Month / March 2016

by In Light Of The Cross

Why all Those Begats?

20140403_205006_LLS

I am writing tonight from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.Hebrews 2:11 NLT

When I was a youth reading my Bible all the way through for the first time and came to the begats, such as in Matthew 1, I found them very boring. To be honest, I skipped them. I did not find them to be part of the “plot.” Later I found they were very much a part of the plot. Jesus inherited a family full of all kinds of sinners, but He came to make us holy. For example Rahab, who was a prostitute, was one of Jesus’ ancestors.

All the inhabitants of the city [Jericho], with every living thing that it contained, “both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass,” were put to the sword. Only faithful Rahab, with her household, was spared, in fulfillment of the promise of the spies. The city itself was burned.–PP 491 (1890).

See Matthew 1:1-16 for genealogy of Jesus, whose ancestor was Rahab.-Ellen White, Daughter’s of God, Page 36.

He became a part of the human race to rescue us from this world of sin.

For he [Jesus] has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Colossians 1:13-14 NLT

By reading all of Romans 5 we see that we were all in Adam when Adam sinned because we all came from Adam’s family.

In Romans 1:3 we read that “The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line.” Romans 1:3 NLT

Now the KJV drives it home even closer, saying Jesus was of the “seed” of David, seed being “sperm.” Everything in Adam’s sperm to David’s sperm was passed down to Jesus. Now, the lineage in Matthew 1 is Joseph’s lineage not Mary’s. The point is still the same. Mary and Joseph were both from the tribe of Judah and of the lineage of David so their heredity was very similar. While Jesus was physically fathered not by Joseph but by the Holy Spirit, Mary herself was just as much a product of Adam and David’s sperm as Joseph was.

So what is the point of all of this? While Romans 1:3 tells us Jesus shared the heredity of David, and is a part of David’s family, Jesus has also transformed that family into an obedient nation!

Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name. Romans 1:5 NLT

It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life. –Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Page 49.

You may be saying by now, “Wait a minute William. Yes Jesus was born of Mary but He was also born of the Holy Spirit which gave Him a huge advantage.” Yes you are right, and Jesus tells us in John 3, that He wants us to have the same advantage! He wants us to be born of the Holy Spirit too, so we will have power over our human nature! Jesus, in His humanity showed us the only way to triumph over sin – to be born again by the Holy Spirit.

So the ‘begots’ are a major part of the plot. Jesus became a part of a family of sinners and rescued that family from the penalty and the power of every kind of sin. He become “one” with us and experienced every type of temptation that attacks us.

God sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4 NKJV

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”Eph. 2:4-6 ESV

Christ become “one” with us in a human body weighed down by a heritage of sin so that we might be “one” with Him, seated with Him “in the heavenly places.”

What wonderful exchange! And all it takes is for us to allow Him to be Lord in our lives.

You may study this week’s SS lesson here.

by In Light Of The Cross

Never Too Old Or Isolated For God to USe

Heron Channelside (5)

I am writing today from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

Jean just passed away at the age of 94. She lost her husband a couple years earlier, and then became ill with cancer. She was telling her daughter she did not even know why she was still living. She felt old and useless. But one day her young health care nurse came for a routine visit. She told Jean about her own mother who had Alzheimer’s and would cry and shake constantly. Jean suggested buying a doll for her to hold. The young nurse did so and came back to tell Jean that it worked! No more shaking and crying. Jean was still helping people even though she was widowed, old and sick.

John was quite old when he was banished to the Island of Patmos. He may have been tempted to feel old and useless. But his best days were still ahead!

Remember Psalms 23:6, God’s goodness and mercy shall be with me all the daysof my life! And that was definitely true in John’s case.

When John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, there were many who thought him to be past service, an old and broken reed, ready to fall at any time. But the Lord saw fit to use him still. Though banished from the scenes of his former labor, he did not cease to bear witness to the truth. Even in Patmos he made friends and converts. His was a message of joy, proclaiming a risen Saviour who on high was interceding for His people until He should return to take them to Himself. And it was after John had grown old in the service of his Lord that he received more communications from heaven than he had received during all the former years of his life. (-Ellen White, Acts of the Apostles, Pages 572-573)

John wrote,

I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. Revelation 1:9 NLT

Evil people thought to put the old man away in isolation, but instead he spoke with an angel, looked into heaven and wrote the book of Revelation, reaching billions of people around the world throughout the ages!

And it didn’t matter if everyone else thought John was old and useless. God had work for him when no one else did, and God has work for you too, no matter what age you are. Even if you are old, God may still have big plans for you. God was not just talking to young ones when He said,

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV

You may study this week’s SS lesson here. 

by In Light Of The Cross

The Head of the Body Always Feels the Pain First

DTTFL

I am writing today from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

…Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. Ephesians 5:23 NLT

When you pray and tell Jesus about the trials of your day, do you ever stop and ask Jesus how His day was? Remember, while you may have seen one person being abused, Jesus saw every soul that was abused that day. You hay have seen one hungry child. Jesus saw every hungry, hurting child.

A few years ago I was playing a Bible game with my 5th and 6th grade Bible-chain referencing class. One student was trying to guess what Bible character the rest of the class was thinking of. Before he could guess, a 5th grade boy accidentally let it slip, and gave the answer away. The class voiced their disapproval of his gaffe and the embarrassed boy was in tears, as he put his head down on his desk in shame. Before I could even say anything, a 6th grade girl instinctively got up and walked over to him, and put her hand on his shoulder, and patted his back, resembling more of a mother than a grade school girl. She told the class it was an accident that any of us could have made. The class quickly changed its behavior, though I am sure they never intended their slight show of disapproval to cause so much pain. I remember thinking at the time, that the girl acted so quickly and instinctively, that it was as though she actually felt his pain.

The Bible tells us the church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the Head of the body. Just to show how important every member of the church or body of Christ is, consider this. When you get up in the middle of the night and stub you tiny toe on the night stand, damage-detecting sensory neurons flash a message to the spinal cord, spinal cord neurons relay the message to the brain and the brain is the first part of the body that feels the pain. Likewise when the weakest member of the church gets hurt, Christ, the Head of the church is the first One to feel the pain.

When you hit your little toe on the night stand, your hands immediately go to the aid of the little toe. Your brain sends them there, to comfort and support the smallest member of you body. In relieving the pain of the toe, the hands are also relieving the pain of the brain, the head of the body. Likewise when we rescue the abused, and feed and comfort the smallest hungry child, we are relieving the pain Jesus feels as the Head of the body.

For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy. He has not turned his back on them, but has listened to their cries for help.Psalms 22:24 NLT

In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. Isaiah 63:9 NLT

You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.