Monthly Archives: January 2023

MY THOUGHTS ON THE MARK OF THE BEAST

Christian Life, ,

MY THOUGHTS ON THE MARK OF THE BEAST

The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666. Revelation 13:15-18

There are so many interpretations of this strange “mark” that believers are told to avoid at all costs that believers have no idea what we are to refuse in the “end times”.

Before we try to understand what this mark is, let’s look at something the Scriptures tell us about the mark or “seal” that God has put on His own children.

There is nothing to confuse us about God’s mark because Paul tells us quite clearly…

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit…”

Ephesians 1:13 NIV

When we believed in Jesus as Lord, God came to live inside us through His Spirit, taking ownership of us, body, soul, and spirit. However, the Holy Spirit isn’t just a “family crest” to identify who we are. His presence in us has a very practical outcome. He is at work in us, transforming us into the likeness of Jesus. So, Paul could say, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace…” Fruit is the evidence of the nature of the tree.

The evidence of God’s presence within us is an ever-increasing likeness to Jesus. We have become “participants in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

So, God’s mark on every believer is His nature being formed in us as we respond to the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Would it not be possible, then, that the “mark of the beast” is the counterpart of the mark of the Holy Spirit? Since the Spirit is reproducing the nature of Jesus in us, what is the beast and what does the “beast” do in those who refuse to believe that Jesus is Lord?

The beast is a kingdom ruled over by the God of this world. He reproduces his image in those who unwittingly follow him as Lord by living according to their fallen nature which is otherwise called “the flesh”.

The mark of the beast, according to John in Rev. 13:18, is the number of man (also translated “humanity” or “one of the human race”), which is 666, the number of incompleteness. God made man in His image. God is three in one; man is also three in one, body, soul and spirit, but without God, he is incomplete.

God’s number is 7, which is the number of completeness. Since God is three in one, His number would be 777. The Holy Spirit in Revelation is called “the sevenfold Spirit of God.”

Therefore, man without God has the nature of the one who influences his life through his fallen nature. He bears the fruit of that nature in his rebellion, disobedience, and refusal to obey the gospel and come under the authority of Jesus as Lord.

All mankind without God is eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, living in the kingdom which this tree represents by making their own rules and producing the chaos and destruction which are the hallmarks of Satan’s dominion of darkness.

In the Book of Revelation, John was writing to encourage believers in the first century after Jesus, who were suffering severe persecution for their faith in Jesus as Lord. Therefore, to interpret “the beast” and the “mark” of the beast as anything outside of the understanding and experience of those first-century believers is to defeat the purpose for which John wrote.

Perhaps, in John’s day, persecution reached its zenith by ungodly authority, whoever they were,  preventing those who confessed faith in Jesus from buying and selling in the local market, subjecting them to intense suffering by cutting off their food supply.

Very simply, all who believe in Jesus as Lord are marked by the nature of God being formed in them by the indwelling Holy Spirit. All who reject Jesus have Satan’s mark in them, the nature of man without God (666) produced by following the unrestrained appetites of the flesh.

GROW… IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

Bible Study, ,

GROW… IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

“And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him— speaking of these things in all his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction. You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing. Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.”

2 Peter 3:15-18 NLT

Error is rife in the church today as it was in the early church. Peter warned against falling for lies propagated by false teachers and those who call themselves “apostles”, complicating the simplicity of our fellowship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. “Change your focus,” Peter cautioned.

“Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.”

2 Peter 3:18 NLT

This is one of those gems of truth which I love but don’t always understand or know how to put it into practice in my daily life.

“How do I grow in the knowledge of Jesus?” I asked the Lord one day as I was meditating on this verse.

He began to show me and is still answering my question.

Thus began another part of my journey with the Holy Spirit. He answers questions in stages lest I miss the impact of His explanations.

Stage 1 – DISCOVER  – Grow in grace…

He showed me how to learn by observation – how He reveals Himself by the ways He responds when I call on His name. The smallest details become opportunities to recognise His love and goodness through His interventions.

Difficulties, which I used to struggle through on my own, now become opportunities to grow in the knowledge of Jesus. His grace is always enough for every situation.

An illustration. My frustration with my old router, my worn-out tyres,  my forgotten password, my lost dome…

Stage 2 – DRINK

Recognising God’s interventions was so exciting that I began to praise Him more and more. I remembered David’s words in Psalm 116:12-13

“What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”

Psalms 116:12-13 NIV

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Psalm 145:18 NIV

The best way to say thank you is to drink from the cup of salvation. Everything we need is in that cup. I do so by calling on the name of the Lord in every situation because God is a Father. He loves to meet our needs.

