James Woods

 

No Good In Eternity!

 No Good In Eternity!

As I was laying waiting to fall sleep last night I started thinking about good and evil, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that if there was no evil there would be no good.

I thought about Adam and Eve, they lived in a perfect Garden where there was no evil. Until they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Nothing bad ever happened, we do not know how long they were in the Garden before they ate of that forbidden fruit. GOD brought every kind of animal for Adam to name, this must have taken some time. We know that they walked with GOD in the cool of the evening and yet the devil was able to deceive Eve and she was able to convince Adam to sin.

This shows that no matter what we think about ourself and our salvation in CHRIST JESUS, we are no better than them. If Adam and Eve who never experience anything bad and personally fellowshipped with GOD daily could be deceived into sinning and be willing sin to please another person. Then what hope do we who are born with a sin nature into a sinful world have? Only in CHRIST JESUS can we be saved! But this is just a rabbit trail.

My main thought as I lay there was that without evil there would be no good! Good only exists where there is evil, the scriptures tell us, “Don’t be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21) And, “Every good gift and every perfect give is from above, and comes down from The Father of Lights, with Whom there is no variation of shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)

Think about this, the knowledge of good and evil is from the same fruit. If evil had never been introduced into the Garden then good never would have been introduced into the Garden (Don’t be freaked out and stop reading!).What we experience as good would not be special if there was no evil, it would be normal!

In Eternity there will not be several things that we take for granted now; the sun and moon, the seas and goodness (Revelation 22). Peace and Joy will be normal, they will be experienced by everyone in eternity continuously (Revelation 22).

If you want to live in a world where there is no evil and good is normal then you have to give your life to JESUS. Ask Him to forgive your sins and live a repentant life by His SPIRIT and His Word. Then you will someday live in Eternity where there will be no evil (sin) and good will just be normal.

The Curse On A Fatherless Nation!

 The Curse On A Fatherless Nation!

Malachi 4:5-6

“Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the Great and Dreadful Day of The LORD. And He Will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Four hundred years later JESUS said He came to bring division between family members, Matthew 10:34-39.

Many teach that John The Baptist fulfilled the Malachi passage, but JESUS showed that it was not fulfilled yet and it cannot be fulfilled, I believe, until Elijah returns to the earth. This passage refers to The Great And Dreadful Day of The LORD, JESUS’ birth, life, death and resurrection was the Great and Glorious Time of GOD’s Grace. The Great and Dreadful Day of The LORD happens when JESUS returns to Jerusalem to rule over the nations for 1000 years. (Revelation 11; 14:14-20; 16:17-21; 19:1-20:6 these describe that day.)

In Isaiah it refers to the one who will come as the spirit of Elijahmessanger to prepare the way of the messiah, when asked about this JESUS said if they could receive it John The Baptist had fulfilled this prophecy (Isaiah 40). But this passage refers to The Great and Terrible Day of The LORD, not JESUS’ birth. When Elijah and Moses visited JESUS on the mount of transfiguration that also did not fulfill Malachi 4:5-6. They spoke to JESUS of His coming crucifixion, Luke 9:26-36, verse 31 “...who appeared in glory and spoke of His death which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.”

In The Bible we only see one example of the father and sons united in purpose for more than one generation, Jacob and his sons, they all stayed together and helped each other. There are no other examples in Scripture, in fact from the beginning the devil has caused separation between father and sons, Adam and Cain after he killed his brother Able. Even Noah and his sons after the flood there was division and as they grew into communities and nations they divided against each other.

Only Jacob’s sons remained together after their father died and GOD made them into the nation of Israel, still a united nation today after all they have been through.

They are the example to the world and the world hates them because the devil does not want the unity of father and sons. He has been trying to destroy the relationship of fathers and sons from the beginning.

Now the task has been given to the Church, those who believe in JESUS CHRIST as the Redeeming Son of GOD. But we have been and are failing at it. Even in The Church we see very little of the unity of the father and his sons. That is one of the reasons there is no power in the Church.

The devil has perverted societies, governments and nations to strip fathers of their GOD given responsibility and authority, to destroy the nuclear family so that he can destroy the following generations of children.

The Church is not discipling nations because we are busy stealing each other’s congregations. We should be evangelizing the lost and ministering to families to heal and restore them. We will not see the curse of the devil removed from our nation until we, the Believers in JESUS have evangelized it and seen it converted and discipled into GOD’s Kingdom on the earth.

We, the Believes in JESUS CHRIST have to stop paying attention to our church’s, organization’s or denomination’s doctrine and philosophy and we must start reading, studying and meditating on The Bible, asking The Holy Spirit to teach us and remind us what JESUS said and did. This is what will bring unity to the Church and see fatherhood restored to its Biblical status. Then the curse of a fatherless nation will be lifted from our nation.

Made In The Image Of GOD!

 Made In The Image Of GOD!

