One Hundred Years

“At most, you will live a hundred years on earth, but you will spend forever in eternity.” (Rick Warren)

“God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him won’t perish but will have eternal life.” (John 3:16, CEB)

Jesus’ death provided salvation for the world at great cost to Himself. An individual’s salvation is not automatic. The phrase, “won’t perish but will have eternal life,” of John 3:16 declares that people must receive His gift to gain eternal life. Receiving Jesus by faith alone allows us to personally appreciate all He has done for us.

Saving faith requires a specific object. It affirms more than Jesus as a prophet or miracle worker. Those of us who did not see Jesus in the flesh can still believe that He is Lord and God. How could saving faith not involve Jesus?

The Greek word for perish is apollumi, which means “to lose, or to be lost.”  John 3:16 is not speaking of an eternal annihilation of a soul, but of a temporary losing of the soul. It is like the lost sheep that was later found. It is the same with all the times you see Jesus speaking of someone “perishing.” such as in John 3:16.

What we are saved for is a new life lived under Jesus Christ.  We have eternal life in the present tense. This means that the world should be able to look at the church, and see what Jesus looks like. As Christians, we sometimes live short of all we can be in Christ.  What are the results of believing in Jesus?

1.   You will not perish.

“Sin pays off with death. But God’s gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, CEV)

“Sin wouldn’t be so attractive if the wages were paid immediately.” (Anonymous)Sin wouldn't be so attractive, if the wages were paid immediately.

2.   You will have eternal life.

“But as the Scriptures say, no eye has ever seen and no ear has ever heard and it has never occurred to the human heart; all the things God prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9, VOICE)

“The heavens will not be filled with those who never made mistakes but with those who recognized that they were off course and who corrected their ways to get back in the light of gospel truth.”  (Dieter F. Uchtdorf)

“The Bible gives me a deep, comforting sense that things seen are temporal and things unseen are eternal.” (Helen Keller) [i]

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[i] Inspired by the sermon “Christmas in a Nutshell: We Live” (installment four, final) Sunday, December 24, 2017 Pastor Dave Jansen CenterPoint Gahanna Church Gahanna, OH.

 

Additional Sources:

·        "What about How the Bible Says that Those Who Do Not Believe Will Perish?" (http://www.tentmaker.org/FAQ/perish.htm)

·        “The Gospel According to John 3:16” (http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/201203/201203_028_john_3_16.cfm)

 

Honk

“Honk if you love Jesus. Text [others] while driving if you want to meet Him.” (Anonymous)

Take a minute to think about those you associate with. They seem normal; don’t they? It’s doubtful that anyone seems to be a threat to society. With five friends you know, chances are good that at least one person would be a danger by texting while they drive. Statistics say that person is between the ages of sixteen to thirty-four.

If you text and drive, you’re twenty-three times more likely to have a car crash. Texting while driving has become the number one driving distraction for many people. Drivers need to be aware of the dangers and keep their attention on the road, not on their cell phones or other mobile devices.  

If you have a habit of taking your eyes off the road to tap out a text message, cell phone distractions can increase reaction time as much as if you had a .08% blood alcohol concentration.  If you can’t resist taking a look at that incoming text message while you’re behind the wheel, do yourself and everyone else a favor. Turn your phone off before placing the key in the ignition. Here are some statistics on texting and driving that will amaze and scare you:

·        One out of four car accidents in the US are caused by texting while driving.

·        10% of adults and 20% of teenagers have admitted that they have entire conversations over text message platforms while driving.

·        25% of teens respond to at least one text while driving, every single time.

·        37,000+ people die in automobile crashes in the US every year

·        48% of kids in their younger teenage years have been in a car while the driver was texting. Over 1600 children in the same age group are killed each year because of crashes involving texters.

·        94% of teenagers understand the consequences of texting and driving, but 35% of them admitted that they do it anyway.

·        Driving with a cell phone in hand causes 1,600,000 accidents and 330,000 injuries every year. Texting and driving is responsible for about 25 percent of all accidents.

·        Every day, eleven teenagers die because they were texting while driving.

·        It takes an average of three seconds after a driver’s mind is taken off the road for any road accident to occur. This is the bare minimum amount of time it takes, and it is surprisingly small.

·        Of these, 1.6 million have a cell phone involved in them. That’s 64% of all the road accidents in the United States. Over half the road accidents in the States have cell phones involved, and if this doesn’t make you realize just how potent it is, what will?

·        Reading a text message while driving successfully distracts a driver for a minimum of five seconds each time.

·        Teen drivers have a 400% higher chance of being in a car crash when texting while driving than adults.

·        Texting and driving is six times more likely to get you in an accident than drunk driving.

