Harvest Times

Part-4.

In continuation of our meditation, when we study the gospel of John, we find the deity and the glory of the person of Christ in every page. We have Him as the One who knows the end from the beginning. The One who is Omniscient! We read of the following mention “Jesus knowing all things” a peculiar expression not less than fourteen times unlike synoptics. And again we read from ch.2 onwards  Our Lord knew all men…hidden things were known to Him. John presents to us in the book of Revelation the seven fold description of His glorious person, unveiling of His glory. One of them is His eyes, the figure of speech is simile. “His eyes are like unto the flame of fire”, can see in and thro’. Fire is the emblem of the holiness of God. Back in the book of Exodus the awesome presence of the Lord was unveiled before Moses at the burning bush and the Lord said to Moses that the place where thou standest is holy….All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.Forget not that our God is a consuming fire. He did approach the Church at Thyatira as the One whose eyes are like unto the flame of fire. The condition is such among God’s people today like unto Thyatira where we find the corruption of doctrine. We find in these days among the people of God in the assembly, compromises and the willingness to accommodate that which dishonors the Lord. What was prohibited in the church at Ephesus is welcomed in the church at Pergamos and the Lord condemned. What all things are hidden will be uncovered. What all things are accepted and practiced unscripturally,  and all these will be evaluated and will be exposed by the awesome and holy presence of the Lord whose eyes are like unto the flame of fire. Before it becomes too late, let us confess and acknowledge like unto Peter. He said  that the Lord knows all things well. Jacob of old was covering for many years, but when he met the Lord at Peniel, it was very painful and he had to carry that pain all his life.He that covereth his sin, shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh, shall have mercy.David said…Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.

We read in Rev.2&3, seven times what our lord says “ I KNOW” He knows all about His people, their actual state of conditions . He is the all knowing God.

John, the beloved disciple whom our Lord loved,  could view our Lord as the Lion and Lamb in the midst of the throne. There we see Him, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. We have Him being unveiled in all what He is, in His acquired majesty, diginity, honour, glory, almighty power, exalted to the highest of heavens where He occupies the place of honour and glory. The seven horns speak of His might and power. We read in Zechariah that the horn is a symbol of the power of the King. The eyes here speaks of His perception and knowledge. And number seven speaks of perfection. So, His perfection in power and His perfection in perception. Therefore, He is none other than the Omnipotent and Omniscient, the all knowing Almighty. Oh what a glorious scene of worship in glory by the redeemed? acknowledging the worthiness of the One who is in the midst of the throne, falling before Him in reverence, engaged in worship by saying  with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever. Worthy of honour and of praise; Worthy by all to be adored; Exhaustless theme of heavenly lays; Thou art worthy, Jesus, Lord. Now seated on Jehovah’s throne, The Lamb once slain, in glory bright; To Thee, e’en now, our song we raise, Though sure the tribute mean must prove, No mortal tongue can tell Thy ways, So full of light and life and love. Yet, Saviour, Thou shalt have full praise; We soon shall meet Thee on the cloud, We soon shall see Thee face to face, In glory praising as we would.

Have a blessed weekend with every blessing of the Lord.

~~~~~~~~ Bible Verses ~~~~~~~~

John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
10:10 I have come that they may have life and may have it
abundantly.
1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not
have the Son of God does not have the life.

~~~~~~~ Words of Ministry ~~~~~~~~

[Part 2 of 2]
The principle of the tree of life is dependence. Perhaps many
of you are not clear about this principle of dependence.
Allow me to use the illustration of graduation. Nearly
everyone reading this message has graduated from some kind of
school, either elementary school, high school, college, or
university. We may graduate from studying, but we should
never graduate from eating.

Furthermore, we cannot graduate from drinking water or from
breathing air. I encourage you to study well and to graduate
from school as soon as possible. However, I would never
encourage you to graduate from breathing, for if you do that
you will die.

