Sat, Dec 30th - 8:17PM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

Brothers and sisters, let us give our love, thanks, blessings and praise offerings to God our Father, our God the Holy Ghost, and our God the Son of God our Saviour Jesus Christ for their everlasting love and truth, mercy and grace.

Much love, blessings and peace to you dearly beloveds, in whom our God indwells and by His power shall bring all who believe in Him - His eternal church, into His eternal kingdom without spot, blemish, nor wrinkle:

 Eph 5:27;  Jude 24-25; Jhn 15:5 ; Jhn 14:23-24.

As we stand upon the threshold of a new year let us praise and rest in our faithful God who has brought to pass the absolute everlasting New Covenant of Jesus Christ:

Mon, Dec 18th - 12:27AM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11 VS 32 -34 ( FINISHED)

Warnings against False Teachers:

Dearly beloveds, Put on the whole armour of God who commands all to start with the offensive/defensive helmet of Salvation by believing, correctly interpreting, living the entire absolutes of scripture. The scriptures are absolute, inerrant, eternal, explicit, exclusive, exhaustive, final, finished, complete.

Heb 5:9And being made perfect, he became the author of ETERNAL salvation unto them that obey him;

Therefore, ANYONE WILLFULLY CLAIMING ETERNAL SALVATION IS NOT PERMENANT IS A FALSE TEACHER.

ANYONE WILLFULLY CLAIMING JESUS GOD THE SON OF GOD IS NOT EQUAL WITH GOD IS A FALSE TEACHER.

False teachers leave the word ETERNAL out when they refer to salvation so that they can pervert it to lie and say it is just a conditional salvation that can be lost.

JESUS IS GOD THE SON OF GOD WHOM GOD DECLARES IS EQUAL WITH HIM. EQUAL MEANS OF THE SAME QUALITY, QUANTITY, AND VALUE.

Throughout scripture EQUAL MEANS OF THE SAME QUALITY, QUANTITY, AND VALUE.

Phl 2:6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Anyone who denies the equality of Christ in the trinity is a false teacher.

These are false direct evil attacks on eternal truth Lord Jesus Christ, His everlasting New Covenant and His perfect eternal atonement for the sins of all who believe in Him.

The false teacher to deceive anyone to falsely believe that eternal salvation is conditional will deny absolutes of scripture such as forever, everlasting, eternal, always, that which God, who cannot lie, employs to declare is permanent, irrevocable.

 DOES THE BIBLE TEACH THAT UNDER THE N.T. FEW WILL BE SAVED AND OR MORE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HELL THAN HEAVEN BASED ON MAT 7:14?:  

Mat 7:14 - Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

NO, absolutely not. Jesus was addressing those trying to come to God under the law or through humanistic works such as Sadducees and Pharisees, among others.

Below what Jesus declares in these verses before His resurrection is also absolutely verified after His resurrection by the scriptures:  

Mat 8:11 - And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. Here Jesus reveals the GREAT MULTITUDE WITHOUT NUMBER that will be saved through faith in Him. This is confirmed in Revelation:

Rev 7:9 - After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Therefore, brethren, let us rightly conclude, dearly beloveds, that although many will reject Him and will not enter the kingdom, nevertheless, a great multitude that is impossible for any man to count will be saved, through faith in Lord Jesus Christ.

Under the New Covenant, holy brethren, this means that men no longer have to try and find their way to God on their own, for God is actively calling all men to be saved and commands me, you, us, His people to go out, share the gospel and bring them in- all who will believe.  

Again, while it is true that many will reject salvation a great many more will not, THEREFORE MORE PEOPLE WILL BE SAVED THAN LOST. The bible backs up this absolutely correct interpretation in the context of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ:  

Brothers and sisters, let us praise God the Son of God Jesus Christ our Saviour/Mediator/High Priest and Head of the church who has made us kings and priests under Him, and given us the authority, blessings, the right, and the privilege to call Him our Lord and Saviour before the very throne of God our Father, witnessed by the Holy Ghost Heb 6:20.

Paul holds nothing back of the scriptures, he does not sugar coat or water down the gospel message but tells these Hebrews what may appear to some as a brutal truth- Christians- at some point in their lives will experience suffering/persecution, which is normative to test, try, and prove our faith.

Sufferings/persecution is not caused by God, who maintains control over what is allowed-only that which strengthens the saints (G40 hagios), for He knows how much we can bear.  

He preserves/keeps the believer from falling away due to them: Jude 1: 24; Jas 1:2; 1Pe 1:6;

This is the absolute/exhaustive truth, therefore when the bible speaks in other passages of those who do fall away it is addressing the false convert/wicked persons, never the believer. We have to remember that apostates deny New Covenant absolutes and will pervert scripture that condemns the wicked to falsely claim that it refers instead to the righteous.

