In Old Testament times most, people were poor and lived at a subsistence level. Thus, leaving an inheritance (normally land) was vital to enable the following generation(s) to continue farming and raise livestock, without getting enslaved. The distribution of the inheritance was executed like this: usually, daughters did not receive land, for they commonly lived with their parents until they married, after which they benefitted from their husband’s land; but all sons received an equal portion of land except the firstborn son who got double:

If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have born him sons, and the firstborn son belongs to the unloved wife, then on the day when he wills his possessions to his sons, he cannot treat the son of his loved wife as firstborn in place of the son of the unloved wife—the actual firstborn.  Instead, he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved as the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he was the beginning of his strength (generative power); to him belongs the right of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:15-17).

Only if there were no sons, daughters would inherit; with no daughters, the brothers of the deceased would be in line; with no brothers, the nearest relative would inherit (Num 27:1-11).

This law no longer binds in the New Covenant because polygamy is no longer acceptable. Second daughters are now eligible to receive the double portion if the deceased bequeathed it in their will. What remains is the principle of proportionality. The first son no longer automatically inherits either the double portion or the entire estate. Instead, the ‘firstborn’’ has an ethical responsibility, not a position granted by natural birth order.

It’s the reason why someone from the crowd said to Jesus: Master, order my brother to divide the inheritance and share it with me in Luke 12:13-21..” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:13-15) And the parable of the prodigal son: And He said, there was a certain man who had two sons; And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the part of the property that falls to me. And he divided the estate between them Luke 15: 11-32).

Ultimately, even if the land was sold at some stage, it remained in the family line as it reverted to them in the year of Jubilee when all debts were cancelled. All this is a background to the following Scriptures: Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren…. (Proverbs 13:22). Houses and wealth are inherited from parents…. (Proverbs 19:14) If we wanted to derive a law from the above scriptures to adhere to today, we’d also need to follow the biblical distribution pattern, i.e., giving only to sons and the oldest one a double portion, etc.

However, whilst especially in the subsistence-small scale farming sector land is still passed on to the next generation, it’s fair to say that biblical inheritance patterns are generally not followed at all. The reason may be that, especially in industrial countries, the entire economic landscape has changed leading to a different inheritance approach. Most people have no land and those who still have, rarely own productive grounds.

Children tend to leave their parents early and seldom carry on with the family business if there is one. They move to economic hubs where they build their own careers and mostly become financially independent. When they inherit real estate, these are typically sold. It provides a windfall for them that is not necessarily needed but welcomed to improve their living standards. The family property, however, is gone.

So, then what’s a biblical approach to inheritance today especially in the African culture?

The scriptures hint at the importance of handling wealth correctly, which applies to both parents and children: I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners, or wealth lost through some misfortune so that when they have children there is nothing left for them to inherit (Eccl 5:13-14).

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with leaving a material or financial inheritance to our children if we can. Likewise, we also decide on the time of transfer. However, the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-31) shows that there are no guarantees as to how the children will see their inheritance (older son) or use it (younger son). The question is, have we prepared our children to handle it well?

When raised with kid gloves, children will, when they grow up, expect life to treat them the same way their parents did. But life is pretty tough! I have found that out the hard way, and I have observed the lives of many people whose parents treated them with unscriptural self-indulgence and I would say that, in varying degrees, they have all had difficult lives. To spoil your children is not kindness or love. The most unhappy and unfulfilled children are the ones with no discipline in their lives.  It was Spurgeon who wrote:

If you want to ruin your children, never let them know hardship. If you want to prevent them from ever being useful, guard them from every kind of work and do not let them struggle. Pity them when they should be punished, supply all their wishes, avert all their disappointments. Prevent all trouble, and you will surely train them to break your heart. If you put them where they must work, expose them to difficulties, purposely throw them into peril, then you will make them mature and ready for life.

We have to teach our children the values of hard work, integrity, honesty, diligence, patience, empathy, mental strength, frugality, tenacity and the importance of starting from scratch or small beginnings. We must prepare our beneficiaries to own and move estates forward because wealth is generational. I have seen through personal experience that many Asians teach children to have hands-on experience so that they can gradually leave ownership of their estates to them as they become mature.

John Chrysostom said,

If you wish to leave much wealth to your children, leave them in God’s care. Do not leave them riches, but virtue and skills. For if they have the confidence of riches, they will not mind anything besides, for they shall have the means of screening (hiding) the wickedness of their ways in their abundant riches.

Although it can’t be seen, counted, or measured, a spiritual inheritance is the most priceless gift you can pass on to your children and grandchildren. To be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and an atmosphere of prayer and reverence for the Word is to be stamped in youth with impressions that are of great value, even though sometimes the results looked for are long in appearing. A godly upbringing is a priceless heritage. 

Any financial inheritance is worthless and usually wasted quickly, if the spiritual foundation for dealing with it properly isn’t laid (Proverbs 20:21). After all, a material inheritance cannot be taken to eternity, but a spiritual inheritance helps to determine where the heir will spend eternity.

Teaching and demonstrating the biblical approach to money is a vital part of the heritage that parents should give to their children. It is even more important than material wealth itself as it may prevent the child’s destruction by money (1Timothy 6:10, 2 Timothy 3:2, Hebrews 13:5). For Christians, every inheritance remains the property of God and must therefore continue to be administered in His interest. Only the trustee has changed.

Thus, parents need to teach their children what good stewardship means, and be an example of what it means that you can’t serve God and money at the same time (Matt 6:24). Teaching God’s principles and ways, imparting spiritual truth and wisdom, is an inheritance of eternal value in itself, and must never be underrated (see Proverbs 1-7).

The most important and powerful inheritance parents can pass on to their children is to show by their own lives that God is an omnipresent reality; that He is trustworthy in every way including provision; that He is full of love, care, compassion and eagerly interested in His children’s success and fulfilment. If parents fail to do this, they rob their kids of an inheritance of everlasting value.

What about Stolen Inheritance?

Unfortunately, we live in an era of greed and materialism. I have had so many stories even through the personal experience of people who are having family discords, distress, endless wrangles and ultimately death in families because of inheritances. Robert Anderson explains a personal experience in his book Operating in the Courts of Heaven. He writes:

There was a lady very close to our family that was diagnosed with breast cancer. When this lady was 13 years old, her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer and she died at just 43 years of age. The disease had spread in her body just as it was now spreading in her daughter’s body. This friend of ours was 43 when she was diagnosed and also had a 13-year-old daughter. The parallels were astounding. I knew we were dealing with a generational, family curse.

When she was on her deathbed, her husband called me and asked if I would pray for her. I went to her home where there were already other people gathered at her bedside praying for her. I placed my hand on her head and as I began to pray, I felt the Father’s passion to heal this woman. It was unmistakable. I had felt this in many situations and knew it well. I prayed the best prayer I knew how to pray. I prayed with the unction and power of the Spirit of the Lord. It wasn’t a natural prayer; it was a supernatural one. Yet, twelve hours later, she died. She died at age 43, leaving behind a 13-year-old daughter – exactly as her mother had done! What a tragedy. It was only much later that I was able to explain why this had happened. At the time of my prayer, I did not know that this lady and her husband had connived to steal resources that belonged to someone else. Proverbs 26:2 says that a curse has to have a cause to alight. Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, So a curse without cause shall not alight.

Curses are pictured as sparrows and swallows flying around and looking for a place to land. They cannot land unless a legal right allows them to land. This woman had a curse in her family, that was circling her and looking for a legal opportunity to land and afflict her. She had actually confessed, professed and done everything she knew to do, to keep this away from her and her family for years. When she and her husband opened the door to this curse through their dishonour and thievery, the curse now had a legal reason to be able to land on her.

Micah 2:1-3 shows what happened in this situation.

Woe to those who devise iniquity, and work out evil on their beds! At morning light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them. So, they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance. Therefore, thus says the Lord: “Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks; Nor shall you walk haughtily, for this is an evil time (Micah 2:1-3).

God says that if someone who has been granted power through trust, uses that power to steal away inheritances, a disaster can come upon them that they won’t be able to escape. This is what happened to this lady and her family. As a result of her participation in these deviant practices, the devil had a legal right to afflict her with a family curse.

The devil was legally allowed to take her life even though God’s passion was to heal her. The only way that the Lord could have healed her was if she had repented of that which she had done. Then the power of the curse would have been broken and God as Judge could have fulfilled His passion as Father, legally.

The activity of dishonour and thievery opens the door for the curse to come upon the perpetrators, especially to those in power in countries like Uganda with a corrupted land registry system, inefficient police force, corrupt lawyers, judges, political interference in land disputes, compensation etc.

However, we, disciples of the Lord Jesus, have been promised an inheritance which is imperishable beyond the reach of change and undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:1-4).

If we seek like the people of the world, to increase our possessions, then those who are not believers may question whether we believe what we say about our inheritance and our heavenly calling. The Lord says the earth is a place where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. All that is of earth, and in any way connected with it, is subject to corruption, change and dissolution. No reality or substance exists in anything but heavenly things. Often the careful amassing of earthly possessions ends in losing them in a moment by fire, robbery, or change in the world markets.

Furthermore, in a little while, we must all leave this earth, or the Lord Jesus Christ will return. What use will earthly possessions be then?  Nothing is our own: time, property, influence, faculties, body and soul. ‘’ You are not your own (1 Corinthians 6:19). When we submit to the Lord, we surrender everything including our properties to Him to be ruled and disposed of at His pleasure. He owns it all.

Source of Image

A story is told of a fire in Scotland that destroyed the farm. In the aftermath of the fire, a farmer went into the barn to assess and make sense of what had happened. In the process, a farmer kicked one of the dead chickens and under the chicken wings were six live chickens the mother died protecting.