What is the meaning of this? It means that knowledge creates
independence and that life demands dependence. Obtaining a
certain body of knowledge permits us to graduate and to act
independently. For example.after studying the art of cooking
under an expert chef, I will eventually become knowledgeable,
independent, and able to cook without the aid of my
instructor. However, in the things pertaining to life we can
never be independent. We are dependent upon life constantly.
I have been breathing since the day I was born, and I
continue to breathe twenty-four hours a day. I have never
graduated from breathing. I should not say, “I have practiced
enough breathing. Now I am an expert. I can teach you to
breathe, but I don’t need to breathe myself.” Regardless how
old we are, we remain dependent upon breathing because
breathing is a matter of life.

~~~~~~~~ Bible Verses ~~~~~~~~
Gen 2:9 And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow
every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food,
as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
~~~~~~~ Words of Ministry ~~~~~~~~
[Part 1 of 2]
If we only read Genesis 2, we will be unable to understand
the meaning of the tree of life. However, the Gospel of John
reveals the life denoted by the tree of life in a concrete
way. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life,” and John 15:5 tells us
that the Lord Jesus is a vine tree. If we put these two
verses together, we will realize that Christ is the tree of
life. Jesus, the embodiment of God, is the tree of life.
Therefore, the tree of life in Genesis 2 is a symbol of God
as the source of life.

Besides this source, there is another tree, another source in
the universe-death. However, this tree is not called the tree
of death; it is called the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. There is such a tree in this universe. These two trees
oppose one another, the tree of life denoting God as the
source of life, and the tree of knowledge signifying Satan as
the source of death. As God is the source of life, Satan is
the source of death. Therefore, in Genesis 2 we find two
sources signified by two trees.

Death begins with the tree of knowledge of good and evil and
ends with the lake of fire. Life begins with the tree of life
and ends at the New Jerusalem. Before we were saved, we were
on the line of death. After we were saved, we were put on the
line of life.

JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!

Part -3.

When we open the gospel of John we see the eternality of our Lord , then equality and deity and humanity. We are led by the first part of the river in Genesis to the fine gold which speaks of the deity of our Lord and we see it’s display in every page of the gospel John. Nothing is broken in the gospel of John, the bread is NOT broken, the veil is NOT rent, when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake NOT His legs, that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of Him shall NOT be broken. Again we read,  Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was NOT the net broken. The fourth face of Ezekial’s vision  is the eagle and it takes us to the gospel of John and we are introduced to the lofty height of eagle. Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? She dwelleth and abideth on the rock,….. her eyes behold afar off. Our Lord is the one who knows the end from the beginning and sees thro’, right from Eternity. Also we see the fourth person who walked along with faithful Hebrews of the fiery furnace is none other, but the Son of God. So John says, I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.

His glory as eternal God with which gospel of John commences. We see Him in creation. All things are made by Him.The eternal word spoken in creation and we see the manifestation of the power of God. His power is unlimited and His wisdom is infinite. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. He was the origin of all things. The work of creation is attributed to Him by the apostle Paul and the writer to the Hebrews. Not only did He create all things; He also upholds all things by the word of His power. He is the original cause of creation, the reason of it’s existence, and the goal towards which it moves. All things have been created through Him and unto Him and for His pleasure they are and were. And without Him there can be no progress and no development. The eternal word spoken in creation, in incarnation and in redemption and the heart of God was revealed. The One who dwelt in the bosom of the Father, told Him out, exhibited Him, declared Him. In creation He spoke and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast. But in incarnation and redemption required that the Word should become flesh and tabernacle among men, moving from Bethlehem until Calvary where we see Him on the cross as the sin bearer. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.  Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. We’ll sing of the Shepherd that died, that died for the sake of the flock. His love to the utmost was tried, but firmly endured as a rock. When blood from a victim must flow. This Shepherd, by pity, was led to stand between us and the foes and willingly die in our stead. Our song then for ever should be, of the Shepherd who gave Himself thus; no subject’s so glorious as He, no theme’s so affecting to us. We’ll sing of such subjects alone. None other our tongues shall employ, till fully His love becomes known in yonder bright regions of joy. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do His will, working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be  glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend with Christo-centric Lord’s day.

JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD! Part-2

We read of Him as the First and the Last in Rev.1:11,17,2:8,22:13.This title presents to us the glory of His deity. We have Him as the One who is before all, above all and after all. And the same title we read of Jehovah for three times in Isaiah  41:4,44:6,48:12.When we put these verses together we see Him standing before time, outside the history and before creation. The One who is eternal, the One who walked upon the sapphire stone of the sanctuary, is none other but God Himself.

There in eternity He was dwelling in co-equal eternal existence with God, but when He descended in the likeness of man, He dwelt with men. John could behold His glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Here we have His divine glory. John also could see the glory full of grace and truth. Here we have His moral glory.

