March 31, 2014
Zechariah 3:8, 9; Exodus 33:18-23

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

This is a conundrum!  Here I have been blogging about The Seven-Faceted Stone prophesied in Zechariah 3:8 and 3:9 – seven different ways Jesus is portrayed in scripture as the Stone or the Rock – and now I have found an eighth way He is depicted as such!  How can a Seven-Faceted Stone have an eighth facet?!!  But this is an important facet of Jesus Christ, and worth the blog to examine it.  Once more, here is the scripture from Zechariah 3:8 and 9:

    …behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch….For behold, upon the
    stone that I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or
    facets….Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the LORD of hosts,
    and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day….

And here is the eighth facet derived from Exodus 33:18 through 23…

8.         Jesus Christ is Split Rock – the Safe Place to Hide!

    …[Moses] said [to the Lord], “Please, show me Your glory.”  And He [God]
    said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the
    name of the LORD before you.  I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
    and will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”  But He said,
    “You cannot see my face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”  And the LORD
    said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.  So it shall be,
    while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will
    cover you with My hand while I pass by.  Then I will take away My hand, and
    you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.

Moses had just gone through a rough time with the Israelites he was leading to the Promised Land of Canaan.  While he was up on Mount Sinai receiving God’s commandments, the people were at the base of the mountain having made an idol of a golden calf.  And now they were worshiping this idol in a drunken orgy!  Moses had come down the mountain, saw their apostasy, and in anger smashed the table of Ten Commandments to pieces.  God’s resulting judgment led to three thousand Jews killed in retribution for their idolatry.  Moses needed a fresh vision for the task ahead – if he was to lead the nation to their new homeland!  And so he pleaded with God to show him His glory.

God agreed, but for Moses’ own protection, God hid him in the cleft of a split rock, covering him with His hand when He passed by so he would not be overcome and die from being directly confronted with the overpowering glory of God!  With God’s hand removed, Moses could only see God’s back, and the reduced glory associated with that view would be survivable.

How does this incident relate to The Rock, Christ Jesus?  Since God said “…no [mortal] man can see me and live,” Moses could not look directly upon the face of God.  In             I Timothy 6:14 through 16, Paul writes, “…our Lord Jesus Christ…is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power.  Amen.”  Sinful man cannot exist in the direct, glorious and holy presence of God.  That sinful nature will be totally destroyed!  Since sinful mortal man only has the old sinful nature, he will cease to exist in the presence of God.  But if one is born again with a new sinless godly nature, then the old will be destroyed and the new will shine forth forever! 

This is the privilege of being a Christian:  our new nature can behold God and grow into His likeness more and more.  The old nature dies off increasingly as we see the Lord’s glory.  The process will be completed as recorded in I John 3:2:  “…we know that, when He [Jesus] is revealed, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”

The secret of it all is that just as Moses was hidden and covered in the cleft of the rock, so are we hidden and covered in Jesus Christ.  In Him we are given the invitation in Hebrews 4:14 through 16:

    Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the
    heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we have
    not a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in
    all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly
    to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in
    time of need.

We are invited to “…come boldly to the throne of grace…,” into the very presence of God!

Six chapters later, in Hebrews 10:19 through 22, it is written:

    …having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and liv-
    ing way, which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is His flesh; and
    having a High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart
    in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,
    and our bodies washed with pure water.

Only the Jewish high priest could enter the Holiest – or the Holy of Holies – and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement with the blood of the sacrificial animal (see Hebrews 9:7).  But the temple veil – that separated off that place in which God’s shekinah glory was one time manifested – was ripped by God Himself from top to bottom when Jesus died on the cross (see Matthew 27:50 and 51).  Now the way is open into God’s glorious presence – but only if you are hidden in the Rock Christ Jesus!

One more application of Jesus Christ – the Split Rock – the Safe Place to Hide: Nothing can ever happen to the believer outside of the will of God!  Until God says it is time for this mortal life to end, we are in all ways safe in Jesus!  Yes, hard things can touch us, but it is only by God’s permission, and only for our good and Christian growth!  As it says in Deuteronomy 33:27 – one of my favorite verses – “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms….”

