Tag: John 1:1

God’s Word at work in our world

Dr. J.D. Wilkins2 Comments

The previous three articles provide a simple look at what God’s word is: powerful, authoritative, and self-expression. Today we’ll see these three ideas in what God does.

God’s Word makes plans.

We talked about this in the context of God’s Lordship attribute of control. God determines what will happen according to His own plans, then decrees it to be done. In His Lordship, God has the power to bring these plans to pass, controlling all that happens.

God’s Word speaks.

God not only plans and controls the earth and all its creatures, but also speaks to them as one person speaks to another person. I don’t just mean metaphorically. God’s Word speaks to angels and men, but also to the sun, moon, stars, wind, rain, and every part of nature. When God speaks, His words carry absolute authority, demonstrating that God is Lord of all.

Where God’s Word is… that is God’s dwelling place.

While Jesus was physically on the planet, housed in human flesh, He was limited to be in one place at one time. This is why the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is so significant. If Jesus wanted to be present with Mary and Martha before Lazarus died, Jesus would have to leave where He was and travel to Bethany.

We know that Jesus could have healed Lazarus from a distance by the POWER of His spoken Word. But that was not in God’s PLANS. So Jesus was in CONTROL by staying where He was, in order to demonstrate His ultimate control, authority, and presence when He did raise Lazarus from that tomb. [John 11:1-46]   Jesus told Mary, (11:25-26)

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John wrote of Jesus in John 1:1, describing Jesus as the Word, and the Word was God. This means Jesus was God housed in human flesh, and bound in some ways because of it. This explains what Paul meant in Philippians 2:5-7. One of the things Jesus emptied out to become human was His omnipresence, He couldn’t be everywhere at one time. But in His resurrected body, Jesus could now be omnipresent again, as God, fulfilling this wonderful promise:

Matthew 18:20
For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.

So, God’s Word is His dwelling place on earth, demonstrating His Lordship attribute of abiding presence, among His people of faith.

Next time we’ll begin looking at the “how” or the “means” God uses to communicate His Word to us.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you enjoy this series of articles, please re-post, or send to your email list.  Thanks.

God’s Word is Self-Expression

Dr. J.D. WilkinsLeave a comment

So far we’ve seen how powerful God’s word is, and established the authority of God’s word. Now we’ll look at how God expresses Himself through His word.

If the question is, “What KIND of god is God?”, then you have to dig into Scripture. It is the Word of God that reveals God’s heart, mind and will. When you search the Scripture you find God actions are the spoken Word of God revealed in an event of God’s power (like creation or judgment). God also differentiates Himself from all other God’s because He speaks. All the idols man can create are just “dumb” (mute), yet God by nature is The Word.

Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal and said, 1 Kings 18:24

“Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.

Go ahead and read the rest of that chapter and see how powerful God’s word is!

When God speaks He demonstrates different attributes, which are unique to Himself:

  • Righteous (Psalm 119:7)
  • Faithful (Psalm 119:86)
  • Wonderful (Psalm 119:129)
  • Holy (2 Timothy 3:15)
  • Eternal (Psalm 119:89)
  • Omnipotent (Genesis 18:14; Isaiah 55:11)
  • Perfect (Psalm 19:7)

Scripture teaches that God alone is to be worshiped and praised. However, the psalmist writes

“In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid.  What can mere man do to me?” [Psalm 56:4]

So the Word which David praised (worshiped) is God. He was worshiping the being described in John 1:1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

We are going to look further at this truth, where the Word is talking about Jesus, in a future study. The point I’m making here is that the Word identifies God’s speech with God because it takes us all the way back to creation. In Genesis God’s spoken word “let there be…” made it all. It ties directly to John 1:3

“All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

Let me be as simple and practical as I can. When we meet God’s speech, we meet God face to face. We should be more like David and receive God’s word with praise and worship.

Just one more thing…

Don’t try to know God apart from His Word, and don’t try to read the Word without realizing you are indeed in the presence of God. Don’t look at the Bible as an assignment. Instead, open your heart and mind to the word like Samuel, and say, “speak Lord, your servant hears.”

Get out of the habit of taking God’s word for granted, so God can bless you with clear understanding. And get ready, because when you meet God’s word in these ways… you will never be the same again.

==========================================

If you enjoy this series of articles, please re-post, or send to your email list.  Thanks.

