Angels

There are quite a bit of misconceptions about angels. Most of these we see in TV shows and movies. I want to separate truth from those misconceptions. First of all, Angels are NOT dead people. Many TV shows depict angels as people who have passed away and are trying to earn their wings somehow. The truth is angels are not, nor have they ever been human. They are unique creations. They are spiritual beings having no physical body. They can however take on any appearance that suits their purpose. In the bible we see them mostly being messengers for God. They announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds for example. God has also sent them to protect his people at times. Angels always obey God. They always point to God. They always give glory to God. An angel that does not is called a demon. Angels are not to be worshiped. No angel will ever seek worship. An "angel" that seeks worship is also a demon. You do not pray to an angel. There are a creation of God, not any sort of deity to be prayed to.
Lucifer was once an angel. He basically thought he deserved to sit on God's throne and was cast out of Heaven. 1/3 of the angels fell with him according to the Bible. One common misconception about Lucifer, also known as Satan, or the Devil, is that he is in Hell and rules it. He is not. Hell will be his final destination along with others who reject God, but he is not there now, nor does he, or will he ever rule it. He will be sent there to be punished like everyone else there. He has not yet been sent there. Those events are yet to come and are foretold in the book of revelation. Satan occupies the same space we do. The Bible calls him the prince of the power of the air. Meaning he is here with his demons tempting man and attempting to steer people away from God. Because he hates God he wants as many people to perish in Hell as possible. He also hates people because we are made in the image of God.

Unlike angels human beings can be redeemed. A demon can never be saved and become an angel again. However, Because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross paying for the sins of humanity we can be redeemed in the eyes of God. Humanity is he crown jewel of God's creation and we are the only beings he has provided this way of redemption to. We are created in the image of God, angels aren't. Even the angels can't be saved. That is how much God loved us. The next time you feel down about yourself remember that God loves you more than the angels and sent Jesus to die for you. If you turn to Him you will be saved.

Halloween

There is a lot of arguing over  whether or not a Christian should participate in Halloween. My opinion is that it depends on the condition of your heart. If you have Jesus in your heart then Halloween is just a fun time to put on a costume and eat candy regardless of what it means to pagans. Likewise if you don't have Jesus in your heart Christmas is just a time to put up a tree and exchange gifts regardless of the fact that to Christians it is the celebration of the birth if our Lord. So chill out, put on your costume and eat your candy. Simply doing so is not worshiping the devil.

My thoughts on the Trinity

As a protestant Christian I do hold to the teaching that God is three in one. Not that there are three Gods, but that one God exists as three distinct persons. At first this might seem like alot to wrap your brain around. How can one anything exist as three? Some have so much difficulty with the teaching that they abandon it all together. Some try to explain it in various ways to make it easy to understand. I think of it as this way. The remarkable thing isn't that one God can exist as three distinct persons. The remarkable thing is that our infinite, limitless, all powerful God ONLY exists as three distinct persons. God is infinite. He can exist as any infinite number of distinct persons yet he reveals himself to man as only three. That's how I see it anyway.

An Absurd Observation

I have recently, though I've head this said before, heard of someone make an observation which was quite absurd. This person made the observation that Jesus was not a Christian. This observation comes from a lack of understanding of who Jesus is, why he came and what it means to be a Christian. I will give several reasons to clarify why this observation is absurd.

First of all what is a Christian?
A Christian is someone who has repented of their sins and placed their faith in Jesus as Lord to save them. Through the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross a Christian is forgiven of their sins. They have a personal relationship with God.

Who is Jesus?
Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. He is not a God/man hybrid. He is completely both. God is three in one. (I blog about that here) The three in one God consists of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is God the son. Jesus is also called the Son of God. This is true because he was born of a virgin and had no human father. Like wise He often calls himself the Son of Man due to his humanity and human mother. God the father, through the Holy Spirit, conceived the baby Jesus. However, this was not the beginning of His existence. He is God, so Jesus existed before his birth as a man.

scripure:
John 1:1-5,14 ESV
¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it... ¹⁴And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.


Why did Jesus come? This one is simple. Jesus came to save that which was lost. That is, he came to save us. Who is lost? Everyone who does not know Jesus.

Scripture:
Luke 19:10 ESV
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost

Romans 3:23 ESV
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

This observation is usually made because Jesus observed old testament law and commandments. So it is often argued that Jesus was a Jew (by faith, not heritage). To accomplish his goal to save that which is lost Jesus had to become our substitution. Not only was his death on the cross our substitution to pay the sin debt we can not afford to pay ourselves(See "Why is Hell Forever?"), His life was also a substitution for our own sinful lives.
Jesus had NO sin.
(scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.)
This means he observed God's laws and commandments to the letter. When God looks at a Christian he sees no sin because of this, He just sees the perfect life of Christ. This is why Jesus observed God's laws and commandments. He came not only to die in our place, but to fulfill the law perfectly in our place, two things we can not do. So yes, Jesus DID practice what we would call Judaism.

