More than Astounding (Because This Pleases the Father), Part 2

The last days, those just prior to the great taking-up of the church to meet Jesus Christ in the clouds, will be very uncertain and disconcerting times.  These will be days of uncertainty and unrest for the redeemed, too, if we let them.

The end of days are before us.  But, the BORN AGAIN have a host of marvelous promises to stand upon, promises like Romans 8:28:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

This verse does not promise that we will escape all of the dark and dangerous places of this life’s journey, but rather that through it all, those dark and dangerous places are ordained of God to work together for our good.  These marvelous promises are only true if our lives are surrendered to Jesus Christ and that we are stepping out and mixing God’s Words with our faith.  Hebrews 4:2:

2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

During these storied days that are approaching, there will be trouble for us and that is certain.  But, have cheer, for there is something much more certain. Psalm 46:1-3:

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

Don’t you love Romans 5:20?

… But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

The church will be purified by what is ahead.  Be of good cheer, saints!  It will all work together for our good.  I Peter 5:10:

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.  

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN as Jesus declares to Nicodemus in John 3:3?

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Do you long for a certainty and a beauty that’s bigger than this world?  Do you long for a purpose that’s bigger than your pants or your supper plate, the fruits of which will last forever? In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt.  Those of you who follow from your heart will participate in the greatest miracle man can know.  Today, all your sins will be forgiven and expunged from your record, and all the shame of those sins washed away.  Today, all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken, no matter how daunting they appear.  Today, you will be BORN AGAIN.  Today, you will become a brand-new son or daughter of God.  Today, everything begins anew!  Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry in the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Colossians 1:19:

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

GOD SAID, Psalm 141:2:

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

GOD SAID, Luke 9:23:

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

MAN SAID: Have I read the whole Bible clear through? Have I read just one book of the Bible?  Have I read even just a single page of the Bible?  Well, those answers are no, no, and no.  Why would I bother when everyone knows it’s not true?  It isn’t, is it? 

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1096 that will again contend for the faith and certify the perfect and inerrant Holy Word of God.  All of these marvelous features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and as ammunition in the global battle for the lost sons and daughters of Adam.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, they grow by one.  Be of good cheer, child of God, your faith will not be disappointed…NEVER! 

Thank you for visiting.  Your verse for today is this beautiful passage found in Proverbs 4:18:

But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Carnal men and women regularly challenge the BORN AGAIN, demanding “proof” of God and His Bible.  They are smugly confident that this “proof” cannot be produced, but be advised that there is hardly anything that could be further from the truth.  Of course, these carnal folks are surely not interested in uncovering the “proof” for which they clamor.  Jesus declares their state of mind as it absolutely is in John 3:17-20:

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

Everything, as in ALL things, in heaven and on earth revolve around Jesus Christ because this pleases the Father.  Colossians 1:15-19 speaks of Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory:

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

Everything, by commandment, revolves around Jesus Christ, including every cell of our human bodies.  Consider this: It’s only when our redeemed souls revolve around Jesus Christ that we take wing and fly off above it all.  In this Lord of Glory my destiny is assured, and my purpose accomplished. He is EVERYTHING.  This pleases the Father.

Last week’s GodSaidManSaid feature was one of many declaring the centricity of Jesus Christ.  Several excerpts from “More than Astounding (Because this Pleases the Father)” follow:

By necessity, everything revolves around Jesus Christ.  He is known in the Bible as “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending” (Revelation 1:8).  He is the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet and all the letters in between and every word they form.  Every word ever spoken revolves around Jesus Christ.  All words are either pro-Christ or anti-Christ.  If the words spoken are true and clean, they are pro­.  If they are false and dirty, they are antichrist. ALL words revolve around Jesus because this pleases the Father.

Biology calls it laminin.  It is an inert substance that acts like scaffolding, holding together all things in life, including our organs, and it looks exactly like the Cross of Christ.  The following is a picture of what it looks like:

Colossians 1:17:

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

By Him all things consist.  Noah Webster defines consist: “To stand together; to be in a fixed or permanent state, as a body composed of parts in a union or connection.  Hence, … to be supported and maintained.”  Surely God knows the end from the beginning.  Jesus Christ is the center of our molecular structure. 

The following bio is of the author of the book Believing is Seeing:

Michael Guillen, PhD, is a graduate of UCLA and Cornell University, with degrees in physics, math, and astronomy.  The former Science Editor for ABC News, he taught physics at Harvard for eight years and is the host of the History Channel series Where Did It Come From? and producer of the award-winning family movie Little Red Wagon.  He hosts the weekly podcast Science + God with Dr. G, sponsored by K-LOVE and Air1 Radio Networks, is the president of Spectacular Science Productions, and speaks to audiences worldwide.

