Jaus' Notebook

21st December 2012 is certainly not the end of the world. There was a lot of hype about this theory. I've just watched the primiere of the film Evacuate Earth on National Geographic. There is a death sentence for planet Earth. In view of an impending impact of the Earth with a Neutron Star in 75 years time, scientists are sure our planet's days are numbered. But, they believe this does not mean the end of mankind. These experts explore how mankind could leave the earth to escape this doom and continue their progeny elsewhere. In their vision, a mammoth Space Ark is to be built to transport 1/4 million people to Earth 2.0. There is no end to this science fiction! Questions we always ask: Is God in control of the future? If so, can we have hope on the premise of his great plan? The answer is a resounding Yes! The creator is still in charge. There are a few points where the scientists' vision and God's word seen to agree, at least basing the comparison on 2 Peter 3:

Whenever I pose a question to anyone it's usually from two possible positions: either out of ignorance or a desire to make clear some doubts (and this is two-way, my ignorance and doubts or my respondent's). I want to believe you also share these views, beside the other positions you may take. In fact, in this generation of con-people, no one really ever believes everything as gospel truth. We must demand a few clarifications. We are skeptical about free handouts, so much, even God's free grace for our salvation. We always want to find out the "strings attached." This kind of skeptism is the basis of this article. Christianity, like most other religions, is faith-based. The Almighty God came up with a fool proof system in which faith must rest upon evidence and not demonstration, so that the professor has no advantage over a young schoolboy. "The just shall live by faith" he declares. The whole creation reveals and is to reveal God's invisible c

The church is filled with hypocrites. Why should I join them? Just the other day, Elder So and So did... Sister So and So and Brother So and So... Such questions linger in the minds of many who would like to join the Church or even some who are already members but feel like walking out because they are not impressed by the character of some members. I truly feel for such children of God, for once I thought likewise. Nevertheless, I saw the light, like the one that illumined Saul on his deadly mission to Damascus. "It is hard to for you kick against the pricks," the Lord said. Saul asked, "what will you have me to do?" (Acts 9:5, 6). We must never forget that the church is God's idea. Whoever is worried about the status of God's church, must repeat Saul's question before quitting or joining. We must never assume that the Church is made up only of people who have already been fully furnished to live as Christians. Just like Jesus explains in the parabl

"Why is a birthday cake the only food you can blow on and spit on and everybody rushes to get a piece?" Bobby Kelton asked. Well, to many people birthdays mean cake, wrapping paper, money, clothes, party, friends and some words of wisdom. And that is all we usually seem to remember. Again, it is on our birthdays that lot's of people think of us, especially with the facebook notifications. The only boring part is that 90% of the wall posts are "happy bday." This begs the question, why? Most friends never really thought of you personally, otherwise, they would tailor those messages to suit what you've meant in their lives in the past year. I believe friends should be able to spot the areas you need to improve and commend you when deserve. I performed a search for the word "birthday" in the Bible. The results shocked me. It only occurs three times. In each of the three instances, someone was murdered during the celebrations. During Pharaoh's bi

The advocacy of the Lord Jesus in our behalf, however, is wholly different from this, though the same general object is pursued and sought, the good of those for whom he becomes an advocate. The nature of his advocacy may be stated in the following particulars: (1.) He admits the guilt of those for whom he becomes the advocate, to the full extent charged on them by the law of God, and by their own consciences. He does not attempt to hide or conceal it. He makes no apology for it. He neither attempts to deny the fact , nor to show that they had a right to do as they have done. He could not do this, for it would not be true; and any plea before the throne of God which should be based on a denial of our guilt would be fatal to our cause. (2.) As our advocate, he undertakes to be security   that no wrong shall be done to the universe if we are not punished as we deserve; that is, if we are pardoned, and treated as if we had not sinned. This he does by pleading what he has done