·        Texting and driving is similar to driving blind for five seconds at a time. Texting and driving slows your brake-reaction speed by 18 percent and makes you about 6 times more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.

 

 “Dear Parents, if you don't want me to text while driving, don't text me when you know I am driving.” ((ILiketoQuote.com)[i]

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[i] Sources used:

·        “5 Science-Backed Reasons Not to Text and Drive” by Men’s Fitness Editors

·        “6 Reasons not to Text While Driving” (https://capitol-tires.com/6-reasons-not-to-text-while-driving.html)

·        “Don’t Text and Drive” (http://www.donttextdrive.com/)

·        “The 25 Scariest Texting and Driving Accident Statistics” by Luke Ameen

 

The Hurricane

“Never ever mistake her silence for weakness. Remember, that sometimes the air stills before the onset of a hurricane.” (Nikita Gill)

I believe it didn’t take Adam very long to realize his helper, Eve, was not a carbon copy of himself. Besides the obvious difference in their bodies, Eve viewed her world in a unique that might have confused him. As both a husband and a father, my wife and daughter experience their lives emotionally that doesn’t always make sense to my male psyche.  Thank God for all the variety they spice into my life because. Below are some fun facts about females that you may not be aware of:

 

1.      A female neck is more flexible. When a woman hears her name called, she turns her head. A man typically turns his entire body.

2.     A woman doesn’t like it when her hands are free. This is why she is likely to carry with her a purse, gloves, a book, or something else.

3.     A woman will more easily trust somebody who hugs her for at least fifteen seconds.

4.     According to researches, an average woman spends about 120 hours a year looking at her in the mirror, which is approximately five entire days a year.

5.     An average woman eats about six pounds of lipstick in her lifetime.

6.    Female bodies burn fat much slower than male bodies, at the rate of about fifty calories per day.

7.     Female muscles and tendons contain more elastin, which is what makes women more flexible.

8.     Female skin is twice more sensitive than male.

9.     In entertainment, men are seeking an escape from reality. Ladies look for stuff that reminds them about the real life.

10. Stuff is arranged into the right place and then, we forgotten where the right place was.

11.   The corpus callosum in the female brain is larger, which is what allows women to multitask more effectively than men.

12.  The female body has more pain receptors thanks to estrogen, which blocks the inflammatory processes. Women tend to have a higher pain threshold.

13.  The first computer programmer was a woman. Her name is Ada Lovelace.

14. There are more taste buds on a female tongue.

15.  Two brain centers are responsible for female speech, which is why women can use about 3000 sounds and 10,000 nonverbal signals – twice as many as is available to men.

16. Two X chromosomes make the female body less prone to chronic illnesses and complications.

17.  We definitely need to check out how we look in the mirror before going outside.

18. We set our alarm for ten minutes earlier than needed and oversleep anyway.

19. When pregnant, thirty percent of women will feel the craving to consume inedible things.

20.When we cry, we would love someone to see it and offer us a cuddle.

21.  When we go to public restrooms, we love going there in groups so that we can have a chat.

22. When we look at ourselves in the mirror, we often think: “It would be great to have a picture taken in this position.”

23. Women are better at distinguishing between shades of color because color perception is directly linked to the X chromosome.

24.Women are better at distinguishing the different shades of the sweet taste.

25. Women are more emotional: they cry on average 30–60 times per year while men cry 6 to 17 times.

26.                        Women are more likely to feel anxiety because they have naturally higher levels of progesterone, cortisol and estradiol. That’s why women are better at predicting threats and dangers intuitively.

27. Women are worse at spatial orientation. This is the reason they have more problems when driving. For instance, 82% of men can parallel park, with 70% of this number getting it right on first try. With women it’s a totally different picture: 22% of all female drivers can parallel park, and only 1/3 of them can do it on first try.

28.Women blink twice as often as men do.

29.Women can hear high frequency sounds better than men.

30.Women form stronger attachments to other people because of higher oxytocin levels. They also have better developed brain areas that are responsible for the feeling of affection.

31.  Women have stronger immune systems.

32. Women usually tie the belt of a dressing gown higher than their belly button, while men tie it lower.

 “A real man never hurts a woman. Be very careful when you make a woman cry because God counts her tears. The woman came out of man's rib. Not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal. [She is] under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.” (Anonymous) [i]

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[i] Sources used:

·        “15 Fun Facts about Women” (https://www.beautyandtips.com/fun/15-fun-facts-about-women/)

·        “25 Things You Didn’t Know About the Female Body” (https://wikr.com/25-things-didnt-know-female-body/)

·        “27 Fun Facts about Women or Weird Girly Habits that Guys Don’t Seem to Get” (https://www.beautyandtips.com/fun/27-fun-facts-about-women-our-weird-girly-habits-that-guys-dont-seem-to-get/)

 

Easy and Hard

“A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.” (A.W. Tozer)

During His time on Earth, Jesus Christ was a skilled wordsmith. His communication had the ability to instruct, encourage, criticize, or condemn. He used whatever communication that was needed at the time to make His divine point.