Stage 3 – DO

My journey led to a third step in this process of knowing Jesus and His grace…perhaps the most powerful and precious of all lessons.

It came about this way. For close to 5 years, my daughter has struggled to put my grandson through university. The Covid interlude made life extremely difficult for them as a family. She was retrenched, the tardiness of government officials ribbed her of all but one payment of uif. She fell behind with university fees until, in his final year, she was unable to catch up, disqualifying my grandson from studying online.

She was not eligible for a bank loan because she had not worked in her place of present employment for two years. She had nowhere to turn for help. In the nick of time, I was able to lend her the money to pay of her debt to the university.

The story didn’t end there. She began to repay the loan with two payments and then… I felt a strong impression to write off her debt as my contribution to my grandson’s future. Then I sensed the Holy Spirit’s quiet, inward response, “Now you are getting it!” He reminded me of God’s words to Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, in Jeremiah 22:15-16…

“And the Lord says, “What sorrow awaits Jehoiakim, who builds his palace with forced labour. He builds injustice into its walls, for he makes his neighbours work for nothing. He does not pay them for their labor…. But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king! Your father, Josiah, also had plenty to eat and drink. But he was just and right in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him. He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me?” says the Lord.”

Jeremiah 22:13, 15-16 NLT

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God…”

I learned that to “see God” is to share His heart for those in need, to do whatever I can to lift the burden wherever I can in my limited capacity as the Holy Spirit leads me, whatever it costs because His grace is always enough.

This is a tough assignment because I am always in conflict with the greed and selfishness of my flesh but… Peter said, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ”. So, if I have breath, I have opportunity to grow and so do we, as we travel this road together.

GOD IS LIGHT

Christian Life, ,

GOD IS LIGHT

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5

The big tree in my neighbour’s yard has gone, cut down a few months ago. Now the sun shines in my eyes in the early morning, a blinding light I can’t escape unless I draw the curtain.

I can’t help thinking of descriptions of God in Scripture, so bright a light that He outshines the sun. “God is light,” wrote John, “and there is no darkness in Him.” He cannot cast a shadow because there is no light brighter than He. His light is all-consuming; none can stand alone in His presence.

A great hymn, written by Thomas Binney (1798 – 1874}, encapsulates this awesome truth, that no human can gaze on God’s glory and not be consumed… but God has made a way for us to see Him and not die.

Eternal Light! Eternal Light!

How pure the soul must be

When placed within Thy searching sight

It shrinks not, but with calm delight

Can live and look on Thee.

The spirits that surround Thy throne

May bear the burning bliss,

But that is surely theirs alone

Fot they have never, never known

A fallen world like this.

O how can I, whose native sphere

Is dark, whose mind is dim,

Before th’ Ineffable appear

And on my naked spirit bear

The uncreated beam?

There is a way for man to rise

To that sublime abode,

An off’ring and a sacrifice,

A Holy Spirit’s energies,

An Advocate with God.

These, these prepare us for the sight

Of Holiness above;

The sons of ignorance and night

May live in the Eternal Light

Through the Eternal Love.

What a reason to praise and adore Him, the three-in-one God!

FULLY MATURE

Christian Life, ,

FULLY MATURE

“So, Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” 16 Ephesians 4:11-16

Spiritual maturity, like holiness, is one of those Bible “goals” that we often dodge or ignore because we don’t know what it means or how to get there.

The Apostle Paul often wrote about being “complete” in Christ, or “fully mature”. He expressed, as his goal, the desire to present his beloved saints across Europe and Asia Minor…little pockets of believers who came to Christ directly or indirectly through his ministry… fully mature.

Paul was not content to make converts. His goal was to make disciples. He wanted his converts to be so connected to Jesus that they would, like new-born babies, thirst after and grow into mature believer in Christ.

How would he achieve his goal?

“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.”

Colossians 1:28-29 NIV

Paul worked with the Holy Spirit to achieve his goal. It was a divine/human partnership led and energised by the Spirit and carried out by Paul.

There were many obstacles to overcome on this journey to maturity – false teachers sowing seeds of deception, fallen human nature demanding to gratify the desires of the flesh, power struggles and conflicts among individuals and groups wanting their own way, baggage from their pagan past that kept reappearing, etc.

Paul was patiently sowing truth into the minds and hearts of people whose life philosophies were formed in a godless environment. What an impossible task… if he had to do it alone.

