The Deity of Jesus Christ - Psalms

The Divinity of Jesus is all over the Book of Psalms.

2:6, 3:4, God of the Holy Hill. "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and He heard me out of his holy hill." David praying to the Lord. (3:4) But according to 2:6, God has set His King (the Messiah, Jesus) on that very hill! So the one David is crying to and being answered by, is Christ!

5:2 , the King. "Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King..." David calls out to God. But as noted above, the "King" has been placed by God in Zion. We know that King to be Jesus. Micah looks ahead to a time when Bethlehem, "...little among the thousands of Judah" shall produce the One "that is to be ruler in Israel." (5:2) Micah had previously said that "The Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever." (4:7) It was this prospect of a King coming that threw Herod the Great into such a rage (Matthew 2:1-3) that He attempted to dethrone Jesus before His reign could be a threat. Zechariah was first to see King Jesus riding into Jerusalem, hailed by the crowds of Israelites: " Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee.."(9:9) Matthew 21:1-11 gives the account for us as it happened in history. Even a Roman Governor, Pilate, gets in on the act. His interview with Jesus (John 18:33-38) turns up some information he had not been expecting. Convinced that Jesus is a King, he announces to the city of Jerusalem via that sign for which he always will be remembered: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Right you are, Pilate. The King for whom the Lord has a special message: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." God at the right hand of God. An identification so close, so real, that to see one is to see the other. "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father," said Jesus.(John 14:9)

8: 2, Praised by Infants. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies..." 8:2. David, speaking to his most excellent Lord. But Jesus did not consider it robbery to take that very verse unto Himself when being praised by some small children in the temple. It seems to have temporarily stopped the mouths of the chief priests and scribes(Matthew 21:15-16)!

23:1, Shepherd. David: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want..." Asaph:"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel...Thou that dwellest between the cherubims..."And Isaiah, looking ahead to a Shepherd on earth: (40:11) "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them..."By John we are introduced to this one that David could only imagine, that Isaiah could only see in vision. We know Him as Jesus. (John 10:11) "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." Jesus knew His Bible. He had read David. He did not stumble onto an allegory that was fitting for the moment. Deliberately He calls Himself the Shepherd of Israel. Because He is that Shepherd, the Lord God.

27:1, Light. "The Lord is my light ..." Jesus "I am the light of the world!" John 8:12

29:2, worthy of glory. "Give unto the Lord the GLORY due His name!" 29:2 "To [our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ] be glory both now and for ever. Amen." II Peter 3:18

84:11, a sun. "For the Lord God is a sun and shield..."But we see a star of equal magnitude in the New Testament, named Jesus: "He was transfigured before them, and His face did shine as the sun..." (Matthew 17:2) Visit that final City, and you will have no need of the sun. "The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Fascinating. Is there any difference between "did lighten it" and "is the light thereof"? None that I know of. This is two ways of saying the same thing! Is there any difference then between "God" and "the Lamb"? Not a one! Two ways of saying the same thing.

136:3-4, the only wonder-worker. "O give thanks to the Lord of Lords,... who alone doeth great wonders." Alone? Alone! Anyone doing wonders of the magnitude of this Lord of Lords must be the Lord of Lords. And can you think of One who healed the sick, spoke to waves, raised the dead, changed elements?

139:7, Source of the Spirit. I offer Psalm 139:7 as one of a multitude of passages that suggest that God has a Spirit. We call Him the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and sometimes just the Spirit. How does Jesus relate to this One? Well, we learn from Paul that the sum total of Spirits in the Godhead is one. "There is one Spirit..."(Ephesians 4:4). But in Philippians 1:19 we read of "the Spirit of Jesus Christ." We assume this is the same Spirit, given that there is only one to deal with! So the mystery expands here and lets us know again our finite nature when it comes to figuring out things we cannot see. God has a Spirit. Jesus has a Spirit. But there is only one Spirit. Jesus must be God.