Where the term advocate is applied to the Lord Jesus, the language is evidently figurative, since there can be no literal pleading for us in heaven; but it is expressive of the great truth that he has undertaken our cause with God, and that he performs for us all that we expect of an advocate and counsellor. It is not to be supposed, however, that he manages our cause in the same way, or on the same principles on which an advocate in a human tribunal does. An advocate in court is employed to defend his client. He does not begin by admitting his guilt, or in any way basing his plea on the conceded fact that he is guilty; his proper business is to show that he is not guilty, or, if he be proved to be so, to see that no injustice shall be done him. The proper duty of an advocate in a human court, therefore, embraces two things: (1.) To show that his client is not guilty in the form and manner charged on him. This he may do in one of two ways, either (a.) by showing that he did

In 1 John 2:1, we are told that Jesus Christ is our advocate.   A statement of the apostle that the great object which he had in writing to them was that they should not sin; and yet if they sinned, and were conscious that they were guilty before God, they should not despair, for they had an Advocate with the Father who had made propitiation for the sins of the world. However, this must be understood in the context of the previous verses as it is a continuation and should not be separated. Confession precedes advocacy.  "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. " 1 John 1:9 We can get four basic lessons from this text: There is no use in attempting to conceal our offences , 1Jo 1:8 . They are known, all known, to one Being, and they will at some future period all be disclosed. We cannot hope to evade punishment by hiding them; we cannot hope for impunity because we

In Php 2:12-13 what does Paul mean when he says "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"? Paul is exhorting Christians here to make the self-abnegation and humility displayed by Jesus in V5-8 a fact in their own lives (CP V5-8). The words work out mean to "carry out to its ultimate conclusion." This does not mean that salvation is by works, but that Christians are individually responsible for obedience to God's word in the process of sanctification (CP Mt 6:19-20; Jn 6:27; 2Cor 13:5; 1Ti 6:17-19; 2Pe 1:10; Jude 1-3). Fear and trembling in Php 2:12 refers to the attitude with which Christians are to pursue their sanctification. It involves a healthy fear of offending God and a dread of sinning against Him, and of the consequences that may follow (CP Psa 2:11-12; 15:1-5; 85:9; 119:119-120; Pr 3:7-8, 9:10; 14:27; 16:6; Ecc 12:13; Isa 66:1-2; Luke 12:4-5; 1Cor 9:26-27; 10:12-14; Eph 6:5-8; He 6:4-6; 10:26-31). While believers are responsible for worki

If you ever thought you could accomplish anything without God, you'll be in for a rude shock! What is man without God? Psalms 127:1 “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” In other words, “if God doesn’t build the house, the builders only build shacks. If God doesn’t guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap.” MSG. These words were indorsed when Jesus declared, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you are joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire.” God's blessing on his people as their one great necessity and privilege is here spoken of. We are here taught that builders of houses and cities, systems and fortunes, empires and churches all labour in vain without the Lord; but under the

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself  He that watereth shall be watered also himself. (Proverbs 11:25) If I carefully consider others, God will consider me, and in some way or other He will recompense me. Let me consider the poor, and the Lord will consider me. Let me look after little children, and the Lord will treat me as His child. Let me feed His flock, and He will feed me. Let me water His garden, and He will make a watered garden of my soul. This is the Lord's own promise; be it mine to fulfill the condition and then to expect its fulfillment. I may care about myself till I grow morbid; I may watch over my own feelings till I feel nothing; and I may lament my own weakness till I grow almost too weak to lament. It will be far more profitable for me to become unselfish and out of love to my Lord Jesus begin to care for the souls of those around me. My tank is getting very low; no fresh rain comes to fill it; what shall I do? I wil

Sleep. Eat. Sleep again. Eat again. And then engage in intense physical exercise— forty days and forty nights; from Mount Carmel to Mount Horeb. In 1 Kings 19:5–9, God provides Elijah some simple remedies to help him manage the stress he was undergoing. How interesting that proper sleep, exercise, and a healthy diet often are prescribed to combat psychological stress. A common treatment for mood disorders is called activity scheduling. It consists of developing a rigid timetable that contains pleasant and purposeful activities that will force a depressed person to organize, anticipate, and carry out events. Such a regimen helps the person fill time positively and avoid self- pity. Physical exercise often is included in the activities, because it helps produce endorphins, morphinelike natural chemicals that enhance mood and at least temporarily relieve depression. With heavenly guidance Elijah was led into the steps that would restore his normal mental health. As with Elijah, we