Another story is told of the forest fire that had been brought under control, and the group of firefighters were working back through the devastation making sure all the hot spots had been extinguished. As they marched across the blackened landscape between the wisps of smoke still rising from the smouldering remains, a large lump on the trail caught a firefighter’s eye.

As he got closer, he noticed it was the charred remains of a large bird, that had burned nearly halfway through. Since birds can so easily fly away from the approaching flames, the firefighter wondered what must have been wrong with this bird so that it could not escape. Had it been sick or injured?

Arriving at the carcass, he decided to kick it off the trail with his boot. As soon as he did, however, he was startled half to death by a flurry of activity around his feet. Four little birds flailed in the dust and ash then scurried away down the hillside.

The bulk of the mother’s body had covered them from the searing flames. Though the heat was enough to consume her, it allowed her babies to find safety underneath. In the face of the rising flames, she had stayed with her young. Her dead carcass and her fleeing chicks told the story well enough–she gave the ultimate sacrifice to save her young.

The lesson here is not all chicks can run to their mothers in times of danger. Some panic or try to find a way to save themselves and they get devoured. Worse still the mother hen cannot run around gathering them individually. They have to come to her. Most of the chicks that survive the attacks from cats and foxes stay close to their mother and all they have to do is run under their mother’s wings and they are covered.

The hen in the story was the only chance those chicks had for safety; she, being willing to spare her own life, had gathered them up under her wings to herself. At the point of terrible pain and death, when she might still have saved herself, she chose to stay through the ordeal. It is been noted that the “mother hen instinct” is a feeling that someone has, that they must “take care of somebody.” Anybody. A mother hen demonstrates behavioural habits that are different from a normal hen. Her priority shifts from her personal survival to protecting and ensuring the survival of her young. She puts her heart and soul into her chicks, educating them and protecting them from all predators. The Bible tells us:

At that very hour, some Pharisees came up and said to Him, “Leave and go away from here, because Herod Antipas wants to kill You.” And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox that sly, cowardly man, ‘Listen carefully: I cast out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I reach My goal.’ Nevertheless, I must travel on today and tomorrow and the day after that—for it cannot be that a prophet would die outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those messengers who are sent to her by God! How often I have wanted to gather your children together around Me, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were not willing! Listen carefully: your house is left to you desolate abandoned by God and destitute of His protection; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord (Luke 13:31-35 AMP).

The greater story that is illustrated is the true story of our Creator Who made a way to save His wandering children. The Lord stretched out His arms on the cross and took the pain so that we didn’t have to. He stood between death and us and fought for us sinners like a hen protects her chicks. In other words, in a dangerous situation, when a fox is on the loose and the chicks are vulnerable, the mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings and fends off the fox as best as she can. Jesus gave His life to protect those whom the fox would destroy. We now live in the shadow of His wings and under His wings we find refuge (Psalm 91:1-4).

The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk in the Spirit. Christ lives again in His redeemed followers the life He lived in Judaea; for righteousness can never be divorced from its source, which is Jesus Christ Himself. The ethics of Jesus cannot be obeyed or even understood until the life of God has come to the heart of a man in the miracle of the new birth. Our Creator has made a way to save His wandering children.

Let us not forget that there were once two brothers. They lived in a society that had not had time to develop the many social evils we know today. Yet one killed the other because sin was there. If two brothers in the morning of the world could not get on together, how can we hope that the gentle teachings of Jesus can ever bring brotherhood to a race filled with complex iniquities, where men inherit hate and where the souls of all are lacerated by jealousy, murder, envy, egotism, greed and lust?

According to the Bible, the human race is morally fallen, spiritually alienated from God, lost and under the severe sentence of divine judgment. In sharp contrast to this, the Church is a body of regenerated persons who have withdrawn from the world in spirit and heart and have thrown in their lot with Christ to own Him as Savior and to follow Him as Lord.

The hope of the human race is that Christ shall come again to earth. I am reminded of this quote from CS Lewis:

When the Author of Life walks on the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then? When you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else … something that never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left. For this time, it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.

God’s covenant love to His people is: ‘I love you so much, I will never let the devil have you. I won’t let him take over your life, even when you fail me. It is impossible to stray too far from God’s love. There is no place in heaven or earth where you can escape it.’

Corrie ten Boom is well known for offering forgiveness to the guards who held her captive during the Nazi regime. She touched millions of lives through books and speaking tours before dying on her ninety-first birthday. She often recalled her sister Betsie’s hope-filled words: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” Do you think Satan wants to keep driving you into the loving arms of Christ to find mercy, love, and grace? No–The only sin he can tempt you with now is to attempt to turn you away from God’s incredible love. That’s where a hard heart comes from–not falling back, but from continually rejecting God’s love.

Even so, Lord, come quickly.

There is no specific instruction to celebrate or observe Easter in the New Testament. Easter is not about “Easter eggs” or wearing pastels. All these are pagan practices.

To a Christian, Christ is risen and alive ‘every day’, and his life should be enjoyed and celebrated as such. Christians also have a Passover meal regularly, for the Lord’s Supper is a Passover Meal, commemorating the liberation of Christ.

In fact the feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the First Fruits foreshadow the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

He also speaks of keeping the feast and getting rid of the yeast or leaven because Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).

What is more Jesus died at 3:00 P.M, “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour” (Luke 23:44). This was the very time when thousands of Passover lambs were being slaughtered (see Exodus 12:18-20).

This is confirmed in the gospel of Luke “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be slain” (see Luke 22:7-20).

Jesus said that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. So you cannot understand the New Testament without the Old.

That is why so many of the words in Exodus are used again in the New Testament-words such as law, covenant, blood, lamb, Passover, Exodus, leaven.These words are used in the New Testament but derive their meaning from the book of Exodus (see Exodus 12:1-11; 12:43-47).

Another example is six months before Jesus died on the cross He was 4,000 feet high on top of Mount Hermon in the north of Israel, talking with Moses and Elijah. Luke’s Gospel tells us that they talked about His exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem (see Luke 9:28-31).

John the Baptist who was the forerunner sent to prepare the way before Christ intoduced Him with the words: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29).Thus he proclaimed Jesus as the appointed Savior whose sacrificial death and shed blood would accomplish all that had been foreshadowed by the Passover lamb.

Therefore, Christ is our Passover Lamb the one who has been sacrificed for us so that the angel of death would pass over those who trust in Him.

He rose from the dead on the third day and His resurrection liberates us from death, just as the Hebrews were liberated from slavery on the third day after the Passover. So we celebrate resurrection Sunday because:

The Tomb is Empty

The Gospels talk of Jesus being in the tomb three days and three nights, but traditional Friday-to-Sunday interpretations leave us with one day and two nights! Some Bible scholars believe that Jesus died on the Wednesday afternoon. For instance, prominent Bible teacher David Pawson explains:

We have assumed that Friday was the day he died, because the text tells us he died on the day before the Sabbath. But in the year in question, it was not the Saturday Sabbath. John’s Gospel tells us that the Sabbath was a special High Sabbath (see John 19:31-36).

The Passover began with a Sabbath and, in the year AD 29, which was almost certainly the year Jesus died, the first day of the Passover was a Thursday, with the Wednesday being the eve of the Passover.

This fits all the evidence better than all the other theories. So if he died at 3 o’clock on the Wednesday and he rose between 6 p.m. and midnight on the Saturday, every bit of the Gospel evidence fits.

The 12 Apostles and the Resurrection

When Jesus Christ chose the twelve apostles, their role was to confirm by their words and their lives the reality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

After the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus Christ, these men initially fled in fear. They were devastated by His death because death seems so cruel and final.

They must felt terrible when they saw their Lord, whom they had left everything to follow, being crucified on the cross.

One of the twelve apostles known as Matthew records that immediately after Jesus had died, the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep in death were raised to life.

And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people (see Matthew 27:52-53). He also gives an account of the guarded tomb and the report by the soldiers that the body was stolen:

When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matthew 28:12-15).

The divine side of Christ’s death, however, is also brought out in Mark, for Jesus was sure from the very beginning that he had come to die. He predicted his death, and his resurrection, more than once.

Following the resurrection. He records Jesus’ return to Galilee and his meeting with the 11 disciples and more than 500 at one time (see 1 Corinthians 15:5).

Luke a doctor by profession from Antioch, Syria and the only Gentile writer in the Bible had a keen interest in researching the events surrounding the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He describes that, after Jesus had physically risen from the dead, three women who were friends of the disciples went to the tomb early Sunday morning to anoint His body with spices.

When they arrived at the tomb, they were shocked to find the stone rolled aside and the tomb empty. It was only the linen cloths in which Jesus’ body had been wrapped that lay empty in the tomb. The two angels told them:

Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again (see Luke 24:1–25).

The Bible tells us that, until then, they still hadn’t understood the Scripture that He must rise again from dead (see Psalm 16:10). “And they remembered His words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.”

In John’s intimate account, Peter and John decided to go and see for themselves where Jesus was buried. Indeed, they too were also surprised that Jesus was not in the tomb.

As Peter and John returned home, Mary was still standing at the tomb crying, and as she was weeping, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. Suddenly, the angels asked her why she was crying, and she replied that it was because they had taken away her Lord and she didn’t know where they put Him.

She decided to leave but saw someone standing there. Thinking it was the gardener, she asked Him where He had put the body of Jesus. The man then called Mary by her name. At that moment, she realized that she was not talking to the gardener but to her risen Lord.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.”

Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. (John 20:16–18)

That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting in secrecy behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus appeared to them.

As He appeared to them, He said, “‘Peace be with you.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (John 20:19–20).

Soon after Christ had appeared to His disciples, they told Thomas, who was absent, that the Lord had appeared to them. Thomas refused to believe them, saying he needed to see and touch Christ’s wounds and His side before he could believe such a report (see John 20:25).