What are the elements of spiritual maturity?

“My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Colossians 2:2-3 NIV

The Apostle John, in his first letter, gives us the two commandments of the New Covenant.

“And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.”

1 John 3:23 NIV

So, essentially, Paul and John were in agreement regarding the goal of the Christian ministry. Through teaching and admonishing, ie, the tools by which every believer is rooted and grounded in “the faith” – who Jesus is and who we are in Him – and through guiding them by teaching and example, into expressing their new life in Christ by loving one another, believers live out in practice the life of Jesus in them.

So, that’s, what it means to be fully mature.

Do you get the picture of maturity now?

A mature church is a group of people who are

1. Secure in the knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is and who they are in Him so that they can fully trust Him in every circumstance no matter what life throws at them.

2. Doing life together, caring for and serving one another out of, and expressing their love for Jesus by being givers and not takers.

We are mature, then, to the extent that we know God through Jesus and live out in our everyday lives the love and trust that we have in Him.

We express that love and trust by the way that we relate to one another through humility and mutual submission, honouring one another and meeting each other’s needs at our own expense.

Therefore, we all need teaching, correction, encouragement and fellowship to become a fully mature body in the body of Christ. According to Jesus, this is the greatest demonstration to the world of His life in us.

“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.  Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

John 13:34-35 NLT

” I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”

John 17:21 NLT

FAITH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

Christian Life, ,

FAITH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7

I am a fan of Bear Grylls. In case you don’t know who Bear Grylls is, let me tell you about him. He is a British adventurer and survival specialist. He hosts a programme on TV called “Running Wild With Bear Grylls” in which he takes celebrities on a two-day adventure into the remotest, most inaccessible and inhospitable places on earth.

The Amazon jungle, Colorado mountains, and the snow-covered peaks of the Dolomites in northern Italy, the Nevada desert, the steep cliffs on the coast of Wales, and even the remote interior of the Great Karoo are his playground. He guides his novice adventure companions through impossible terrain to survive the rigors of the journey to their extraction point.

He takes no food, eats what they can find, sleeps in caves, under trees, in holes in the snow, in hastily constructed shelters, or just wherever he and his companion can be safe.

Bear’s most important piece of equipment is his rope. It is long, strong, and reliable enough to bear his weight and the weight of his companion, sometimes together, scaling mountains, rappelling down steep cliffs, slipping and sliding down frozen waterfalls, and crossing raging torrents and deep gorges.

However, Bear’s experience and survival skills have taught him that confidence in his rope is not enough. If he does not anchor his rope around a strong object that will support a heavy weight, he will fall to his death if the anchor gives way. He uses chunks of ice, boulders, trees, clumps of bushes and even a crevice in a rock if it grips the rope firmly enough to secure it.

Bear’s adventures in the wild teach us a powerful  lesson about the nature and purpose of our faith.

Ancient Hebrew words reveal some of the secrets of God’s truth. Take the word “wait” in Isaiah 40, for example.

“… Those who hope in (wait on) the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”

Isaiah 40:31 NIV

The word “qavah”, here translated “hope”, is often translated “wait” in other versions. Its origin is the idea of twisting, referring to a rope maker who twists strands of thread together to make a sturdy rope.

While we “wait” for or “hope” in the Lord, we twist together our life experiences to develop our “rope” of faith. God often delays His responses to test the genuineness of our faith in Him or, to change the metaphor, He puts our faith through fire, like gold, to remove the impurities.

So, if our faith in God is genuine, like Bear’s rope, our rope will be strong enough to bear our (wait) weight when the severe tests come.

However, as important as our faith is, since it is our only link with God, we must also be sure of the object of our faith. To what or to whom do we anchor our trust when we have mountains to climb or deep gorges to cross?

Who is the God upon whom we depend? Is He the great “Sugar Daddy” in the sky whom we can manipulate to give us what we want? Is He the sovereign God whose character and motives are so flawless that we can trust Him to make the best choices for us? Is the One to whom our faith is anchored worthy of our trust?

There is expression believers often use that unwittingly reveals their “anchor”. “I am trusting God for…” This is the Sugar Daddy tree or bush or rock on which their faith depends. This “god” does not exist since he does not fit the description of the God of the Bible, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is misplaced. Trust in this “god” will always disappoint us.

