Casting Pearls- Do you think you are worthy of God's Love?

    In the Bible story of the Israelites and Moses in the biblical book of Exodus in the Old Testament, the Israelites were taken out of the only life they had ever known, SLAVERY, to become a nation of their own, In total and complete control of themselves. This is why The Lord saw fit to give them the law. Ten commandments plus about four hundred rules that explained the different Commandments of God. These rules were important for the people of Israel since they had been told how to live and what to do by their slave masters before.
        The original people of Israel that came out of Egypt were punished by God for making the golden calf to worship at the base of Mount Sinai while waiting for the Ten Commandments of God. They were made to wander in the wilderness for forty more years, the amount of time for a generation to live and die, before being allowed to enter the promised land. The only people who were alive at the time the Ten Commandments were given to the People of Israel were Joshua and Caleb, the only spies that entered the Promised Land previously and believed the Lord that the people of Israel could actually take over the land.
        The Christians of the world are just like the Israelites. They take forty years to make what should have been a seven day journey. It has become a regular thing for people to take forty years or better for us to learn the little lessons The Lord is attempting to teach us. We spend each day focusing on how things affect ourselves instead of how what we do affects others.
        Put your hand in front of your face, you will not see the things that are happening in the area behind or around your hand. As long as you focus only on what you wish to see, or just what is right in front of your face, you will be blinded to the things happening in the world around you.         This is how the Devil works. He gets you focused on what is in front of you, uses your own desire to make yourself of chief importance he then takes things in the world around you and molds them to his plan while you are not watching. You could see it if the things of importance to only you were not what is directly in front of you blocking your view of what is around you.
        If we look at some of the songs we sing in Church and Church groups on a regular basis, we see the words of things we say we should do but never really do. In the song “I Surrender All” we see the words ‘ All to Jesus, I Surrender, All to Him I freely give’. Do we really give ALL to Jesus, or freely give Him ALL things? How often do we say it but still don’t do it ourselves? We are great at telling others what to do but terrible at doing them ourselves. Before those who may know me say what about you, let me say when you point at someone, you have three more fingers pointing back at yourself. When I tell you these things I am preaching three times as much to myself as I am to you.
        How often do we let the little annoyances and problems of this life to prevent us from giving our ALL to the ministry of telling the world about Jesus. The Gospel means, “the Good News”, and we need to spread the good news of Jesus Saving Grace to the world. John 3:16 says that “God so loved the WORLD” and by the word WORLD the verse means mankind. Don’t you think you are worthy of the love God is Giving to You?

Casting Pearls- Is it really Christmas season?

As we look at the birth of Jesus, and the surrounding events, we wonder, what were the people thinking? Coming up on the Christmas season people begin to think more on Jesus’ birth and life. There are some facts taken for granted by the populace that have no evidence to back them up. This article will discuss some of them as well as bringing out some of the things the characters might have been thinking at the time. 

First we must look at the date of Christ’s Birth, December 25th. Why do you think we celebrate Jesus’ Birth then? The date was set by the early Catholic Church to have christian believers have something to openly celebrate at the same time the pagans were celebrating their sun god. The date set for the celebration of the sun god was December 25th, from almost the beginning of their religion. The first sun god was Nimrod of Babylon, who had a son by his wife, supposedly after his death, who became the sun god in his place. His wife, the sun goddess, began the worship of her son on December 25th, the date of his death by a wild boar, which is where the eating of ham on Christmas came from. 

The Queen’s name was Semiramus, and she claimed her husband was the sun god after his death, and that she became pregnant by the suns rays with his son who became the new sun god. Nimrod was the grandson of Noah and went against continuing to worship God the Creator, much as his father Cush had. Eventually he was put to death for his actions and his body was cut into pieces that were sent to various capitals as a tool to show what would happen to those who went against God the Father. Semiramus escaped from the people who killed Nimrod and had her son in Babylon, and started her sun worshipping group there.One of the things they would do is sacrifice their children to the sun god and some of their followers began dying eggs in the blood of the children to commemorate the queen mothers supposed arrival in Babylon in an egg in the river Euphrates. This was how Easter started, but lets get back to Christmas. 

Next we must look at the story told in Luke of the shepherds and the manger in the barn. The fact that Jesus had to be born in a lowly barn surrounded by animals and laid in a manger(feeding trough) and have his arrival announced to some lowly shepherds instead of the leaders and Kings he deserved, showed just how far down God was willing to stoop to reach the people He loved and cared for. Mary and Joseph new the time of Jesus birth was soon and Joseph was frantic as he searched for someplace for Mary to have the baby. After all his searching, the only place he found was a barn that a inn owner let him and Mary stay in as it was the only place he had left that had not been taken as there was a large crowd there for the festival of Temples that was going on as well as a counting of the people by Caesar Agustus. 