Excerpts from his book follow:

It’s one of Christianity’s many puzzling, translogical truths.  And I saw that it has an intriguing, eye-opening counterpart in a branch of nuclear physics called quantum chromodynamics (QCD). 

We scientists believe the universe is pushed and pulled by four different forces.  The strongest one—aptly named the strong force—holds together atomic nuclei the way corn syrup holds together popcorn  balls. 

The strong force is at the very core of our physical being. It’s what holds us together.  Without it—poof!—we’d disintegrate and blow away like dust in the wind. [End of quotes]

Again, Colossians 1:17:

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Now consider Hebrews 1:3:

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 

Jesus Christ, of course, is everything.  By Him, we consist and He is also the strong force.  Hebrews 1:3: “…and upholding all things by the Word of His power…”   

The Bible reports that God spoke us into existence with His Words by Christ out of that which is invisible. If that is true, then we should see proof everywhere.  The microbiologists were shocked to discover that DNA, which houses the instructions of life, is made up of letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and books and it contains the most sophisticated editing system known to science.  This discovery is even beyond “awesome.”  You are and I are walking, talking WORDS in the flesh.  Revelation 19:13 speaks of Jesus Christ and says “… and His name is called The Word of God.”  John 1:14:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.   

Everything is made of words.  Everything revolves around Jesus Christ, both visible and invisible, because this pleases the Father.  It is not optional. 

The following paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature “Part 1: A Ram Caught in the Thicket & Armageddon:”

Nothing is happenstance in the Word of God.  All things revolve around Christ.  Of John the Baptist and Christ Jesus, John 1:7-9 declares:

7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  

Microbiologists were shocked to discover the amazing, literal truth of the passage just read.  When sperm and the human egg come together in the mother’s womb, a spark of light shoots forth marking and energizing the beginning of life. Science has inadvertently certified the strange grouping of words in John 1:9:

 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Genesis 1:3:

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Light was spoken into the earth’s history on the first day.  The sun, moon, and stars were not created until the fourth day.  In eternity, we have no need for the sun or moon, although they will exist.  Revelation 21:23:

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 

Jesus Christ is the Light of the world in every physical and spiritual way. 

Nothing is happenstance in the Word of God.  Everything has its place, everything has its purpose, and every word, by the Father’s good pleasure, revolves around Jesus Christ.  Keep in mind Revelation 19:13, which speaks of Christ and says, “and His name is called The Word of God.” Every living Word is interwoven into a glorious mosaic that is truly breathtaking to behold—every single word with its place and its purpose.  Those looking for proof need look no further. 

Hebrews 10:7:

Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

The volume of the Book revolves around Jesus Christ.  Galatians 3:24 teaches us that the Old Testament law was a schoolmaster bringing us unto Christ, who is the fulfillment of all things.  Colossians 2:17 tells us Old Testament customs and observances were but a shadow of the Christ to come.  Jesus speaks of the law and the prophets in Matthew 5:17:

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

An excellent example of the fulfillment principle is seen in the Jewish Passover.  The final plague that came upon Egypt which triggered the full release of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage was the slaying of the firstborn of all of Egypt.  The Hebrew people were instructed to sacrifice a lamb, and to take its blood and apply to the doorposts and lintel of their door.  When the death angel passed over Egypt that fateful night of the last plague, he slew the firstborn of all the land with the exception  of those who were within dwellings where the blood was applied.  The death angel was commanded to pass over dwellings where he saw the blood had been applied, hence the term Passover.

God’s people were commanded to remember the Passover continually, which all Christians do as the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, which commemorates the last supper and the crucifixion of the Jewish Messiah.  The Hebrew people were delivered from Egyptian bondage as a result of the last plague and the death angel seeing the blood applied and thus passing over the obedient.  This event foreshadowed the coming Christ, who, with His shed blood reconciled unto God all who believe upon His name.  Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Passover. 

🐑 John the Baptist and John 1:29:

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

🐑 I Corinthians 5:7-8:

7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

🐑 Jesus Christ was crucified on the Jewish Passover.  When Satan sees the blood of redemption applied to the doorpost and lintel of your heart, he must pass over you.  Christians the world over observe the fulfillment of the Passover. 

