Fw: Deja Vu: Where Have I Seen that Before?

Déjà Vu: Where Have I Seen that Before?

 

Walking down the street, Thomas and his wife Corrine saw a
girl looking in a storefront window.  Suddenly, the girl turned around and looked
at Thomas with a bright smile.  Before he could smile back, she stormed
away from them, turned the corner, and disappeared from sight.  Surprised, Thomas

stopped still in his tracks.  Corrine looked at him and asked,  "What's wrong?

What happened?"  Puzzled, Thomas looked at his wife and said, "I just have a

feeling that I have been here before, and I saw this happen already."  Corrine replied,

"Oh, you had a déjà vu!"  "A What?" Thomas replied. "You know, a feeling that you

have experienced something or been somewhere before," answered his wife. 

Relieved, Thomas now turned to his wife as he nodded his head, and said, "Yeah,

maybe it was a déjà vu."  

 

In Matthew 18:15 - 20, Jesus explains to the disciples how to handle a person

who has wronged them.  In essence, Jesus tells them to do everything in their

power to restore the relationship using trusted witnesses, and the congregation,

if needed.  He further states, that if the person who wronged you repents, good.

If he or she does not, then let him or her go, along with the matter of the offence.
This is an admonition not only for the offended, but for all the 'witnesses.'  In verse

21, Peter asks Jesus an interesting question the answer of which is perplexing.

Lets read,

 

Matthew 18: 21  Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my
                        brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Matthew 18: 22  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven
                        times: but, Until seventy times seven.

 

Hmm!  Seventy times seven?  Where have I heard that before?  Is it Déjà
vu?  Hardly.  Our chapter of study this week, Daniel 9: 24, refers to this
number.  Let us read Daniel 9: 24  --

 

             Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and

             thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make

             an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity

             and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal

             up the vision and prophecy, and anoint the Most Holy.

 

Was it just coincidental?  I do not think so.  Was Jesus trying to tell us
something?  I think He was.  We know that in Christ the whole world is
forgiven.  However, we also know we can throw that forgiveness away.  God
has done all in His power to forgive us, to make known to us that we are
forgiven, and to ensure that we by faith accept His forgiveness (short of
forcing us).  He used the whole universe as witnesses.  They - and
those who by faith accept Gods forgiveness - will give testimony of God's
effort to save us.  Those who by faith accept God's forgiveness, and
continue to do so until the end, will overcome and be restored to the
fellowship of brethren that did not fall.   Those who do not repent, God
will let them and the matter go.

 

When the Jews told Pilate, …We have no king but Caesar, (John 19:5),
they in essence told God in front of witnesses (both earthly and heavenly),

"We have no part with You."  For three and a half years further, God pleaded

with them.  In essence, He was asking them, "Please reconsider."  At the

close of the three and a half years, the Jewish nation's rebellion towards God

culminated in the stoning of Stephen.  The seventy weeks seventy times seven

of the Jewish nation was up.  The fate they chose for themselves

was fulfilled sometime thereafter.  In the year 70 AD, Roman soldiers marched
into Judah and destroyed it.  The nation of Israel no longer retained the chosen

nation of God status, it once enjoyed.

 

Does this mean that God did not love the Jews?  Not so, for although Saul / Paul,

a Jew by birth-- was present when Stephen was stoned (Acts 22:20), his later

conversion after the rejection of the Jewish nation, proves that God will accept

any Jew who receives Jesus Christ as his or her personal Saviour.

 

What about us?  Are our seventy weeks up?  It may be that God is pleading
with us to turn around and respond in love to Him.  Is Christ still your king, or have you
chosen a Caesar of this world?    It's His desire that you turn around so that He doesn't

have to let you and your matter go.  It's not too late.

 
Raul Diaz & Maria Greaves-Barnes

Forgiveness for Unknown Sin

Forgiveness for Unknown Sin

 

A very famous film actor was stopped because of improper driving.  The Police officer suspected that the driver was DUI – driving under influence of alcohol.  The officer approaches the car window and before he could ask for the driver for his driver’s license, he could smell the alcohol.  He immediately asked the actor to leave the car.  The actor gets annoyed by the request, and starts insulting the officer.  Recognizing the actor, the police officer asks the actor, if he had been drinking and how much.  The actor is now infuriated, and tells him, "None of your business?"  The police officer asks the actor one more time, to get out of the car.  The actor at that moment tells the officer some improprieties about the officer's apparent ethnic background, and then adds, "The reason why this world has problems is because of your people."  The next day the incident was all over the press and the media.  The actor, released a statement of apology, saying in part, “It is a known fact that one effect of alcohol is losing your inhibition.  You say things you would not say sober.  However, I said what was inside my heart.  I was not aware that I held such dark feelings about other ethnic groups.  While the incident was indeed embarrassing, what it revealed in my heart is humiliating.”  Through this incident the actor realized that we harbor Sin in our hearts and may not be aware of it. 