146:8, Blind-eye opener. "The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind..." John 9:30, let an ex-blind man tell it like it is to the religious establishment of Judea: "Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes!...if this man were not of God, He could do nothing!" Right , friend. Not only is He of God, He is God Himself!

http://chosunhouse.com is a website I put together a few months back to get the word out to believers that they need to pray for North Korea. I have created over 200 blogs and the site features a live news feed, lists of resources, picture essays, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosen together! Contact me any time at diakonos5@yahoo.com

And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. I love to write Scriptural works. Who are you? Would love to fellowship with believers who respond.

Wanted - A Prophet of God

The job description for the office of Prophet, in the Biblical sense, might be a bit intimidating for modern -at least Western - believers. Yet it was a typical profile when God put His men on the planet. The qualifications included, but were not limited to:

• a desire to live in deserted, lonely habitat
• a severe limitation to wardrobe
• a similar cutback in the area of diet. The necessity of eating what is available in the wild.
• being subject to various forms of death and near-death experiences: beheading, boiling in oil, crucifixion, drowing in a deep pit, stoning, being sawn in two.

Also consider:

• applications are not available. one must live close to God and wait for a call. no call means one is not needed as a prophet. no self-made self-styled prophets need consider themselves a part of this office.
• no college training will prepare such a man. life is the training for a prophet.
• no particular secular life-calling fits the mold of prophet. one can be called from the field or the palace or the synagogue.

And then there are these tips:

• If you are a true prophet, your audience will go down, not up.
• In some cases your entire flock may be asked to follow One Better than you.
• There are no special benefits and privileges, this side of heaven. You are to live a life of perfect obedience, as a slave to the One Who called You.

Have I not properly described the men of God, named and un-named, who grace the pages of Scripture? Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, John. And have I not properly drawn a line between a true man of God and the men who are rising before us today trying to wear that same title, with their fine clothes and multi-million dollar homes and vehicles and toys?

Give us Lord, a man of God! One who is not afraid to say everything You have already said, one who cares not how small his congregation becomes as long as he is speaking the truth in love. One who will give his life for what he knows to be the truth.

One of my constant concerns is for the time period immediately following the fall of the Kim reign in North Korea. When the door is open, what will go through that door? The cults that deny Jesus is Lord of all. The religions that look holy but lack life. Mainline denominations of Christendom that have long ago exchanged the good news for a bowl of stew and a warm bed and American-style comforts.

Lord, Your sheep will hear Your voice. For that we are grateful.

http://chosunhouse.com is a website I put together a few months back to get the word out to believers that they need to pray for North Korea. I have created over 200 blogs and the site features a live news feed , lists of resources, picture essays, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together! Contact me any time at diakonos5@yahoo.com

And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. I love to write Scriptural works. Who are you? Would love to fellowship with believers who respond .

Daniel and Paul Speak of Antichrist

Did Paul ever deal with the question of the antichrist? Most assuredly. And as one might expect, this passage, II Thessalonians 2, has been abused quite a bit through the years. Let's look at the first 12 verses.

In the first place, Paul meant in no way to divide the "coming" of Jesus from our "gathering" to Him. If he had meant to do this, surely He would not mention these events in reverse order. (I'm using the mentality of the "pre-tribulation" people who insist that there are two separated comings of Jesus in our future.) In fact, the order is correct, and it happens all at the same moment. Jesus comes to earth, and on His way to us we are gathered up from everywhere.

The church in Thessalonica had caught hold of a rumor that God's people had already been raptured up! Paul writes this note to them to settle forever the church's thinking about some secret unknowable rapture. He does in fact what Jesus does with this question. He places before the coming of Jesus, not a rapture but a very clear sign. Remember Jesus' sign (Matthew 24:15)? "The abomination of desolation." Something that God hates that brings His wrath down. For Paul it is the one who commits that horrible sacrilege. Thus it is the same sign spoken of by the prophet Daniel.

In his further comments he uses terminology straight from that book of Daniel that Jesus referred His people to. For example compare II Thessalonians 2:4 to Daniel 11:36:

2:4, "...who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped..."

11:36, "...he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods..."

Two events, says Paul, must come before the day of Christ's return. They can be viewed as two parts of the same event. First a slow but clear backsliding of God's people. I believe it could be so large in its scope that the Bible will be largely a forgotten, unknown Book. Remember the conditions at Jesus' first coming! The Scriptures had been hidden from the eyes of men so greatly that the clear prophecies regarding the when and where of His appearing were not commonly known.

