What Does Your Nature Demand?
Centuries ago an Italian duke was strolling through his rose garden. A rustle amid the roses disturbed his reverie. Turning aside he discovered a young man cutting roses and gently placing them in a lavish ornamental box. Harshly he demanded as to what the young man was doing. In calm tones the young man explained he was cutting the roses for the duke’s palace. Observing the ornate box the gruff voice of the duke demanded why such an ornate box should be used for such a menial task. Respectfully the young man explained he made the box for such a purpose. Curtly the duke probed, “You made that box for this purpose with all those intricate carvings, unique designs, and all the finite fittings for such a menial task as this? Does such a task demand such craftsmanship?” “No,” said he, “but my spirit does.” Irately the duke responded, “Your spirit does. What is your name — you shall be flogged for such impudence!” “My name, sir,” came the courteous craftsman, “is Michelangelo.”
Like Michelangelo most of us do what our spirit demands. The problem arises out of our spirit’s being so poorly programmed. Many persons have a menial, morbid, or mundanely programmed spirit.
The good news is you can change, and change — and change for the better. Change is not likely to occur until there becomes a wholesome discontent with the status quo. Desire for change must always be preceded by change.
Do a little internal engineering. First, evaluate what about your nature you would like to change. Next, ask yourself if you really want to change. Follow this by asking yourself what you are willing to do to achieve that change. Be specific.
Appoint a time, perhaps presently, when you are willing to begin the transformation.
If it is a worthy change, commit yourself to the Lord to make the change and ask His help in doing so. If it is worthy of your effort to make it, it is worth asking the Lord’s help in making it.
Only when you are turned inside out can you turn your world upside down. It is an inside job. You can’t successfully make a lifestyle change without first having a change of heart. God can inwardly transform us, empower, and renew us.
Romans 12: 1, 2 is often considered regarding salvation, and appropriately so, but it also has application regarding a believer’s spiritual renewal.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Do it so God can inwardly transform, empower, and renew you.
Believe
In the Gospel of John believe or belief appears more than 90 times. In Acts, it occurs about 40 times. Yet, the modern understanding of our English word “believe” is often misunderstood.
A definition of believe that is becoming more and more popular is that believing is what you do when you want something that is not real to be real. We all have faith in some form or another. The shallow understanding of the modern use creates a misunderstanding of what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus. It is much more than intellectual assent to a set of facts.
The Online Etymology Dictionary says about belief – “Belief used to mean ‘trust in God ….’ But it became limited to ‘mental acceptance of something as true.’”
“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2: 19) Theirs was intellectual assent. That unfortunately is the extent of some contemporaries.
In 1395 when the first English Bible was initially translated from Greek to English the word meant to trust and was so translated in some translations. Prior to that a better understanding of what it meant is to go back to the time it was used in the Greek text. That understanding is made more clear in Greek mythology. As used, Pistis (Ancient Greek) was the personification of good faith, trust, and reliability.
The New Testament Greek word pisteuo (believe) means to “be convinced of something” or “give credence to.” It is to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ, to commit (to trust), put in trust with. Being convinced of those facts, however, is not enough. One must accept or personally appropriate them as being true.
Armed with this insight into what is meant in passages such as John 3:16 a better understanding is gained.
A distillation of all these insights leads to the understanding that it means to believe the facts and trust the person so genuinely as to make a willful commitment to Him as Savior. An extended explanation to a person of no faith is advantageous.
A person might believe all the vita regarding a physician, but that does not heal the person of appendicitis. The healing only comes after they trust the surgeon by consenting to surgery.
To be saved a person must believe the facts about who Jesus is and then trust Him for the forgiveness of sin and the gift of everlasting life. Thus, starts a new life.
The Reasoning Behind John 3:16, 17
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3: 16, 17.
Such is God’s Valentine to humanity.
Jesus is called “God’s only begotten Son.” The word “begotten” is a compound of two Greek words used in Scripture. One word is mono, meaning “one.” The other is genes, meaning “kind, type, or species.” Combined they are used to speak of God’s only one of a kind son. The Greek monogynist is used to mean the only one of the same nature as. In Scripture Jesus is not spoken of as a Son of God, but the Son of God.
Two different Greek words are translated “son” in Scripture.
Teknon stresses the fact of human birth. It is used of homosapiens.
Huios emphasizes dignity and character relationships. It is used of Jesus.
This is the line of logic that leads Christians to revere Jesus as the nexus of God.
As such, Christians believe Jesus was God manifest as a corporeal, touchable, human being: the man/God-God/man.
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” (Colos. 2: 9)
Godhead translates “theotetos” meaning not just divine attributes, but the very essence, the nature of God, the totality of who God the Father is, His supreme nature.
The term “son” is not used in the sense of progeny, offspring. It speaks of association, not generation. The dictionary as well as Scripture recognizes the title as referring to association, not generation. James and John were called “the sons of thunder.” The name Barnabas means “son of encouragement.”
God the Father, and God Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit in association formed the Godhead as coequal, three in one.
