John 8:24 (KJV) Ultimate Peril

John 8:24 (KJV)

I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

 

Though Jesus spoke matter-of-factly, we ought not to take that to mean it is without concern. These were Jews, the nation of people He had called out of the world to come from. They were the apple of God’s eye; a people God had chosen to set His love upon.

 

But Jesus says of them that they were from below and would die in their sins. 

 

We ought never take it too casually that others will die in their sins. But notice the qualifier, 'if ye believe not that I am He.' This is why I am so concerned for those who belong to cult groups like Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and even Islam. Their reckless disbelief places them in ultimate peril. Their theological preconceptions about Jesus lock them into an eternal path to hell. 

 

May God grant that many of them come to see Jesus for who He is, believe in the Jesus of the Bible and not the one of religious imaginations, and be delivered from this path!

 

#EternalConcern #BelieveInJesus #SalvationThroughFaith #UltimatePeril #DeliveranceInChrist

Ultimate Peril: Through Religious Disbelief

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
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John 8:24 (KJV) Ultimate Peril

Ezekiel 44:8 (KJV) Guardians of the Faith

Ezekiel 44:8 (KJV)

And ye have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but ye have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

 

The passage is future and specifically pertains to the Temple. But, wow, do I see parallels in church settings today.

First, there is the so-called universal church.

It is, according to those who teach it, invisible, worldwide, consisting of all Christian regardless of faith, denomination, or doctrine. It has no measures and no limits. The only thing – it has no basis in Biblical teaching. You can’t find a universal invisible church anywhere in the Bible. It’s totally fabricated from the imaginations of men.

 

Second there is the issue of the keepers.

Which in modern churches today might be anybody. They could be male or female. They might have no Biblical standards. The requirement of blamelessness[1] has either been dismissed or explained away. Divorce and remarriage[2]are no longer considered issues so far qualifications for ministry in modern churches.

 

Then there is the issue of the ordinances.

Baptism is considered optional in many cases because, according to universal church doctrine, the true baptism is by the Spirit at the moment of salvation. The Lord's Supper, which Paul said could cause believers to be sick or even die[3] if partaken unworthily, is administered too often and haphazardly.

 

Tozer said something to the effect of, "Low thoughts of God lead to a hundred lesser sins."[4] Low thoughts of God have led to the common sin of polluting the holy things of God. We've set persons for ourselves as keepers of the House of God, and they have defiled it with worldliness.

 

#UniversalChurchDebate #KeeperStandards #OrdinancesInQuestion #PollutingTheHoly #ChurchParallels

Guardians of the Faith: Defiling the Holy

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

John 7:15 (KJV) Challenging Assumptions

 

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[1] 1 Timothy 3:2, 1 Timothy 3:10, Titus 1:6-7

[2] 1 Timothy 3:2, 1 Timothy 3:12, Titus 1:6

[3] 1 Corinthians 11:30 (KJV)

For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

[4] “Low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us.” A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.

John 7:15 (KJV) Challenging Assumptions

John 7:15 (KJV)

And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?

 

“Having never learned.”

 

It is an assumption among many, especially atheists, agnostics, unbelievers, and skeptics, that people of ancient times were mostly illiterate. Once this assumption is made then all sorts of other assumptions become easily made

 

·  The people of that day would not have been interested in the written word because they couldn’t read.

·  The people of that time could not have written the gospel records because they couldn’t write.

·  The people of that day would have primarily known Aramaic because it was the language of the Middle East.

 

The scholars of the day marveled that Jesus knew letters. Note that they didn’t marvel that He could read but that He knew and understood deeper doctrinal subjects.

 

The apostles were known to be ignorant and unlearned,[1] but this did not necessarily mean they were illiterate. It meant they had not been privileged with the education of the elite.

 

The elite class has always assumed that education belongs to them alone. They have striven to keep deeper subjects from public access. But they’ve also been unsuccessful in this attempt- especially in matters belonging to Christ.

 

The unbelieving class today, regardless of their having or not having letters behind their name, consider themselves the elite. They in turn consider those of faith to be ignorant and unlearned.

 

This assumption is incorrect.

 

#AncientLiteracy #EducationalAssumptions #KnowledgeMisconceptions #EliteEducation #FaithOverIgnorance

Challenging Assumptions: Notions of Ancient Literacy

 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

John 7:15 (KJV) Challenging Assumptions

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[1] Acts 4:13 (KJV)

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

John 6:1 (KJV) Tides of Humility

John 6:1 (KJV)

After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.