So rest securely in the safe arms – the Cleft Rock – of Jesus Christ!

March 28, 2014

Zechariah 3:8, 9; Daniel 2:34, 35, 44, 45

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

This is the seventh facet of the series, The Seven-Faceted Stone.  The prophecy is found in Zechariah 3:8 and 3:9:

    …behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch….For behold, upon the
    stone that I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or
    facets….Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the LORD of hosts,
    and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day….

As shown in the six previous blogs, Jesus Christ is The Seven-Faceted Stone.  We are looking at seven ways He is described as the Stone or Rock in scripture.  Today’s topic is similar to a previous blog –  The Seven-Faceted Stone – III  – The Stone that will fall on the unbeliever at the final judgment and “…will grind him to powder.” (Luke 20:18).  The same action is produced according to this seventh facet, but on a much larger scale…

7.         The Stone that Became a Mountain and Grinds Kingdoms to Powder!   It is described in Daniel 2:34, 35, 44 and 45:

    You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image
    on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.  Then the iron, the clay,
    the bronze, the silver, and the gold, were crushed together, and became like
    chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that
    no trace of them was found.  And the stone that struck the image became a
    great mountain and filled the whole earth….And in the days of these kings the
    God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the
    kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume
    all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.  Inasmuch as you saw that the
    stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces
    the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold — the great God has
    made known to the king what will come to pass after this.  The dream is certain,
    and the interpretation is sure.

In this scripture, Daniel is giving King Nebachudnezzar of Babylon the interpretation of a dream the king had.  In it God was revealing to him the whole course of human history from his time to the establishment of God’s Kingdom upon this earth.  The four great kingdoms – Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece and Rome (plus the modern nations today – the remnants of the Roman Empire) – are represented in reverse order in Daniel’s interpretation by five substances:  “…iron…clay…bronze…silver…gold….”  The first two mentioned in verse 35 are representing the final expression of human society – the remnants of the Roman Empire – “…iron mixed with clay.” (Daniel 2:43).

It is “…in the days of these [final] kings… ” that it will be announced by “…loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.’ ” (Revelation 11:15).  How is this to happen?

    …the stone…struck the image…and broke them in pieces…the iron, the clay,
    the bronze, the silver, and the gold, were crushed together, and…the wind
    carried them away….[Then] the stone that struck the image became a great
    mountain and filled the whole earth…

All of this world’s political, sociological and economic systems will be crushed to such fine dust that – as Daniel said in verse 35 – they will be blown away and totally disappear!  Notice the photo I selected for this blog.  It obviously depicts a large boulder.  But look closely!  You will see the boulder is crashing down and whatever is under it is being crushed to bits – and the bits are being thrown into the air!  I thought it an excellent representation of this seventh facet! 

Being crushed to fine powder and blown away by the wind are figurative expressions.        II Peter 3:7 through 10 (NIV) gives us more details about this final world judgment:

    …the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of
    judgment and destruction of ungodly men.  But do not forget this one thing, dear
    friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are
    like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand
    slowness.  He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
    come to repentance.   But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens
    will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth
    and everything in it will be laid bare.

The point is that Jesus Christ, the Stone, will become a dominant Mountain, filling the whole earth.  Everything that is ungodly will be blown away – burned up.  The only things left to enter the “…new heaven and…new earth…” (Revelation 21:1) will be people redeemed by “…the precious blood of Christ…a lamb without blemish and without spot…”  (I Peter 1:19).

Now God is patiently waiting for people to come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.  But someday – perhaps soon – God’s patience will end and judgment will come!  Everything depends upon your relationship to Jesus – your eternal soul, your life, your life’s work.  Even the whole world ultimately dependent upon the Lord!  Make Him your Savior AND your Lord – NOW!