Jesus “ . . . was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (I Peter 1: 20) This means before time began it was predetermined Jesus would be our propitiation.
“Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2: 17)
A graphic of what is meant by propitiation is an old Tarzan movie in which the natives would sacrifice a chicken to the gods as a peace offering to get a given result. The purpose and result of Jesus’ sacrificial death, His propitiation, are: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved….” (Acts 16: 31)
The Work of the Four Horsemen
This is a sequence to the Post on the Four Horsemen of the Book of Revelation. The first of the four is the White Horse.
“And I looked and behold a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given him; and he went out conquering, and to conquer” (Revelation 6: 2).
It seems strange that he who conquers the world has a bow, but no arrows. He had no formidable weapons of war, yet he conquered the entire world. By what means? One word, words. His conquest is achieved with words of peace. Who is not for peace?
Greg Tinker, a retired 8th grade teacher in Alabama, wrote an absorbing article with the captivating title, “The Death of Virtue — A Telltale Sign of Civilizational Collapse.” Therein he included two relevant quotes.
“The path of the virtuous leads away from evil: whoever follows that path is safe” (Proverbs 16: 17). Few seem aware of this gem making clear the advantage of virtue.
The second quote is from Saint Augustine, “When, therefore, man lives according to man, not according to God, he is like the devil.” Augustine was an astute observer of society and reached a poignant conclusion.
Again quoting Tinker, “He lived in an era of unthinkable absurdity. Up down. Black is white. Evil is good. Light is dark. Truth is a lie. Right is wrong. Virtue is vice. Gender is fluid. And we have thousands of ‘friends’ (on social media).”
It is easy to see how out of this arsenal of words the rider of the white horse found much ammunition for his war of words.
According to the order of the four horsemen the red follows the white, meaning acts of war follow words of peace. One has to look no further back than the words of peace that preceded the Ukrainian War.
Again quoting the Revelation. “…a red horse went out, and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the whole earth, and that men should slay one another, and a great sword was given to him.” This means he had many sophisticated weapons of war.
Follow the succession, first the rider of the white horse conquers with words. Then the rider of the red horse employs weapons of war to conquer, This sets the stage for the rider of the black horse who brings famine. Then comes the rider of, “an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name of Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of earth, to kill with the sword and famine and with pestilence and by the wild beast of the earth.”
Seldom does a Post of this nature appear on this site. This Post is written to forewarn of these events that will come after the rapture, meaning today’s Christians will no longer be here to experience them. That is motivation to get right with the Lord and be ready for His coming.
“The path of the virtuous leads away from evil: whoever follows that path is safe.”
The Four Horsemen of the Revelation
With conditions in the world as they are, people are asking more than ever about the end times, especially for people of faith. There is no unanimity regarding the meaning of the symbols in the Bible Book of the Revelation regarding the end time. Having read volumes on the book, I know there is great diversity of meaning regarding the symbols.
The Revelation employs allegory, metaphors, illustrations, and symbols to reveal life in the end times. Four horsemen appear with the opening of the first of four of the seven seals. They bring forth the cataclysm of the apocalypse. These four figures in the Revelation symbolize the evils to come at the end of the world.
Without much notice there has been a lot of stirring in the Apocalypse stable lately. These four horsemen are mentioned in the Bible book of the Revelation chapter 6. It is a colorful stable. This first listing following is my figurative way of indicating the readiness of these events to transpire.
The first horseman is preparing to mount the white horse.
The second horseman is putting a saddle on a red horse.
The third horseman has a bridle in his hand well-fitted for the black horse.
The fourth horseman named Death will be riding an ashen color horse.
Now the Bible’s symbolic meaning of the four.
The first horseman wears a crown and carries a sword. He represents conquest by consolidation resulting from war. He deceptively mimics Jesus’ actions. In reality he is the Anti Christ. After three and one half years in power, he wages war against the saints.
The second horseman riding the red horse represents war. Violence and bloodshed are symbolized by the sword. What if all the world’s hot spots currently threatening peace all broke out at once. Korea, Russia, China, and Iraq are examples.
The third horseman, the black horse, carries a balancing scale representing famine. The head of the World Food Program announced at the UN we are “…on the brink of a hunger pandemic that may result in 270 million people facing a crisis level of hunger or worse.”
In the event of a serious crop failure, no part of the world is more than one year away from critical starvation and the rich U.S. is only two years away.
The fourth horseman riding an ashen horse is named Death. He represents plague, a pandemic like no other. “One-fourth of the people on earth die.” Currently, that’s about 2 billion people. This is an incredible amount of death. It’s estimated that only 100 million have died in all of the wars on earth to date!
Now the good news. After all that some good news is welcomed.
Christians are raptured, taken up, prior to the horsemen riding rampart. However, current world conditions are more ideal than ever as a prelude to this.
Just before the four horsemen appear in Revelation 6, Jesus is depicted as holding the title deed to earth in Revelation chapter 5. Jesus said that Satan is now the god of our world. Revelation is the story of how Jesus comes back to get the title deed to His world back.