He did not want to accept their account on the basis of faith only.

The faith of Thomas, much like the disciples’, was gone so he could not believe by mere faith alone. The time of three special years of personally walking with the Messiah had come to an end. Jesus was dead, so were the dreams that were once filled with hope and purpose.

So unless he could put his hands into Jesus’ side where he had watched the spear being thrust into the breast of his Master, he could not believe. He wanted concrete evidence.

Eight days later, the disciples were again in the same room, and this time Thomas was present. And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”

Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:26–28).

We tend to think of Jesus doing nothing between his death and resurrection, being just unconscious, inactive in the tomb. But it says only his body was dead. His spirit was very much alive. He went to the world of the dead and started preaching as recorded by Peter in his first letter:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water (1 Peter 3:18-19).

Death Is Not Final

To the Christian, death is not final. A believer simply falls asleep in Jesus and wakes up instantly in the presence of God. But those who die without the Lord Jesus Christ are referred to as “the dead.”

Someday the dead will stand before the Great White Throne of God and be judged according to the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

They will then be cast into the lake of fire. “This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15).

Some say that when Christians die, they sleep in the grave until Jesus returns and raised the dead. However, Paul said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).  To sleep in the grave would not be gain!

Paul knew that physical death would allow him to “depart and be with Christ,” which, he said, is very much better (Philippians 1:23).

We will be fully conscious one minute after we have died. We will know who we are, we will have our memory. It is only our body that dies, not our spirit. Death separates body and spirit. Later, spirit and body will be reunited in the resurrection.

When Paul talks about putting off our earthly tent, he says to be “absent from the body” is “to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he refers to those who have died in Christ as having “fallen asleep in Jesus” because this is what death is to the believer- falling asleep and waking up in the presence of our Lord.

Because Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, the Christian will not see death. This truth caused Jesus to proclaim,

I am Myself the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live; And whoever continues to live and believes in (has faith in, cleaves to, and relies on) Me shall never actually die at all (John 11:25-26).

Death is conquered! The Tomb is Empty! Jesus becomes the Giver of Life (John 20:21-23). This is the Good News that Paul preaches to us. “It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course you believed something that was never true in the first place” (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

Jesus Christ is the divine, eternal Son of God, who became a member of the human race by virgin birth. He led a sinless life, died on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of humanity, was buried and rose again in bodily form from the grave on the third day.

He ascended into heaven, whence He will return to earth in person; to judge the living and the dead. Everyone who repents of sin and trusts in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ receives forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

During this weekend, Christians around the world will be celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For the Jews, they will be celebrating Passover, which commemorates Israel’s escape from Egypt when the blood of a lamb was painted on their door frames and saved their firstborn sons from death.

The most striking fact about the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea is that it happened on the third day after the Passover lamb was killed.

This event foreshadowed Jesus’ work on the cross. As the spotless Lamb of God, His blood would be spilled in order to save us from the penalty of death brought by sin. At His last supper, Luke records that Jesus revealed Himself as the fulfillment of that event.

Jesus died at 3.00 p.m., the very time when thousands of Passover lambs were being slaughtered. So Christ is called ‘our Passover lamb’, the one who has been sacrificed for us so that the angel of death would pass over those who trust in Him.

He rose from the dead on the third day and his resurrection liberates us from death, just as the Hebrews were liberated from slavery on the third day after the Passover. And you probably know that the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits dramatically and poignantly foreshadow the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

The good news of Christianity is that God loves us and did not leave us in the mess that we make of our own lives. He came to earth, in the person of His Son Jesus to die instead of us (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13). This is what theologians call the self-substitution of God.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clasern wrote:

The central theme of our faith is the sacrifice of himself by our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of our sins…The deeper our appreciation of our need the greater will be our love for the Lord Jesus and, therefore, the more fervent our desire to serve Him.

In the words of the Apostle Peter, “He personally bore our sins in His own body on the tree (as on an altar and offered Himself on it), that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24 AMP).

What is Self-Substitution?

In his book, Miracle on the River Kwai Ernest Gordon tells the true story of a group of POWs working on the Burma Railway during World War II. At the end of each day, the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it.

He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a paranoid fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No one moved. “All die! All die! He shrieked, cocking and aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while he stood silently to attention. When they returned to the camp, the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing. That one man had gone forward as a substitute to save others.

In the same way, Jesus came as our substitute. He endured crucifixion for us. Cicero described crucifixion as ‘the most cruel and hideous of tortures’. Jesus was stripped and tied to a whipping post. He was flogged with four of five thongs of leather interwoven with sharp jagged bone and lead.

Eusebuis, the third century church historian, described Roman flogging in these terms: the sufferer’s veins were laid bare, and…..the very muscles, sinews and bowels of the victim were open to exposure’.

He was then taken to the Praetorium where a crown of thorns was thrust onto His head. He was mocked by a battalion of 600 men and hit about the face and head. Jesus was well aware of the shame and public humiliation that He would experience on the cross.

In fact, one of the primary objectives of crucifixion was to shame the person. As the person hung on the cross, spectators walked by, made derogatory remarks, and sometimes even did obscene things which I will not describe.

In a prophetic vision, Isaiah glimpsed the suffering of Jesus seven centuries before they actually took place:

I gave My back to the smiters and My cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I hid not My face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).

He was then forced to carry a heavy cross on His bleeding shoulders until he collapsed, and Simon of Cyrene was press-ganged into carrying it for Him.

When they reached the site of the crucifixion, He was again stripped naked. He was laid on the cross, and six-inch nails were driven into His forearms, just above the wrist. His knees were twisted sideways so that the ankles could be nailed between the tibia and the Achilles’ tendon. He was lifted up on the cross which was then dropped into a socket in the ground.

There He was left to hang in intense heat and unbearable thirst, exposed to the ridicule of the crowd. He hang there in unthinkable pain for six hours while His life slowly drained away. When His disciples saw Him die, they learned to despair of themselves and of everything on which they had previously based their hope.

The Deepest Wound

Now we come to the deepest wound of all-rejection. Jesus endured a double rejection: first by men and then by God Himself. Isaiah clearly portrayed the rejection of Jesus by His fellow countrymen:

He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him ( Isaiah 53:3).

The worst part of His suffering was not the physical trauma or torture and crucifixion or even the emotional pain of being rejected by the world and deserted by His friends, but the spiritual agony of being cut off from His Father for us-as He carried our sins.

He should have been able to live several hours longer on the cross, but He died of a broken heart. John records how one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden gush of blood and water. Incidentally, this extraordinary symptom indicates a raptured pericardium, a ‘broken heart’. What broke His heart? The ultimate rejection.

Now from the sixth hour (midday) there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour (three o’clock in the afternoon). And about the ninth hour (three o’clock) Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?—that is, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me (leaving Me helpless, forsaking and failing Me in My need)? And some of the bystanders, when they heard it, said, This Man is calling for Elijah! And one of them immediately ran and took a sponge, soaked it with vinegar (a sour wine), and put it on a reed (staff), and was about to give it to Him to drink. But the others said, Wait! Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him from death. And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit (Matthew 27:45-51 AMP).

This passage gives such a clear picture of the humanity of Jesus as He suffered intense pain and agony. Just think of that awful darkness. Think of the loneliness, the sense of being absolutely abandoned, first by man, then by God. You and I may have experienced some measure of rejection, but never has it been in that measure.

For the first time in the history of the universe, the Son of God prayed but the Father did not answer Him. God averted His eyes from His Son. God stopped His ears at His cry. Why? Because at that time, Jesus was identified with our sin.

The attitude of God the Father toward Jesus had to be the attitude of God’s holiness toward our sin–the refusal of fellowship, a complete and absolute rejection. Jesus did not endure that for His own sake, but instead to make His soul a sin offering for us. And then, look at the consequence, which was so dramatic and so immediate:

And at once the curtain of the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth shook and the rocks were split (Matthew 27:51).

What does that mean? Simply that the barrier between God and man had been removed. The way was opened for man to come to God without shame, guilt or fear. When Jesus bore our sins and suffered our rejection, He opened the way for our acceptance so that we might gain status as God’s sons and daughters.

Jesus took our rejection so that we might experience His acceptance. That is the meaning of the torn curtain. We now have direct access to God. “For it is through Him that we both whether far off or near now have an introduction (access) by one Holy Spirit to the Father so that we are able to approach Him” (Ephesians 2:18 AMP).

Life’s Purpose is Knowing God

For those who are willing to enter into this type of covenant commitment to God, the reward is great. It is beautifully expressed by the words that Jesus addressed to the Father in John 17:3:

And this is eternal life: it means to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and likewise to know Him, Jesus as the Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.

Here, indeed, is the ultimate purpose of all life-to know the one true God. Out of this knowledge, there comes eternal life, divine life, the life of God Himself, shared with the believer.

However, knowledge of this kind is not merely theology or doctrine. It is not knowing about God. It is actually knowing God Himself-knowing Him directly and intimately; knowing Him as a Person. It is a person-to-person relationship. It is a spiritual union.

So many of us come from broken or dysfunctional families, we still carry deep wounds from childhood-wounds that resulted from neglect, rejection, or abuse. These experiences make it difficult for us to see God as a loving, warm and intimate Father, and they can be difficult to overcome.

But God says, My precious one, I love you. I do not reject you. I have always loved you. Jesus was wounded for you and me. Your suffering grieves Him deeply. He does not condemn you, but loves you with a profound and everlasting love than you have ever experienced before.

Dr. Karl Barth was one of the most brilliant and complex intellectuals of the twentieth century.  He wrote volume after massive volume on the meaning of life and faith. During his lecture tour, theologian Karl Barth visited the University of Chicago in 1962.

