Grace and Truth

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Tag Archives: Christianity


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New Covenant Hope : Jesus our Priest

The New Covenant promises are there to be a foundation for our hope in the Lord.  This is the reason I would like to share below the comfort I have Heaven 4found in Jesus, Him being the High Priest of the New Covenant.  When “darkness hides His lovely face”, when we go through hard times, when we feel lost or lonely, then it is that this hope must be “the anchor of our soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 8:19, 20

The difference we have in the New Covenant with Jesus as our High Priest:

Old Covenant New Covenant
Moses was the mediator of the Old covenant Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the New covenant
No oath was made to human priests by God.“for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath…” Hebrews 7:21 Jesus was made a priest by an oath:“God has sworn and will not relentYou are a priest forever, according to the

Order of Melchizedek” Psalm 110:4
The law appoints as priests men who have weakness. Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant because of the oath. The oath appoints Jesus as Priest, who has been perfected forever.
The priests were human. As such they were sinners themselves, bound to the earthly realm. Jesus is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and is not earth-bound, but rather He is higher than the heavens.
The priests needed to daily offer up sacrifices for both their own sins as well as the sins of the people. Jesus is sinless so does not need to offer up a sacrifice for Himself. At the cross He offered up a once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
The priests offered animals as sacrifices for sin Jesus offered up Himself as the sacrifice for sin.
The priests each eventually died, and so there were many different priests at different times. Jesus never dies so His priesthood is unchangeable. (What a comfort!)
The priests could only intercede for the people whilst they were alive, therefore their priesthood was LIMITED. Therefore, because our Priest never changes, because He always lives and is always interceding for us, He will save to the UTTERMOST those who come to God through Him. His Priesthood is UNLIMITED and NEVER-ENDING.

“His oath, His covenant, His blood

Support me in the ‘whelming flood

When all around my soul gives way

He then is all my hope and stay”

(lyrics from “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand”)

(This table is by no means exhaustive. There are so many more eternal truths about Jesus as our High priest. I have compiled this table from a study of Hebrews 6 & 7)

Blessings!


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Jesus Christ – the Fulfillment of Passover

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)1071010299Behold5Fcard

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover feast, the Passover lamb and the feast of Unleavened Bread. Whilst these Old Testament shadows pointed to the One to come, He is the reality behind the shadow. There is so much in the feast of Passover that foreshadows Christ that I don’t have a hope of covering all of it here. So this is just to skim the surface of these treasures:

The Lamb:

  • Type: A lamb was selected for the Passover sacrifice on tenth of Nisan. “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying “On the tenth of this month (Nisan) every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.” Exodus 12:3
  • Anti-type: Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem on the tenth of Nisan. As He entered the city, so too were the Passover lambs being brought into Jerusalem in preparation for the Passover sacrifices.

lamb

  • Type: The Passover lambs were reared in Bethlehem and brought into Jerusalem for the feast
  • Anti-type: Jesus was born in Bethlehem and came up to Jerusalem for the feast

 

  •  Type: As the Passover lambs were ushered into Jerusalem the crowds cried out “Hosanna!”
  • Anti-type: Jesus was greeted with “Hosanna!” as he entered Jerusalem.  (Hosanna means “Save now” or “Please save”)

 

  •  Type: “Your lamb shall be without blemish….you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.” (Exodus 12:5, 6). The lamb was kept by each family until the fourteenth of Nisan when it was sacrificed. During this period of four days the lamb was inspected to ensure it was without spot or blemish, which would preclude it from being offered to the Lord.Jesus2
  • Anti-type: Before Jesus Christ, was offered to God as a sacrifice He too was also examined – by Annas, by the High Priest, by the Sanhedrin, by Pontius Pilate and by Herod. No spot nor blemish could be found in Him, indeed He was wholly without sin.