This place and the shepherds being called to witness His birth, were just more signs of how low God was willing to go to save men from themselves. Later in  Matthew we are told of Wise Men (Astrologers), from a far away country, who saw by signs in the heavens that a King was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea. These Wise men took some time arriving at the place where Jesus was born so they never visited the barn or the manger because as we see in Matthew, they found Jesus with His mother Mary living in a house.They were unsure of where to find Him when they arrived, so they went to King Herod to find Jesus. In Luke 2:11 it is said they came unto the House where Jesus was and found Him, His mother and Joseph. They were visited in an angel in their dreams that warned them from going back to King Herod as he asked them to feigning that he wished to go worship the child himself. Herod Knew from what the wise men had told him that the child should be about two years old by then so when the wise men didn’t return, he ordered the guards to kill all the children less than two years old.

Now what do you think was going through the minds of Herod and all his wise men who advised him? They knew from the wise men that a new king was born into Israel, but all they did was stay around the worldly power of Herod, they missed the birth of the King! How do you think these Astronomers knew to look for the signs in the heavens? Some researchers theorize that these Astronomers were descendants of Daniel in Babylon, and that they had been trained by him to search for this sign as they would know by it that it was time to go to Bethlehem and take part of the leftover wealth of Daniel to the new King of Israel. That is also why it was only about two years after Jesus birth that Wise Men of  Matthew’s chronology appeared on the scene. They appeared and gave Joseph the riches he would need to take Mary and Jesus on a trip to Egypt to live for a time to escape Herod’s wrath just in time. It’s amazing how God delivers the means just in time if we are willing to just wait on Him. Next we must look at how their is always assumed that there is three Wise men. Never in the writings of Matthew is it told how many wise men it was. You can naturally assume it is at least two since they are called Wise Men, but never is it said there was three of them. There were three gifts they brought to Mary and Joseph so it is assumed that it came from three men. 

It is not wise to assume anything but with God’s word, especially, we are asking for trouble. It is dangerous to presume anything that is not backed up with scripture. Many of the rituals and beliefs of the Christian Church are actually pagan beliefs that were used by the early Roman Catholic Church to give Christians a reason to celebrate at the same times as the pagans, so they would not feel left out of the celebrations. This was not a satisfactory reason for the celebrations being changed from their real times to coincide with the Pagans and their evil rituals.

Many of us are living a lie in our beliefs, but you may ask, should we change them to the correct times now? the answer is, not really, the real times of these things are wrong, but do they have any bearing on our salvation? the answer is NO. It doesn’t really matter weither we worship Jesus Birth on December 25th, or September 20th. It doesn’t matter if Easter is off by a week or two each year, it doesn’t matter when Jesus died for our sins, only that He did and that we believe and profess to others He did and lives again in our hearts. Ultimately that is the real reason for the celebration. It says in the Bible that the Angels in Heaven celebrate every time a soul is saved. So lets all celebrate the living savior!

Casting Pearls-Do you know the Ten Commandments?

Many people know what the Ten Commandments are but how many really know more than one or two of the actual commandments or can even quote correctly one of them. The answer is, not many, if you have not studied them or studied the Bible, you probably don’t know what they are. This article will discuss each of them, where they can be found, and what God was attempting to tell us in each of them.

The first of the Ten Commandments is found in Exodus 20:3, and states, ‘ Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.’ (KJV) This was especially for the Jewish people since they had just come out of Egypt, where they had gods for almost everything, where they worshipped the god of earth, god of water, god of air, god of fertility, et-cetera, et-cetera. They even fell back into that when waiting for Moses to return with these commandments. The Israelites made a calf and covered it with gold, as they had in Egypt, and worshipped it, as they had when in Egypt. By their own actions, and our actions now, we show that we need too be told ‘have no other gods’. You might say , “ I don’t have a golden calf I pray too”, but we put our job, our children, our spouse, our life, as more important than God. Anything we allow to be more important to us than God is something that is now our god in our life. 

The second commandment of God is ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image’(KJV). This, as previously described with the golden calf was in part for the Israelites. You might say how does that relate to me, I don’t have a golden calf? Well, do you think money is more important than God? Do you think your car is more important than God? Do you think any of your things are more important than God? If God wanted you too give up anything you have for His use, would you gladly give it? Anything you would not give up for God is a graven image, wither it was engraved by you or someone else for you, it is a graven image.

