God's Love

Dear Weekly Readers!

The Bible text for the sermon on Sunday was John 14:8-27.

In Verse 8, Philip is asking Jesus to show them the Father, saying that they will then be satisfied.   Jesus asked them, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?”  Jesus told them that if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, because He is in Me, and I in Him.  

How is it with you and me today?   Are we thankful for knowing Jesus?  Do we see Jesus with the eyes of faith?  I pray that we all do! 

As a very small boy, when I read the Bible I was afraid to read the words of Jesus.  I thought to myself in my young mind that Jesus is so holy that surely I cannot live up to His sayings and words.   Oh, what foolish thoughts of a young child!  

However, when I began to learn of how Jesus loved mankind so much and demonstrated it as He lived here on earth, I began to see Jesus and God as merciful lovers of my soul.  I noticed how Jesus treated the man with leprosy and the sinful woman caught in the very act of adultery.  I noticed how Jesus picked Peter up out of the water when Peter doubted and began to sink.  I noticed how Jesus did not forsake Peter even after Peter denied Him.  I noticed how Jesus conversed with the woman at the well.  I noticed how He forgave the sins of the man sick of the palsy.   This same Jesus loves me and each of you the very same way even today.  He will never leave nor forsake us! 

What joy it is now to read of Jesus!  To read all of God’s Words, knowing that I am still a poor sinner, but God is a merciful God!  

In verses 13 and 14, Jesus is telling us that if we ask anything in His name He will do it.   What are we to think of this?  So many of us have prayed in Jesus’ name, sometimes even for years, and what we wanted has not happened.   So from our own experiences, we must admit that this verse must have much deeper meaning than this.   When we pray in Jesus’ name, we are asking for His intercession.  We are asking for His merit.  We are asking for His council, His wisdom, and His power.  

We surely do not pray to God in a demanding way.  We lay all of our cares and burdens down in front of Jesus, and He will surely do what is best.  Even as earthly fathers we do not give our children all they want, because we know certain things are bad for them.  This is the same with our Heavenly Father.  He will only give those things that He knows are good for us and our family.  Those things that fit His will.  Those things that will be best in the broad expanse of time and in the generations that follow as well.  You see, God can see the entire future, while we can only see today.  He knows so much better than we do as to what is good for us! 

So let us pray humbly, obediently, and with reverence in Jesus’ name, asking that God’s will be done in each situation!  

Verse 15 says, ”If ye love me, keep my commandments.”   What are the commandments of Jesus?  Are they the ten commandment laws?  We know Jesus came not to destroy the law but to fulfill them.   When sin entered the world through the sin of Adam, all mankind was at once lost and condemned.   In order for us to be saved, Jesus needed to come and fulfill all in our behalf.  We are ever so grateful that He willingly did this, and then gave His life for us!    In John 13:34-35, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

Dear reader, do you hate your brother, your neighbor?  Are you jealous of a fellow pastor?  Do you care for the lost of this world?   Let us pay attention to these words of Jesus about love.  

We are not capable of loving as Jesus does.  We fall so short of having perfect love.  However, let us turn humbly to our Lord and in daily contrition and repentance, ask Him to work on us to love one another.  

We are out of time for this week, but please read the text and see how Jesus promised the Holy Ghost, which is the comforter to come and dwell with us and in us!   This will always be our strength and comfort and joy. 

We will close this article with the Words of Jesus found in verse 27.  “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid!”

God’s Peace!  John R.

God's Word

Dear Weekly Readers!

May the Peace of God be with you this week!

Please enjoy the below article from a Pastor from the country of Norway.  One year ago I had the privilege to serve in his home church.  This pastor is now over 90 years old, and is still proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

May God Bless your week!  John R.

 

GOD HAS CALLED US THROUGH His Word, and He has revealed His grace to us through His Word.  We have become sinners through the enlightenment of God's Word and, by the testimony of this same Word, we have also been able to believe that our sins are forgiven.