So it will be, I believe, when He comes again. The Gospel message, though having gone everywhere, will have lost its grip on multiplied millions, as one can see in Europe and other parts of the West today. Christian values in society will be swept away by the "newer thinking". There will be a blending of church and world to the extent that lukewarmness will prevail and straightforward Biblical truths will be largely ridiculed or ignored.

Thus it will be easy for the second sign to occur, the rise of a lawless society headed by a lawless antichrist. The spirit of the age will be "liberty" which easily erodes into "lawless" ways, the "no one can tell me what to do" mentality.

Thus will rise, says Paul, "the lawless one", "the son of perdition." The self-exaltation and blasphemy which will be his hallmark have been documented not only in Daniel but in John's work, Revelation. The Spirit is saying the same thing many times, so we will not miss it. Or will we?

http://chosunhouse.com is a website I put together a few months back to get the word out to believers that they need to pray for North Korea. Just about every day I'm writing a blog featuring some news, a book, or a story of North Korea. There's a live news feed on the site, lists of resources, picture essays, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together!

And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. Who are you? Would love to fellowship with believers who respond on my site.

North Korea - Here Comes Jesus!

For many months now I have been sharing with you all the difficult things people need to know about North Korea. We've talked famine & flood together, refugees, orphans, split-up families. I've wept with you over concentration camps, torture, public executions. But rarely have I been able to share good things with you. Well, hey, there just aren't a lot of good things to share. But today my quiver is full. Stand back and get ready to be blessed.

Would you believe it if I told you that every day of the year the Gospel is being beamed into North Korea by short wave radio, and that one million North Koreans are hearing that Gospel message? Imagine it. 30 minutes a day these otherwise destitute NK nationals get to hear readings from a North Korea dialect New Testament read by a real North Korean, a man we will call "Mr. Kim", living in South Korea, plus an audio drama of the life of Christ, and even a reading of the classic Wurmbrand book Tortured for Christ !

Would you also believe me if I related that before September of this year, 600,000 Gospel tracts will arrive by air into various parts of the Hermit Kingdom north of the DMZ? That plans are being made to increase that number astronomically by technology that will allow year-round launches of balloons carrying these fliers?

Would you still stay with me if I told you there are 13,000 North Korean defectors living in Seoul ghettos as we speak, and that they are also being reached with a message of hope and purpose? That many of them are being trained to bless their own people with the Gospel?

And what would you say if I told you that all of the above energy and planning is North-Korea created and energized?

If you truly believed that all of this is happening, would you think what we often think when we read the papers about North Korea, that "nothing is really changing. Poor folks , they'll never make it now. More famine is on the way. Probably wipe out the whole nation..."?

I recently had to re-seed the back yard. My wife had a garden out there. Now that we're thinking of selling, we are trying to make it look a little more "normal." Unfortunately extensive gardens in a suburb of Chicago aren't considered the norm. So I had to try my hand at horticulture, or whatever it's called. I've decided after several hot days not to leave my day job.

But the work itself was not the worst part. It was the waiting. And waiting. I had decided after about a week that I had really blown it this time. I was mentally planning to re-do the whole thing. No grass! Hey, I'd planted faithfully. I'd watered faithfully. God Himself poured buckets on several occasions. In fact He helped so much that I thought the poor seeds were drowned. Forget this green-thumb stuff.

Then one morning, like that first sign of a beard on a skinny teen-age boy, there it was. The tiniest, frailest, but most beautiful green I had ever seen. This was my grass. I did this. I can't describe how good it felt.

Do you think Jesus might just have a morning like this soon? Oh my, SO many seeds have been planted! Oh my, SO much watering is being done. The Word of God is not bound. It keeps doing what God says it must do. Many lives have been changed forever already. The Word is getting out. Something is stirring deep underground.

What our "Mr. Kim" is preaching cannot be stopped by that other "Mr. Kim." Jong-il had his shot at stopping it for sure. But the plants are growing anyway. See the frail little seedlings sprouting, barely visible above the surface? The news media hasn't picked it up yet. But when they do, what a chance for Christ to be glorified!