God is One; God is Three; the Three are One

Dr. J.D. Wilkins2 Comments

It’s been a few days since my last article where we looked at different Models which illustrate some aspect of the Trinity. Rather than overwhelm you, I took a couple of extra days to let these ideas sink in. Someone might say, “Why are you spending so much time on this difficult topic?” The simplest answer is: to establish the link that LORDSHIP applies equally to all three of the “three in One.”

When we lay the foundation that God is in Control, God is Authoritative for all of life, and God is present with us in real time, each of these foundational thoughts apply equally to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit… because the Three are One.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

God is One

The tendency is to think of God as three persons, but the concept of “Triune” is the Three are One. The Israelites knew there was only one being worthy of worship, as opposed to the thoughts of the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians and Canaanites who all worshipped many different gods. Hebrew thought was that only one person can be fully in control of the world, speak with absolute authority, and yet, still be intimately involved in the life of His people whom He called by name. Since there can only be one Lord, there can only be one Savior… Jonah says, “For my salvation comes from the LORD alone.” [2:9]

God is Three

The Bible teaches that the LORD is three persons. Look at this image through David’s eyes.

Psalm 33:6
The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born.

God the Father spoke, the God the Holy Spirit (breathed) the word (God the Son – John 1:1), and all the stars were born.

In this one verse we see the One true God, in three separate images, all taking part in the creation story.

WOW! That is exciting to me! Do you want to see another one… a little less detailed, but where the same principle applies?

Genesis 1:26
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.”

Do you see it? “Let US… to be LIKE Us.” Don’t confuse “like us” to mean “little gods.” We’ll discuss this more in a later article, but for now just see the Triune God active as ONE in all of creation: Father, Son, and Spirit – One LORD of all.

The Three are One

There are many different scriptures through which we can see the three-ness of God, or the Triune God. But one of my absolute favorites is Matthew 28:18-20, where Jesus says:

I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

The attribute of AUTHORITY is absolutely God’s, so Jesus is saying out loud for all to hear, that He is God. Then Jesus lists the other two persons of the Trinity in His command for baptizing new believers. And finally, I AM translates all the way back to God revealing Himself (Three in ONE) to Moses:

Exodus 3:14
God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.”

Here’s another good reference from the New Testament:

2 Corinthians 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Grace, love, and fellowship… Son, Father, Spirit… One LORD.

The conclusion of the early church patriarchs, the men and women of faith who planted the first churches in and around Jerusalem, all believed the Father, the Son and the Spirit are each one fully God… one LORD

Each of the three persons have the attributes of God as Lord equally:  control, authority, presence.

######################################

If you enjoy this series of articles, please re-post, share on FaceBook or send to your email list.  Thanks.

Forged For His Glory

Dr. J.D. WilkinsLeave a comment

Daily Post:  Create

create

Almost every cell in the human body has the same DNA.  Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms.  For an animated video on the basics of DNA, genes, and heredity, click HERE.  I’m not a biologist, nor a scientist, but I have a working knowledge of DNA.  After all, I’ve watched enough episodes of CSI, and NCSI, I feel like an expert.  No, let’s be “real,” I know nothing more than what I learned in college Biology 101, which as I recalled I had to take twice. Ugh.

That said, those who adhere to the Big Bang Theory poke fun at creation, or creationist’s philosophies, beliefs, and proofs associated with a growing movement known as “intelligent design.”  Stephen Meyer emerged as a leader in this movement, and serves as the director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute.   In an article published by Biola Magazine, Meyer commented on these questions in the interview:

  • When it comes to evolution, what type of evolution do you agree with and what type do you deny?
  • How old do you think the universe is?
  • Do you affirm the Big Bang?
  • One of the big unanswered questions you see in the theory of evolution concerns the origin of the information needed to build the first living thing.  How do the Darwinists answer that question.
  • What would be your main argument for the evidence of intelligent design in the cell?
  • Your book talks a lot about information and you find parallels between a software program and our DNA.  Do you think the ideas in your book about programming and programmers would even have been conceivable to readers trying to understand intelligent design a generation ago?
  • What is “specified  complexity,” an how does it play into your argument?
  • 11 more questions followed… for the answers, and links to his books click HERE

I suspect for the large majority of my readers, you may have checked out by the third or forth question.  It seems tedious and highly technical.  I get it.  Just for fun, read a couple of the answers, and you’ll discover why the discussion of Intelligent Design (ID) is so controversial, at least to the Darwin collective.