Paul is obviously not fearful that these Hebrew believers may bolt and turn away upon hearing this news. Truly, holy brethren, if we like Paul love the Lord and love our brothers, sisters, and all men we will tell them the whole gospel truth in love: Jhn 8:36.  Those who share the gospel are not held accountable for any who turn away from it in unrepentance. Instead, God holds those persons who turn away from the Word of God accountable for themselves to Him.

Again, brothers and sisters, from a purely humanistic, secular perspective this accounting of Jephthae is more alarming than heart- warming.  If one hopes somehow his immediate family the stepmom, sibs with the elders would come to Jephthae admitting they wronged him, seeking to comfort him, give him assurances of their love and restoring him to his rightful place as the first born, we know only the elders showed up and why they came, and it was not motivated by love, but to save their own skins: Jdg 11:5 - And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:

Years had passed without so much as a word from the elders or his immediate family, proof positive that they continued to hate and did not care about him. Jephthae became known as a mighty man of valor, head of his own band, even has a daughter.  

The nation slyly hid the truth from Jephthae that God caught them yet again busy worshipping idols. Their enemy came against them, and they begged God to deliver them, God replied:   Jdg 10:13 - Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Jdg 10:14 - Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.

They repented and God sent them a deliverer-Jephthae!

The elders of Israel showed up gas lighting Jephthae like they were old intimate friends saying: Judges 11: 6 And they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

It wasn’t until Jephthae brought up their ill treatment of him banishing him from the tribe and taking away his birth right that the elders knew they had to up the offering to make him the head of the Gileadites to get him to fight for them.

We know, brothers and sisters, that some who survive long term child abuse arrive at adulthood ruined, feeling ashamed, guilty, bitter, hatred turned inward-hating themselves, distrustful of God.

However, despite the tribes terrible rejection and abuse, Jephthae still chose to obey God, stepped up led them into battle and delivered them from a powerful enemy that they could not have defeated without his aid as appointed by God.

Jephthae was a type of deliverer who had been appointed by God as the scriptures attest: 1Sa 12:11 - And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe.  

God filled Jephthae with supernatural strength confirming and anointing him for battle: Jdg 11:29 - Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.

As difficult as this story is for those amongst us who have been rejected and abused by their families of origin, let me say, dearly beloveds, that when we view this story from God’s eternal spiritual perspective as God commands, dearly beloveds, we can see that Jephthae is truly a hero of faith. 

First of all, with the exception of his bio dad, despite being terribly devalued, brutalized and heartlessly treated for years by his immediate family and the elders of Israel, Jephthae out of love to please God, chose to obey God and believe what God had declared him to be- an anointed and appointed deliverer, legitimate first- born son, heir and rightful head of the Gileadites.  

Paul encourages us that all believers can and will be heroes of faith too who choose to put God first, believe, obey, trust in the love and truth of God to please Him despite our sufferings/persecutions, through resting firmly in who God has made us in Christ.

It is by His power we will rise above, overcome and have the victory and pass our tests and trials evidenced in our unwavering faith in God, not mere men: Phl4:13 - I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Nothing here excuses child abuse, nor forbids crimes against children from being reported to the authorities as mandated by law.

I pray holy brethren, that you, me, us can and will boldly stand in our true, eternal identity in Christ who not only came to save us, and tell us who we are, but who has made us who we are in Him forever:  1Pe 2:9 - But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Fri, Dec 8th - 12:30PM

STUDIES IN HEBREWS

CHAPTER 11 VS 32 -34 (CONTINUED)

Warnings against False Teachers:

Dearly beloveds, Put on the whole armour of God who commands all to start with the offensive/defensive helmet of Salvation by believing, correctly interpreting, living the entire absolutes of scripture. The scriptures are absolute, inerrant, eternal, explicit, exclusive, exhaustive, final, finished, complete.

Heb 5:9And being made perfect, he became the author of ETERNAL salvation unto them that obey him;

Therefore, ANYONE WILLFULLY CLAIMING ETERNAL SALVATION IS NOT PERMENANT IS A FALSE TEACHER.

ANYONE WILLFULLY CLAIMING JESUS GOD THE SON OF GOD IS NOT EQUAL WITH GOD IS A FALSE TEACHER.

False teachers leave the word ETERNAL out when they refer to salvation so that they can pervert it to lie and say it is just a conditional salvation that can be lost.

JESUS IS GOD THE SON OF GOD WHOM GOD DECLARES IS EQUAL WITH HIM. EQUAL MEANS OF THE SAME QUALITY, QUANTITY, AND VALUE.

Throughout scripture EQUAL MEANS OF THE SAME QUALITY, QUANTITY, AND VALUE.