The eight “terribles” (or woes) apply primarily to a religious group in Jesus’ time known as the Pharisees.   The word Pharisee is derived from an Aramaic word meaning, "separated." They were a group that held to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, and punishment  or reward in the afterlife based on how one behaved in their mortal life. Jesus portrays the Pharisees as religious authorities who perform ritual observance of details, which made them look acceptable outwardly, but left the inner person unreformed.

The fact that there are eight terribles in Matthew 23 is significant. Seven is a number of completeness, and eight is a number of new order. Seven days complete one week, but the eighth day begins a new order.

A Christian passes through many stages before being created in the likeness and image of the Lord. “When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world. The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new! “(II Corinthians 5:17, ERV) Here are the eight terribles Jesus spoke upon the Pharisees. (Do any of these apply to us today?)

1.   “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You shut people out of the kingdom of heaven. You don’t enter yourselves, and you won’t allow those who want to enter to do so.” (Matthew 23:13, CEB) The Pharisees did all they could to shut  others out spiritually. False religion and pretense are always the worst enemies of the truth. They are far more dangerous than immorality or indifference. The Pharisees were held guilty before God of blocking the way for others seeking to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

2.   “How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses and say long prayers to cover it up. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation!” (Matthew 23:14, ISV)  The Pharisees were charged with devouring widows’ houses and making long prayers to impress others. The verse is omitted in most manuscripts. The Pharisees taught about God, but did not love God. They did not enter the Kingdom of Heaven themselves nor did they let others enter.

 

3.   “How terrible it will be for you, legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make one convert. But when they’ve been converted, they become twice the child of Hell you are.” (Matthew 23:15, CEB)  The Pharisees were described as extremely energetic on both land and sea to make proselytes of the Jewish religion. But when they were successful, Jesus said the above words. Christ used the word Gehenna, a reference to eternal damnation, rather than to Hades, the temporary abode of the wicked in the intermediate state. The Pharisees and their proselytes both would end up in eternal damnation. They preached God but converted people to dead religion.

 

4.   “How terrible it will be for you blind guides who say, ‘If people swear by the temple, it’s nothing. But if people swear by the gold in the temple, they are obligated to do what they swore.’”  (Matthew 23: 16, CEB) The Pharisees held swearing by the gold of the temple bound the oath. Jesus denounced them as both fools and blind, as obviously the gold was meaningless unless it was sanctified by the temple, and the gift on the altar was meaningless unless it was given significance by the altar. Christ concluded that an oath based on the temple was binding, just as an oath based on Heaven carried with it the significance of the throne of God, and God who sits on the throne.

 

5.   “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You give to God a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, but you forget about the more important matters of the Law: justice, peace, and faith. You ought to give a tenth but without forgetting about those more important matters. “(Matthew 23:23, CEB) The Pharisees showed hypocrisy in tithing. While they were so concerned in paying the tithe down to the smallest amount owed, they omitted the really important matters like obeying the law and manifesting mercy and faith. Jesus repeated His charge that they were blind, straining out a gnat or a small insect, but swallowing a camel. He was, of course, speaking figuratively of their dealing with minutiae but omitting the really important things.

 

6.   “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they are full of violence and pleasure seeking.”  (Matthew 23:25, CEB) Jesus repeated the charge that the Pharisees were hypocrites (merely actors acting a part). Jesus charged them with cleaning the outside of the cup and the platter but being unconcerned about what was inside, where cleanliness really matters. He meant by this that they were concerned with ceremonial cleanliness, that which men observed, but not really concerned with holiness. While observing ceremonial rites of cleansing, they were not above extortion and excess. They presented an appearance of being self-restrained, and not involved in carnal matters, They were dirty inside, and were full of hidden carnal desires. They were full of greed and self-indulgence.

 

7.   “How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs. They look beautiful on the outside. But inside they are full of dead bones and all kinds of filth.”  (Matthew 23:27, CEB) , Jesus described them as whited sepulchers (graves) that had been made beautiful and white on the outside, but within were full of dead men’s bones. This illustrated that the Pharisees were outwardly righteous but inwardly full of hypocrisy and iniquity. They exhibited themselves as righteous on account of being scrupulous keepers of the law, but were in fact not righteous. Their mask of righteousness hid a secret inner world of ungodly thoughts and feelings. They were full of wickedness.

