Having worked in a power plant for thirty years, 25 years of which as assistant control operator and control operator, I have experienced encountering repetitious alarms. Most alarms have different degrees of importance but some are irritations or nuisance. By nuisance , they just waste your time and attention and they need to be blocked.But blocking alarms need to be done properly so that important or other alarms are still available to come in when they occur.
What this got to do in a Christian blog ? Here is my point, as Christians the name Jesus should remain fresh and sweet to us. When we get tired of the name Jesus and do not want to hear about it, in essence we are blocking Him like a blocked alarm.
Jesus is our LIfe, our Lord and Savior, and deserve our praise and worship.
For those who are not Christian , I will encourage you to study the life of Jesus, and see what He is about.
For those who do not like Jesus, review your information because Jesus also warned that there will be false Christs.
President elect Donald Trump announced his administration's plan to make America great again. He started with whether it is producing steel, building cars, curing diseases.etc, etc....comment: for the sake of America, I hope his plans succeed.
This simple blog will summarize what I remember from 1960 to present. For the sake of discussion let us let US represent the West and China the East and Israel (the time of KIng David) the Bible.
What makes a nation great ? Let us look at the three US, China, and Israel. Hard work including research and development appear to be the most evident common formula of success. But Israel's success is based on blessing of God on King David.After King David's rule, it appears Israel's love for God slowly diminished eventualy resulting in Israel's capture and exile to Babylon and dispersion of the Jews to other nations and later regathering of Israel in 1948 to present.
Does God have a role in success or fall of a nation ? I believe so look at Israel, look at America. How about China ? Just as Babylon was used by God to discipline His people Israel , could China be used by God to discipline His people who forgets about God ?
As a Christian, I believe every one's hope is in Jesus Christ, so is every nation.
Psalm 33:12 says Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.
This coming Thanksgiving day, let us thank the Giver for who He is.He is our Creator, our Savior, our Lord, Source of grace, mercy and every good gifts. One of my pastors taught us to acknowledge the Giver, not just the gifts. God told Abraham (Abram at that time) in Genesis 15:1 That He himself is Abraham's reward.
God Himself is our Joy, our strength, our Light, our Refuge,etc.
By the way , are we having a hard time or trouble thanking God because we don't like what we have ? then review my other blog "Understanding and knowing Jesus".
Thank God by faith and for His promises that were fulfilled , on going and coming.
Praise the Lord and tell Him we love Him. If you don't feel like praising Him tell Him honestly and ask for His Holy Spirit.
We humans like to live or have life that is why we eat. That is why we go to the doctor when we are sick. Most of our government services" purpose is to protect life. This is what we call physical or biological life. God is the source of this physical life. We know there is a limit to this physical life. All of us will eventually die.
According to the Bible we also have spiritual life. God who created us is a Spirit. God breathe into us and we became a living soul.This started in Adam and Eve . We learned that they sinned /disobey God, so man died spiritually,which also caused limit on our physical life.
The Bible or through the Bible we are promised eternal life or everlasting life. But we just read that we are dead spiritually and also going to die physically. The answer to having eternal life is to reconnect with God. This life can be obtained through Jesus Christ because He died for our sin.His resurrection or coming from the dead tell us that we will live also.
But how do we know this is true ? There are two ways, one is we will wake up someday in heaven and the other way is we see Jesus coming down from heaven to get us or live with us or we living with Him.
For Christians Jesus is our blessed hope. He is our life. Though we are dead or will die, we will live again through Jesus.
When can we have this promise of eternal life ? Don't wait till you die physically, because during that time we will have no consciousness.
Come or go or pray to Jesus while we still have physical life.If you have not done this , today is the best time.Remember this is eternal or forever Jesus and you should not separated again from each other.
One last thing , being one with Jesus is being born again or being a new born baby. We then need to grow and be cared for. God will help us grow through other people who loves Him.
Let us gather what the Bible, the church and the Spirit tell us about Jesus.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He left the glory of heaven to live with man that He created. There were no room available for Him to be delivered (or be born) and men led by Herod tried to kill Him as a baby but they failed.He did not grow up in a palace but lived as a carpenter's son.
The Bible was silent on His 12th year to 30th years of life.Then He showed Himself to the world starting with being baptized in water by John the Baptist.Then the greatest tempter in the universe (Lucifer later called Satan{adversary})tried to stop Him on His purpose of saving mankind through temptation but Satan failed and the Bible wrote satan left Him.
Jesus then did many wonderful works but His heart will forever be revealed in the cross. He was abandoned by His disciples, disowned(denied by Peter) and betrayed by Judas. Jesus died the worst death known to man yet He still desired forgiveness for those who wanted to kill Him. Today medical and engineering science tried to examine the pain and the stress and strain that Jesus undergone based on the information given in the Bible, and have no words to describe it.
Jesus made the greatest sacrifice to save mankind. He died for our sins.By His death, we are freed from judgment from our rebellion and sin which will lead us to hell . By His resurrection we are destined to live with Him eternally in heaven.
Jesus did His part and waits for our part. Are we going to accept/ believe Him and live for and with Him or reject Him ?
First let us magnify God for He is our Creator, our Beginning and Ending, the Almighty.
Next who is a man of God ? a man of God is God-fearing man. Let's look at the list (partial list ) of God fearing men. I believe Adam is one, then Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua,Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel,Hosea and the minor prophets. John, the Baptist, the apostles etc.
By the way, Jesus Christ is also a man of God and also God.
Now our question , is President elect Donald Trump a man of God ?
Time will tell if he is a man of God. I believe just as our Lord Jesus Christ prayed for Peter, we as Christians can pray or should pray for Pres. Donald Trump. That Trump will call upon God on every decision he make as president of USA.
By the way , every human being in the face of the earth has a very important decision to make, that is who will be the president or Lord of our life.
Two apparently simple and passive words,I am referring to watch and pray.Yet if we look at the Bible, those are two strong , critical, necessary , decisive, climactic words.
For illustration let us look in the sports world, when will a player likely to watch intensely and pray ? In the critical moment of the game, is it not ?
How about us, in these present times, are we to watch and pray ?
Or should we eat, drink and be merry ? Both appeared in the Bible.
Let us see, eat, drink, and be merry, appeared 6 times in the Old Testament and one time in New Testament.
While watch and pray appeared one time in Old Testament and 7 times in the New Testament.
Two wise men decided differently, King Solomon wrote eat, drink and be merry , while Jesus commanded watch and pray.
The term Theocracy means the rule of God or God's reign.The surprise result of US election followed by protests in major cities cause me to ask what is going on in the number one democracy ? Are we about to witness the return of Jesus Christ to rule and reign ?
The book of Daniel predicted or prophesied four major human kingdom that will rule the earth. The Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek and the Roman government. These are represented by Nebuchadnezzar's dream of an image of head of gold, breast of silver, belly of brass and thigh of iron and lastly feet of iron and clay.
There is a point in man's rule that God will take over. Man has tried all forms of government, monarchy,emperor rule, dictatorship,communism, socialism, capitalism, democracy and combination of these forms.
The Bible teach that Christians obey the established government. God our Creator and Ruler could take over at His appointed time.
Convert some of your material blessing to lasting blessing.
I believe there are many ways to do this. We can help those who are in need.If your house does not have a Bible yet, you may plan on buying one. We can also have a Bible free, there are some groups who give them free of charge.