The Old and New Testaments are made one in Christ Jesus.  This pleases the Father. [End of quotes]

I picked up a man the other day while he was walking down the highway in the bitter cold and carrying a large knapsack on his back.  As I took him along his journey, we fell to talking.  I asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ, but the man answered that he didn’t know one way or the other if there was a Jesus Christ.  I explained that every minute on the clock revolves around Jesus!  Think on this: The time of the audio production of this feature takes place on the sixth day of the week, during the hour of prayer, which, where GodSaidManSaid is headquartered, is 3 PM US eastern-standard time. This is known as the hour of prayer because at 3 pm, Jesus Christ gave up the ghost on Calvary’s Cross.  This place and time was where fallen man’s communication with God was made possible.  The historic date of this production would be 2,022 years, 55 days, 9 hours, AD.  Those initials, AD, stand for the Latin Anno Domini, which means the year of our Lord. All history is classified as either BC (before Christ) or AD (Anno Domini), and down to the very second.  Today, there is a concerted effort to eliminate the BC and AD designations with classifications such as “Before the Common Era” (BCE) or “Common Era” (CE).  Regardless of their futile wrangling, it all still revolves around the King of Glory, Jesus Christ the Righteous, because this pleases the Father. 

My passenger was impressed. 

Science is spending huge sums of cash and resources to discover the unifying source of the universe. Einstein spent the last 30 years of his life attempting to construct a unified field theory commonly known today as a theory of everything that would explain how the universe works. Einstein compared it to "reading the mind of God." His assessment, as you will see, was accurate.      

Surely there is such a truth. The theory that they seek is not a theory at all, but a person and that person is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the explanation of everything. He is the center of the universe. Hebrews 1:1-3 reads:

1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

All things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were spoken into existence out of that which is invisible, by Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is not only the center of our molecular structure, the reason for all things visible and invisible, and the center for any thought or deed, but also, He is the source of all salvation. Acts 4:10-12:

10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

John 14:6:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Einstein spent his last 30 years trying to uncover the theory of everything. There is an explanation for everything, and His name is Jesus. Einstein, in his search for the theory of everything, said that such a theory would be akin to "reading the mind of God." He was correct.

What you are about to read (or hear) next will be a staggering truth, and this knowledge will be something you can put into practical, Holy-Ghost-use.  Remember: Everything revolves around Jesus Christ because this pleases the Father.

The universal sign of surrender is hands raised high in the air with the palms facing outwards.  In every language, it is understood as complete surrender.  Hands lifted high with palms facing out declares one has no weapons, can cause no harm, and gives full, unconditional surrender. 

When the BORN AGAIN raise their hands unto God in prayer, praise, and adoration, the Bible compares the action to the “evening sacrifice.”  Psalm 141:2:

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

We become the sacrifice as we surrender our lives unto Christ our Saviour.  Romans calls this “a living sacrifice.”  Romans 12:1:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Pay close attention: The lifting up of the hands, the act of total, unconditional surrender, is just what Jesus did on Calvary’s hill where He paid the price of our redemption, breaking Satan’s death grip on all the lost sons and daughters of Adam that will call upon His name. Jesus Christ, who had been given the authority by the Father to stop the crucifixion in its tracks, instead chose to surrender Himself to the will of the Father with His hands lifted high and His palms facing outward.  When Jesus said, “it is finished,” (John 19:30), all power and authority was given unto Him and His church.  At that moment, Satan’s power over the blood-bought was finished.  The Cross of Christ required total surrender to the Father, with hands lifted high and palms facing outward.  Here, Satan is broken. 

Luke 9:23:

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

As children of God, we are called to take up our cross daily as Jesus did, with hands lifted high and palms facing outward, in total surrender…a living sacrifice.  With this understanding in mind, your worship will take on a beautiful new dimension. Imagine the next time you lift your hands high with palms facing outward in total surrender that you are actually and most literally making the sign of the Cross.

When ministering in our small, country church, and I look out at the saints with their hands lifted up and palms facing outward, I see them making the sign of the Cross, for that’s how Jesus looked hanging on His Cross on Golgotha’s hill.

Everything revolves around Jesus Christ because this pleases the Father. 

GOD SAID, Colossians 1:19:

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

GOD SAID, Psalm 141:2:

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

GOD SAID, Luke 9:23:

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

MAN SAID: Have I read the whole Bible clear through? Have I read just one book of the Bible?  Have I read even just a single page of the Bible?  Well, those answers are no, no, and no.  Why would I bother when everyone knows it’s not true?  It isn’t, is it? 

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “More than Astounding (Because this Pleases the Father), Part 1”

GodSaidManSaid, “Part 1: A Ram Caught in the Thicket & Armageddon”

GodSaidManSaid, “The Theory of Everything—Reading the Mind of God”

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