Phl 2:6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Anyone who denies the equality of Christ in the trinity is a false teacher.

These are false direct evil attacks on eternal truth Lord Jesus Christ, His everlasting New Covenant and His perfect eternal atonement for the sins of all who believe in Him.

The false teacher to deceive anyone to falsely believe that eternal salvation is conditional will deny absolutes of scripture such as forever, everlasting, eternal, always, that which God, who cannot lie, employs to declare is permanent, irrevocable.

 Paul the apostle continues to take us in a powerful voyage into the very heart of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ appointed by God as our only Saviour, High Priest, Mediator and King, Head of the church in all of His glory, worthy of our love, trust, of all praise, worship and blessings.  

Let us keep focused with a laser beam intensity, holy brethren, as Paul a faithful teacher instructs these Hebrew believers and us too that without faith that works by love it is impossible to please God:  Heb 11:6 - But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.   (Gal 5:6).  

IMPOSSIBLE: without strength, impotent, powerless, disabled, unable to be done, impossible.

Therefore, Paul within the context of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ gives the eternal absolute standard for who are the eternal authentic believers in Christ-all those who remain faithful and unwavering in tests and trials evidenced in obedience.  This kind of faith works patience for us in all of our sufferings/persecutions and trials as we rest in our eternally faithful God.

None-absolutely none of our works, titles, genetics, education or lack of it has any value to God without faith that works by love.

Brothers and sisters, God commands that we share the gospel-the New Covenant of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, within the body of Christ, which is the only source of our spiritual food, for spiritual people and the eternal, absolute guide for the effective functioning of the church as a whole:

 2Ti 3:15-17.

God also commands us to share it in the world that all who believe in Jesus God the Son of God will be saved.

We turn again, dearly beloveds, to look at Jephthae. Those brothers and sisters amongst us who have suffered abuse might find themselves uncomfortable here. If there is any healing this can take a very long time, although the damages from abuse can last a lifetime, because many arrive at adulthood feeling angry, afraid, defeated, crushed, unloved, unwanted and damaged goods.

Jephthae was systematically abused from infancy  at the deepest levels of personhood itself, even spiritually by his immediate family of the Gileadites, and elders of Israel who allowed it with the exception of his father Gilead.

Some might ask, brethren, where was God in all of this? No doubt God commands that we must read the scriptures very carefully and be extremely careful in our interpretation of all scripture to apply it faithfully, correctly, and effectively today in our lives.

Nothing here allows the church or anyone to apply this in any manner to mean that God approves mistreatment of children or to teach them just forgive their abusers and move on. In fact, the church is never to allow anyone to be abused in the church including spousal abuse.

Lord Jesus makes it clear how he feels about those who abuse His kids: Mar 9:42 - And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

God has also ordained many laws to protect kids, and adults too from evil- and abuse is evil: Rom 13:1-7. There is no place in or amongst the church where evil doers should be hidden/shielded to continue harming anyone: Rom 13:4 - For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.  

Jdg 11:32. Looking at this from a purely humanistic perspective this is not a very feel - good story. One might say oh well, he had in time become a mighty man of valor, and his family with the elders only showed up many years later to make him their head to risk his life to fight for them because their lives were on the line without his help.

Had they not had an enemy they would never have given Jephthae the time of day as they had been doing for years after they had thrown him out like a dog.  

Some might even say his story would have been better if Jephthae had told all of them to go kick rocks and don’t ever show their faces up at his door ever again, the same way they treated him.

Nevertheless, the true interpretation of Jephthae’s story can only be understood from God’s eternal perspective.

Sat, Dec 2nd - 4:40AM

CHAPTER 11 VS 32 -34

Warnings against False Teachers:

Dearly beloveds, Put on the whole armour of God who commands all to start with the offensive/defensive helmet of Salvation by believing, correctly interpreting, living the entire absolutes of scripture. The scriptures are absolute, inerrant, eternal, explicit, exclusive, exhaustive, final, finished, complete.

Heb 5:9And being made perfect, he became the author of ETERNAL salvation unto them that obey him;

Therefore, ANYONE WILLFULLY CLAIMING ETERNAL SALVATION IS NOT PERMENANT IS A FALSE TEACHER.

ANYONE WILLFULLY CLAIMING JESUS GOD THE SON OF GOD IS NOT EQUAL WITH GOD IS A FALSE TEACHER.

False teachers leave the word ETERNAL out when they refer to salvation so that they can pervert it to lie and say it is just a conditional salvation that can be lost.

JESUS IS GOD THE SON OF GOD WHOM GOD DECLARES IS EQUAL WITH HIM. EQUAL MEANS OF THE SAME QUALITY, QUANTITY, AND VALUE.