After his lecture, during the Q & A time, a student asked Barth if he could summarize his whole life’s work in theology in a sentence.  Barth allegedly said:

Yes, I can. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

I agree with Karl Barth. Why then do we often act as if we are trying to earn God’s love? Why do humans have such trouble accepting this love?

Power over Death

We have a Savior who has the power over death. He holds the keys of death and hell. When Christ was down here, He gave us a specimen of what He could do. Before His personal resurrection, He raised three people from the dead, Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus of Bethany that we might know that He is the Resurrection and Life.

Whoever believes in Him, although he may die, yet shall he/she live; and whoever continues to live and believes in Him shall never actually die at all (see John 11:25-26). How dark and gloomy this world would be if we had no hope in the resurrection. Paul says:

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Yes, there is a glorious day before us in the future. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. While we were yet in weakness and powerless to help ourselves, at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly. 

Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die. But God shows and clearly proves and demonstrates His own love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah) died for us (Romans 5:5-8 AMP). Not only does God love the “pure and the holy”, He also loves the ungodly.

We get salvation for the past and peace for the present, but there is glory for the future in store. I cannot convince you enough that God loves you. The truth is, He would not have died for you if He had not loved you.

God sent Jesus to die for the sins of the whole world. If you belong to this world, then you have a part in this love that has been exhibited in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ has provided our salvation through His death on the Cross and resurrection. This cross, with its foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18) and weakness, its humiliation and shame, is the everlasting sign of the victory that Christ has won by mighty weapons that are spiritual, not carnal (2 Corinthians 10:4).

All we need is to do to respond and accept His undeserved gift of salvation. He said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no-one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Is your heart so hard that you can brace yourself against His love and spurn and despise it? You can do it, but it will be at your own peril.

Wishing You a Happy Resurrection!

Daniel Kolenda in his book Live Before You Die tells the story of an American soldier in the Vietnam War who was about to step on an anti-personnel landmine that was hidden from his sight. His comrade across the battlefield, who could see the impending disaster from his vantage point, stood up from behind his protective barricade and shouted a life-saving warning to his friend. At that moment the brave young man received a gunshot wound that ended his life.

A couple of years later, at an honorary memorial service in the United States, the soldier whose life had been saved from the landmine had a chance to meet the wife and son of his deceased friend. The son, who was only seven years old, had never gotten a chance to really know his father. The soldier could tell that this boy’s heart was broken, so he knelt down next to him and put his hand on the child’s shoulder. “I want you to know,” the soldier said, “your father saved my life.” The little boy looked up at him with tears streaming down his cheeks. “Sir,” he said, “were you worth it?”

Another minister who disguised himself under the name of George tells in his book about God’s Underground the following incident:

A Russian Army captain came to a minister in Hungary and asked to see him alone. The young captain was very brash and very conscious of his role as a conqueror. When he had been led to a small conference room and the door was closed, he nodded towards the cross that hung on the wall. ‘You know that thing is a lie,’ he said to the minister. ‘It’s just a piece of trickery you ministers use to delude the poor people to make it easier for the rich to keep them ignorant. Come on now, we alone. Admit to me that you never really believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God!’  The minister smiled. ‘But, my poor young man, of course, I believe it. It is true.’

I won’t have you play these tricks on me! Cried the captain. ‘This is serious. Don’t laugh at me!’ He drew out his revolver and held it close to the body of the minister.’ Unless you admit to me that it is a lie, I will fire!’ ‘I cannot admit that, for it is not true. Our Lord is really and only the Son of God,’ said the minister. The captain flung his revolver on the floor and embraced the man of God. Tears sprang to his eyes. ‘It is true!’ he cried. ‘It is true. I believe so, too, but I could not be sure men would die for this belief until I found it out for myself. Oh, thank you! You have strengthened my faith. Now I too can die for Christ. You have shown me how.’

When the Russians occupied Romania, two armed Russian soldiers entered a church with guns in their hands. They said, ‘We don’t believe in your faith. Those who do not abandon it immediately will be shot at once! Those who abandon your faith move to the right!’ Some moved to the right and were then ordered to leave the church and go home. They fled for their lives just like the disciples did when Jesus was arrested on the night of His crucifixion. When the Russians were alone with the remaining Christians, they embraced them and confessed, ‘We too are Christians, but we wished to have fellowship only with those who consider the truth worth dying for.’

The Cost of Discipleship

When Jesus Christ chose the twelve apostles, their role was to confirm by their words and their lives the reality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus Christ, these men initially fled in fear. They were devastated by His death because death seemed so cruel and final. They must felt terrible when they saw their Lord, whom they had left everything to follow, being crucified on the cross.

Historical records of the first century clearly prove that every one of the disciples apart from the Apostle John later faced a martyr’s death without denying their faith in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The only reason why these men were transformed from defeated cowards to courageous men of God within a few days of the death of the Saviour was their personal intimate knowledge and experience of the facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Non-believers, atheists, agnostics, etc… have suggested that the disciples, during the decades following His death, simply invented their accounts of Jesus. But these apostles were continually threatened and pressured to deny their Lord during their ministry; especially as they faced torture and martyrdom. However, none of these men who spent time with Jesus chose to save their lives by denying their faith in Him. Each of the apostles was called upon to pay the ultimate price to prove their faith in Jesus, affirming with their life’s blood that Jesus was the true Messiah, the Son of the Living God and the only hope of salvation for sinful humanity.

Most of the information about the deaths of the apostles is derived from early church traditions. The Church historian Schumacher researched the lives of the apostles and recounted the history of their martyrdoms.

Andrew died on an X-shaped cross in Patras of Achaia, Bartholomew (Nathaniel was flayed alive in Armenia, James (brother of John) was beheaded by Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem, James (son of Cleopas and Mary) was stoned, Jude (Thaddeus), the half brother of Jesus was shot with arrows in Armenia.

Matthew was slain by the sword in Parthia, Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that His Master and Lord Jesus Christ had died.

Stephen the first Christian martyr was stoned to death after preaching one of the longest sermons in the Book of Acts. James the Just and half-brother of Jesus was captured and taken to the very pinnacle of where the devil took Jesus in Matthew chapter 4.

He was told to blaspheme Christ, or be thrown off! James the Just replied: “I see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of glory!’’ So they threw them off. But the fall didn’t kill him, so they started to stone him. As he lay there, with his bones broken and the stones being thrown at him, he said, Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.” Finally someone, out of sheer mercy, got a big wooden club and clubbed his head, and he died.

John was the only one of the 12 apostles left after the others had already suffered a martyr’s death. He became a political prisoner on the island of Patmos because of his exclusive devotion to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus which was taken as treason by the Roman authorities. He subsequently faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil but was miraculously delivered to become the only apostle of the 12 to die a natural and peaceful death.

The Early Christians

We also know that thousands of the early Christians and those of later ages suffered violent death, mutilation, burning and other processes that marred and destroyed their physical bodies. Nero persecuted Christians by daubing them with pitch and burning them alive as torches for his nightly garden parties or sewing them in the skins of wild animals to be hunted by dogs and lions.

One notable Christian who was martyred in about 155 under Antonius Pius was Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and once a student of the apostle John. Forced into the stadium, Polycarp was asked by the Roman proconsul to swear by the genius of the emperor and to curse Christ. He replied,

Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?

Before the day was over, he was burned at the stake. Like all martyrs before him and the multitudes after him, he had been transformed by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

All this happened because His message and His physical resurrection transformed His early followers, who did not pick up the sword to defend themselves even during the brutal persecutions, but rather went about spreading His love and the need for repentance and forgiveness of sins to all regardless of their race, sex, ethnicity, poverty, or wealth.

They did so because they believed with all their heart, soul and mind the Words of Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This echoed the conviction of Peter’s words spoken to his fellow Jews:

And there is salvation in and through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by and in which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

There have been countless people who have been transformed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These followers have produced revolutionary changes-socially, politically, economically, and culturally.

As someone has said, Christianity is not a religion; but a revolution against the kingdom of darkness.” And as George Sarton has said, “The birth of Christianity changed forever the face of the Western world.” Despite widespread persecutions, Christ’s transformed followers, especially during the first few centuries, effected that change because Christ’s life and teachings challenged almost everything for which the Roman world had stood. The Christians rejected the pagan gods of the Greeks and Romans.

These gods, said the second-century Christian apologist Aristides, were man-made and thus not gods at all; moreover, they were given to all of the weaknesses and sins common to mankind. Some of the gods, according to Roman mythology, committed adultery, murder, sodomy, and theft; others were envious, greedy, and passionate; still others had physical impediments; some had even died.

But Christians said Aristides, worship and honour God who is neither male nor female, whom “the heavens do not contain…but the heavens and all things visible and invisible are contained in Him. This had already been confirmed by Paul’s famous sermon at Athens on Mars Hill.  The Bible tells us while Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy at Athens, his spirit was grieved and roused to anger as he saw that the city was full of idols.

So, Paul began to preach to them about Jesus Christ, a man who had recently been crucified in Jerusalem. He drew their attention to a natural debate before he could engage them about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. These Epicurean and Stoic philosophers thought that Paul was trying to be an announcer of foreign deities because he preached Jesus and the resurrection (see Acts 17:18).

Paul concludes that God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. In the past God permitted all nations to walk in their ways, but He did not leave them without any evidence of Himself and His goodness. He sent rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with nourishment and happiness.

However, the appointed time has come when He expects and charges all men everywhere to repent and turn from their ignorance, idolatry, and superstition because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man Jesus Christ, whom He has proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead (see Acts 17:19-31).

Death Is Not Final

To the Christian, death is not final. A believer simply falls asleep in Jesus and wakes up instantly in the presence of God. But those who die without the Lord Jesus Christ are referred to as “the dead.” Someday the dead will stand before the Great White Throne of God and be judged according to the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

They will then be cast into the lake of fire. “This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15). Some say that when Christians die, they sleep in the grave until Jesus returns and raises the dead. However, Paul said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).  To sleep in the grave would not be gain! Paul knew that physical death would allow him to “depart and be with Christ,” which, he said, is very much better (Philippians 1:23).