March 26, 2014
Zechariah 3:8, 9; I Corinthians 10:1-4

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Now for the sixth facet of The Seven-Faceted Stone, Jesus Christ as He is prophesied in Zechariah 3:8 and 3:9:

    …behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch….For behold, upon the
    stone that I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or
    facets….Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the LORD of hosts,
    and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day….

This sixth facet is shown in I Corinthians 10:1 through 4.  Paul writes:

    Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were
    under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses
    in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank
    the same spiritual drink.  For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed
    them, and that Rock was Christ.

6.         Jesus is the Rock that provides our sustenence!  The story to which Paul is alluding is from Exodus 17:5 and 6:

    And the LORD said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some
    of the elders of Israel. also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the
    river, and go.  Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and
    you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may
    drink.”  And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

The Israelites had been complaining that the trek through the desert after they came out of Egypt was bereft of water.  And so God gave the above command and the resulting provision.  We might not have known the Rock was Jesus Christ had not Paul pointed it out.  But he did and He is!  And He is the source of our provision, not just of water, but of everything that we need!  As it says in Philippians 4:19:  “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

What did the Lord provide for the Israelites as they wandered 40 years in the wilderness?  Besides water from the Rock, God provided meat (Exodus 16:13); manna (Exodus 16:31 and 35) – somewhere around 2,000 tons a day!; guidance (Exodus 13:21 and 22); protection (Exodus 23:27); clothes and shoes that did not wear out (Deuteronomy 29:5) and a lot more!

What does God provide for us, His children?  “…all your need…!”  Whether your need is physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, relational – whatever it is – God will provide either the fulfillment of the need or the grace to go without!  It all comes through Jesus…the Rock that provides our sustenance!

There is an interesting and sad sequel to the rock event described above in Exodus 17:5 and 6.  It is recorded in Numbers 20:7 through 11:

    Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the rod:  you and your brother
    Aaron and gather the assembly together.  Speak to the rock before their eyes,
    and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock,
    and give drink to the congregation and their animals.”  So Moses took the rod
    from before the LORD, as He commanded him.  And Moses and Aaron gath-
    ered the congregation together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear
    now, you rebels!  Must we bring water for you out of this rock?”  Then Moses
    lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out
    abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

To receive the blessing of provision the first time, the rock was struck.  But the second time Moses was only to speak to the rock.  Jesus Christ – the Rock – was struck the blow of death only once!  But from that blow abundance flowed!  There is enough power in the blood our Lord shed on the cross to cleanse the sin of every person ever born upon this earth!  And, as Paul wrote in Romans 8:31 and 32:  “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ” Having been struck once for us, now we only have to speak to Him, to ask of Him what we need.  He does not need to die for us again!

The disobedience of Moses cost him his entry into the Promised Land (see Numbers 20:12).  Do not be in disobedience by not asking God to give you what you need.  Jesus is the Rock that provides our sustenence!  May you be fully sustained by His provision!

March 24, 2014
Zechariah 3:8, 9; I Cor 3:10-15

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

We are on the fifth facet of The Seven-Faceted Stone, Jesus Christ as He is prophesied in Zechariah 3:8 and 3:9:

    …behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch….For behold, upon the
    stone that I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or
    facets….Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the LORD of hosts,
    and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day….

This facet is similar to the last one, Jesus is The Foundation of the Church.  But here, in I Corinthians 3:10 and 11…

5.  …the Lord is the foundation upon which we are to build our lives.  Paul writes in our scripture:

    According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder
    I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.  But let each one take heed
    how he builds on it.  For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is
    laid, which is Jesus Christ.

This agrees with what Jesus said in John 14:6:  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father, except through Me.”  He is the only way!  He is the only foundation!  Christianity is very exclusive – very narrow in this sense!  This fact excludes all other religions that do not have Jesus Christ – the Son of God, God the Son come in the flesh – at its core!  And if that causes some to argue that Christianity it too narrow, the argument is with the Lord Himself, not with the one proclaiming such!