 

Adam Clark's commentary makes note that the Sea of Galilee was, at the time, called the Sea of Tiberias, Tiberias being the Caesar. But in the Old Testament the same. was called the sea of Chinnereth. It is also called, in the Bible, the Lake of Gennesaret. I saw in Wikipedia where they write, "The lake has been called by different names throughout its history, usually depending on the dominant settlement on its shores. With the changing fate of the towns, the lake's name also changed."

 

A grand lesson of humility expressed in this. Tiberias, who was Caesar at the time of Christ and believed himself to be a god, had fewer people write about him during and just after his lifetime than did Jesus Christ, a simple man from Nazareth, executed as a criminal at age 33.

 

I think of George Washington, who rose to such prominence in his lifetime that he was the only person the Continental Congress believed could be trusted as Commanding Chief of the Continental Army. When resigned as the chief of the army at the end of the American War for Independence, the King of England commented something to the effect "Then he is the greatest of men." At Washington’s funeral Harry Lee said, "First in War, First in Government and First in the hearts of his countrymen." But some 225 years later, historians would rather write about his failures than successes.

 

Life on this planet is subject to "changing fates." Jesus offers us an inheritance that is eternal, immortal and incorruptible and that "fadeth not away."[1]

 

I choose to pursue that inheritance.

 

#SeaOfGalilee #LakeofGennesaret #Tiberias #HumilityLesson #EternalInheritance

Tides of Humility: Caesar Tiberias to Jesus Christ

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

John 6:1 (KJV) Tides of Humility

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[1] 1 Peter 1:4 (KJV)

To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

Ezekiel 42:20 (KJV) Holy Boundaries

Ezekiel 42:20 (KJV)

He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.

 

The word sanctuary simply means "apartness." It refers to something set apart, it is uncommon. It is a peculiar and special use. The word profane means common. It refers to those things, not necessarily evil or wrong, but of ordinary or common use.

 

I think, for instance of the difference between the common flatware a family might use for everyday meals and the "fine china" mom might set out for special occasions. The "fine china" is generally; kept in a different place, cared for in a different manner, maybe even used by only specific persons. There might be fewer pieces and they may be kept away from children and others who could break them easily.

 

There must be a separation from the things that are set aside for Lord, and the things we use in daily life.

 

I am afraid that, too often we have come to treat the things of the Lord as profane. We have grown so accustomed to the house of God, that it means little to us.  We have self-professing servants of the Lord who wear profane clothing to the pulpit. Some of them use generally profane language in their speeches. In many cases I believe they are, like the sons of Eli, profane men who treat the people of God as profane things.

 

No wonder so many are willing to treat the house of the Lord, the Word of God and the Lord Himself as profane.[1] The current "deconstructing Christianity" movement might be akin to a Babylonian siege bent on tearing the Temple apart, one stone from another.

 

The Bible speaks of a day when the Lord Himself will establish a wall of separation between the sanctuary and the profane. I live today so that I might be set apart and holy, belonging to the Lord.

 

#SanctuarySeparation #HolyAndSetApart #RespectTheSacred #HouseOfTheLord #DivineSeparation

Holy Boundaries: The Sanctity of the Sanctuary

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Ezekiel 42:20 (KJV) Holy Boundaries

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[1] They bring food drinks into the auditorium, where the Word of God is proclaimed and become indignant at the idea they should not.

Ezekiel 41:22 (KJV) The Heavenly Banquet

Ezekiel 41:22 (KJV)

The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD.

 

In a supernatural setting, the man whose appearance is like of brass, stopped measuring to point out the altar of incense. "This is the table that is before the Lord." In the Temple before Babylonian captivity the altar of incense would have stood before the veil of the temple, separating the priests from the Ark of the Covenant. The book of Psalms lets us know that the incense rising is a type of the prayers of the saints rising up to the Lord.

Psalms 141:2 (KJV)

Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

 

This altar of incense of prayer is a sweet smell to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:2 (KJV)

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

 

We spread before our Lord His most delightful feast when we offer unto Him our prayers.

 

May we, not only in the eternal state, but in our present state, set this table often.

 

#AltarOfIncense #PrayersRising #DivineOffering #SweetsmellingSavour #DivineFeast

The Heavenly Banquet: Setting the Table of Prayer

 

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6300 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Ezekiel 41:22 (KJV) The Heavenly Banquet