For it is Christ Who is touching refugees and orphans. It is Christ Who is feeding the hungry, caring for the dying. The world will see the difference that Christ makes when he is given the reins. May the day come soon.

Information for the above gleaned from Seoul USA in Seoul , Korea and Colorado Springs , CO.

Look for Bob Faulkner's home page on http://sermonaudio.com There you will find a combination of love for the Scriptures and a desire for North Korean believers to have their needs met. There are nearly 300 blogs , over 200 Bible teaching MP3's, lists of resources, NK picture albums, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together! Contact me any time at diakonos5@yahoo.com

And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. Would love to fellowship with believers who respond.

The Peace That Follows the Purge

December 25 has come and gone again. "Peace on earth, good will toward men" is the hope that is on everyone's lips. The secular media even gives an assist to the cause of Christ, for which we are grateful.

The blurred image of this peace is a man called Jesus Who is a perennial Nice Guy. He calls on all of us to get along, settle our differences, lay down our weapons of war, come together, and forge a union of nations and religions that will cement our security forever.

Ahem, pardon me. But that's not the peace that Jesus gives or offers to a failed flawed race. Jesus' peace is made of sterner stuff. The way to peace is Jesus Himself entering our repentant heart and renewing and re-doing. Ask anyone who has truly been made full of the Holy Ghost. It can be a gut-wrenching time of death to self so that Christ can live His resurrected life within.

So shall it be among the nations. The non-repentant nations and the citizens within them, by far the great majority of mankind, will experience the wrath of God in unprecedented measure, perhaps soon. Then shall the Prince of Peace come and rule over the earth in a time of flabbergasting peace and prosperity.

His peace follows purging. His peace is maintained by His Lordship. Individually and nationally. Thus we mourn for the nations of earth on this Christmas morn. My own heart gravitates toward North Korea and the severe judgment that awaits its government and most of its people if the message of the Gospel of Peace is not permitted to enter.

I offer these promises to such as continue in their present ways, whether the ways of righteousness or the ways of evil. All from Psalm 37, which gripped my heart during a recent devotional time, and reminded me of what is coming. May we who know Christ play our part well until these things come upon us...

"... evildoers shall soon be cut down like the grass...

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart."

"... evildoers shall be cut off."

"Those who wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth."

"For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more."

"The meek shall inherit the earth."

"The Lord laughs at [the wicked] for he sees that his day is coming."

"The Lord upholds the righteous."

"The enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish into smoke..."

"Those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth."

"Those cursed by Him shall be cut off."

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."

"I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a native green tree... yet he passed away..."

So take heed, Mr. Kim Jong-il, and any leader or citizen who exalts himself above the Lord God. It's only a matter of time now...

For those who follow Jesus, a blessed holiday, peace in your heart, and peace on our land one day.

Look for Bob Faulkner's home page on http://sermonaudio.com There you will find a combination of love for the Scriptures and a desire for North Korean believers to have their needs met. There are nearly 300 blogs, over 200 Bible teaching MP3's, lists of resources, NK picture albums, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together! Contact me any time at diakonos3@gmail.com

And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. Would love to fellowship with believers who respond .

Who Will Reign With Jesus?

There is a group of saints described in a very straightforward manner in the Book of Revelation, chapter 20. Looking for explanations of Revelation in the words of Jesus and Paul only helps to solidify the answer to the question I pose today. It is not good news for a lukewarm church. In Revelation 20, the Spirit of God shows John just what He had shown Daniel centuries before. After world crises are quelled and brought into order by the returning King of Kings Jesus Christ, thrones are set up. Plural. We know that the Father and the Son are the only ones originally worthy. But through acts of His grace He will confer on Adam's line the honor of kingship also. Christians have prided themselves in these king-to-be passages through the years, announcing to all who will hear, "Hey, I'm bound for the throne! I'm a priest of God, a king who will reign with Jesus for a thousand years!"