That said, let’s move on to what the foundation upon which we are to build our lives means.  Paul is speaking to believers in I Corinthians 3 – those who already have the Savior in their hearts and lives.  The foundation is laid!  What you then build upon this foundation – how you live your life after salvation – is the issue here!

You have two choices of building materials according to I Corinthians 3:12:

•    “…gold, silver, precious stones….” – These valuable materials represent things you do with your Christian life that are for the Lord and the furtherance of His Kingdom.  They are what is done for His pleasure – according to His will – not yours!

•    “…wood, hay, straw….” – These combustible materials are things done – not for God’s glory, but out of your own will – for your own pleasure!

Both will be tested and revealed by fire, according to I Corinthians 3:13.  The result of such testing is in the next two verses, I Corinthians 3:14 and 15:

    If anyone’s work abide which he hath built on it [the foundation of Jesus Christ]
    endures, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer
    loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The one will have eternal rewards in heaven.  The other will have heaven – which is plenty! – but that is all!  By the way, the fire of judgment here is the penetrating gaze of the Lord as he examines how we lived our Christian life.  John spoke of the eyes of the glorified Jesus in Revelation 1:14, “…His eyes [were] like a flame of fire….”  All He will have to do is look upon the works of our lives and He will know – and so will we at that time!

Although he is talking more about his pre-Christian time, Paul applied this concept to his own life in Philippians 3:7 and 8:

    …what things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ.  But indeed, I
    count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
    Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rub-
    bish, that I may gain Christ…

The point is, Jesus and His will and work are to take complete precedence in our lives after accepting Him as our Savior!

Here is the tragedy – the foundation of Jesus Christ can support the biggest, greatest, most elaborate and valuable mansion that we could imagine!  The foundation is that huge, solid and strong!  But too many believers build on that massive foundation a shack – a tottering one-room shanty that will be blown over and burned up!  And he or she could have built a beautiful structure that would bring honor and glory to their Lord!

It is not too late!  What have you been building with your Christian life on the foundation of Jesus Christ?  What do you choose to build from now on?

March 21, 2014

Zechariah 3:8, 9; Matthew 16:13-19

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Jesus is The Seven-Faceted Stone of Zechariah 3:8 and 9 (The Amplified Bible):

    …behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch….For behold, upon the
    stone that I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or
    facets….Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the LORD of hosts,
    and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day….

We have been looking at how – in seven aspects or facets – Jesus is represented in the Bible as the Stone or Rock.  In the last three blogs, featuring Luke 20:17 and 18, we saw Him in His first three facets:  the chief cornerstone, the breaking stone and the crushing stone.

Now we will look at Matthew 16:13 through 19 in which we will find the next facet:

    When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples,
    saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man am?”  So they said, “Some say
    John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 
    He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  And Simon Peter answered
    and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus answered and
    said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not
    revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.  And I also say to you,
    that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of
    Hades shall not prevail against it.  And I will give you the keys of the kingdom
    of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what-
    ever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

4.         Jesus is The Foundation of the Church – The first facet of the Stone was that Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the temple He is building in which He will permanently dwell.  Just as God indwelt Solomon’s Temple with His shekinah glory (see  I Kings 8:10 and 11), so He, by the Holy Spirit is building with living stones – us! – a spiritual house, a holy temple to show forth His glory to the world (see Ephesians 2:19-22;  I Peter 2:5).

But more than the most important Stone, the chief cornerstone, Jesus is the whole foundation upon which the Church is being built!  It’s a play on words that the Lord is using in our Matthew 16 passage.  And if we understand this, it will clear up a lot of confusion that has plagued millions of Christians over the centuries.  The Lord said, “…you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church…” (verse 18).  He called Peter ‘petros’ in the Greek, meaning “(a piece of) rock.”  It can be a large rock, but it is still movable.  And Peter proved he could be moved about from one place to another – rather unstable – as when he denied Christ three times.  But Jesus said He would build His Church on ‘petra’, meaning “(a mass of) rock” – immovable bedrock!  (Strong’s A Concise Dictionary of the Words in The Greek New Testament).  Jesus Christ is the foundational Rock upon which the Church is built, not Peter!