In Ch.18 we see Him being rejected and condemned. When the betrayer came with soldiers, chief priests, Pharisees with lanterns and torches and weapons. He asked whom seek ye? They said Jesus of Nazareth. He said I am He. Unlike the first man in the garden, who was hiding, the second man, the Lord Jesus from heaven, did not hide in the garden, but we read that He “went forth” over the brook Kidron.18:1,4.The same expression we read of King David passing over the brook  Kidron twice in 2Sam.15:16,17 where we see King David is rejected. Here we find the One who is greater than King David is rejected. Also, we find here the revelation of Shekinah Glory. When our Lord said  “I am He” this title unveiled the Shekinah glory. They not only fell, but we read that they went backward and fell on the ground. Who can stand before the unveiled glory of our Lord? Seraphim veil their face at His transcend glory. When Isaiah saw the glory, he could acknowledge His sinfulness, Daniel and Ezekial and the group of disciples upon the holy mount in response to the sight of His glory, we see them falling. John in the Isle of Patmos at the unveiled glory of our Lord, fell on the ground. These feeble group of people along with Judas could not stand upright, they went backward and then fell. Here we see the fulfillment of Ps.27:2,40:14, “When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell”. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil”.

Not only this, but we see Him in Luke gospel, falling on the ground  and kneeling down and praying. Here, in John’s Gospel we have Him standing upright in all His unveiled glory. Ps:37:37  Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright.. Again we see a  contrast…three fold  denial of Peter by saying when they questioned that you are one of His disciples, He said that “ I am not”, but our Lord said three times that “ I AM”. He went forth, knowing that all things that should come upon Him.

In continuation of His title, the first and the last, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the Ending, the first and the last Greek alphabet, when we compare for example the English Alphabet, A and Z. Here we have first and the last letter. Take the entire world of English literature and the vocabularies, we could place them within this two boundaries. So to say that every thing commenced in Him, continue in Him and will be consummated by Him. So we read in John, “all things are made by Him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”. He is the creator, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:  For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions,

or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

May the Lord help us to look beyond the dark and gloomy night, to wait for that blest hour when He will come in glory and all brightness and shall hear His blessed voice,” Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away” and to behold His glorious face and worship Him all eternity.

Have a blessed weekend.

JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD! Part-1

Our blessed Lord is pictured as the Word, the Word of Life and the Word of God. These three fold titles are recorded by John in his gospel, in his epistle and in Revelation. It unfolds the pre existence, the incorruptible humanity  and  finally we see Him as the Sovereign. It is interesting to look at these precious truths grammatically. The One Who was in the gospel and the One Who is in the epistle and the One Who will be the coming One in Revelation. In imperfect tense we see Him as the One Who was always in existence, in present participle we have Him as the One who always is in present time and in participle, the One who always is the coming One. So, we read of Him in Rev: “Which is, Which was and Which is to come, the Almighty. We read again in Micah “ Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. And again Psalmist says, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. So, these three fold tense presents His existence from Eternity to Eternity. When John was in the isle of Patmos on the Lord’s day, the moment he became in Spirit, he could behold the unveiling glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and he could hear Him saying that I am the first and the last….” I AM”! An expression, which is peculiar to the gospel of John. For example, He said to Jews..” Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM. It takes us back to the book of Exodus, where we find Moses asking Jehovah, What shall I say the name of God to Pharaoh. He said once that I AM and again He said that “I AM that I AM”! The definition goes like this..” I continue to be and will be what I continue to be and will be, I that ever will be. The ever existing One. He that is to come. This great title “ I AM’’ exhibits the Eternal Deity. It shines out undiminished and undivided from eternity to eternity.  Before Abraham… here we have His pre existence….. Was IAM.. here we have His deity. The word was made flesh…GOD in flesh…manifested in flesh, here we have His humanity. It took 24 chapters for Luke to describe His incorruptible humanity, but for John, it took only five words. The One whose garment is space, whose house is universe, whose chariots are the clouds and whose diadems are the stars, was found wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. He who holds the whole universe together by the almighty power of His word is held in the arms of a frail woman. He who was rich now became poor. Adam had been made in the likeness of God; now God was made in the likeness of men. Being in the form of God….He took upon Him the form of a servant. Simon held the Babe in his arms, he blessed God and gratefully acknowledged that he was looking into the face of the One who was the salvation of the Lord for all mankind. After the resurrection at the manifestation Thomas said.. My Lord and my God. The everlasting word, the Father’s only Son, God manifestly seen and head and the heaven’s well beloved One, the brightness of glory, the exact expression of His person, of the full deity possessed is eternally divine, the brightness of the uncreated light, throughout the universe of bliss and the eternal theme of praise, none other but Jesus Christ our Lord, the object and the subject of our worship. So, we read “He is thy Lord worship thou Him. The indispensable and unchangeable doxology is…unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us  faultless before the presence of His excellent glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Have a blessed weekend.