The third commandment is ‘Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them’(KJV). Again this was in part for the Israelites due to the golden calf, but anything that we find more important than God and work to make it better for us then we bow down to it. Maybe we bow down to wash the car, or maybe we bow down to do our jobs, or maybe we metaphorically bow down to our boss, or maybe we bow down to someone we love, or something we love, or something we worship. 

The fourth commandment is ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God’s name in vain’(KJV). the Bible says that the Lord will not find one who does this guiltless. You might say I don’t cuss and take the Lord’s name in vain, and maybe you don’t, but do you ever say “Oh my G**” or “Good G**” without thinking? You are guilty of using the Lord’s name in vain. 

The next one is the Fifth commandment, ‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it Holy; six days shall thou labor and do thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God’(KJV). Technically the sabbath day in Bible days before Christ was Saturday, but Jesus was raised from the tomb on the First day of the week and the disciples began to gather together to commemorate that day on Sunday, so we carry on that belief today. We keep our Sundays as the Sabbath day spoken of in this commandment. 

The Sixth Commandment is ‘thou shalt not kill’(KJV). Killing is looked upon as sin by God, but some people might argue that God calls for the Israelite people to kill the people in various places throughout the Old Testament. God had His hands tied by us and our sin nature. Adam brought death into the world with his sin and the killing goes on through history due to the continued sin of man. 

The Seventh Commandment is the one we have a lot of problem with today ‘Thou shalt not commit Adultery’(KJV). The reasoning behind this was the Lord wanted to have people to make a promise to each other and to Him to do this so as to make a difference between us and the animals we had dominion over. God also wanted to keep the marriage Holy because it was to be a shadow or type of Christ and His Church.

The Eighth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not steal’(KJV). Theft of things is not really important to a true Christian as these are just things, but these things are God’s things and we are only given them for a short time to care for them until He returns, so we are upset at theft since it is like unto stealing from God.

The Ninth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. This is regularly broken by us as we try to get others to take the blame for our shortcomings. The truth is that no one here on earth can take our place for what we have done or said. We are guilty and even if man doesn’t know God does.

Finally we have the Tenth Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s’(KJV). This is the one we have the biggest problem with. Every time we see something that someone else has whither it be a car, or money, or celebrity, or even voice or ability of someone else and want it for ourself then we have coveted. I must admit even I have broken this one. 

All of these are too easy to break in one way or another. we are tempted by this fallen world to do things all the time that will cause us to break these. Luckily for us Jesus came to give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, past and present and future, so that we can be justified and sanctified before the Lord. All we need do is accept it and begin to profess Jesus to men. Colossians 2:13-14 says ‘And you,  being dead in your sin and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.’(KJV)

Jesus took all our sins and made it as though we never sinned. Jesus made the Ten Commandments no longer condemning to us. He made us free from the burden of our sin and the Holy Spirit which now inhabits us should help us to attempt to keep those commandments, summed up in two commandments by Jesus for us ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.The first part covers the first five

commandments and the second part covers the last five. Jesus didn’t do away with the law, He only made man able to understand it and get closer to living by it.

Casting Pearls- Are we crossing into the Promised Land?

In Joshua 3:2-5, the people of Israel were about to cross over the river Jordan into the Promised Land. This was the land promised some time before to Abraham as his descendants. This land had been promised to them some years before and they had just spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness ( desert ) before arriving there. All the people who had come out of Egypt with them had died off except Joshua and Caleb. 

Moses himself was not allowed by God to enter the Promised Land. He had sinned against God and his punishment for it was not being allowed to go into the promised land with the rest of Israel. Joshua had replaced Moses as the Leader of Israel as they entered the Promised Land. In verse 2 Joshua had led the people of Israel to the edge of the Jordan River (which at the time was at almost flood stage) and they had camped there three days. The leaders of each tribe of Israel went throughout the people saying to follow the Ark of the Covenant, being carried by the Priests, and they would see where to go, the Bible narrates in verse 3. 

This is another shadow, or type, of how we should follow our God and know which way He would have us go. God wants us to keep our eyes on Him and His Word so we will know the correct way to go. It is only by following behind Him like a sheep does with a shepherd that we can find the way He would have us go. It is only by reading God’s Word that we can hear from God and know the direction He would have us go.

Later in verse 4 we read about the warnings they received from their tribes leaders. They were warned to stay behind the Ark of the Covenant at least two thousand cubits, that they might know the way they should turn and go before they get there, because they had never gone that way before. Though God wants us to follow Him, He wants us to follow with enough room between Him and us that we might know the direction in which He wishes us to turn, before we get there.God also wanted them to be far enough back that they could clearly see Him clear the obstacles out of their way and give God the glory for it .