 

The Leaven:

  • Type: “For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses….” (Exodus 12:19). Homes needed to be cleansed at this time. (For Jews it is still a time of spring cleaning). Leaven needed to be searched out in each home and removed as this was also the time of the Feast of Unleavened bread.  Leaven in scripture is, of course, a picture of sin.
  • Anti-type: Jesus having arrived in Jerusalem, goes straight into the temple and begins to cleanse the leaven from House of God, driving out those who bought and sold in it. (Luke 19:45) Jesus, of course is the fulfillment of “Unleavened” bread, Him being without sin.

jesus passoverThe Passover:

  • Type: Jesus’ fervent desire is to eat the Passover seder with His disciples. The Passover was a remembrance of what God had done in setting the Israelites free from their bondage in Egypt. The blood of the lamb was painted on the lintels and doorposts so that the angel of death would pass over the Israelite’s homes and they would be saved.
  • Anti-type: It is at Passover that Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper. “And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” As Jesus broke the matzah He was telling them that His body would also be broken. Just at the Passover lamb’s blood was shed and painted on the lintels and doorposts – so too would His blood be shed. Under the covering of Christ’s shed blood we are set free from our bondage to sin and the matzahjudgment of God passes over us so that we are saved.

(The Jewish day begins at sundown. Jesus shared the Passover meal with His disciples at sundown as Passover began. He was crucified the next day before sundown, therefore, on Passover.)

The Sacrifice:

  • Type: During the time the temple was standing in Jerusalem, three lambs were sacrificed on Passover.
  • Anti-type: Jesus was sacrificed on the cross at the same time that the first Passover lamb was killed in the Temple. Around the time the second lamb was being slain in the Temple, everything went dark. At the time of the third lamb’s sacrifice, Jesus gave up the ghost on the cross and the veil in the Temple was ripped in two.

God had commanded in the Law that everyone was to be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. That means that everyone got to witness the veil being ripped from top to bottom. The New Covenant was now instituted through Christ’s shed blood and the way into the Holy of Holies was made open by the death of the spotless, perfect, sinless Lamb of God – Jesus Christ.

jesus lambOh if we could only truly comprehend what He has done for us! He laid down His life for us – Him who never sinned. His body broken, His blood shed so that we could enter into communion with the Father. The veil of His flesh torn so that the way to God is open for us now!

“For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.… Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD….For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:1-14

By one offering Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, took away all the sins of the world…. Hallelujah to the Lamb!

 

 

 


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Atheism and Christianity – Richard Wurmbrand Quotation

“In prison, the political officer asked me harshly, “How long will you continue to keep your stupid religion?”

I said to him, “I richard whave seen innumerable atheists regretting on their deathbeds that they have been godless; they called on Christ. Can you imagine that a Christian could regret, when death is near, that he has been a Christian and call on Marx or Lenin to rescue him from his faith?”

The officer laughed, “A clever answer.”

I continued, “When an engineer has built a bridge, the fact that a cat can pass over the bridge is no proof that the bridge is good. A train must pass over it to prove its strength. The fact that you can be an atheist when everything goes well does not prove the truth of atheism. It does not hold up in moments of great crisis.”

 

“As there are many who believe they are Christians and in reality are not, we found that among the Russians there are many who believe they are atheists, but in reality they are not”

~ Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured For Christ


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Blood Moon Coming Tomorrow (Passover) Night

The Blood Moon will be visible in our sky’s here in Mid and Eastern Australia (!) tomorrow night (Passover night on blood moonTuesday).

“The total lunar eclipse on 15 April is one of two for this year, and will begin before the Moon rises, says Dr Nick Lomb, consultant astronomer and curator, Powerhouse Museum and Sydney Observatory…

Lomb says a twilight total lunar eclipse is quite rare.

“Just as the Sun is setting, the Moon will be rising, and it will be totally eclipsed, which should be fairly spectacular,” he says.

But because the eclipse will happen so low in the sky, to see it you will need to make sure there are no trees, hills or buildings in the way.

“The essential thing is to have a really clear view towards the eastern horizon.”

