Fact Check, 65

~ Religion Is The Solution ~

People Think  ~  “People need religion.”  Or, “If everyone would just follow the Golden Rule our problems would go away!”

The Bible Says  ~  Consider what Jesus Christ—The Messiah—had to say about the religious leaders of His time on earth.  “When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers!’” (Matthew 3:7a).

Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.  …  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.  These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets’” (Matthew 23:13-14, 23-30).

The Significance  ~  Religion is based on rules and regulations, do’s and do not’s!  The solution is a relationship with the very Son of God—Jesus Christ. 

Comment  ~  No person is capable of meeting the righteous required of a righteous God.  “For I [Jesus] say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees [who kept the rules], you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).  

The Good News is that repentant sinners can be viewed by God as covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Listen to what He said:

“And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life.  He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.  But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.  For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.  This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.  And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day’” (John 6:35-40).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .

Learn From Gideon, 29

~ God Chose To Reassure Gideon ~

The Biblical account of the life of Gideon provides for one of the most interesting character studies in all of Scripture.  In this series we will discover practical lessons for living the Christian life today.  

Scripture  ~  “And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion.  He said, ‘I have had a dream:  To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.’  Then his companion answered and said, ‘This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel!  Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp’” (Judges 7:13-14).   

Learn From Gideon  ~  God grows us in different ways and at different times.  In the life of Gideon we have seen:

1. A reluctant and doubting Gideon.  In fact, as long as we are proud of our own ability God cannot use us—we need to understand that it is God who works through us.  
2. God prepares those who He can use. 
3. God sometimes provides definite tangible reassurances such as we see in today’s passage. 
4. Notice that Gideon’s companion spoke of the future in the past tense! 

concluding comment  ~  We learn about Gideon primarily from Judges 6-8, but also Isaiah 9:1-7, and Hebrews 11:1-3, 32-34.

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .

Angels, 6of27

~ 7 P’s of Angelic Ministry: PULL ~ 

Prolog  ~  Angels are God’s special undercover agents who bring messages from God and minister to God’s people.  “But to which of the angels has He ever said: ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’?  Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:13-14). 

#6 – Angels PULL Us Out (of difficulties)  ~  “When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, ‘Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.’  And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.  So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, ‘Escape for your life!  Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain.  Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.’

“Then Lot said to them, ‘Please, no, my lords!  Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.  See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.’

“And he said to him, ‘See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.  Hurry, escape there.  For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.’

“Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

“The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar.  Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens.  So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground” (Genesis 19:15-25).

“Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation, and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.  But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ‘Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.’  And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught.  But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought” (Acts 5:17-21).

“Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.  And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.  Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, ‘Arise quickly!’  And his chains fell off his hands.  Then the angel said to him, ‘Gird yourself and tie on your sandals;’ and so he did.  And he said to him, ‘Put on your garment and follow me.’  So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.  When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.  And when Peter had come to himself, he said, ‘Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people’” (Acts 12:5-11).

Epilog  ~  Angels are spirit beings and invisible.  However, sometimes in Scripture they appear in human form.  Scripture reminds us: “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Hebrews 13:2). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

NOTES:

(1)     The current TOP 10 ALN posts are listed at the very bottom of this home page.

(2)     There is an INDEX of all ALN posts accessed by scrolling down the left column.

(3)     You may LINK to any ALN posts on your own blog or website. 

(4)     You may COPY any ALN post, but please credit ALN as the source by prominently displaying the following statement:  Reprinted from “Abundant Life Now,” a free blog which offers inspiring moments, thought-provoking comments, and solid Biblical insight at http://RobertLloydRussell.blogspot.com/ .