 

In chapter 9, Daniel prays for forgiveness.  He prays for forgiveness for him and his people.  But, There is something unusual about his prayer.  Daniel includes himself with his people.  Let us read some instances from Daniel 9: 4 - 19, where Daniel includes himself with his people,

 

5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets,

10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

 11 …because we have sinned against him.

 13 … all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

14  … for we obeyed not his voice.

 15  …we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

 16 … because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

 18 …for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses,

 

As you can see, this prayer is not only intercessory but also corporate in nature.  Why does Daniel pray corporately?  As far as we know, it was the iniquity of his people - not his own - that lead the Jews to Babylonian captivity.  Maybe Daniel knew the phrase, "there go I, but for the grace of God."  Daniel perhaps understood that given the same set of opportunities and circumstances he would have participated in the Sin's of his people.   What separated Daniel from his counterparts? The grace of God, to which Daniel yielded, and his brethren did not. 

 

We know that Daniel read Jeremiah.  He must have read Jeremiah 17:9 that says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"  Could it be that Daniel was confessing all Sin that his heart may harbor – even unknown Sin?  However, any act or word we say comes out of the abundance of our heart (Luke 6: 45).  All sinful actions that we commit, are committing, and will commit are borne in our hearts before we let them out.  All these Sins need is the right opportunity.  The problem is we cannot know what is in our hearts.  However, God knows the secrets of our hearts (Psalms 44:21).  Daniel, very likely, was aware of this truth.  And, by including Daniel's prayer in this book of Daniel, sealed until our day, God was stressing the need to see this prayer as a model for us living in the last days. 

 

God knowing how Sinful are hearts are, says through the prophet Ezekiel, that He wants to put in us, "A new heart … and [also] a new spirit … within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26).   Perhaps our prayer should also be "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer" (Psalm 19:4).     David understood this concept of unknown Sin.  He probably never thought that he was capable of coveting his best friend's wife, committing adultery with her, and murdering his best friend.  This is perhaps why David wrote, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalms 51:10). 

 

What unknown Sins do we bear in our hearts?  If only God knows what lays deep and secretly in our hearts, only He can take it out.  But, we must let Him do it.      
 

Raul Diaz

www.wolfsoath.com

www.wolfsoath.blogspot.com

poet7rd@ameritech.net

The Judgment: You are here

The Judgment:  You are here

 

For those who travel by road in the USA, places along the road where you can stop and rest.  These places, appropriately called rest stops, have wash rooms, vending machines, and other amenities.  In many rest stops there is a large map posted of the area you are traveling.  The road that you are traveling on is normally highlighted in this map.  Normally, there is also on the map a dark circle with an arrow with a small caption that reads, “You are here.”  This circle lets you know on the map, where you are in reality.  This system of the circle, arrow, and caption, is also used in large building structures as malls, convention centers, or amusement parks.  You see a directory in a walkway and on this directory there may be a map of the place you are in.  Then on the map, you will see a dark circle, a small arrow, and a caption that reads, “You are here.”  (For most people it is very helpful to find the wash rooms.)

 

Historic prophecies as the ones found in Daniel 2 and 7 are sort of maps that let us know where we are in the God’s view of history of this world.  These historic prophecies normally start when they are given.  In the case of Daniel 2 and 7, they start with the kingdom of Babylon, since they were revealed to Daniel during the Babylon’s reign in the area.  Subsequent prophecies omit Babylon because they were given after the fall of Babylon.  Any thing that happened before the time when the prophecy is given is omitted.  I guess God assumes the prophet can read the already revealed scripture at the time, to find out what is before the prophets time.  As the prophecy unfolds it reveals to the prophets, and us, what events will follow in the world’s history.  Notice they always culminate with the eradication of earthly kingdoms and the establishment of God’s everlasting Kingdom.  In summary, the Historic prophecies showed Daniel two things:

 

1. Where he was in the timetable of God’s plan of salvation – you are here,
2. And, the unfolding of world history with the glorious culmination the establishment of God’s kingdom – where you are headed. 