What is it in serving others that makes us feel good? The life of Jesus on earth was such a life of service. From the earliest days of His ministry right up until the end, He was serving humanity. In fact, according to the Bible, He is still serving us today ( Heb. 2:17, 18). We each have been created with specific spiritual gifts for service (Rom. 12:4–8; 1 Cor. 12:1–5; Eph. 4:8–11) As we have seen, as human beings, we were made to love others, as Jesus loved. And when we do this, we simply do not benefit others. We benefit ourselves, as well. Think for a moment how good you feel when you reach out and help others, when you selflessly give of yourself with no intention of getting anything back for yourself. Something inside us is touched. There is a sense of well-being; we get a satisfaction that, really, nothing else can match. And that is because, by giving of ourselves, we are living as we were meant to live. We are doing what we were originally created to do.

Certain things you can't suppress, like a yawn. And every living person is a yawner. It is one of the rare activities that we do with our mouths wide open, in its full diameter, whereas in sneezing all eyes must be closed. Next time you are given a task to measure the average size of a mouth, you know when to do it! Healthcare professionals and researchers have observed human fetuses yawning as early as 11 weeks after conception. Many researchers regard the desire to yawn as a primal human instinct. Experts are not entirely sure why humans yawn, but one common explanation is that yawning stretches and lubricates the lungs. Yawning also increases a person's heart rate. More about yawning: One study showed that people yawn more often during the colder winter months than they do during the summer. The researchers speculated that yawning might be a way for people to cool their brains — something that yawning in high temperatures would not accomplish, because the air t

As you read scripture, does it seem to you that God is static, motionless, unchanging, and unemotional? Many have used Malachi 3:6 to claim that among His many other attributes, God is immutable (unchanging) and impassible (unemotional). Let us consider a few instances I can recall from the Scriptures. If you believe that prayer changes things, then you can’t really believe that God is unchangeable. Do you remember King Hezekiah? (2 Kings 20)   God sent Isaiah to him and told him to set his house in order because he was going to die.   Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed with tears, and God heard his prayer. Before Isaiah could get out of the palace, God told him to go back and tell Hezekiah that God had heard his prayer and would give him another 15 years of life. There are many times in scripture where God relented and changed His plans in response to the prayers and intercession of His people.   His plans to destroy Nineveh were changed when the people repented

Apostle Paul publishes a large catalogue of "sins" which he reckons will shut many out of heaven. This is one of those "all-or-none" laws. It is not he that is guilty of all the sins that shall miss heaven, but he that lives in any of them unrepented of. He breaks all that breaks one (James 2:10). Observe carefully what the apostle says: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9,10) First, he introduces the subject: the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The unrighteous here refers to sinful persons, those who break God's law (cf. Mt 5:45; Ac 24:15; 1Pe 3:18; 2Pe 2:9). He then proceeds to enumerate the "top ten" sins destructive of salvation:

The best thing, in the best place, for the best of purposes. This is another way to express the Psalmist's words, "thy word have I hid in mine heart; that I might not sin against thee" (Psalms 119:11). Someone then asks, why should you hide what you need to use? Most times we tend to hide two categories of things: those that we are ashamed of, like our nakedness, and those that we treasure and may lose to thieves. So to hide is either to avoid exposure or for safekeeping. Can we say the same for God's word? No! His word is both meant to be exposed and to used daily. Let's see how. David as young man shows us the holy precaution which he had taken to prevent his falling into sin. His heart would be kept by the word because he kept the word in his heart. All that he had of the word written, and all that had been revealed to him by the voice of God, -- all, without exception, he had stored away in his affections, as a treasure to be preserved in a casket, or a

The Greeks believe that when "God's nostrils are enlarged," He is angry. In medicine, we could call this nasal flaring- the abnormal dilation of the nostrils. It usually occurs during respiration but may occasionally occur during respiration or throughout the respiratory cycle. To the trained physician this is a sign of respiratory dysfunction, ranging from mild to potentially life-threatening respiratory distress. I think 'nasal flaring' could be an appropriate metaphor to denote God's anger. To capture the distress, let's call it God's wrath. The Noah-Webster dictionary defines God's wrath as "the just punishment of an offense or crime (Rom. 13:4). God's wrath in Scripture, is His holy and just indignation against sin (Rom. 1:18)." The wrath of God is His hatred for sin, and He hates sin because He loves us (John 3:16). God's love is hatred for unrighteousness because He knows that the moment we reject Him, we have reject