We will be fully conscious one minute after we have died. We will know who we are, we will have our memory. It is only our body that dies, not our spirit. Death separates body and spirit. Later, spirit and body will be reunited in the resurrection. When Paul talks about putting off our earthly tent, he says to be “absent from the body” is “to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he refers to those who have died in Christ as having “fallen asleep in Jesus” because this is what death is to the believer- falling asleep and waking up in the presence of our Lord.

Because Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, the Christian will not see death. This truth caused Jesus to proclaim,

I am Myself the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live; And whoever continues to live and believes in (has faith in, cleaves to, and relies on) Me shall never actually die at all (John 11:25-26).

Death is conquered! The Tomb is Empty! Jesus becomes the Giver of Life (John 20:21-23). This is the Good News that Paul preaches to us. “It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place” (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

Jesus Christ is the divine, eternal Son of God, who became a member of the human race by virgin birth. He led a sinless life, died on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of humanity, was buried and rose again in bodily form from the grave on the third day.

He ascended into heaven, whence He will return to earth in person; to judge the living and the dead. Everyone who repents of sin and trusts in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ receives forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

As we make New Year resolutions, I want to call your attention to a text that you will find in Genesis chapter 7:1 “Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.”

Many people have questioned whether the flood was a real event and whether it literally covered the whole earth. The text in Genesis 6-7 does not indicate whether the Flood went right around the globe or just covered the then-known world. The Bible’s focus is not so much on the material side of this story as on the moral side. Why did it happen? The answer is astonishing: It happened because God regretted that he had made human beings. It broke His heart!

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart (Genesis 6:5-6).

This is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. It communicates God’s feelings so clearly. God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. What had happened to cause such a crisis in God’s emotions? We are told that between two and three hundred angels, in the area of Mount Hermon, sent to look after God’s people fell in love with women, seducing them and impregnating them. The offspring were a horrible hybrid, somewhere between men and angels – beings not in God’s order.

The Bible tells us that when this began to happen, God’s Spirit was grieved and this led to His resolve to wipe out the human race, but He preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, and also set a definite lifespan of man for which is not more than 120 years. Men lived 500 years and more back then, and they had time to mature in their sins. For 120 years, the exact span of man, God strove with that generation to repent but they ridiculed the idea that He was going to destroy the world.

Noah was Faithful in Building the Ark

So God told Noah to manage one of the earliest recorded projects in the Bible–the building of the ark. It was 510 feet long (155.4480meters), 85 feet wide (25.90800 meters), and 51 feet (15.54480 meters) high. He may not have completed it to budget, but he certainly had to finish it by a specified time–before the flood.

It must have met his performance criteria, as it successfully accommodated a pair of all the animals, and no doubt some his relatives might have said, “What are you going to do with the old homestead?” Noah says, “I don’t need it. The storm is coming…the day of grace is closing and worldly wealth is of no value, and that the ark is the only place of safety. All these things that we value now will soon be destroyed. They only run for a time, not for eternity.”

The people must have thought Noah had lost his mind. And in the same way, people in the last days will ignore the prophetic warnings. Every time Noah drove a nail into the ark it was a warning to them. Even the carpenters who helped build the ark might have made fun of him, they were like lots of people today that help build a church, and perhaps give money for its support, but will never enter it themselves.

Well, things went on as usual. Every sound of the hammer echoed, “I believe in God.” If they had repented as they did at Nineveh, I believe God would have heard their cry and they would have been spared. But there was no cry for mercy.

People might have said, “This old Noah says the world is coming to an end in 120 years, and it’s 20 years since he started the story, but nothing has happened!” Someone has said that Noah must have been deaf, or he could not have stood the jeers and sneers of his countrymen. He could not get a man to believe him except his own family. Some of the old men could have passed away saying, “Noah is wrong…. Poor Noah…so easily deceived, brainwashed and manipulated!”

I don’t think any of us would have had the grace to preach for 120 years without a convert. But Noah was faithful; he just toiled on, believing the Word of God. The first thing that could have alarmed people was when they rose one morning and lo and behold the heavens are filled with fowls of the air. They are flying into the ark, two by two. They come from the desert; from the mountains; and from all parts of the world and they are all going into the ark.

And they looked down on the earth, and with great alarm and surprise, they see little insects creeping up two by two, coming from all parts of the world. Then behold! There come the cattle and other beasts two by two. It must have been a very strange sight. The neighbors might have inquired, “What does this mean?” They run to their wise men who have told them that there is no sign of a coming storm, and ask them why it is that those birds, animals and creeping things go towards the ark, as if guided by some unseen Hand.

Scoffers Will Come in the Last Days

“Well,” the wise men would have said, “we cannot explain it, but give yourselves no trouble. “What has made these creeping insects and these wild beasts of the forest go into the ark, we do not know. We cannot understand it; it is very strange. But there is no sign of anything going to happen. The stars are bright, and the sun shines as bright as ever it did.

Everything moves on, as it has been moving for all time past. You are hearing the children playing in the street. You can hear the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the land, and all is merry as ever…..God is not going to destroy the world. Business was never better than it is now in this “New World Order Global village.” Do you think that if God was going to destroy the world, He would let us go on prosperously as He has? There is no sign of coming storm.

Noah might have preached for the last time by saying: “The door is going to be shut. Come in. God is going to destroy the world. Look at the animals, how they have entered the ark.” The communication has come to them direct from heaven.” But the people only mocked and scoffed.  The apostle Peter reminds us:

To begin with, you must know and understand this, that scoffers (mockers) will come in the last days with scoffing, people who walk after their own fleshly desires and say, where is the promise of His coming? For since the forefathers fell asleep, all things have continued exactly as they did from the beginning of creation.

For they willfully overlook and forget this fact, that the heavens came into existence long ago by the word of God, and the earth also which was formed out of water and by means of water, Through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been stored up (reserved) for fire, being kept until the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly people. Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance (2 Peter 3:3-9 AMP).

If you are a scoffer who is reading this, remember you can laugh at the Bible, you can scoff at your mother’s God, you can laugh at ministers and Christians and call them false prophets (of course some are), but the hour is coming when one promise in the Bible will be worth more to you than the whole world to you. You can imagine that 24 hours after the rain began to fall; Noah’s ark was worth more than the entire world.

When The Door was Shut…There was no Hope

Did you ever notice when the 120 years were up, God gave the world seven days of grace? If there had been a cry during these seven days, I believe it would have been heard. But unfortunately, there was none. At long last…the last day had come, the last hour, the last minute, and the last second! God Almighty came down and shut the door of that ark. No angel, no man, but God Himself shut that door. There must have been a lot of wailing and screaming going up when God shut the door of the Ark; “Noah, Noah, Noah! Let us in.”

They left their homes and came to the ark and pounded on the ark. Hear them cry, “Noah! Let us in. Noah! Have mercy on us, “I am your nephew.” I am your niece.” “I am your uncle.” And Noah might have replied saying, “I would like to let you in, but God has shut the door. I cannot open it!

When the door was shut, there was no hope. Their cry for mercy was too late. Their day of grace was closed. Their last hour had come and God had pleaded with them and invited them to come in, but they mocked at the invitation. They scoffed and ridiculed the idea of a water deluge. Now it was too late. Jesus said,

When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from… (Luke 13:25).

Men say “I don’t believe in all these stories of the flood. Whether you believe it or not, Christ connected His return to this world with Noah’s flood. Remember, in Noah’s day, two sins were predominant: excessive violence and sexual perversion. The Bible also tells us, “The earth was depraved and putrid in God’s sight, and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power) (Genesis 6:11).

Jesus said the climate of the time prior to His return would be similar to the climate during Noah’s day. “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Matthew 24:38). We could paraphrase that statement by saying it was business as usual.

God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign…No More Water But Fire Next Time

The writing is on the wall for anyone who will pay attention. Yet Jesus said it would largely be business as usual. The good news is God gave Noah the rainbow sign that no more water, but unfortunately it will be the fire next time. Since even the heavens will be on fire, and then what will property, stocks, bonds, titles, honour and position in society be worth?  The time is coming again when God will deal in judgment with the world. It may be a little while because we don’t know when, but it is sure to come. For Peter says:

The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the material elements of the universe will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up…..But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness (uprightness, freedom from sin, and right standing with God) is to abide (2 Peter 3:10-13).

Although the timing of this end of the age is in God’s hands, from a human standpoint it appears we are standing on the threshold of the final battle. The pieces of the puzzle are all in place. As the sands of time slip through the hourglass of eternity, we are all moving closer to an appointment with destiny.

The question is, “How much time is left for each of us?” The text we’ve selected has a special application to both natural and spiritual parents and their children. The command of the Scripture was given to Noah not only for his safety but that of his household. The home was established long before the church.

A Day of Grace and Mercy

So another question that would be put to each natural or spiritual father and mother is this: Are your children in the ark of God? We shouldn’t rest day or night until you get our children in. I believe our children have many more temptations than we had. There is so much evil in the world that our sons and daughters find it easier to believe in the devil than in God. Noah heard from the Lord about the destruction that was coming, so he built an ark and saved his family. The writer of Hebrews says he did this by faith:

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith (Hebrews 11:7).

The good news is, this is a day of grace. It is a day of mercy. You will find if you read your Bible diligently, that God always precedes judgment with mercy and grace. Grace is a forerunner of judgement. He called those people in the days of Noah in love. They would have been saved if they had repented in those 120 years. When Christ came to plead with the people in Jerusalem, it was their day of grace; but they mocked and laughed at Him. He then said,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Matthew 23:37).