Throughout scripture EQUAL MEANS OF THE SAME QUALITY, QUANTITY, AND VALUE.

Phl 2:6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Anyone who denies the equality of Christ in the trinity is a false teacher.

These are false direct evil attacks on eternal truth Lord Jesus Christ, His everlasting New Covenant and His perfect eternal atonement for the sins of all who believe in Him.

The false teacher to deceive anyone to falsely believe that eternal salvation is conditional will deny absolutes of scripture such as forever, everlasting, eternal, always, that which God, who cannot lie, employs to declare is permanent, irrevocable. 

Brothers and sisters, let us the holy family of the royal  priesthood and household of God our Father, with humble and grateful hearts give offerings of love, thanks, and blessings to Him and to Our Holy Spirit, and to our Saviour/High Priest, Prince of Peace, God  the Son of God Jesus Christ, whom our Father has set before us as the supreme example of faith and obedience to the will of God, who before He ever received a crown and a throne, humbled Himself before His Father as a servant washing the feet of His disciples, and voluntarily choosing to wear a crown of thorns unto death on the cross and made peace with God the Father for us; therefore God our Father has highly exalted Him and given Him an eternal throne and crown of gold so that the Name of Jesus Christ is exalted above every name in heaven and in earth:  Rom 14:11; Eph 3:14;

Phl 2:10; Rev 5:13,

Rev 3:11Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.  1Co 9:25; 2Ti 4:8; Jas 1:12; 1Pe 5:4;  Rev 2:10; Rev 4:10;  Rev 19:12 .

To Take: to take hold of; take, seize; to lay hands on one in order to get him into one's power.

The wonderful thing, brothers and sisters is that any and all believers can be taught scripture and then help other believers learn it and also share it with a lost and dying world.

Saints (G40 hagios), love, blessings and peace to you in the Name of Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for fellowshipping with me in the scriptures, where we can always look to Jesus for our spiritual food and be strengthened thereby.

For some this might be a difficult part of the study, where the apostle Paul presents the truth that suffering/persecution is normative for the believer in this present evil world. In other books he tells us of his own sufferings/persecutions.

However, here he gives a panoramic view of believers' sufferings/persecutions from the very beginning of man’s creation and that it will continue until the return of our Lord, who empowers us by faith to have the victory over it all.  Let us keep focused on the eternal truth that without faith which works by love, none of our works are accepted and we can never please God.

Heb 11:32 

And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and

 of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: 

Heb11:33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,  

Heb 11:34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

In the above chapters, God does not present all of these men as flawless in character. While there are many studies on many of them, let us focus on Jephthae, called a bastard who suffered persecution and rejection by his family and Israel from infancy because he was born to a harlot and a “strange woman”, although his father was the family head of the Gileadites. Feel free, brethren to study the others mentioned above on your own.

Gilead a married man without kids at the time, took a trip out of town and had intimacy with a woman and returned back home. Nine months later the woman sent word that she had born a son. Gilead brought his son back, on the eighth day, had him circumcised and raised him as a Hebrew and first- born son.

Gilead was right in that the Gileadites themselves were descendants of the mixed marriage of Joseph whose Egyptian wife was the daughter of a pagan priest:  Solomon and other kings also had many children from mixed marriages and strange women:1Ki 11:1.

Nevertheless, we know from biblical genealogy inheritance/ethnicity is through the males, regardless of who the mother was. None of the males from such unions were ever branded as bastards. Women inherited in cases where only females were born to a man.  

 Therefore, Jephthah, so spelled in the O.T., was wrongfully branded as a bastard. No sooner had the father died, the stepmom and his half siblings cast Jephthah out and he fled in fear with no food and just the clothes on his back: Jdg 11:2. Satan is not mentioned in this story, this is about human family wickedness towards a child.

Think about the years of soul crushing disrespect and abuse he suffered, the trauma, the loss of father, total rejection by the stepmom, siblings, Gileadites and the elders of Israel, who did nothing to defend him. They hoped he would die. Did Jephthah feel sad, angered, a helpless victim, defeated, fearful, hopeless? Did he nurse terrible memories of maltreatment at the hands of his stepmom and siblings. Was there a growing desire or rage to avenge the evil his family had done to him?

One might think, brethren, what is this horrible story of child abuse and endangerment doing amongst the heroes of faith?

One might think that the poor wife had every right to be upset, as she most certainly would never have thought that her first child would be from the spouse’s union from another woman, whom she would be forced to raise. How the adults saw this most certainly influenced the siblings in a negative way also.  Of course, there is no justification  for ever mistreating a child who cannot be held responsible for the deeds of the parents.

Yet, this is also a very powerful story of faith and Jephthah is most certainly well qualified to be among the heroes of faith.