Even Hades – or the realm of the dead (death, hell, sin and Satan) – will not overcome His Church! (verse 18).  And He has given us the keys to unlock the Kingdom of Heaven for people by telling them of the Savior who has died and lives for them, who will set them free if they put their trust in Him.  We can declare someone bound or loosed depending on what they do with Jesus – accepting or rejecting Him as their Savior! (verse 19).

But remember, it starts with the same realization to which Peter gave affirmation in his confession in verse 16:  “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  This implies that Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Lord of all!  He will judge the world, and there is safety only by putting your faith – your life – in Him!  It does not matter concerning your soul’s destiny what others think about Him (verse 14).  He asks everyone the personal question, “But who do you say that I am? ”

What is your answer?

March 19, 2014

Zechariah 3:8, 9; Luke 20:17

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

We are looking at The Seven-Faceted Stone from Zechariah 3:8 and 3:9:

    …behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch….For behold, upon the
    stone that I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or
    facets….Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the LORD of hosts,
    and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day….

This stone having seven facets represents our Lord Jesus Christ – and He is portrayed as a stone or rock in seven different ways in the New Testament. In Luke 20:17 and 18 He is seen in the first three:  “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone…. Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”  We will examine the third facet after a quick review of the first two:

1.    Jesus is “…the chief cornerstone…” in that He is the most important and first laid stone in the living temple God is building in which He is dwelling. 

2.    “Whoever falls on that stone will be broken….”  No one can come to Jesus and accept Him into his or her heart and life without being broken!  He or she is broken so that God can remold that one into the image of His Son.

3.    “…on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”  This is a frightening aspect of The Seven-Faceted Stone!  You will either be broken upon “…the chief corner-stone…”, or you will be crushed under it!  The first way is voluntary, the second is not.  The idea of falling upon the stone may not sound voluntary, but Strong’s Concordance suggests that the Greek ‘pipto’ carries the idea of ‘alighting’ upon the stone.  It is a voluntary landing upon Jesus Christ – allowing yourself to be broken upon Him!

Psalm 55:22 carries the same theme:  “Cast your burden on the LORD, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”  In the first phrase we are told to “Cast your burden on the LORD….”  We might picture taking the weight we are carrying and flinging it upon Jesus.  But in the next phrase, “…and He shall sustain you…,” shows the burden is YOU!  US!  I am the burden that needs to be cast upon Jesus! 

The Lord invites us in Matthew 11:28 though 30 to:

    Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
    Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
    and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is
    light.

We find in Mark 8:34 another invitation – a command, really:  “…Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”  Again, taking up your cross means you are going out to die!  The only thing that is to be put on the cross is YOU…not some burden you are carrying!

Now none of the Bible translations or commentaries that I researched go in the direction that I am suggesting.  So I may be off base, here!  But the idea behind what I will say is Biblically sound.

The commentaries say that being broken upon the Stone and crushed under it are the results of rejecting Jesus as “…the chief cornerstone….”  I think the first is the voluntary throwing of oneself upon Jesus by faith – being broken because we are all broken sinners and we need to come to that conclusion if we are to accept Him as the only answer to our sin problem – our brokenness!  Realizing that, we are broken upon the Stone so God can remake us into what He originally intended for us to be – stated in Genesis 1:26: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness….”  Jesus came to restore what Adam lost through sin!  But our old sinful nature must be broken for God to fulfill His plan.

The only alternative to being voluntarily broken on the stone, Jesus Christ, is to be involuntarily crushed under it at the final judgment!  What dreadful words to hear the Lord say, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels….” (Matthew 25:41).  What total loss to see all that you have focused on – all upon which you have spent your life’s energies – burnt up in total loss! (see II Peter 3:10).  Or, as Jesus put it, crushed into powder!