 

8.   How terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees! Hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. “(Matthew 23:29, CEB) Jesus concluded with their building tombs of the prophets and garnishing them with decorations and claiming that they would not be partakers with their fathers in martyring prophets. Jesus called their very witness into account that they were the children of those who killed the prophets. He told them, in Matthew 23:32 (ERV), “And you will finish the sin that your ancestors started!” In other words, do what your fathers did and even do worse. Jesus was, of course, referring to their intent to kill Him and to their later persecution of the church.

 “Curiously, the righteous Pharisees had little historical impact save for a brief time in a remote corner of the Roman Empire. But Jesus' disciples (an ornery, undependable, and hopelessly flawed group of men) became drunk with the power of a Gospel that offered free forgiveness to the worst sinners and traitors. Those men managed to change the world.” (Philip Yancey) [i]

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[i] Sources used:

·        “23. Jesus Condemns the Scribes and Pharisees” by www.walvoord.com

·        “The Chapter of 8 Woes” (http://www.openheavensministries.org/messages/tcot8w.htm)

·        “Who Were the Pharisees?” by Don Stewart

·        “Woes of the Pharisees” from Wikipedia

Topic suggested by my daughter, Allena Kinker

Always

Teach them to do everything I have commanded you. “And remember that I am always with you until the end of time.” (Matthew 28:20, GW)

The gospel of John is the only one that contains all seven of Jesus’ “I am” statements. Each one had special meaning which the Jews understood. The “I am” statements prove that Jesus is God. He told Moses His name is “I am,” and “Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you’” (Ex 3:14b).  I am,” means the self-existent one and always “being,” unlike we who at one time didn’t exist. Only after birth did we come into being, and we are human, finite beings, but God is and always was, since He inhabits eternity.

1.      I am the Bread of Life: Just after Jesus fed the five thousand (which if you counted the spouses and children could have been fifteen thousand or more) they followed Him, not for the right reason.  He told them “they were not following Him for His miracles, but for the loaves of bread He provided.

They only wanted more bread for their stomach so Jesus said, He did not want them to work for food that can go bad, but for the food that lasts eternally, which only Jesus could provide. He said, “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.” (John 6:35, CSB)

2.   I am the Gate: Jesus says, in speaking about His sheep, “I am the Gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture” (John 10:9, CSB). He guards the door to the sheep pen, by lying down at the door, as shepherds used to (and some still) do. No one gets in the pen without going through the door, which is Jesus Christ.

 

3.   I am the Good Shepherd: Shortly after saying He was the Gate, Jesus adds, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11, CSB). The sheep are helpless without the Shepherd because the Shepherd leads them to green pastures, leads them to still waters because sheep are easily frightened by moving water, but this Shepherd says willingly, “I lay down my life for the sheep.”

 

4.   I am the Light of the World: With the Pharisees and other religious leaders there, “Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the Light of the World. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12, CSB). For those who don’t believe, they are walking in darkness and in the ways of Satan. The light of Jesus brings us out of darkness and into the light.

 

5.   I am the Resurrection: Since He raised people from the dead, Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. (John 11:25, CSB)  Martha and Mary, Lazarus’ sisters, found this statement to be true, even though Jesus was speaking of those who have eternal life by believing in Him. We who trust in Christ will live again. Jesus has been asking this question for two thousand years; “Do you believe this?”

 

6.   I am the Vine: The vine was symbolic of ancient Israel. It was actually engraved in the temple, and other various places. Israel was to be a fruitful vine, Jesus, as the Vine is the only way a branch can produce fruit. Without abiding in Christ, the true Vine, we can do nothing. He is the source of the fruit of our branches.

Unless we abide in Him, there may be no further use for the branch.  “I am the vine. You are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without Me.” (John 15:5, CSB) Notice it proves we are His disciples if we bear much fruit, which grows in many different ways whether it’s a little or much.

7.   I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: Jesus told him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”. (John 14:6, CSB)  He, was declaring He was not one of many ways, but the only way. He is not a truth, and we know He was full of grace.  Grace without truth could lead to a license to sin, but truth without grace can end up as legalism.

 Jesus says He is the Life, meaning He is the resurrection and the life. We can read about Lazarus and know that is true. Jesus was the only way to life for Lazarus, and that’s the truth, because there is no other way than through Jesus to receive eternal life, Do you believe this?

“I’m a failure. He’s my Forgiver. I’m a sinner. He’s my Savior. I’m broken. He’s my Healer. I’m His child. He’s my God." (Spiritual Inspiration @ PastorNaeem)[i]

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[i] Source used: “The Seven I Am’s of Jesus” by Jack Wellman