 

However, the prophecy not only tells Daniel where he was historically, it can also tell us where we are.  If we follow the prophecy and it interpretation, we will soon discover that between the fall of papal Rome at the end of the 18^th century and Christ’s return there is a Judgment (Daniel 7: 9, 10).  As we already have studied the Judgment vindicates God, His character, His people, and His character in them.  The Judgment also exposes those who profess, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5), from those who truly “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7).

 

Common sense then tells us that we are there: in the time of Judgment.  Yes, my friend we are being judged. Our names and those of all who have professed to worship God are being reviewed to see whether Christ’s Righteousness dwells in us.   In fact, that is why Revelation 3 calls us Laodiceans - a judged people.  For those who have received Christ’s Robe of Righteousness and His perfect love – agape –there is nothing to fear.  The Judgment is good news to them.  But, for those who in their spiritual stupor walk around saying, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3: 17), the judgment is bad news.  However, even then, we may overcome our fears of the Judgment, because God encourage us to buy from Him the remedy to our Sin problem and the fear it causes, let is read in Revelation 3: 18 – 21,

 

Revelation 3: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Revelation 3: 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Revelation 3: 20 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: 21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

 

What a beautiful invitation and promise this passage offers.  All God asks of us is to hear His voice and the knocking at the doors of our heart, turn around and let Him in. To those of us who accept this invitation He will wine and dine us, and have us sit on His throne.  Then the Judgment becomes a reminder of that wonderful invitation and promise Jesus has made to us. 

The God whose dwelling is with flesh

The God whose dwelling is with flesh

 

According to Greek mythology their gods dwelt in Mount Olympus.  Very seldom did they make contact with mortal beings.  And, when they did, for the most part, all they did was cause trouble.  They fornicated with mortal beings, caused wars, created tragedies; all this in a very arbitrary and whimsical way – sort of like humans.  Although they were believed to be immortal, they had very human traits.  Many times people believed their gods would not listen, and had to be pleased with a sacrifice, for their gods to intervene.  These gods could do as they pleased; humans were bound by rules the gods could change at any given moment, without prior notice.  The gods did not care, for like the Babylonian gods, their dwelling was not with flesh. 

 

This is probably why the sorcerers, et al. said to Nebuchadnezzar about his unusual request in Daniel 2: 11,  

 

Daniel 2: 11 And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. 

 

I am thankful that Daniel knew that his God was not like the Babylonian god's.  Daniel must have known that the true and only living God was omnipresent.  Yes, God dwells above the heavens, but He also dwells among us.  The Bible is full of examples of how God dwells among us.  He appears to us and intervenes in our affairs in various forms.  He appeared to Abraham in Genesis 18.  He appeared to Jacob in Genesis 32.  The books of Exodus through Deuteronomy details how God appears to Moses and leads His people to the promise land.  The writer of Exodus says further,

 

Exodus 13: 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:

Exodus 13: 22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

 

When God gave to Moses the instructions to build the sanctuary He said to Moses,  "And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" Exodus 25:8.  And, His Shekinah Glory filled the Most Holy Place.  He appeared to Joshua as the Captain of the Hosts of heaven (Joshua 5:14).

 

All these examples, among others, must have been in Daniel’s mind when he found out about their impending death.  Daniel knew that a God that bothered to care for those who are "made lower than the angels" (Psalms 8:5) would not abandon them in this great time of need.  God heard their prayer, and answered it.  But, our story does not stop there.  We now know that the prophecy revealed, gave details of how God cares for the affairs of man in this sinful world.  The final scenes in the prophetic dream show that God will put an end to Sin and the sufferings caused by Sin. 

 

But, there is one point often omitted.  God, knowing all things, worked things out so that Daniel and His friends were in the palace (or close to it) when Nebuchadnezzar had the dream.  God did this, for the sake of Daniel and friends, Nebuchadnezzar, and His people of which you and I are part of.  Indeed, Daniel's intervention still has an impact in our life today. 

 

A few hundred years after, God dwelt among men, in the form of the Son of Man.  John 1:1, 14 says,

 

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

 

In fact his name was Emmanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23).  After Jesus ascension, He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us as a Comforter (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7).  

 

Thankfully, we have a God who became what He despises, to dwell among those He loves.  Thankfully we have a God who dwells in those whom chose to let Him dwell.  We have a God who intervenes in our behalf and for our good. 

Raul Diaz

www.wolfsoath.com

www.wolfsoath.blogspot.com

poet7rd@ameritech.net