Last Sabbath evening I came across a word that at first made me laugh. When I thought about it, it reminded me of the one night I almost shed tears. I'll spare you the details. Lachrymatory- tear bottle. My favourite song this week has been a special one. It was composed by By Ira F. Stamphill, "He Washed My Eyes With Tears."   He Washed My Eyes With Tears He washed my eyes with tears That I might see,   The broken heart I had Was good for me; He tore it all apart And looked inside, He found it full of fear And foolish pride. He swept away the things That made me blind, And then I saw the clouds Were silver-lined. And now I understand 'Twas best for me, He washed my eyes with tears That I might see.    He washed my eyes with tears That I might see The glory of Himself Revealed to me; I did not know that He Had wounded hands, I saw the blood He spilt Upon the sands. I saw the marks of shame, And wept and cried, He was m

Am cocksure you've ever been a victim of a fellow worshipper who kept tormenting you with comments and questions during the worship hour. That is, if you were not the tormentor. This is just one among many other issues concerning how we ought to or not to conduct ourselves in Church. Bill May, in his article "Conduct in the King's House," answers the big big question, "What is reverence?" We are commanded in Scripture to "serve God acceptably with reverence" (Hebrews 12:28) and to reverence His sanctuary (Leviticus 19:30). But what is reverence? The definition is very broad-including profound awe, respect, love, adoration, esteem, special regard, and honor. The wrong view of reverence usually leads to one of two extremes: cringing with fear and almost terror in God's house, or else treating God's house with no more regard than a sports arena or a secular social hall. Both extremes misrepresent our great and loving Lord. You can visi

Can you imagine ants bigger than cars? Or grass about 20 feet high? What would it be like to have a raindrop the size of a 10-gallon bucket fall on you? How about hanging onto a Cheerio as a life preserver so you won't drown in a bowl of milk? All the while hoping your father doesn't pick you up in the next spoonful and eat you alive? Can you imagine standing on the kitchen table yelling at the top of your voice, "I'm here, I'm here," but you are so small nobody can see you unless they have a magnifying glass? 'Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!' is one of those recklessly inane Walt Disney comedies about a preoccupied scientist father who inadvertently shrinks his kids with the scientific device he invented to compress objects. At first he doesn't know that his invention really works, or that his kids are now just tiny quarter-inch beings on the floor. As he walks across the room, they run for their lives. When he sweeps up the floor, they get wh

The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to the Prophet of God, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves." He inquired, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil." He replied, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side." She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one." But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing. 2 Kings 4:1-7 Can you imagine how it would

A phantom limb is the feeling that a missing limb or organ is still attached to the body. The person usually feels as if the limb moves like normal and is even capable of gesturing or being in pain. Phantom limb syndrome occurs in the majority of people who have a limb amputated. Many people with this syndrome report that they feel pain in the limb, that the limb feels stunted and twisted, or both. In most cases, the attacks are most frequent right after the limb, eye, or tooth is removed, and they become increasingly rare as time goes on. In this current age, almost every person has a phantom limb. Is there a gadget that is not part of you yet you never leave behind it behind? It is your cell phone. Scientists have described it as a phantom limb. We must have them at the bedside, on the table during dinner, in the car and even on the bathroom window to extremes. Man can live without a phantom limb, right? Well, Jesus described self as a phantom limb, a nuisance, a pain in the

Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat, or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a plus attached to it. The world does not forget great characters. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering. "Perfect through suffering" (Heb. 2:10). A story is told of a mother who brought into her home as a companion to her own son, a crippled boy who was also a hunchback. She had warned her boy to be very careful in his relations to him, and not to touch the sensitive part of his life but go right on playing with him as if he were an ordinary boy. She listened to her son as they were playing; and after a few minutes he said to his companion: "Do you know what you have got on your back?" The little hunchback was embarrassed, and he hesitated a moment. The boy said: "It is the box in which your wi