Old Jerry

Christ is coming soon and we are to be ready for it. It will be the most glorious day in history. It should inspire hope because it will be exciting. It should inspire self-control and soberness because Christ isn’t going to be calling everybody into the sky. Our lives are useless and reckless when we don’t really expect Christ to come soon.

The basis of Christian joy is in Jesus Christ. When we get next to Jesus our joy just overflows. The way that this joy inter-plays with human emotions is that we seem to be happy when other people see us. We do things with a smile. I don’t think that it is essentially emotional it is something that is within us. Joy is an inner thing where the pursuit of “happiness” is outwork thing. You can tell the genuine article of joy by the way the person acts.

I can remember a time when God used difficult circumstances to refine and purity my faith. This happens when I go out on mission trips. There seems to always be situations that test my faith. God has made me a more compassionate person. When these situations were resolved it always brings glory to God.

God’s part in securing my salvation is to protect me and my part is to have faith that He will do that.

If we want to be forgiven we must obey God. One of the things that we have to do is repent which means to turn our life around and obey God. Grace is what we get when we receive the Holy Spirit. After that we are trying to please the Holy Spirit and in order to do that we need to show our works.

I would identify a Christian who identifies more with his present homeland than his heavenly one as one that is lost. I have caught myself doing this but then something happens to being me back to my spiritual home.

The meaning “to seek his face” is that you are trying to be intimately close to him. He is all that you want. We need the desire for that because we are going to be reigning with Him and we will need to know what He is like. Moses’ talk “face to face” changed Moses because he was able to be personal with Him. It will also change us in the same way. It doesn’t cost anything but time to actively seek Him. But it is worth everything that we do. To seek his face is the theme of the Glorious Kingdom because that is where we will ultimately end up if we seek Him.

I don’t know how I would be able to describe the Holy City. I can’t even describe a beautiful sunset or sunrise. I can’t even describe looking over a visa and describing the beauty of things I see. That is only the earthly things so to describe heavenly things for me would be impossible.

To “rule and reign” with Christ now in this life means that we are taking care of the things that He has given to us by way of our spiritual gifts. I think that it will be interesting to see what it means to rule after Christ returns. I think that it is one of the things to look forward to. It will be a Glorious Kingdom and it will be interesting how I will fit in it.

Matthew tells us that when Christ returns there will be a sign in the sky and that we will be able to see Jesus coming in the cloud in the sky. Then He will send forth the angels to gather His elect from all over the world. This is the person that Daniel’s prophecy of the Son of Man he is talking about.

The sense that we are to rule and reign in Christ’s Kingdom administration now is to be following Jesus’s example. We must be talking to God and meditating on his word so we can reign now. The world would be wonderful. We would all get along and work together and we would all be praising Jesus Christ. I have be thinking about ruling and reigning with Christ and I just don’t know what that would be like. Everybody thinking and working together what a wonder world that would be.

Jesus is still the spiritual authority that we have to carry out our ministries. The reason that we believers neglect to exercise our God-given Kingdom author is because we don’t fully believe in it. We may not have the faith to believe in this authority.

When a believer suffer it makes his or her witness more credible to the world because people can see that we are suffering in peace. We can still peak of our saving Lord even while we suffering. We know that God has put His word in us which is the “jars of clay” but it isn’t about us it is about Him therefore we have the “all surpassing power”. The “treasure” that is contained in us is Jesus Christ. We don’t “believe in yourself” we believe in the one that created us.

If we are honoring Jesus and not doing the things that the world is doing then we are the “light of the world” To let you light shine means we should be doing good works like Jesus has told us to do. The character and action that a believer’s life brings glory to the Father is the character and actions that Jesus himself would do. We were created to do good works so that we can show the world our faith in Jesus Christ.

It is God that makes us hunger for Him. The things that tend to deplete this hunger is not studying Him or just walking without him. One of the things that have made me hunger for God and to be renewed to great intensity is fasting.

I like to think that our “light, momentary afflictions” brings me closer to God. This achieves for us an “eternal weight of glory” because we know that this affliction isn’t going to last long and we have something better to look forward to. Suffering can work God’s character in my life because when I suffer I want to get closer to God therefore or I try to do the things that God wants me to.

The effect on a believer from continued exposure to God’s presence is that they will change. They will try to be more like God and try to please Him. I don’t know why believers remain spiritual infants, maybe they are not believing what they are reading or maybe they don’t read and study the Bible as often as they should. The deep exposure to God transforms a person because we can see what He is like and we want to be like Him.

To me to “behold his glory” means that when I am doing God’s work I get the feeling that I am getting more out of what I am doing then what I am putting into it. I have experienced this every time I go on a mission trip or deliver meals to the elderly. To experience this on a regular basis would be to be doing those things all the time. I am the one that keeps me from experiencing this on a regular basis.

The Son of Man has authority over everything. He glorifies everything. We are using Jesus to intercede for us so we use His name in our prayers. We have all the powers that Jesus has if we just believe. We limit the exercise of this power because of our belief and faith.

Jesus’ glory was displayed in his trial and crucifixion when He didn’t answer any of the questions. He was letting God speak for Him. In the resurrection that is when He came into all his glory. The thief on the cross and the centurion supervising the crucifixion could see his glory because of what happened when Jesus was put on the cross.

Jesus’ glory was displayed through his transfiguration and miracles by God bringing praises to Him. Jesus also praised God because when Lazarus came to life again Jesus said to God that it was his glory that had brought him to life again.

Jesus’ glory and kingly authority began in the beginning while they were making all things. While He was on earth they were hidden because he because one of us. The sense that they were still present was because of the miracles that He did.

Yes, the Kingdom of God is present now in the sense that we still get to see miracles. There isn’t many limitations of this Kingdom’s power if we are willing to follow God’s instructions. If God gives us the intuition to do something then He will also give us the power to accomplish the task. Only in God’s Kingdom can we do that. The full Kingdom of God will be fully manifested to all when Jesus returns.

The understanding that I have about Jesus’ saying should be “in your midst.” This means that Jesus is with us all the time and we can see His reflection in the true believers in Jesus which is our midst.

The “Messiah” to the Jews meant that someone was going to save them from the Romans. Daniel’s Son of Man exceed this understanding because He came to save the whole world especially their souls if they would believe in Him. Jesus primarily used the term Son of Man instead of Messiah or Son of God so that the Jews would not turn on Him and stone Him to death before He could get His message out.