The Moon will already be eclipsed when it rises at 5:28 pm AEST, but at that stage the sky will still be quite bright, warns Lomb

“So it might be hard to see a slight reddish fudge on the horizon,” he says.

But wait five minutes for the Sun to set and you could be in for a treat.

“It’s a fair chance it will become a reasonably bright reddish Moon,”
says Lomb.

He says while the Moon is usually blood red, because the Earth’s atmosphere refracts light from the Sun, this colour is not guaranteed.

This is because the atmosphere could make the Moon too dark to see. But, says Lomb, since there is no volcanic activity around, this is unlikely to be a problem.

By 5:46 pm AEST, the Moon will be in the middle of Earth’s dark shadow and from 6:25 pm AEST it will start leaving the shadow.

Even if there are clouds, Lomb says people should still be able to see this partial eclipse, lasting until 7:33 pm AEST.

“Even if people can’t see the Moon when it’s red they should still be able to see the Moon creep out of the Earth’s shadow and that’s still interesting.”

From:   http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/04/14/3984921.htm

Read more about the significance of the Blood Moons here

 

 


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Grief and the Song of Moses

Grief is strange.

You go along fine for a while. And then all of a sudden…another wave descends, and you are plunged beneath the depths of it. It encompasses you and you have no choice but to let it carry you along for a while.

Then after you’ve been thrown around for a bit, after you’re soaked through with tears and your heart pierced with pain and memories, the grief sets you down and rolls away again.

Until the next wave….

Last August my friend Jenny went to be with the Lord. It was sudden, unexpected.

Four days after Jenny went, my Grandma also went to be Jesus.

I went into shock when my Grandma went.

Jenny called me “her angel”….Jenny was “my Jenny”.
Grandma called me “dearest”…..I called her my “Granny Apple-Bee”, or GAB for short.

I miss them so much.

I don’t understand why they had to go at the same time.

But I know Jesus. And even though it was terrible and painful and incomprehensible, and sometimes still is, yet will I trust Him. He is my life. Without Him I am undone.

My Grandma’s favourite hymn was “I am weak, but thou art strong”. OH Lord help me.

My Jenny’s favourite song was “The Song of Moses”. I still haven’t been able to listen to it since she went home but I am putting the link here for you to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF-Ald7IPfA in honour of her and my Granny-Apple-Bee. It is one of the most beautiful songs in the world, straight from Revelation 15.

I love knowing that they are with Him in heaven singing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb.

God bless you this Passover season


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The Master’s Vessel

The Master was searching for a vessel to use; On the shelf there were many – which one would He choose? broken-vessel

“Take me”, cried the gold one, “I’m shiny and bright, I’m of great value and I do things just right. My beauty and luster will outshine the rest And for someone like You, Master, gold would be the best!”

The Master passed on with no word at all; He looked at a silver urn, narrow and tall;

“I’ll serve You, dear Master, I’ll pour out Your drink, and I’ll be at Your table whenever You dine, My lines are so graceful, my carvings so true, And my silver will always compliment You.”

Unheeding the Master passed on to the brass, It was wide mouthed and shallow, and polished like glass.

“Here! Here!” cried the vessel, “I know I will do, Place me on Your table for all men to view.”

“Look at me”, called the goblet of crystal so clear, “My transparency shows my contents so dear, Though fragile am I, I will serve You with pride, And I’m sure I’ll be happy in Your house to abide.”

The Master came next to a vessel of wood, Polished and carved, it solidly stood.

“You may use me, dear Master”, the wooden bowl said, “But I’d rather You used me for fruit, not for Bread!”

hisloveThen the Master looked down and saw a vessel of clay. Empty and broken it helplessly lay. No hope had the vessel that the Master might choose, To cleanse and make whole, to fill and to use.

“Ah! This is the vessel I’ve been hoping to find, I will mend and use it and make it all Mine.” “I need not the vessel with pride of its self; Nor the one who is narrow to sit on the shelf; Nor the one who is big mouthed and shallow and loud; Nor one who displays his contents so proud; Not the one who thinks he can do all things just right; But this plain earthy vessel filled with My power and might.”