The authority in my life is not Stephen Meyer, although I did find the article interesting.  The authority in my life is God.  I’ve yielded myself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Jesus proclaimed that the written WORD of Scripture is authoritative for all instruction.  The Holy Spirit leads us into wisdom and understanding when we read the Bible.  So does the Bible speak regarding Creation?  Yes, yes it does.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Chapter 1 in Genesis is captioned, “The Creation” in my Bible.  Chapter 2 is captioned, “The Creation of Man and Woman.”  The New Testament tells the same story in a rather shortened version of only 2 verses, rather 2 chapters.

John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 

So, regarding Creation, why did God create us?

Isaiah 43:7
Everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, even who I have made.

Every living creature or plant, each having their own unique DNA, were created by God, for God’s glory. Some obstinately refuse the Biblical account, would call the Creator – The intelligent Designer, rather than God.  In so doing they rob God of His glory.

Romans 11:36
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Why did God create us?

To experience His grace every single day, and to extend His glory to the ends of the world.  The creator designed us this way, all the way down to our DNA.

I’m all in.

 

 

If you liked this blog post feel free to share it on your Facebook page. Send me a “friend” invite on my FB account or sign up by email to follow my blog!

Discover a new Lifestyle/Health Monitor, click:   INTRODUCING HELO

Eau de Extravagance

Dr. J.D. Wilkins1 Comment

Perfume

nose

One of my memories from the 70’s is the powerful impression of colognes.  Here are a few of the 15 flowery perfumes women of this era donned on their persons.  Rive Gauche, Aliage, Diorella, Charlie, Ciara, Tatiana, Cinnabar, and Enjoli.  I always wondered about the intrigue of each scent and what drew a woman to one or another of these fragrances.  For me, and this is just a personal preference you understand, I found some of them odious either from scent, or quantity used in the heavy handed applications.  Don’t get me wrong, I never complained at the time, I was in my late teens and twenties, and just being close enough to smell them was heaven for me.

For all the women out there reading this article, I realize men were just as offensive in both categories.  Here are a few of the top men’s colognes from the same time period.  Brut, Jaguar, Jovan’s, Sean, Ginseng, Old Spice Musk, Aramis, Hi Karate, and Musk by English Leather, were the most popular where I lived.  I knew guys from those days who thought putting on a splash of Brut was the equivalent of taking a shower.  Guess again.  The application of the liquid, in a generous and enthusiastic manner, did not otherwise hide something that should have been taken care of previously.

In a general sense, the consensus seems to be that we should blame the Egyptians for all this nonsense.  They used these concoctions in everything from religious ceremonies and burial preparations, to every day wear.  Some say certain scents demarcated social status, which is evident in Persian history.  One perfume factory was unearthed by archaeologists in Cyprus, dating back to 2,000 BC, which produced coriander, laurel, myrtle, rosemary, and lavender.

It’s fascinating to me to see how this word “perfume” applies across cultures and time.  Perfumes and the use of them are clearing seen in both Old and New Testaments in The Bible.  Here are a few words of wisdom about perfumes from the wisest man who ever lived.

Proverbs 27:9
Oil and perfume make the heart glad, so a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.

Ecclesiastes 7:1
A good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.

Did you read that one and say, “How strange!”?  Was Solomon just off his game when he came up with this one?  Why would God inspire Solomon to say such a thing?

There is a great story in the New Testament which can make sense out of Solomon’s words if we allow.  It’s two days before Passover, so that makes it Tuesday the week of this Feast and celebration.  Jesus was in Bethany because his best friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived there.  (For context read John 11, about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.)  He is actually staying in the home of Simon the leper, when a woman came with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume.  Watch what happens…

Matthew 26:7
… and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table…

His disciples were appalled, perhaps Judas (John 26:14-15) cried out the loudest, that this was such an extravagant waste of money.  Even then, perfume was a valuable commodity.  Image as the sweet smell of perfume wafted through the house.  It began on His hair, but there was so much perfume that it ran down and into his beard, further down His throat onto his chest, and soaked the clothes Jesus was wearing.  All this just days before His body would stink from sweat, and blood, and death.

What an extravagant show of love!  From a believer to the Savior… from the Savior to us. Now back to Solomon and his wack-a-doodle statement in Ecclesiastes 7:1.