As God’s children we need His Word and the leaders He provides for us to clearly see the way He would have us go. In the next chapter the Lord shows the people and us that Joshua is His chosen Leader of Israel to replace Moses. He stops the flooding river from flowing and lets all Israel pass across on dry land. There are times in life that we wonder if God is going to work in our case. If God wants us to go there, he will make a way. All we need do is, as the Israelites, Stay back and watch until God opens the door for us.

The key to being the kind of Christian Jesus wants is to be willing to praise God even as we sit and wait for Him to open the door. God works at two speeds. Slowly and suddenly. God slowly opens the door in Hid time not in ours, so it appears that God is not working in our case. Everything seems to go so slowly, then suddenly the door opens. We wait and wait for something to happen, then suddenly it does. So God works at two speeds. 

Casting Pearls- Are you following or leading?

In Joshua 3:2-5, the people of Israel were about to cross over the river Jordan into the Promised Land. This was the land promised some time before to Abraham as his descendants. This land had been promised to them some years before and they had just spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness ( desert ) before arriving there. All the people who had come out of Egypt with them had died off except Joshua and Caleb. 

Moses himself was not allowed by God to enter the Promised Land. He had sinned against God and his punishment for it was not being allowed to go into the promised land with the rest of Israel. Joshua had replaced Moses as the Leader of Israel as they entered the Promised Land. In verse 2 Joshua had led the people of Israel to the edge of the Jordan River (which at the time was at almost flood stage) and they had camped there three days. The leaders of each tribe of Israel went throughout the people saying to follow the Ark of the Covenant, being carried by the Priests, and they would see where to go, the Bible narrates in verse 3. 

This is another shadow, or type, of how we should follow our God and know which way He would have us go. God wants us to keep our eyes on Him and His Word so we will know the correct way to go. It is only by following behind Him like a sheep does with a shepherd that we can find the way He would have us go. It is only by reading God’s Word that we can hear from God and know the direction He would have us go.

Later in verse 4 we read about the warnings they received from their tribes leaders. They were warned to stay behind the Ark of the Covenant at least two thousand cubits, that they might know the way they should turn and go before they get there, because they had never gone that way before. Though God wants us to follow Him, He wants us to follow with enough room between Him and us that we might know the direction in which He wishes us to turn, before we get there.God also wanted them to be far enough back that they could clearly see Him clear the obstacles out of their way and give God the glory for it .

As God’s children we need His Word and the leaders He provides for us to clearly see the way He would have us go. In the next chapter the Lord shows the people and us that Joshua is His chosen Leader of Israel to replace Moses. He stops the flooding river from flowing and lets all Israel pass across on dry land. There are times in life that we wonder if God is going to work in our case. If God wants us to go there, he will make a way. All we need do is, as the Israelites, Stay back and watch until God opens the door for us.

The key to being the kind of Christian Jesus wants is to be willing to praise God even as we sit and wait for Him to open the door. God works at two speeds. Slowly and suddenly. God slowly opens the door in Hid time not in ours, so it appears that God is not working in our case. Everything seems to go so slowly, then suddenly the door opens. We wait and wait for something to happen, then suddenly it does. So God works at two speeds. 

Casting Pearls- Are we fighting over Dirt?

When watching an episode of Duck Dynasty lately, I was struck by how most of the world puts more value in material things than living things. Willie, the CEO of Duck Commander,  the family business, was explaining how his son had recently been in an accident and how he had yet to seethe damage done to the truck. As they came around the corner, with Willie’s son saying the damage to the truck was minimal, he saw the truck, with at least $8,000.00 dollars worth of damage. The truck had obviously rolled several times in the wreck. 

Willie’s wife was continuously stating that it was amazing how the boy had survived the wreck and that it was a miracle he was not hurt. Anyone with a child can relate to the situation. The problem was that even though it was obvious that the boy was not hurt, he did not thank God and praise Him for the boy’s salvation, instead Wilie complained that the truck was almost totaled.

How often in life do we ignore the miracles around us and instead focus on the material loss to ourselves? Don’t you think God is disappointed by our lack of giving acknoledgement to Him for working na miracle. Willie gave the props to belt inventors and air bag inventors, not to God. How often do we do the same thing? We see a situation resolved in front of our eyes and give everyone but God the credit for the results.

Human or animal life is more important than the most expensive thing that we own. Ultimately, we don’t really own anything as God is the real owner of everything and we only have it temporarily. All our money, cars, houses, and everything we have really belongs to God, we are just given it to use for a short time. It all was created by God Just as we were and it all comes from dust of the earth as we did. We are just fighting and argueing over Dirt. This is especially true when it comes to lands or countries.