Forty years afterwards, thousands of people begged that their lives might be spared, and eleven hundred thousand perished in that city. Today God is holding up His justice because of His mercy and because a Savoir died.

It is only by grace that we are saved, and that is why Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (see Genesis 6:8). No one was ever saved in any other way other than by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each person is saved by looking to the cross; everyone receives some degree of God’s grace, even the most sinful man or woman.

It was A. W. Tozer who wrote, “Don’t imagine that when the Day of Judgment comes God will turn off His mercy.” Paul said it was the riches of God’s goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering that leads us to repentance (see Romans 2:4).

And the apostle Peter reminds us, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Therefore, it’s now a loving call “Come with all your household into the ark (Genesis 7:1).

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP)

I don’t usually make New Year resolutions because I try live each day or season for what it brings, but with an eternal perspective in everything I do.

The Book of James states:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. (James 4:13-15)

You may be the best businessman in your community or have the best job or career. You may grow the best crops and produce the finest animals. But if you don’t have a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and you don’t strive to live for Jesus in every area of your life, then you are not living with an eternal perspective.

When it’s all be said and done, all our treasures will mean nothing. And there is only one thing that will stand the test of time: The love of Christ in our hearts.

For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died; And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

I read the story of an evangelist who visited a rich man one day on his neighbouring farm. The man had spent most of his life building the house of his dreams. He had lived in it a mere three months and was sitting on the front veranda, totally wasted away from a terminal disease, the evangelist said to the rich man, What a beautiful house,” Tears filled the rich man’s eyes. Yes, evangelist, he responded, “but for what?” Three weeks later he died.

Jesus made this clear in His parable of the rich fool by pointing out that a man’s life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance or that which is over and above his needs. The man thought that he would pull down his storehouses and build larger ones, and there he would store or hoard all his grain, produce, and his goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many good things laid up, [enough] for many years. Take your ease; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself merrily. But God said to him, You fool!

This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with the one who continues to lay up and hoard possessions for himself but doesn’t have a rich relationship with God.” [this is how he fares]. (See Luke 12:16-21 AMP)

What about you? Is what you are living for worth Christ dying for? What motivates you in business, job, ministry, or career? Do you do your best to live for truth? For what do you wish to be remembered for? What if the offer money or success sidetracks you from your true calling?

Remember the more we aim at personal success, the less secure we become. We are threatened continually by the possibility that someone else will succeed more than us. That is why Solomon observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless like chasing the wind (Ecclesiastes 4:4).

You can easily achieve what appears to be a success and yet somehow become frustrated. Derek Prince wrote that he once heard a talk by the president of a well-known evangelical college. The majority of parents who send their children to that college are professing Christians. But the President had this to say:

I make it a point to ask each of my students, ‘When your parents sent you to this college, what did they tell you was the most important thing in your future? Was it to become a faithful servant of Jesus Christ? “Up to this point,’’ the president continued, “none of my students has ever answered yes.

If your son or daughter were to be enrolled in that college, how would he or she answer? If you are a father or mother you need to ask yourself questions like these:

• What kind of example have I been setting for my family?
• Am I giving my children eternal purposes and eternal standards to live by?
• Am I inculcating eternal values that will direct them into lives of service and obedience for Jesus Christ?
• Am I mainly concerned with worldly success-a career, material comfort, financial independence, and status in the community?
• Or am I compromising my standards and commitments for the sake of material prosperity and worldly success?
  

A Remarkable Interview

One of the greatest public servants in the history of England was William Gladstone (1809-1898) who served as prime minister four times during the latter half of the 19^th century. It is reported that Gladstone was a committed Christian and he also taught a Sunday school class throughout his adult life. In fact, his aim early in his life was to become an Anglican clergyman, but after his graduation from Oxford, his father encouraged him to enter politics.

Shortly before he died, Gladstone gave a speech in which he told about being visited by an ambitious young man who sought his advice about life. The young man told the elder statesman that he had admired him more than anyone living at that time and wanted to seek his advice regarding his career.

 ‘‘What do you hope to do when you graduate from college? Gladstone asked. The young man replied, I hope to attend law school, sir, just as you did.’’

‘‘That’s a noble goal,’’ said Gladstone, ‘‘Then what?’’

‘‘I hope to practice law and make a good name for myself defending the poor and outcasts of society, just as you did.’’

‘‘That’s a noble purpose,’’ replied Gladstone. ‘‘Then what’’

‘‘Well, sir, I hope one day to stand for Parliament and become a servant of the people, even as you did.’’

‘‘That too is a noble hope. What then?’’ asked Gladstone.

‘‘I would hope to be able to serve in the Parliament with great distinction, evidencing integrity and a concern for justice—even as you did.’’

‘‘What then?’’ asked Gladstone

‘‘I would hope to serve the government as prime minister with the same vigour, dedication, vision, and integrity as you did.’’

‘‘And what then? Asked Gladstone.

‘‘I would hope to retire with honours and write my memoirs—even as you are presently doing—so that others could learn from my mistakes and triumphs.’’

‘‘All of that is very noble,’’ said Gladstone, ‘‘and then what?’’

The young man thought for a moment. ‘‘Well, sir, I suppose I will then die.’’

‘‘That’s correct,’’ said Gladstone. ‘‘And then what?’’

The man looked puzzled. ‘‘Well, sir,’’ he answered hesitantly, ‘‘I have never given that any thought.’’

‘‘Young man,’’ Gladstone responded, ‘‘the only advice I have for you is to go home, read your Bible, and think about eternity.’’

It is easy to be deceived by the temporary benefits of wealth, popularity, status, and achievement, and to be blind to the long-range benefits of God’s kingdom.

C. T. Studd’s Testimony

C. T. Studd (1860–1931)

The missionary, famous British athlete, and founder of the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, C. T. Studd was saved in 1878 at the age of eighteen when a visiting preacher at their home caught him on his way to play cricket.

“Are you a Christian?” he asked. Studd’s answer was not convincing enough, so the guest pressed the point and Studd tells what happened as he acknowledged God’s gift of eternal life received through faith in Jesus Christ:

I got down on my knees and I did say ‘thank You’ to God. And right then and there joy and peace came into my soul. I knew then what it was to be ‘born again’ and the Bible which had been so dry to me before became everything.

In 1884 after his brother George was taken seriously ill, Studd was confronted by the question, “What is all this fame and flattery worth… when a man comes to face eternity?” As a result of his experience, he said,

I know that cricket would not last, and honour would not last, and nothing in this world would last, but it was worthwhile living for the world to come. C. T. Studd gave up all his achievements in this life for Christ’s sake. He was challenged to his commitment by an article written by an atheist. That article, in part, says:

If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, then religion would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity.

Religion would be my first waking thought and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I should labour in its cause alone. I would take thought for the morrow of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering.

Earthly consequences would never stay my hand, or seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its griefs, would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable.

I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season, and my text would be: “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL.

Still further, and what was better than all, Studd set himself to work for Jesus Christ, and, he says,

I began to try and persuade my friends to read the Gospel, and to speak to them individually about their souls. I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to bring the first soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have tasted almost all the pleasures that this world can give…but those pleasures were as nothing compared to the joy that the saving of that one soul gave me.

Studd continues to be best remembered by this poem, Only One Life ‘ Twill Soon Be Past Only What’s done for Christ will last.

There is a higher level of wealth than material success. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Moses considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).” (Hebrews 11:26 AMP)

True wealth is having an eternal perspective in everything we do. When we strive to love, know and serve our Creator and our fellow men with our gifts and talents; it helps us look beyond the world’s value system to see the eternal values of God’s kingdom.

None of us determines the date of our birth or our death, but we determine what we do between those dates.  We need to live each year as if it were our last because as someone correctly said, “what we do in life echoes in eternity.” Happy New Year!

Photo courtesy: Heavens Call

A fascinating piece appeared in The Wall Street Journal concerning the skill levels of new hires. Or, rather, the lack of skills, even in fields such as engineering.

Firms are taking in new graduates only to discover that while they might know much, they can’t actually do anything, not even basic things that every engineer is supposed to know. The reason is that most of these kids have only done Zoom classes. They have no practical experience.

Think of this. The freshman class of 2020 got hit with virus mania in the spring, and in-person classes ended. Their sophomore year was awful, just staring at a screen. When they came back, if they did, they had to wear masks and get jabbed and jabbed again. Their junior year was more of the same nonsense, with off-and-on classes but seriously truncated experiences. Then they graduated.

So much for college. So much for the six figures of debt they accumulated in these years. And so much for learning by doing.

It all serves as a reminder. Skills come from what we do, including screw-ups, failures, adaptations, and gradually getting better at something, anything, whatever it is. Without hands-on experience, the only skill you learn is rote memorization and gaming the system. To be sure, today’s college graduates are very good at that, but their skills are severely lacking in many practical areas of life.

What are young people prepared for? Maybe a Zoom job pretending to work in a management position—exactly the sort that’s vanishing as major corporations are desperately cutting labor costs by purging management of its outrageous excesses. It goes on daily. When CVS announced huge layoffs, it made it clear that there would be no losses among the people who are “customer facing.” Those people remain in huge demand.

But how many of today’s college graduates are even prepared to stand behind a checkout counter and speak coherently to people, much less handle money or deal with scanning codes and the like? Not many.

I’m sure you have noticed this in general since the onset of the digital age, when everyone was tempted by the idea that we would migrate to the cloud and dispense with the burdens of physical reality. It turns out to be one of the greatest lies ever told. The costs are huge.

Real skills are what make the world work. We’ve got an entire generation, or maybe two, that simply lacks skills we once took for granted.

Let’s just consider one example: ironing clothes. It so happens that I’m a real expert in this skill, at least as compared with most other people I know. This is because I worked in clothing stores for years and learned under real experts. I developed the skill myself and now do all that’s involved without thinking about it.