A good name is better than a good ointment… ointments can act as a balm or salve, easing pain, but seldom act as a cure.  In the NAME of Jesus we are not just eased from the pain of sin and death, but we are cured.

… the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth … For Jesus His death accomplished what His birth began, salvation for humanity, He said “It is finished!”  For us, upon our death we see the Master, if indeed we are IN HIM by faith.  It makes Solomon’s words true, for Jesus, and for us.

Eau de Extravagance… the blood of Christ, shed for me.

 

If you liked this blog post feel free to share it on your Facebook page. Send me a “friend” invite on my FB account or sign up by email to follow my blog!

 

 

 

 

Of Skewers, Pitons, and Stakes

Dr. J.D. Wilkins2 Comments

Spike

spike

Life today is so interesting.  Combine technology with the English language and you find a myriad of meaning in just one word:  Spike.  I did a simple Google search on “spike,” then clicked on “images,” and found hundreds of pictures beyond the one above I screen-captured.  My favorite definition of “spike” was #2 under “noun” which reads: “a sharp increase in the magnitude or concentration of something. (i.e. the oil price spike)  The Google definition search went into great detail with how spike can be used as a noun, a verb, along with its origin, and specific allusions to sports usages.  Gotta love the English language.

A spike might be a skewer, used to make my famous steak kabobs on a sunny spring afternoon.  A spike might also be piton; a peg driven into a rock or crack in the rock to support a mountain climber or rope.  Different from a skewer, or a piton, a spike might also be a stake the mountain climber uses to secure his tent on the side of the mountain.  All three things could just as easily be called a spike.  A rose by any other name, right?

I can’t image how folks from other countries, who learn English as a second or third language, make any sense out of how complex our communication becomes just by using words which all mean the same thing, but have different “monikers” to distinguish them within the group.  I’m not sure I’m smart enough, and it’s the only language I speak.  Unless of course you count “Texan,” then I’m fluent in both.  Here’s a brief sample:

  • “y’all” is “you all”
  • “howdy” is “hello”
  • anyone who lives North of the Mason Dixon Line is a “Northerner”
  • a “looker” is an “attractive woman”
  • to do something “fast” is “right quick”
  • “dinner” is “supper”
  • a “tank” is a “pond”
  • “big hat. no money” means “all talk, no money”
  • “eat up” means to “overtake something”
  • any type of “soda” is a “coke”
  • “tuckered out” means “exhausted”
  • “over yonder” means “over there”

Sometimes the words people use in church are just as confusing as the Texas slang examples above, because many of the things said, come right out of the Bible, but paraphrased a bit.

Examples:
Are you washed in the blood?
You been sanctified?
Are you born again?
Do you have the Holy Spirit in you?

None of these sentences would anyone use in the normal context of human existence, except that someone found expressions in Bible terms, then attempted to turn them into catch phrases that sound religious.

To the church the Apostle Peter wrote: 1 Peter 1:2
“… according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.”

Jesus was attempting to explain a spiritual truth to Nicodemus when He said, John 3:3
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

See, I’ve only used 2 verses of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, (23,145 OT + 7,957 NT).  Yet, in just these, I’ve found 2 verses to support all four of the questions in the example.  For those who think they understand the Bible and all its many facets of knowledge, they have been skewered by their own ego, living in the delusion of such a belief.

Not only that, but the Texas slang above is pretty much fixed, or stable.  You can go to any part of Texas and those words are almost always the same.  But to have context for Biblical understanding requires understanding the language of the document (whether Hebrew or Greek), comprehension of the culture and age of time it was written, but most importantly, a relationship with Whom the document is about, God.

Like a stake through the heart, like a piton into the side of the hardest rock on earth, the Bible has the ability to skewer our minds with truth.  It reveals.  It convicts.  It enlightens.  It empowers.  Yet the revelation, conviction, enlightenment, and power come only to those who know the Author.  Not Moses, John, David, Peter, or Paul… no.  These benefits of the Word only come to those who truly know Jesus.

The apostle John is the only Gospel author who doesn’t discuss or diagram the birth of Jesus on earth, instead focusing on His pre-birth position in heaven.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Spike (truth) with which God impales the world today is His WORD – Jesus.

John 14:6
I am the way, the truth, and the life; and no one comes to the Father but through me.

It’s really this simple:  Know Jesus? Know the Word!

 

If you liked this blog post feel free to share it on your Facebook page. Send me a “friend” invite on my FB account or sign up by email to follow my blog!