I will not deny what God has said. Such a thing is dangerous business. But I will affirm the whole truth of what He said, and see how many of the boasts dry up or at least calm down. John seems to put some other qualifications to kingship that we don't hear about so often.

The people John saw (in the Spirit) "had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus." Further, they had not worshiped the beast or received his mark. What would that mean in this generation before the beast and the mark have arisen? Would it mean staying away from ungodly yoking? Would it mean honoring our God with our time and treasure, to the point where we ignore the world and the flesh?

These ones identified by John clearly were allowed to live and reign with Jesus for that 1000 years. They are part of the first resurrection. And those who did not reign were raised later, to the resurrection of damnation.

Is it that cut and dried? Will no others reign with Jesus, from all the ages before the last one? Let's hear Jesus and Paul, but again I say, the indications are a bit troublesome.

Paul told the Phillipians that they were privileged to be able to suffer for Jesus. So let us put to rest the modern theory that says Jesus takes His folks out just before mankind's greatest Tribulation, and the rest of the saints are left behind to deal with antichrist because for the most part they are second class backsliders.

No, those who suffer with Jesus are the blessed ones. We got it backwards.

To the Roman Christians Paul goes on to say that if saints suffer with Christ, they shall reign with Him. That's saints in every generation, I presume. He repeats these sentiments to son Timothy, "all who desire to live godly will suffer persecution," and " if we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him."

So Paul widens the door, and seems to allow for saints of all ages being among the reigning throng . But he quickly narrows the options too, by suggesting that it is only those saints who suffer who will be there. In fact, the very definition that Paul seems to be giving for sainthood - the Biblical sort, as opposed to that promoted in Rome - is a life made holy by persecution. So what says Jesus?

Jesus' words are the most familiar of all, and perhaps that is why we have set them aside in our thinking. May they be real to us as we contemplate our place around the Heavenly Throne:

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven..."

I have said often that we need North Korean Christians more than they need us. We need them to teach us what the cross means again. They are living what Jesus and Paul taught. Serving Christ means persecution. But then, they shall experience what Paul and John taught: if we suffer, we will reign with him.

In the light of this blinding truth, I ask you, who should we pity most? Christians who sit in concentration camps but who will sit around the Throne of God, or Christians who never learned to carry the cross at all?

Let us strive to live those godly lives, that we may enter into the fellowship of His suffering.

http://chosunhouse.com is a website I put together a few months back to get the word out to believers that they need to pray for North Korea. I have created over 200 blogs and the site features a live news feed , lists of resources, picture essays, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together! Contact me any time at diakonos5@yahoo.com

And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. I love to write Scriptural works. Who are you? Would love to fellowship with believers who respond.

How Long Does God Really Want Me to Try?

The Holy Spirit has been working through me for many years and I really want to know how long, God really want me to try? How long does he want me to try to get Christians to think and understand Christianity? I'm doing the best that I can and as long as God is working through me, I will try to do better.

God put me here for a reason and my reason is to teach other Christians about Christianity. As long as the Holy Spirit will keep me alive, I will continue to do the best that I can and teach other Christians, how to study the Bible and where their religion actually came from.

If you're reading this article, your probably interested in Christianity and the Bible, if you do read the Bible, do you actually understand what it's saying. If you study the Bible, are you exposing yourself to others who also study the Bible, or are you only studying the Bible with people you know and are familiar with.

How long are you going to try, before you actually quit? Have you quit before and started again and maybe you've done this a few times, but you haven't quite yet. I know where you're coming from, I've been there myself and continue to motor ahead.

I would like to give you a word of advice, don't ever quit and don't ever give up. Keep searching and you will find the answers, keep knocking and doors will be opened. I have been knocking and will continue to keep knocking.

I wish you nothing but the best of luck on your journey towards the ultimate answers that we're all hoping to find.

Do Christians Believe Everything

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Greg Vanden Berge is a published author, internet marketing expert, motivational inspiration to millions of people all over the world and is sharing some of his wisdom with experts in the fields of writing,marketing, and personal development.

Greg is currently working on a Christian self help library filled with great subjects on a wide array of topics, like religion, self help and spiritual changes in the world. His views on religious freedom are slowly changing the way people think about institutional religion.