We have come to know God's wrath toward sin but also His love toward the sinner who humbles himself under His mighty hand. We have heard the Gospel, and we know that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Faith is also a gift of God. The Lord Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith; He alone is our righteousness. It is by His grace that we have been saved through faith.

God loved us so highly that He called us, lost and condemned sinners, to be His children. This great love enables us to understand that we are indebted to love God and all of those who are born of God. Love to God is also evidenced in a love of His Word. Therefore, Jesus said, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

But the Word of God does not speak to us only of God's love; it speaks to us of His righteousness and of His wrath toward sin. The apostle Paul gives this testimony concerning the written Word: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

When the spoken word is according to the written Word, it contains both comfort and admonition. Thus it was with the teachings of Jesus. His Word was comfort and salvation to the repentant sinner; it was admonition and chastisement to those who did not receive it. Therefore, it is necessary for all of us to humble ourselves under the Word of God so we may lay aside all of those things

that the Word shows us to be contrary to the will of God. None of us is perfect; we are all guilty before God. But we see also that even though Jesus was a faultless preacher who preached the perfect and living Word there were still those who would not humble themselves unto repentance in obedience to this Word. They said,This is an hard saying; who can hear it? (John 6:60)

If we become guilty under the hearing of the Word of God and cannot find any fault with the Word, the fault must lie in us. It will be harmful to us if we allow ourselves to be offended at the one who has spoken the Word, as did the Jews, rather than acknowledge and confess our own sins. The most important thing is not who speaks the Word but what is spoken. When the Word of God is spoken according to the Scriptures and the doctrine of Jesus, it will be a blessing and a joy to those who keep it. But the devil, who is God's enemy, will endeavor to corrupt the Word. If he has great wrath toward the children of God who love His Word, how much greater is his wrath toward those who are the preachers of the Word!  He endeavors in every way to cause them to forsake their labors in the Lord's vineyard.

Therefore, I encourage all of the children of God who love God's Word to pray to the Lord of the

harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Pray also for those who continue to preach the Word. Ask God to be with them and strengthen them so that their work might be to the glory of God and to the salvation of souls; yes, that they might labor in one Spirit so that there will be one flock and one Shepherd.

 

Kaare Suhr

A Walk Never to Be Forgotten

Dear Weekly Readers!  God’s Peace!

It is springtime in New Hampshire, USA!  It is a great time to be outside after the long cold winter with much snow!  On a nice day it is enjoyable to walk outside!   Please read an article about a walk Never to Be Forgotten!   May God bless your week! John R.

Two disciples on an afternoon walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus had heard some amazing things that morning. Some of the women had returned to the disciples to say they had seen a vision of angels, which said that he [Jesus] was alive. (Luke 24:23)

And some of them, especially Peter and John, who were with them went to the sepulcher and found it even as the women had said, but they didn't see Jesus (Luke 24:24). They were saying this to Jesus whom they did not recognize. To them He was a stranger.

Undoubtedly Jesus chose to remain a "mystery man" to them for at least two reasons:1)      to give these disciples an opportunity to talk about their understanding of what had happened during the past few days;

2) to provide Jesus with an opening to help them understand what happened in the light of the fulfillment of the Old Testament, thereby making their faith more sure.

(See 2 Peter 1:19). While they thought this "stranger" was the only one in Jerusalem who didn't know what had happened, in reality Jesus was the only one who did know what had happened. What a special few hours for these two disciples! May it bring comfort and encouragement to each of you to know that Jesus cares about you as much as He did for these two. Though we may be as sad, disheartened, confused, or bewildered as were these men, Jesus loves us and will draw near to us and walk with us to encourage, enlighten, comfort and guide us in our walk of faith. Because we all see through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12), we constantly need Jesus to draw near to us. And He does so through His Word and the Holy Spirit. Life is filled with so many trials and tragedies only the assurance of Christ's presence with us can help us to go through them.

