For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder: His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.  (Isaiah 9:6-7). When Isaiah spoke of the Savior to come, hope grew within the remnant of true believers.  Israel had for the most part turned away from God chasing after idols.  Proclaiming themselves righteous, they had abandoned all righteousness. So, the few true worshipers longed for the Savior to come and establish His Kingdom. Hence their confusion, was Jesus the Savior they waited for?

Amid such evil times, where it appears that evil wins; they clung tight to the promise that one day there would be the final victory. God would establish His Kingdom. Justice and righteousness will prevail.  Evil will be cast into eternal hell.  They clung tight to the truth that one day, there would be no need for another sacrifice; because, God’s laws would be written on their hearts as foretold in Jeremiah 31:33.  Longing for that day, they wanted it to be now! Although they were told by Isaiah that Emmanuel would come to first be the suffering servant who would take upon Himself our sins.  This is clearly outlined in Isaiah 53.  Then in Isaiah 54, the church was foretold. We the Gentile Believers would be grafted into God’s Family.  He will return to establish His Kingdom in Israel; but that is yet to come.

Jesus the Savior they Waited For

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The Jewish nation had awaited and even longed for their messiah to come.  They desired to be rescued from their sorrow and affliction.  Their Messiah was to come, establish His Kingdom and save them from all their enemies.  Certainly, they wanted to be a Part of all His Glory!  But they did not see the whole picture.  The sacrifices up until then made by the priests had not made their hearts clean.  These years under the law and the sacrificial system were merely like a band aid to cover a wound far too deep.  God was Holy, Perfect Justice and Righteousness and they were not.  From the time of Adam’s first sin, it had been necessary that the blood of animals be shed to cover the sin of mankind.  But the sacrifice did not transform their hearts, which would continually through the ages revolt against God.

How many times did God’s hand of mercy save a remnant of true worshippers?  Meanwhile the rest would go on to corrupt the land, bent on having their way and never willing to accept God as Lord over all?  Thinking themselves to be clever, they sought after other idols.  Wanting to fulfill every desire of their heart with counterfeit joys, they denied the only source of true joy.  Yes, the Messiah must come to establish His Kingdom, one day; but first He had to come to be the final sacrificial lamb.   Only He could pay the price to cover our sins for an eternity.

For Him to truly release them from bondage, He would have to release them from the bondage of sin that held their hearts. Otherwise, it was futile to merely release them from the human bondage their own sin had led them into.

A Much Bigger Story of His Glory

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Were I to tell you that hidden deep under the Oak tree near my old farm in Missouri lay a treasure so large that you would never have to worry again?  In fact, you could enter a perfect peaceful rest, if only you went to claim it.  Yet, if I did not tell you which oak tree nor give you an idea of where that farm was or how to obtain the right to dig on the farm, you would never be able to find it.  Furthermore, you would be more forlorn than ever as you desired to know all the truth; because, partial truth only leads to more despair. No worries, there is no treasure hidden in my old farmland; but you get the idea.

The two disciples who were walking along the Emmaus road were in despair.  They knew that scripture was true.  Also, they believed in God.  Furthermore, they knew the prophets foretold of a Messiah who would come to save His people from all their affliction, bondage and pain.  With all they knew being truth, they were forlorn because they did not know all the truth.  Believing with all their heart that Jesus was that Messiah. That is until the day the chief priests accused Him before the court, He was rejected, hung on the cross in utter humility and disgrace. How could they have been so fooled?  Afterall it was now the third day, and even though the body was missing from the grave, He had not appeared in flaming Glory to sit up His throne. Hours had passed, it now was evening, and nothing had changed.

Oh yes, they knew a lot of truth; but they did not know all the truth.  Knowing only part of truth is as perilous as not knowing any.

All the Truth

Continue reading Why Is It So Important to Know All the Truth? →

Truth is of the utmost importance.  Without it we have nothing on which to anchor our lives nor our souls.  When facing questions of life, we need to know what is true beyond any shadow of doubt.  Furthermore, of all the questions: that which is most important of all is who do you believe Jesus is?  Because on your answer to this one question, hangs your eternity. But how do we know beyond any shadow of doubt that He is the only way of salvation? For that we must take a walk along the Road to Emmaus where true unwavering faith is found.  We find there that all of scripture pointed to Jesus Christ.  His birth, life, death and resurrection were foretold with such accuracy that no doubt could be left, if only one would study the word of God. No coincidence could account for hundreds of fulfilled prophecies

So many want to say that He was a prophet, a good man, a teacher; yet, deny the truth that He is God and He is the Son of God.  Others, even in His day, called Him a blasphemer, a liar, charged Him with high crimes and sent Him to the cross to die.  Little did they realize that for this He had come.  Oh, yes, they had read Old Testament Scripture; but therein they had not seen the truth of how it spoke of Him. The prophets foretold the truth.  He must die as the sacrificial lamb-the final sacrificial lamb to pay the price for our sins.  All the Scribes and Pharisees wanted to jump past this vital truth to the day He would come to rule over Israel during the millennial reign. Yet, even in their denial of Him, they unwittingly fulfilled scripture.

The Road to Emmaus

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We look around us at the news of the day and weep.  How could it be that we have arrived here?  And even more, is there any hope that we might recover from the radical ideologies that demand we silence the Gospel truth to exchange it for some “politically correct” agenda embracing all as truth, making nothing true. When will we ever really learn God is ALL? He is all we need.  The truth, the light, and the way to life, joy, peace, and true love can only be found in God. And the only way to Him is through accepting His gracious gift of salvation purchased by Jesus Christ, His only begotten son who died on the cross to pay the price for our sin? Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, equal and distinct.  A concept too large perhaps for our minds. One God, yet three.

But are we not like Him in this: body, soul and spirit?  So, yes, I look around me at this great United States of America and weep.  We, who know God have sat in silence and watched as the Bible was removed from our schools in the name of separation of church and state.  Yet, in the name of teaching tolerance we allow the study of other faiths within those same academic walls.  Joining hand in hand with the sexual freedom movement, we cast aside all that the Bible would teach us to keep our families together as strong units of faith.  Embracing secular humanists’ socialistic ideologies, supposedly based on scientific experimentation; unless the science goes against—then truth is merely relative to one’s own ideas and desires.  When all is relative, nothing stands as true.  Darkness enters and light is overshadowed by shades of gray.

When Will We Ever Really Learn?

Continue reading When Will We Ever Really Learn God Is ALL? →