When we gather together on the Lord’s day we must occupy with our blessed Lord and remember Him in the appointed way. Psalmist says that…My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.  For who in heaven can be compared unto the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD? Whom have I in heaven, but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.

My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. One pearl of great price. The prince of the kings of the earth. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. The head over all things.  He is the head of the body, the church. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers. He could not be hid. His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. More to be desired are they than gold, yea,than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. Thy words were found and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: For I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts…. fed them with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. His lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. Never man spake like this man. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. LORD, lift thou up the light thy countenance upon us. His countenance is like unto the sun shineth in His strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the First and the Last: I am He that liveth and became dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Saviour who was slain is risen and exalted far above all, majestic sweetness sits enthroned. His head with radiant glorious crowned. No mortal can compare among the sons of men. Fairer is He than all the fair that fills the heavenly train. Gathered together in obedience to His voice, meek humility, this would I do, O Christ my Lord I would remember Thee, losing sight of all but Thee, O what joy Thy presence gives us, calling up our hearts to Thee. We gaze on Thee in glory, while our hearts in worship bow and we bring to thee as an assembly, words from our mouth and may the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.

Have a Christo-centric worship with every blessing from above.

Family is a gift of God

Part -5.

Our text: Deut.5:29.O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!

13. Obedience. “Keep my commandments always”. Obedience in personal life is evident in family life and in our assembly life as well. The key word of the book of Deuteronomy is keep, obey or observe. We have two fold blessings. They are positional and conditional. Nothing is expected from our side for the positional blessing since it is the outcome of the glorious work finished at the cross in and thro’ His well beloved Son, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, conditional. It demands our obedience. When we look at Deut.28, we find the blessings for obedience and curse for disobedience. It is further illustrated with two mountains,” Gerizim  is known as the mountain of blessing and Ebal is the mountain of curse. Deut:11:26,29, 27:12,13. And again it is pictured in Psalm 1- of blessed man. We see in the first part 1 – 3 the blessing of prospering and the second from verse 4 to 6 the curse of perishing. We read in 1 Pet. 1: 14 “The children of obedience”… Is how we are known in the sight of God? There must be the application of God’s word daily in our lives. When the Lord Jesus commissioned the disciples, he said… teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you”. The apostle did it in Acts and the immediate response of early Christian was that they continued steadfastly… When we are taught in scripture, God expects our response of obedience. Hymn writer says, Trust and obey…… Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet, or we will walk by His side in the way; What He says we will do, where He sends we will go, never fear, only trust and obey. Mary sat at His feet and listened His words and the Lord commended that essential “one thing” which has eternal blessing. She said once “be it unto me according to thy word.” We read about the young man of Psalm, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed there unto  according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. Deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live, and keep thy word. The godly couple of Luke Ch.1 unlike us who always talk, walked in all the commandments and ordinance of the Lord. Their married life had its foundation in the word of God and they both were righteous before God and blameless before the world. None could point their finger at them and they both experienced the blessing of the Lord. They were a God fearing couple, who lived in reverential awe of Him and walked in godly fear, in OBEDIENCE to the voice of God. We find in these days no place for God’s word among the people of God with compromises. The result is the breakdown of separation like unto the Church at Pergamos and the mixture of everything, while in contrast we are exhorted to hold fast the word of truth. We see in 1 Samuel 15 what Saul said, I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord… because I feared the people and obeyed their voice, so is some of our leaders today. Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He hath also rejected thee from being king. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Disobedience to the word of God is the act of sin. We have a solemn verse ”if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers. Any doubt about it? Unlike brethren justify today Naomi testifies like this..” the hand of the Lord is gone out against me”. In the days of Nehemiah the cry was “ bring the book” and when God’s people are brought in touch with the book, they cried, because the entrance of God’s word giveth light and their conscience pricked unlike Laodiceans. We read in Neh. about their hunger for God’s word and when it was expounded, we find their reverence. They were attentive, responsive, sensitive and finally obedient. We read of our blessed Lord saying, I do always those things which pleases the Father. And  Father said, this is my well beloved son, in whom is my delight. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Be ye doers of the word, and this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Have a blessed weekend.