The terrifying impact of the judgment about to be experienced by those who have rejected  Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is recorded in Revelation 6:15 through 17:

    …the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the
    mighty men, every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the
    rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us, and
    hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the
    Lamb!  For the great day of His wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”

                                     …It is not a pleasant thought! 

Now you have the choice!  Then it will be too late!  Choose to voluntarily be broken upon the Stone Christ Jesus before you are involuntarily crushed under it!

March 17, 2014

Zechariah 3:8, 9; Luke 20:17

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

In Zechariah 3:8 and 3:9 from The Amplified Bible, the Messiah is seen as a stone with seven facets:

    …behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch….For behold, upon the
    stone that I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or
    facets….Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the LORD of hosts,
    and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day….

In our last blog, we started to examine Luke 20:17 and 18 which shows the first three ways The Seven-Faceted Stone represents Jesus Christ.  We only covered the first facet – “…the chief cornerstone….”  Here is this Luken passage:  “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone…. Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

1.    Jesus is “…the chief cornerstone…” in that He is the most important and first laid stone in the living temple God is building in which He is dwelling.  In Ephesians 2:19-22 Paul writes:

    Now, therefore, you are…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
    Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building,
    being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also
    are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. 

This is just a review, so let’s go on to the second facet:

2.     Concerning Jesus, Luke 20:17 says, “Whoever falls on that stone will be broken….”  No one can come to Jesus and accept Him into his or her heart and life without being broken!  Saul of Tarsus was broken.  Before Jesus met him and knocked him off his high horse on the Damascus Road (see Acts 9:1 through 6), he was a proud Pharisee, self-righteous, and zealous to a fault.  He persecuted the followers of Jesus even unto death!  But here is his later testimony from Philippians 3:5 through 8:

    …circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
    a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal,
    persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law,
    blameless.  But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for
    Christ.  But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellency of the know-
    ledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
    and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ….

You see, God wants to make you into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ (see Romans 8:29).  The start of that is when we accept Him as our Savior and are born again (see John 3:3 through 5).  But it is a life-long process, and we will not be totally transformed into His image until His return in glory – until “…we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (I John 3:2).

So there is the initial ‘breaking’ on the stone when we fall upon Him – depending, not on ourselves anymore, but totally by faith accepting His righteousness procured by His dying for us on the cross.  But the breaking continues as He chips away at the old nature to expose increasingly His own divine nature in and through us.

Being so broken so we can grow more and more to be like the Lord is a good thing.  But the act of being broken is not pleasant.  The writer of Hebrews puts it this way in Hebrews 12:5 through 11:

    “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when
    you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges
    every son whom He receives.”  If you endure chastening, God deals with you
    as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?…He
    [chastens us] for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.  Now no
    chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but grievous; nevertheless after-
    ward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

So, dear Christian, hang in there!  God is doing a great work in your life!  It is far better to experience this facet of the stone than the next one – as we shall see in Wednesday’s blog!

March 14, 2014

Zechariah 3:8, 9

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Some of the symbols used in the Bible are hard to understand.  One such symbol is the stone mentioned in Zechariah 3:9.  In the twelve versions of the complete Bible that I own, eight describe the stone as having “seven eyes.”  Five translate “eyes” as “facets” – a precious stone cut with “seven facets” as if by a gem cutter.  Yes, I know I said I have the complete Bible in twelve versions.  And I know that eight and five equal 13!  But one – The Amplified Bible – translates the Hebrew word ‘ayin as both “eyes” and “facets”!  Here – in abbreviated form – is Zechariah 3:8 and 3:9 from The Amplified Bible:

    …behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch….For behold, upon the
    stone that I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or
    facets….Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the LORD of hosts,
    and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day….

“The stone” represents “…My servant the Branch.”  “The Branch” refers to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Isaiah 11:1 and 2 shows this plainly:

    There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow
    up out of his roots.  The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of
    wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of know-
    ledge and of the fear of the LORD….

So The Stone is the Messiah.  And it is a Seven-Faceted Stone.  How – in seven ways – is Jesus Christ depicted in the New Testament as The Stone?