Bear’s adventures have yet other important considerations… the motive for their journey and the goal which they strain to reach, their extraction point. At the end of their journey is a vessel or vehicle that will take them home. Their destiny is not to remain in the wilderness but to take the lessons they have learned with them as they go on in life.

The two adventurers don’t allow beautiful views or intriguing discoveries to distract them from reaching their goal. Home is where they are headed regardless of their experiences on the way.

We also must consider the motive of our faith in God. Take Job, for example. There was a sting in the tail of Satan’s taunts when God drew his attention to Job and his upright character. Was God baiting Satan to test the motive of Job’s faith in Him?

Was Job’s trust in God “Sugar Daddy” faith, or was he firmly anchored in God’s character, no matter what?

Job initially subscribed to the philosophy of his day, expressed in the accusations of his three so-called friends. “God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked.” Therefore, Job must have done wrong to have been so severely punished.

Job’s denial of wrongdoing flew in the face of this shaky belief. He was forced to rethink his values and his motive for trusting God even in the severest of trials. Would he give up on God because his faith had failed to get him what he wanted? Would he keep trusting even if he had no explanation for his trusting?

At no point did God, in His response to Job’s adamant defence of his innocence, explain His actions. To have disclosed the conversation between Himself and Satan would have ruined and thwarted the purpose of the test.

Did Job blame the devil for what he was suffering? No! His issue was with God, not the devil, and the challenge to his belief that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked.

God’s silence frustrated Job. Where was God? Why didn’t He answer him? The more he questioned God’s motives, the deeper he got into his own muddled thinking until God had had enough. “Shut up, Job!” He shouted. “Listen to me.”

God’s challenge to Job shook him to his foundations. Job had to learn that he had no part in God’s creative power and wisdom. “Where were you when I did all this stuff?” God demanded.

God’s response smartly put Job in his place. Since He was solely responsible for all the mysteries and miracles of nature and was not in consultation with or answerable to Job, He was under no obligation to explain His actions when He permitted Job to be stripped of his wealth and comforts to the bone.

Did Job pass the test? Was his motive for trusting God pure or tainted with selfishness and greed? Apparently, God’s confidence in Job’s integrity was not misplaced. Satan lost the challenge. Despite Job’s misery, grief, and complaints, never once did he give up on God. Time and again, he affirmed his faith in some of the loftiest statements in Scripture. “I know that my Redeemer lives…” and “… when I am tested, I shall come forth as gold.”

Job’s final response was to repent in dust and. ashes. God was right and he was wrong.

What of our motive for enduring suffering with a robust faith in God? What is our motive for hanging on to our rope when we can’t see the bottom?

Fortunately, we don’t have to guess what the goal and motive of our faith is. God Himself tells us His dream.

Paul expresses God’s heart in one sublime and confident statement, “We know…”

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Romans 8:28-29 NIV

“… In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose….”  This is the God to whom we anchor our rope… the God who has the power and the will to work in all things for our good because He has a motive and a goal.

When we embrace His motive and goal for us, we are right on track to reach our “extraction point” and to go home.

So, what is our motive for trusting Him? We know that He is painting a bigger picture on a bigger canvas than we can see. A family of sons and daughters, exact replicas of His beloved Son, is what He is working on, on His canvas.

How will He accomplish His purpose? By chipping away, through hardship, trial and suffering, everything that obscures the image of His Son in us. What does Jesus look like? A perfectly submissive, obedient, and trusting Son, guarding His unity with the Father no matter what it cost Him because of the love that binds them together.

When we are distracted by the tinsel and trinkets of a transient world by our “trusting God for…” we exchange our God-given goal of likeness to Jesus for self-centred ambitions that take us on a deadly detour to end in loss.

Only calm assurance that God’s goal is best will keep us through suffering with joyful anticipation of its outcome.

And His motive?

“… That he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Jesus, always Jesus!

For more information on the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the firstborn in the Bible, clearly explained in the article, “Why is the firstborn so important in the Bible?”, go to gotquestions.com/firstborn-in-the-Bible.html

God has exalted Jesus to the highest place as the supreme authority (Lord) over all things. So, in the end, all the glory for who He is and what He does and has done, must reflect on Him.

“Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Philippians 2:9-11 NIV

If our suffering and hardship does not accomplish the goal for what it is intended, that we be transformed into the likeness of Jesus, we will never see the bigger picture. If our motive is not to endure with patience and joy the trials we experience because of the outcome that Jesus may be exalted through us, then we cannot rejoice in the glorious future the Father has planned for us. Our faith will have been a futile exercise, achieving nothing.