So, because Jesus is God and not just a man who started a "religion" based on some new ideas, and has no sin, and has no need for salvation he has no need to BE a Christian. This makes the observation that Jesus was not a Christian rather absurd.

However, you are not Jesus. You do sin. You do have a need for the loving, open arms of Jesus. They are open for you always.

Prosperity?

I had to write this blog because there is a growing movement in the modern church which is most dangerous. It is sometimes called the "prosperity gospel" or "word of faith" movement. I'm also going to pick on one leader in this movement because judging by the size of his flock he is leading many astray. Simply put this movement teaches that God wants believers to be wealthy. It teaches that the price Jesus paid on the cross not only brings spiritual, but material prosperity as well as physical healing. Leaders in this movement encourage believers to pray to the point of demanding that God give them financial success. You'll sometimes hear them say "name it and claim it". Some will even go as far as to say Jesus had a nice house, and was wealthy himself. They teach if you just have enough faith then your faith is a spiritual force that will cause you to obtain your wealth and healing. If you do not prosper you simply don't have enough faith.

Let me be perfectly clear. Jesus Christ did NOT die on the cross to give you a big house, an SUV, or designer clothes. Jesus Christ died to take the punishment for your sins so that you may be saved. If Christ died just so you could have THINGS then he paid much to high a price for your STUFF. Sure God chooses to bless some believers with more financially, some he chooses not to according to HIS purpose.


Now, I said I was going to pick on one of their leaders. That leader is Joel Osteen. He stands on his stage with his big smile and teaches exactly the false gospel I described before. Then, he gets on national TV, and when faced with the question that any truth teaching pastor should jump at the chance to answer YES! to, he waffles. Observe:



(by the way, here is the CORRECT answer from the bible:
(John 14:6) Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."
(Acts 4:12) And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.)

He was even given more than one chance to say yes, and he did not. My wife use to watch him now and then. I watched him once, and the one time I watched him he altered the bible to fit his sermon. A good pastor will pick a scripture and expound on its meaning. This joker writes a feel good sermon and shoe horns the bible to fit it. I showed my wife the above video and she no longer watches him. Why should he want to say Jesus is the only way though? He wants people to buy his door stops he calls books. He doesn't want to offend anyone.

Be very careful. The bible gives a strong warning:

(Galatians 1:8-9)
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

This is the danger of the prosperity gospel. It's a feel good movement meant to fill seats and fill offering plates and sell books. But there is no substance to it.

This I proclaim with great importance! Jesus died on the cross to give you much more than a big house or a fancy car. He died on the cross so you could have a mansion in Heaven, not on earth. He died on the cross so that you may be clothed in HIS righteousness not designer clothes. Most of all he did it because he LOVES you! Trust in him, acknowledge that He alone is Lord, Repent of your sins and he WILL save you!

I wrote a blog in 2007 that fits this topic well:

http://super-hampster.blogspot.com/2007/04/parable-of-parachute.html

Things that don't work.

Sometimes God lets things happen to show human beings that it won't work.  As humans we gravitate on wanting to do things on our own. I believe that was what most of the Old Testiment was all about. God set up a system to where if they would obeyed His laws He would be their God and they would be his people. The problem with that is His standards are too high for us to acheive. This system of doing to gain favor with God does't work. He knew it wouldn't. He had to show us that so when He gave us a system of grace we'd get it. The same goes now for why I think God let Obama win in 2008. America had to see that liberalism doesn't work. Judging by all the elections since he took office I'm hopeful that we're getting the hint.

Thanks to those responsible for bin Laden's death

Thank you Ronald Reagan for believing so much in and investing so much in special ops teams that made this victory possible today. Thank you George W. Bush for putting in place policies which gave us the intelligence necessary to find bin Laden's hiding place and having the courage to stand up and defend those policies when they weren't popular. Thank you President Obama for failing to end those policies so far even though you've been trying. Thank you for making the only decision any president in your situation could have possibly made. It wasn't gutsy, it was a no brainer. Thank you for riding the coat tails of these other great men and taking all the credit. We haven't forgotten how you tried to close Gitmo where this intel was acquired or tried to give miranda rights to terrorists captured on the battle field. Here's a hint, when you give them the "right to remain silent" they don't have to give you intel on where certain people are hiding. Had you been successful bin Laden may still be alive. And of coarse, thank you for the soldiers that actually put your life in danger to bring this evil man to justice. Not only to the team who actually did the job last Sunday, but also to all those who sacrificed their lives in battle, and time away from your families over the past 10 years.