Luke 20:17 and 18 shows the first three ways we will examine The Seven-Faceted Stone, Jesus Christ:  “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone…. Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

1.    “…the chief cornerstone….” – Paul expands on this idea in Ephesians 2:19-22:

    Now, therefore, you are…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
    Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building,
    being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also
    are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

Peter calls us “…living stones…” in I Peter 2:5.  Together, we are becoming a fit place for the Lord to dwell.  In the Old Testament, it was the physical temple.  When Solomon’s temple was completed – around 964 BC – God came and dwelt in the Holy of Holies.  It says in I Kings 8:10 and 11:

    And it came to pass…that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the
    priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of
    the LORD filled the house of the LORD.  

But Stephen testified in Acts 7:48: “…the most High does not dwell in temples made with hands….”  Now – in New Testament times – God’s temple on earth is believing people!  Since Pentecost Jesus Christ abides within Christians by the Holy Spirit! (see Acts 2; John 14:16, 17; I Corinthians 3:16).

It is a temple under construction!  The cornerstone has been laid, and the living stones are being formed and fitted in place as sinners accept Jesus as Savior and then mature in Him as Lord.

So are you allowing The Lord to shape you into a living stone, built together with other Christians as a fit dwelling place for Himself? The pattern is the chief cornerstone, and – when completed – this living temple will be a testimony of God’s grace and power for all creation to see.  So submit unto Him – individually and together with other believers.  God is doing an amazing work!

More in Monday’s blog.

March 12, 2014
Luke 22:40-46

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

Back on April 29 of last year, I wrote a blog entitled The Most Important Prayer A Christian Can Pray, based on Jesus’ prayer in Luke 22:42, “…nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”  Yes, it is still  The Most Important Prayer A Christian Can Pray, but I would like to revisit that scripture in Luke, and look at it in a little bit different way.  Here it is from Luke 22:40 though 45 – the parts that we will consider:

    …[Jesus] said… “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”  And…He knelt
    down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, remove this cup from Me;
    nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”  Then an angel appeared to Him
    from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony, He prayed more
    earnestly.  And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the
    ground.  When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He
    found them sleeping from sorrow.  Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? 
    Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”

A couple of weeks ago, I had trouble with my computer.  Now I can operate the computer pretty well.  I have been doing that – and learning by doing – since 1995 when I purchased my first Radio Shack computer!  But to try to fix the darn thing when it acquires a virus, or crashes, or gets bogged down from trying to store too many bits, bytes or whatever – then it is out of my league!  I need the help of someone who really knows what they are doing!  So last year I contracted through my antivirus program for trained experts to fix and restore my computer to proper working order.  It is an online program, so I have to agree to give over control of the computer to whomever is going to repair it.

It turned out that this contraption called a computer had a virus and a couple of other things wrong with it.  Now it is working great!  Thank God for those technicians who are properly trained to do their job!  But before the tech could work on my computer, he had to take me to a couple of screens in which I agreed to give him entire control of the system.  Then I sat back  – or did other tasks – for the next two hours while diagnosis, surgery and recovery took place!  Having never met this expert technician who was to work on my computer, I had to trust him to be able to accomplish what he claimed he was able to do!

Isn’t that the same concerning the Lord Jesus Christ?  We have to trust Him to know the best for us.  If we are to sincerely tell God, “…not my will, but Yours, be done…,” then we have to rely on that will of God to be the best direction for our lives in all things!  That’s not easy – and sometimes its very hard and painful!  It says that Jesus was “…in agony…” over this decision to totally seek the will of the Father.  Don’t’ expect an easy go of making Him Lord of your life!

Twice in this scripture Jesus tells His followers, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”  Since temptations come in continual assault upon us, then it stands to reason that the prayer mentioned above needs to be continually and sincerely offered to the Father.   When the disciples slept and did not pray, they entered into such temptation that they forsook their Lord –  Peter even denying Him three times.  May their negative example be a solemn warning to us.