Genesis 1:27-28, “Then GOD said, ‘Let Us make humanity in our Image, according to Our Likeness’…So GOD created humanity in His Own Image; in The Image of GOD He created him; male and female He created them.”

Colossians 1:15-16 “JESUS is the Image of The Invisible GOD, The Firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are on the earth, visible and invisible…and He is before all things, and in Him all things exist.”

Humanity was created to carry the Glory of GOD, but Lucifer deceived Eve and then after she sinned by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; she convinced Adam to also eat it and he did knowing that he was disobeying GOD; that was sin. But GOD! GOD knew this was going to happen and He had already planned our salvation (forgiveness and deliverance from sin) to restore us to the place of reflecting His Glory as new creations (born again) in CHRIST JESUS!

1 Peter 1:20-21 “JESUS was indeed foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in GOD.”

 

How do we reflect the Glory or Image of GOD? By being like CHRIST and doing the will of GOD as found in the Bible! 

The Last Supper

 The Last Supper

The first part of JESUS’ Passover meal with the twelve disciples would have been fellowship, worship of the Father and prayer. Then they ate the meal remembering why they celebrated Passover; GOD used Moses and Aaron to lead the Children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

During the meal JESUS taught them the Remembrance (Communion) so that Believers would always have a means of remembering what JESUS did in giving His life to save us from our sin. JESUS revealed that one of them would betray Him.

After the meal JESUS washed the feet of His disciples, except Judas who had already left, teaching them about being humble and serving one another. (John 13:2-17)

“So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again. He said to them, ‘do you know (understand) what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and LORD, and you say well, for so I AM. If I then your LORD and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.’” (12-17)

John 8:31-32 “Then JESUS said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know The Truth and The Truth shall make you free.’”

James 1:25-27 “But he who looks into the Perfect Law of Liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of The Work, this one will be Blessed in Whatever he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before GOD and The Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

James 4:13-17 “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If The LORD Wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

A Clean Heart And The Mind Of CHRIST!

 A Clean Heart And The Mind Of CHRIST

“Create in me a clean heart, O GOD, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

“Let this mind be in you which was also in CHRIST JESUS.” Philippians 2:5

A prayer and a command, what do these have in common?

First they both have to do with GOD making changes in our life, how we think and live!

David is seeing his sin against GOD and is asking GOD to give him a new heart, one without sin; and to renew his spirit which must have been feeling abandoned after his sin of adultery and murder. He is asking for forgiveness and then he is asking for the strength to repent.

Paul is telling us that because we have asked GOD to forgive our sin against Him now we should be living a life of repentance. He also sees the struggle that people have in making the lifestyle changes from sinner to saint. He is commanding us to have the same mindset as CHRIST JESUS! Be humble before GOD and obedient in behavior (our word and deed).

JESUS born in the flesh humbled Himself and became obedient, even to death on the cross. This is our example, in our humanity as we fail and sin we must ask GOD to forgive us and we must repent. 

Forgiveness without repentance is just emotions; repentance without forgiveness is just works. Salvation is the result of asking for forgiveness and living a humble and  obedient life.

JESUS said, “You! Seek GOD First! Then His Righteousness and everything you need will be provided. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have its own problems.” Matthew 6:33-34 paraphrase by me.

We Want vs GOD's Purpose

 We Want vs GOD’s Purpose

On June 21, 2019 while watching the 700 Club, Gordon and Wendy were praying for healing for people and Gordon said, “We are healed by His stripes.” and I heard The HOLY SPIRIT say, “That is the Fellowship of His Suffering!” (Philippians 3:7-11)

So often we want instantaneous results, we do not want to go through the process and we count on GOD just delivering us, or healing us, or blessing us. The Bible is full of stories of people calling out for GOD’s intervention in their life, some times it is instantaneous and sometimes it is drawn out. In Psalm 31:1-6 David calls out for GOD’s instant deliverance from his enemies, but it was many years before David replaced Saul as king, even though he had been anointed by Samuel as king.

Even JESUS did not always instantly heal or deliver people; knowing that Lazarus was sick unto death, JESUS delayed going to see him, then when He got there Lazarus had been buried for 4 days, then JESUS raised him from the dead.(John 11:1-44). JESUS had a purpose for His delay, He had already raised 2 people from the dead on the day they died,(Luke 7:11-17; Mark 5:21-24, 35-43) but raising Lazarus after he had been dead and buried for 4 days showed His Authority and Power over life and death.

We have to learn to pray with expectation of GOD’s answer yet understand that He has a plan and purpose that means His answer is not always what we expect or as soon as we want it. JESUS told us to “seek first The Kingdom of GOD and His Righteousness, and all the things we need will be provided.” (Matthew 6:25-34)

When we know that GOD Loves us and that He saved us for a reason, not just so that we would not go to hell, but He has a plan for our life, then we will be able to rest in His timing and go through the trials and tribulations that life is full of.