Then gently He lifted the vessel of clay. Mended and cleansed it and filled it that day. Spoke to it kindly. “There’s work you must do, Just pour out to others as I pour into you.”

Author Unknown


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No Compromise: “Not a Hoof Shall be Left Behind”

Moses didn’t compromise with Pharoah.comproimse

I guess he could have. It would have probably been a whole lot easier for him to accept the first offer from Pharoah which came after the plague of flies : that the children of Israel can go make their sacrifices to God right there in the land of Egypt.

But Moses said “no deal” – that’s not what God had instructed: “We will go three days’ journey in to the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He will command us.” Exodus 8:27

After the plague of hail Pharoah conceded slightly and offered a new deal to Moses “Go now, you who are men, and serve the Lord.”
But, again, Moses said “no deal”, that’s not what God had commanded : “And Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord.” Exodus 10:9

After swarms of locusts and 3 days of intense blackness Pharoah called Moses in. He was ready to offer his best compromise yet:
“Go, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you,” he said.

This was his best deal yet. After all, Egypt’s own animals had now been wiped out by boils, hail and disease. Moses only need leave the animals behind and all the men, women and children were free to go!

Did Moses yield and make a compromise with the one holding God’s people captive? Did he agree to the deal with Pharoah potentially bringing about peace and unity between the Israelites and the Egyptians?

compromise‘But Moses said, “You must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind. For we must take some of them to serve the Lord our God, and even we do not know with what we must serve the Lord until we arrive there.” Exodus 10:25, 26

Of course Moses didn’t make a deal with the devil, oops, I mean Pharoah. He didn’t compromise one inch! Not even one little hoof was to be left behind!

Moses was a man of God with a foundation of truth and integrity that was built on the Word of God. Moses had always told Pharoah the truth. The whole truth – even the hard parts about judgment.  Moses had always proclaimed the truth and he wasn’t going to start backing down now.

My question is…..So what on earth has happened to the Church?

At every turn we are compromising: making deals with the devil, shaking hands, signing documents with Islam (Chrislam), Interfaith conferences, performing occult practices in the Church.

“Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14

Imagine if Moses had said “yes” to one of Pharoah’s little deals…who knows, maybe he was tired and the offer was tempting….

What would we have done?  Would we have had the guts to say “No. Not even one hoof is going to be left behind! I am not budging on God’s Word one teeny iota” ? Would we have been brave enough to stand on God’s Word, hard as it may be…?

 

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…”  Romans 1:16

Let us not fear men more than we fear God.  Where would that have gotten Moses?

“Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergyman or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth” John Wesley

 

 


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Missionary Quotation: Underground Church Worker

chinese church“The Lord Jesus calls people who realize they cannot function at all apart from His grace and empowerment. God chooses to use those individuals who know Him intimately! This is the primary qualification for service in the kingdom of God.”

Underground Church worker in China


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Bible Prophecy: Do Not Be Deceived

deceptionIn Matthew 24:3, when four of Jesus’ disciples asked Him “ . . . what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age”, before listing the events that would occur prior to the end of the age, Jesus warned them in Matthew 24:4 “ . . . Watch out that no one deceives you. . . . ” In Mark 13:3–5 and Luke 21:7-8 we also read about this interaction between Jesus and those disciples.

The first thing to note in the disciples’ question is that they linked Jesus’ coming again and the end of the age together. Jesus, in His answer, did not refute this so we can know that His coming and the end of the age will happen simultaneously. It may seem obvious but is, nevertheless, worth highlighting.

Following up on His warning to those disciples not to be deceived, He immediately warns them to be on the lookout for the appearance of false Christs’ and not to go running after them. Most Christians would automatically assume that, since they are followers of Jesus, know and regularly study God’s Word and regularly fellowship with other believers, such a thing could not happen to them. Clearly, in the way Jesus warned His disciples and ultimately us, that will not necessarily be the case and should be a sobering reminder to us that it is possible to be deceived. However, we surely can also take some comfort from Jesus’ answer when He tells us to “Watch Out”, meaning that if we are alert we can avoid being deceived.