Notice that when Jesus was praying – so intensely that He was sweating blood – “…an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.”  Nothing that God calls us to do is beyond our capabilities!  The fact that God wants us to trust Him enough to give Him control over our lives – that’s a tall order!  It’s much greater than trusting a technician to take complete control over my computer!  And if it calls for more that we have in our own human resources, heavenly help will be ours to make it happen!

Note also that it says Jesus “…rose up from prayer….”  When he arose in the garden, He stood in victory!  It was not on the cross that the Savior won the greatest battle of all – as much as it was when He prayed, “…nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”  Yes, His offering of Himself on Calvary was the culmination of victory over sin, Satan, death and hell!  But the courageous decision was made as He knelt in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane!

It takes courage and trust to turn all things over to the Lord!  You are putting your whole life in the hands of Another!  But that One has shown by the record of the written Word, the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the examples of changed lives through the ages that He can be trusted!  So give Jesus Christ control!  He will give back your life full and running over.  In the end, you will not regret it!

March 10, 2014
I John 5:18-21

(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)

We have finally reached the end of John’s Nose!  And John’s Nose! makes quite a point at the end!  Well, anyway, this is the last blog of John’s Knows!  And the featured scripture is I John 5:18 through 21:

    We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born
    of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.  We know that
    we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. 
    And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understand-
    ing, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His
    Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God, and eternal life.  Little children, keep
    yourselves from idols.  Amen.

We covered this first mention of John’s Knows in the blog of February 12 – John’s Nose! – IV.  Briefly, since God is totally holy and sinless, the new nature He imparts by His Holy Spirit to the one who comes to Him by faith believing, is also totally holy and sinless!  As John wrote in I John 3:9:  “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”  All sin comes out of the old nature, which we retain until we are taken from this world!  The battle between the new and old natures is one we must fight and win as obedient Christians throughout our entire mortal life! (see Romans 7:14 through 25; 8:5 through 14; Galatians 5:16 through 25; Colossians 3:5 through 12).

The second of John’s Knows is in verse 19 and deals with being absolutely sure of two things:

•    “We know that we are of God….” – In John’s Nose! – X from February 26, we summarized three things which prove “…we are of God….”:  loving one another, God’s perfected love in us, and His indwelling Holy Spirit!  If your life is characterized by these three thing, then you are of God !
•    “We know that…the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” – Back on May 13, we examined this know in the blog, Know Your Enemy! – IV.  Here is what I wrote:

When Satan tempted Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13) one temptation is
recorded thus in Luke 4:5-7:

            Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the
        kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  And the devil said to Him,
         “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been
        delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You
        will worship before me, all will be Yours.

It was true that Satan had authority over all the world.  He still does.  You see, the
first Adam had, as it were, delivered all the dominion God had given him over all
creation (see Genesis 1:26, 28) unto the devil when he obeyed him instead of God.
Now the tempter was offering basically the same deal to the Second Adam, Jesus.
Yes, Jesus would then have authority over all the kingdoms of the world.  But what
the evil one neglected to tell the Lord was that such dominion would be under the
authority of Satan!  The devil would then be above God!

The point of this is that the offer which was proffered unto Jesus would not have
    been a valid temptation if the devil did not own and have control of  “…all the
    kingdoms of the world…”!  Just look around at the mess the world is now in – Syria,
Kiev, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, the struggles within our own country….
If God was in direct control of “…the kingdoms of the world…,” I would think He
    was a pretty poor God!  Yes, He is in ultimate control, and He allows Satan to
temporarily rule.  And until God takes over again direct control, the world system
    will continue to be in a mess!

The final know of John’s Knows is in verse 20:  “…the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding….”  We can know and understand the truth – the truth being personified in Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, and the truth of what He has revealed to us!  That truth is put forth by God Himself in the Bible!  So, as Paul said in Colossians 3:16:  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly….”

Don’t let anything divert you from knowing this truth!  Anything that gets in the way of God and His revealed truth is idolatry.  That’s why John closed his epistle with verse 21:  “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.  Amen.”

Amen!