While the hearts of these two disciples burned with in them while Jesus talked with them and opened to them the Scriptures (Luke 24:32), they still did not know this was Jesus speaking to them. When they reached their home in Emmaus, Jesus made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. (Luke 24:28-29)

Jesus went in to spend some time with them and as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him. (Luke 24:30-31) Can you imagine how important it was for these disciples to invite Jesus into their home; even though they didn't know it was Jesus? Jesus, the gentle Lamb that He is, does not and will not impose Himself on anyone.

Even with the Laodicean Church, of which we read in the Revelation of St. John, Jesus said: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)

Jesus may walk with us, talk with us, open His Word to us, but until we long for Him to enter our homes, our hearts, our lives, we will never truly "know Him." It is a precious and blessed thing to know the Scriptures as they speak to us about Jesus. But we need to know "the Christ" of the Scriptures in a real, personal relationship.

When these disciples knew Jesus as the once crucified, but now the resurrected, living and actual Messiah, Jesus could leave them. And their personal experience with Him was so powerful, they hastened back to Jerusalem, probably as fast as their feet would carry them, to tell the others that the Lord is risen indeed!

May this glorious message of the resurrected Lord have such a powerful impact upon us that we, too, will hasten to tell others this Good News! Everyone needs to know that Jesus, our crucified Savior, is living. He longs to dwell within us for it is in Him that we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28).

Or as the Apostle Paul wrote: For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)

Pastor Wayne Juntunen

The Keys of the Kingdom

Dear Weekly Readers!

Please find the below article from a Foreign Mission Board member, Shane Juuti.

Dear brothers and sisters in faith, and anyone whose heart is seeking a place of comfort, may the Peace of God be yours.

The importance of a portion of scripture found in 2 Thessalonians 2 has struck my heart, especially as a reminder to believers of the importance to share the true message of the Gospel with people.

Paul tells the Thessalonians not to be troubled about things that are going to happen.  He talks of a falling away from the truth. Then he speaks of the son of perdition being revealed.  Starting at verse 4 he writes: “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”

This mystery of iniquity which is already at work, I believe is another picture of the antichrist spoken of by John in 1 John 4. On one hand this iniquity wants to deny Christ abides in flesh; on the other, it wants to have the worship due God and replace God in man’s heart with a worship of self, which is in reality idol worship. But, one is withholding or constraining or preventing it from having free rein.  The word “let” is Old English for, to hinder, or prevent.  I feel it is very important to look very closely at what is withholding, or letting, this iniquity.

We find written in Revelations 20:1-3 “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”  A little further on in the chapter we read of those who have partaken in the first resurrection, living and reigning with Christ a thousand years.  So we know this thousand year period spoken of is this time we live in, from Christ's resurrection till he comes again. Angels are very often used as messengers in the Bible, so I believe this is a message that binds Satan, and this binding is the same spoken about using the word “letteth” in Thessalonians.

It's very telling that the angel has a key.  This message is so important that it is Christ himself that delivered it. Matt. 16:19 “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”  In the end of John Christ first gives them the Holy Ghost, and then says John 20:23 “whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.”  If one doesn't first have the Holy Spirit the keys are of no value, because we only exercise them by the power of God through the Holy Spirit. That message believed by faith, that a sinner can believe their sins forgiven in the name, and because of the blood of Christ releases them, but binds Satan, for he is no longer free to accuse a heart that that sin is standing between them and a righteous God.  And, a heart that has heard and believed this truth will not be deceived into thinking that there is another way to the peace and joy of a good conscience before God.

If the true and full gospel of Christ is not spoken, (for it is Christ who letteth or retains) the Devil is freed to deceive.  It tells us he sitteth in the temple of God.  We know the heart of a believer is the temple of God. Cor. 3:16 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?”  Satan will try to deceive man into believing that there is some other way to deal with sin. Any other way is in reality a work of flesh, and worship of Christ's work is replaced by worshipping one’s own ability to cleanse one's own heart.

It is this deception that leads to a falling away from the truth, because people don't love the true gospel message; “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”  What a very sad state to be in.

May God grant that the true gospel message of Christ Jesus would never be lost in our midst, but go forth to others.  Amen.

God’s Peace.

Shane Juuti

Gimlet, Alberta