Many Christians believe that we are nearing the end of the age and that many of the signs Jesus and other prophets spoke about are beginning to manifest themselves. That being the case, we are surely nearing the time when Christians could face being deceived. So what are we to do and to watch out for?

If we stop to think about what we are to watch out for, surely some answers are already staring us in the face? The main one, we would suggest, is the falling away from the faith, or apostasy, that is continually taking place today and the deception that goes with it; a situation ripe for false Christs to appear and be followed. In Matthew 24:10 Jesus said it would happen. These are His Words: “At that time many will turn away from the faith . . . . .” In many Christian denominations we constantly see God’s Word being changed and watered down by their leaders and accepted by many in their congregations. In doing so these leaders and congregations have not only moved away from God’s Word but are also setting themselves up to be deceived by false Christs. It seems easier for them to fall into line with secular standards than keeping to God’s standards.

The uncomfortable reality is that you will know you are on the right track not to be deceived when you start beingtruth ies persecuted! In Matthew 24:9 Jesus said: “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” Some Christians around the world are already facing such persecution.

We believe we need not only “Watch Out” but need to warn other Christians not to become complacent or compromise God’s Word, in addition continually asking God to help us keep to His path. Of course, we also need to carry on with our efforts to bring the Gospel to the notice of others who do not yet know or have a relationship with Jesus.

(Note: All quotes are from the NIV Bible.)

Chris, from our fellowship, has an interest in Bible prophecy and from time to time will share his views with us on current events and how they relate to prophecy in this new series “Bible Prophecy”.

 

 


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Jesus is Lord, Even of our City Streets

“If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.” LR preaching(Leonard Ravenhill)

“What are you doing?”

“WHAT are you doing?”

The man was standing on my right hand side, and he was very, very close.  Yesterday morning I was preaching in the city.  It had been a great morning, with very little resistance to the gospel.  In fact, astonishingly, people had been quite open to it.  As soon as I’d started preaching some individuals had immediately come over to talk to the others and ask for tracts (I’ve never seen that before!).   But then this man: he couldn’t have been standing more than a foot away from me.  It made me uncomfortable.

“What are you doing?” he said to me again.

“I will talk to you when I’m finished,” I said, momentarily pausing from preaching.  I could see that he wasn’t about to go anywhere soon.

I turned my back to him slightly and kept going, trying to ignore him.

I usually get nervous when I go to the streets, but I’ve never been afraid.  There is a difference.

Something the Lord has caused me to see is that when I am sent somewhere by the Holy Spirit, then I am going in the authority of Jesus Christ. I am going in His Name.  It is like an ambassador being sent from the US to another country.  He goes with the authority of the US and with the strength of the US behind him.  When we go out from Jesus’ presence into the world we go as His ambassador.  We go under His authority and we have the whole of Heaven behind us, supporting us, cheering us on.

“…and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, who fills all in all.”

JESUS IS LORD!

There is nothing to fear when we walk with the King of kings, the Lord of Lords.

Back to that man standing close to me: as I spoke with him it became obvious there was a proud, religious spirit manifesting. (…”You don’t know the Bible….You don’t know Jesus….I know Jesus…I know Him better than anyone, better than He knows Himself…“) – and, yes, he actually said that.

The Holy Spirit was grieved by this and He had me take authority over the situation.  I had no choice but to tell him politely but firmly that his heart was not right, that he was wasting my time and that I was ending the conversation with him.  I walked away.  As Christians we are to show love to people but zero tolerance to Satan.

“I am well assured that I did far more good to my Lincolnshire parishioners by preaching three days on my father‟s tomb than I did by preaching three years in his pulpit.” John Wesley

Read more about street-preaching here