But, yesterday, I was ironing a white cotton shirt and began to think through all that could go wrong but didn’t go wrong. There are so many variables. Steam or not? Starch and, if so, how much? What’s the right temperature setting? How does one know if the fabric is getting too hot and on the verge of being scorched?

Should the sleeve have a crease? And what of the cuffs? And do both sides need to be ironed or only one? What’s the best way to navigate around buttons without accidentally popping them off? How can a collar be positioned on the ironing board in a way that’s most effective and efficient? How long should ironing a shirt take—5 minutes or 25 minutes—and what’s the reasonable expectation?

It might all seem easy by description, but it simply isn’t. I’ve spent years screwing up every aspect of this process. I’ve scorched collars, broken buttons, creased cuffs, and clumped up the starch. My skills improved gradually over time by virtue of making errors. And this is with only one type of clothing. Taking on a wool suit introduces a full range of other problems.

Honestly, I can’t think of anyone I know under the age of 30 who knows how to do any of this. As a result, most people don’t iron at all. They just mill around with rumpled clothing or only wear stuff that requires no ironing at all. The skill itself has experienced a cultural atrophy, so far as I can tell.

But that’s just the beginning of it. Real expertise takes years and stakes that are much higher. Engineering is an obvious case, but there are less obvious ones. There’s a butcher in town of whom I’m in complete awe. He runs a bone-cutting machine that’s the meanest and most potentially vicious thing I’ve ever seen. Someone will order a rack of ribs, and he grabs a big carcass from the refrigerator. He throws it on the machine and shoves it this way and that, moving the bones and meat with incredible expertise.

I watch him because it’s at once terrifying and wildly impressive. It seems like he’s hardly paying attention and moves like lightning through all meats: chickens, goats, lambs, or anything. It’s awesome. And consider: one wrong move, and he would be missing a finger, a hand, or an arm. Just observing his work makes one’s heart race. It’s utterly beautiful.

You think you’ll never need this skill because others have them. Fine. But real skills are needed in everyday life. Cooking is an example. Just making a burger in a skillet isn’t as easy as people think. You have to know how to shape the meat, and it depends on how lean the mince is because that determines how it will respond to the heat.

You need to know how hot the skillet should be. You need to know when to deglaze the pan so that the sugars in the fat will adhere to the meat and become more delicious. You need to know when to take the burger out of the pan with knowledge that it will continue to cook as it cools.

None of this knowledge comes from ebooks or screens. It’s simply not possible to learn to cook this way. Even recipe books are of limited value. You can’t just follow a list of ingredients and cause a dish to magically appear.

For years, I baked bread. I started in college to use the resulting loaves as a tool in bartering for services. I did this because I was poor. It mostly worked. More importantly, I gained a life skill. Perhaps, I followed a recipe early on but gave it up quickly. I haven’t looked at a recipe in many years. I’ve taught others to bake bread, but only by showing and doing. It isn’t possible to learn how to knead dough by reading about it. It’s something that one has to do.

The loss of skills is having a profound effect on our lives. Sales of older homes are taking a dramatic dive simply because there are no workers available to do the necessary repairs. The few people out there who know plaster repair, wiring, or roofing are too expensive, and the wait is too long. Instead, people are buying new or just renting.

It’s true in car repair, too, which is why you have to wait a week or longer to get even the simplest task done. The loss of skills is even affecting the vaunted transition to green energy. If there aren’t enough engineers who can do things, it simply can’t happen.

And, yet, the economic transition away from bloated management structures back to doing actual work is happening very quickly, leaving an entire generation raised on TikTok and Zoom at a loss. We somehow managed to rob millions of the ability to be useful to others. This is true regardless of how many degrees they carry.

From 2020 to the present, people without actual medical skills, but rather only theories plus force, took over public health in most parts of the world. Look at the mess they made! This is what happens when abstract knowledge overrides real experience. You can destroy the world this way.

How to repair the problem? Start small. Iron a shirt. Make a hamburger. Clean a bathroom. It doesn’t matter what it is precisely. Just be useful, and see just how hard it truly is.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Watchman Research Media

Copyright © 2023 Jeffrey A. Tucker Author

Isaiah prophesied that a king would come who would reign like no other. Details of his reign are given: his birth; his ministry in ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’; his lineage, from the line of Jesse; his anointing to do God’s work. Anyone who doubts the validity of Christ’s claim to kingship needs to look back to the accuracy of Isaiah’s predictions.

For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the [latter] time forth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us) Isaiah 7:14).

In scripture we find the word “Mashiah” which means “anointed one”. The term was applied to the High Priest (Leviticus 4:23); the King (2 Sam 1:14) and also prophets of God (Psalms 105:15). It speaks of these men being set apart by God for God, and with the power of God helping them. However, at a later date we find Daniel predicting that after the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, a period of time would pass after which the Messiah (meaning Anointed one) would come (Daniel 9:25).

In this prophecy he uses the word “Messiah” as a title. This caused the Jews to speak freely of the one to come as The ‘Messiah’. Scripture reveals that the one to come will be the supreme Anointed One. He will be the one who fulfills the offices of prophet, priest and king, which were only shadows that pointed to Him.

Biblical prophecy (including Messianic prophecy) is unique amongst all the religious books of the world. It covers a vast period of time and includes all the nations involved in the history of Israel. The prophecies reveal God as the only God of history.

He is the Master of all events and can work through both good and bad to bring about His purposes. One example of this perfect mastery of all events is seen in Micah’s prophecy foretelling the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Micah went on to say that the King is going to come from the little village of Bethlehem:

But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; yet out of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth (origins) have been from of old, from ancient days (eternity) (Micah 5:2).

Beth means ‘house’ and lehem means ‘bread’, so the name literally means ‘house of bread’. It was this little village that supplied corn to Jerusalem, as well as lambs for sacrifice. The above prophecy refers to Christ is seen from Matthew 2:1

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men astrologers from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, Where is He Who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east at its rising and have come to worship Him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Herod conferred with Jewish hierarchy about their prophecies to ascertain Bethlehem from Micah 5:2.  The Jews and wise men would have been familiar with Daniel’s prophecy (9:25-26) and known the timing was upon them for the Messiah.

That it Might be Fulfilled

Matthew refers to the Old Testament more than any of the other Gospels. One of his favorite sayings is ‘that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets’. This is seen in particular in Matthew’s birth narrative.

He takes a long time explaining why Jesus was born in Bethlehem–because the prophets had predicted that Bethlehem of Judaea would be the birthplace of the king. During the time of the Roman Empire, several special taxations were ordered. Under the rule of Caesar Augustus one of these taxations was levied for years before the birth of Jesus. The Jewish people protested against this order, yet were overruled. However this delayed the enforcement of this taxation order for four years, bringing us to the time of Jesus’ birth.

Under the order Joseph and Mary were required to be present in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7) and so prophecy was fulfilled. Mary and Joseph later returned to Nazareth, thus fulfilling Messianic prophecy that stated the Messiah would be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:23).

Yet this would be crucially important for Jews wondering if this was the Messiah God had promised long ago. “Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel—which, when translated, means, God with us (Matthew 1:23).

Matthew is keen for readers to understand that the prophets spoke of the birth to a virgin, the slaughter of the innocents, the flight into Egypt and the return to Galilee. The phrase ‘that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets’ occurs 13 times in the story of Jesus’ birth, where Matthew quotes Micah, Hosea, Jeremiah and Isaiah.

From the very beginning, Matthew focuses his readers’ attention on Christ’s ancestry in the royal line of David, describing how his birth fulfils prophecy and has the marks of God’s involvement, heralded by archangels and welcomed by an angelic choir. While Luke includes the shepherds, it is Matthew who records the worship of the child by wise men from the east.

The Wise Men

Most people are familiar with the Wise Men who followed a star to Bethlehem. Whilst they have been commonly regarded as Gentiles, it is more likely that they were descendants of the Jews who had been left behind in Babylon after the Exile.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen, from David to the Babylonian exile (deportation) fourteen generations, from the Babylonian exile to the Christ fourteen generations (Matthew 1:17).

They had remembered the prophecy of Balaam that a star would arise out of Israel to be the King of the Nations. I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but He is not near. A Star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall crush all the corners of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth…. (Numbers 24:17).  So when the wise men or astrologers from the east saw His star in the east they followed it. Their presence in Matthew’s birth account says much about the importance of Christ’s incarnation.

It is interesting that there will be signs in the sky because the sky responds to significant events on earth. This doesn’t mean that when Wise Men followed the star, it proves astrology is all right. Astrology believes that the position of the stars influences a baby at the moment of birth, but at Bethlehem, it was the position of the baby that influenced the stars!

The Beloved Physician Luke

Luke was a doctor by profession – the apostle Paul refers to him as ‘the beloved physician’ when writing to the Colossian church. Because of his medical background, he was able to bring his considerable skill as a writer and physician to search out diligently and follow all things closely and traced accurately the course from the highest to minutest detail and record what actually took place, even when it was outside medical knowledge or ability.

The birth of Jesus, for example, is told from Mary’s angle. She made her life available to Jesus Christ and she was willing to trust God’s plan for her life. Here was a young girl around 13-14 years old, who is approached by an angel, and he tells her that she is found grace with God and she will become pregnant and will birth to a Messiah she will call His name Jesus (see Luke 1:30-32).

Here again, Matthew’s birth narrative says:

And her promised husband Joseph, being a just and upright man and not willing to expose her publicly and to shame and disgrace her, decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) her quietly and secretly. But as he was thinking this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of (from, out of) the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua), which means Savior, for He will save His people from their sins that is, prevent them from failing and missing the true end and scope of life, which is God (Matthew 1:19-21).

