand years. that leads us to the scripture found in Psalms 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 that explains that to God a day is as a Thousand Years. It also brings us to the first death in God’s creation, in Genesis 3:21. God had to Kill some animals to make Adam and Eve coats of skins to wear. That later led to more death. The original coats that God made them wore out and became smelly from their own sweat and body emanations and I’m sure, they had to kill again to keep themselves in clothes.

                    From there it was not very far down for them to go and kill another human as we see in Genesis 4:8. The debauchery of man continued from there to spiral downward. As time went on, man continued to disobey the commands of God and death became more and more widespread. When God made a covenant between Himself and Abraham, He instituted the death and sacrifice of an animal to be the death that would take away the sins we had and make us clean again in the eyes of God. The sin that was passed down to us from Adam and Eve, could only lead to death, so it could only be delayed by death.

                     Afterwards, the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites, would again and again disobey God’s commands and intermarry with the other nations who worshiped false gods, against God’s will. God’s judgement would be brought down against these other peoples, and also against Israel, after great delays in God’s judgement futility hoping that the Israelites and the other nations would turn away from the error of their ways. God instead of showing how condemning He was, showed us time and again how forgiving He was. God kept everyone from the result of their sins as long as He possibly could. 

                    During all this time God tried to help us to keep from killing by showing us how to use plants instead of animals for covering or nakedness and protecting ourselves from the elements. Our sin, however, called for death to delay the consequences. As humans, we were the ones who created this problem, and God was the only one who could help us find a way out of the problem with sin that we created.

                    God finally made a New Covenant with man through the sacrifice that was above all before, His Son, Jesus Christ. The covenant God made with us is spelled out for us in the New Testament. It is summed up in John 3:16-17. Where God’s own son tells us that He came to be that sacrifice as the only human that never sinned and was clean enough for God to accept as a sacrifice for us, because God loved all of us so much, that He was willing to let His own son become the ‘scape goat’ that would take on ALL the sins of man and bring forgiveness to us all. As the verses say, Jesus came not to condemn the world, but that through Him it might find a way to be saved from itself. 

                   

                   All that we need do now is to accept the free gift that God has offered us. Death was brought to earth by mans sin. That sin must be covered up by the forgiving blood of Jesus Christ for us to be able to commune again with God as Adam did. Ultimately, WE are the ones that are the reason for the death and evil in the world, and God has done more than we could ever ask, in giving His own Son to be the sacrifice through His own death for the sin WE brought into this world. All we need do is accept the FREE gift god has offered us.