In first-century society, this would be a total disgrace! That’s why Joseph had decided to divorce her quietly and secretly. And yet, Mary basically says, Here am I. Do with me as you please.” Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done according to what you have said (Luke 1:38).

Many times, we wonder what the will of God is for our lives. Let me suggest that you simply say, “Lord, I am willing to obey, even though I don’t completely understand what it is that You’re asking me to do.” That is what Mary did. She didn’t fully understand what the angel Gabriel was telling her, but she obeyed just the same. She took a leap of faith. This is the attitude God looks for in His servants: childlike faith and obedience.

Luke also gives further details of the virgin birth, Jesus’ circumcision, and mentions the swaddling clothes or diapers – all the kind of things a doctor would be interested in. Some doctors are sceptical about anything which is outside the natural, physical realm, but God used a doctor to report the supernatural!

Medicine had been developing for 400 years and doctors received careful training. Luke needed to be observant, analytical and careful in his records – skills which he also uses in giving intimate details of the conception and delivery of Jesus Christ.

And this will be a sign for you by which you will recognize Him: you will find (after searching) a Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12-13).

Luke also records the involvement of the shepherds in witnessing and broadcasting news of the birth of Jesus. He records that Mary and Joseph brought pigeons to the temple for sacrifice at the birth of Jesus. This was the cheapest possible sacrifice allowed under Levitical law (see Leviticus 12:1-4).

And when the time for their purification the mother’s purification and the Baby’s dedication came according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord—As it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be set apart and dedicated and called holy to the Lord (Luke 2:22-23; see also Exodus 13: 1-2, 12; Numbers 8:17).

The greatest miracle that has ever taken place happened when our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, left His throne in glory and choose to born in a cave in Bethlehem. He could have been born in the most elegant palace on this planet, but instead He was born in a stable in Bethlehem which was cold and damp.

He could have had aristocratic parents who boasted of their status. He could have heard the finest clothes from the most exclusive shops. But He had none of that. Instead, Jesus chose to humble Himself and became poor that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Our Savior did not come as a Monarch draped in gold and silk, but as baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.  He went from the glory of God to a stable filled with animals. Someone has said that history swings on the hinge of the door of a stable in Bethlehem. Jesus took His place in a manger so that we might have a home in Heaven.

As you enjoy your Christmas today with your loved ones, take time to contemplate what Christmas is really about. It was the day Christ Jesus came into the world to bring us salvation, the most wonderful gift anyone could ever have-and it’s completely free!

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him (John 3:16-17 AMP).

The most wonderful and most powerful miracle opened the way for the miracle of rebirth –when you are “born again” When you are “born again”- your whole life changes because, just as Jesus came into the world, he comes into our hearts. He came not to condemn us, but to save us from eternal damnation.

Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

God created a special sinless blood in a very special and involved manner. 800 years before Christ, the Old Testament prophet Isaiah predicted that: Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us) (Isaiah 7:14 AMP).

In the Old Testament, the rules provided for a Jewish lady after giving birth to a son or a daughter was:

When the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb a year old for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering to the door of the Tent of Meeting to the priest; and he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who has borne a male or a female child (Leviticus 12:6-7).

Did Mary observe this law as required in the Old Testament? The Gospel of Luke tells us that she fulfilled this law:

Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the LORD.”So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:22-24).

The Blood of Jesus Christ saved Mary just as it saves all those who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The medical profession tells us that the mother’s blood does not pass the placenta, therefore had Mary’s sinful blood flowed in Jesus’ veins there would be no salvation. She is described as a chosen human vessel to incubate God’s Son and bring Him into the world.

Jesus, Himself prophetically tells us that: Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but instead You have made ready a body for Me…… Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God—to fulfil what is written of Me in the volume of the Book (Hebrews 10:5-7).

The life principle which flowed in the veins of this Child was sinless blood; it was human blood as the life of heaven is not blood but the spirit; His DNA was made up of earthly chromosomes from his earthly mother and perfectly created chromosomes from His heavenly Father. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ was fully human and yet fully divine.

Throughout His life, He showed us both sides of His deity. The human side of Him was subject to temptation, remember temptation is not sin. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning (Hebrew 4:15). The Bible also tells us he learned obedience through His sufferings:

In the days of His flesh Jesus offered up definite, special petitions for that which He not only wanted but needed and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was always able to save Him out from death, and He was heard because of His reverence toward God His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father. Although He was a Son, He learned active, special obedience through what He suffered (Hebrews 5:7-8 AMP).

Jesus’ Family Misunderstood and Doubted Him

When Jesus was young, Joseph and Mary must have given Him similar treatment to that which they gave to their six or more children. Probably when Mary called the children for dinner, she called their names-Yeshua, James, Simon, Joses, Jude, Judas, and Salome to come for dinner.

The Bible tells us when Jesus grew, He became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year to the Passover Feast. When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they went home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, because they assumed he was among the other travellers.

But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere (Luke 2:45-52).

Now when his parents were looking for Him, He didn’t even offer an apology. When a Jewish boy reaches 12 years of age he is able to perform a “Bar Mitzvah.” From that time on he is considered a man. At this age, he becomes responsible for his own choices or behaviour. He’s reached an age of accountability.

Up to the age of 12, the parents are punished when a boy does something wrong, but from then on he is responsible for his own choices and for keeping God’s commandments. This sheds further light on the reply Jesus made when Mary found him in the temple. He actually said: But why did you need to search?” He asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what He meant.

Amazingly when they returned to Nazareth, he was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. The story reveals that Yeshua knew who He really was, even at the age of 12, but Mary had never told Him who He was. In fact, the Bible doesn’t record Jesus calling Mary “mother.” It seems that Jesus almost dissociated Himself from His mother until the cross.

An example was when a wedding was held at Cana in Galilee. Jesus was there with Mary and His disciples. They ran out of wine and Mary went to Jesus and said: They have no more wine.”Jesus said to her, Dear woman, what is that to you and to Me? What do we have in common? Leave it to Me. My time (hour to act) has not yet come (John 2: 3-4 AMP).

At another time, Jesus is speaking at a public meeting when He is told His mother and brethren were outside, apparently wishing to talk to Him. But He replied: Who is My mother, and who are My brothers? And stretching out His hand toward [not only the twelve disciples but all His adherents, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers. For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother! (Mathew 12-46-50)

One time Jesus entered a house, and the crowds began to gather again. Soon He and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. When His family heard what was happening, they tried to Him away saying, “He is out of His mind” (Mark 3: 20).

As Jesus was teaching about the unclean spirits as recorded in the Gospel of Luke chapter 11, a certain woman in the crowd took the opportunity to express her thanks to Mary who brought Jesus into the world. She raised her voice and said to Him, Blessed (happy and to be envied) is the womb that bore You and the breasts that You sucked! But He said, Blessed (happy and to be envied) rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey and practice it! (Luke 11:27).

When a person moves into a born-again relationship with Jesus, fellow believers (including relatives) often become closer to them than to non-born-again relatives. The Bible tells us that His immediate family didn’t know what to make of Him because they did not believe in Him either:

After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting his death. But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him. Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime. The world can’t hate you, but it does hate me because I accuse it of doing evil. You go on. I’m not going to this festival, because my time has not yet come.” After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee (John 7:1-9).

Imagine living with someone for 30 years and they suddenly go around saying they are the Messiah who the prophets wrote about, what would you think of that person if his identity is not revealed to you? It can’t be easy and we shouldn’t blame them. After all, even His disciples, some of whom were possibly His cousins deserted Him on the eve of the Crucifixion. When the real clash came with the powers of darkness, we saw every one of the disciples fail in that hour-in spite of all their surrenders, their vows, and their devotion to their Master.

When Jesus was dying on the cross and shedding His blood on the cross for His mother Mary and others who will put their faith and trust in Him, He saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing near, said to His mother, Dear woman, See, here is your son! Then He said to the disciple, See, here is your mother! And from that hour, the disciple took her into his keeping, (own home) (John 19:26-27).

As Jesus’ earthly brothers didn’t believe in Him, He handed Mary His mother over to John his beloved disciple. But despite this unbelief and disdain, two of His brothers James and Jude became one of the writers of the New Testament.

It is recorded that when Jesus died on the cross, his brother James was so deeply upset and full of regret about what he had said about Him and how he had teased Him that he said he would never eat food again. He would have fasted until he died, except that three days later Jesus appeared to His disciples and James personally. From that moment on, James called himself a bond slave of Jesus Christ.

Mary Was Chosen by God

Apart from Mary being mentioned as one of those who were at the prayer meeting before the Day of Pentecost; that is the last we hear of Mary in the Gospels. You never hear her name again. She prophesied that all generations would call her blessed but not “virgin” Mary because she had other children with Joseph after Jesus. He was the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us. They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him (see Mark 6:3).

Mary was chosen by God as the woman who would bring Yeshua into the world to fulfill His divine mission of salvation for all humanity. The angel said to her that she would become pregnant after the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her like a shining crowd; and so the holy (pure, sinless) Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:30-33). Mary believed these words and acknowledged her role when she cried out with a loud cry, and then exclaimed:

My soul magnifies and extols the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked upon the low station and humiliation of His handmaiden. For behold, from now on all generations of all ages will call me blessed and declare me happy and to be envied! For He Who is almighty has done great things for me—and holy is His name to be venerated in His purity, majesty and glory!

And His mercy (His compassion and kindness toward the miserable and afflicted) is on those who fear Him with godly reverence, from generation to generation and age to age. He has shown strength and made might with His arm; He has scattered the proud and haughty in and by the imagination and purpose and designs of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree.

He has filled and satisfied the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty-handed without a gift. He has laid hold on His servant Israel to help him, to espouse his cause, in remembrance of His mercy, even as He promised to our forefathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever (Luke 1:44-55 AMP).