What if you have an unrespecting guest while your house in mess? You would probably have quick greeting and shut the door. Or you may invite the person in your house and would say that you are sorry that the house is in mess. What if this guest is a person from the church who likes to share with you the love of Jesus Christ?

In this series, we will look to many aspects of Christmas tradition and the Christianity. But also on this series, we will look to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and today’s Church. Before we read the passage, consider to these questions. Why we celebrate the birth of our Savior? What was the earliest church tradition of Christmas? And how we celebrate this holiday today? We may not go through all three questions at once, but we will go into them through this study series.

Please, let’s read Luke 1:29-33 together.

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." (Luke 1:29-33.)

In this passage, we have found that the angel was going to announce great news to Mary. But Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be (Luke 1:29). Why she felt greatly trouble in her heart? I think that she was afraid because God would judge her. Or she was filled with fear because she never had been seen one of God’s angels in her life. We do not know why Mary was greatly troubled in her heart, but she let the angel to speak.

In our generation, some of us have fear of God as Zechariah and Mary did. But the most people might have the fear of something else, such as the school board administration, government, and court. Nowadays, many school students can’t spend their time with God in the campus. ACLU has refused the name of God in many schools and prohibited the sexual education in the public school. To have successful life before we enter the eternal life, we need to pay attention to God as Mary did.

In Luke 1:30, an angel of the Lord began to say Mary that she doesn’t have to be afraid, because she has found a favor with God. What favor? God gave this woman a favor to be the mother of Jesus. This doesn’t mean that Mary began to reveal her divine nature of the creation. Most today’s Paganism teaches on the Holy Mother Mary as the Mother of God, which the people of Israel practiced to worship their gods (Jeremiah 44). Throughout the research on the pagan religion, this is the most common misinterpretation about Mary in the Roman Catholic Church. There is no scriptural reference about God asked to be His mother. I am not trying to criticize our sisters and brothers of Christ in Catholic Church rather than telling you the truth of the Word of God and the Christianity.

Listen when the one of Catholic members asked about Mary: I would like to know why the Bible doesn't tell much about Virgin Mary. This question came from the Website is called Just for Catholics. It is the Website that would help those who want to know the difference between the Roman Catholicism and the true concept of the Christianity. This is what Just for Catholics (www.justforcatholics.org) response to the question:

“It is true, the Bible does not say much about Mary - though it tells us enough about her that we should know. She is the virgin mother of our Lord, whom God chose by His grace. And for the unique privilege she will ever be called blessed by all Christians.

“The Roman Catholic doctrines about Mary, namely, the perpetual virginity, the immaculate conception, the ascension to heaven, Queen of Heaven, mediatrix, and others are conspicuously absent from the Bible.

“Why so? Simply because the Bible is a book about Another person, who was chosen and appointed by God to be the mediator and savior of the world. That person is Jesus Christ.

“’The Lord Jesus said: “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). The Bible is the Book about the Lord Jesus Christ. “

God called Mary to be in His favor, not because creating another religion, but bring Jesus to save His people from the bondage of their and our sins.

Read Luke 1:31. The angel says that Mary will be with child and give a birth to a son. In Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah prophesied this before the coming of Messiah, which is Jesus Christ. The name Jesus came from the word Joshua, which it means Savior or Justus. In the Bible, the name Jesus mentioned as Joshua twice and 1,975 times mention for Justus, which it means the word just or justice. He is the justice God among all nations. You and I can have God who is the justice and love us. There is no other gods like Him.

In Luke 1:32-33, the angel announces that Jesus will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; God will give Him the throne of David and He will rule over the House of Jacob forever. In Psalms 2:7, God said, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” In 2 Samuel 7:14 and 1 Chronicles 17:13, He said, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son.”

The word Christmas has nothing do with the birth of our Savior, because it came from the people own idea to make a worldwide holiday. If you read Luke 1 and 2, there was no fancy decoration around the barn. If we turn to Jeremiah 10, the people of Israel decorated the tree to turn against God. According to the historical document, Christmas was originated from the Paganism and it Christianized by the Roman Catholic Church in about between 300s and 440s AD.

As we read in Jeremiah 10, the people of Israel made themselves gods through the decoration of tree. But the celebration of Jesus’ birth has brought the meaningful in our own life. He came to the world, so we may be saved to the eternal destiny that where God wants us to be. Again, it is God’s grace through Jesus Christ to you to be saved. It is not our choices to live in His kingdom, because Jesus said clear that He choose us to be set apart from this world (John 15:19). If we love the world, then we are not His (John 15:19a). Do you belong to this world or to God’s kingdom? Once you make the decision of your life to accept Jesus Christ, you will see the huge difference from your old to new life.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this ministry is to share with you how much God loves you and me and wants to come in our own life to take us through any obstacles in our daily life. As Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occultisms in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Before the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, Isaiah prophesied that there would be Messiah coming to the world to show the light of truth. Throughout his book, Isaiah explained and characterized this Messiah and His life and death. For example, in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, he gave us the future description of the suffering of God’s servant, which is the death of Jesus Christ that explained in the four books of Gospel. But before that, Isaiah prophesied on the virgin woman that we are going to look in Luke 1.

In Isaiah 7:14 declares, “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The Virgin will be pregnant. She will have a son, and she will name him Immanuel.” The word “virgin” is the Hebrew term means “a young woman.” It often means a girl who was not married and had not yet had sexual relations. As we read in Luke 1, we find that this virgin has to be Mary from the town of David. Again, we have known that Mary is a virgin and received a son is called “Immanuel.” Some of the Bible translations in the New Testament are written as Emmanuel. The word “Immanuel” or “Emmanuel” is simply meant, “God is with us.” As we read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, God was with His people at their trials of life and He explained us His love and mercy by dying at the cross and resurrected to Heaven. And we read in the final chapter of His plan that He will come back to us again and take us His home, and then He will destroy all the armies of Evil One to put them into Hell.

Read with me in Luke 1:26-28.

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.”

In this text, in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent Gabriel to Virgin Mary to announce the Good News. This message was going to be blast to the whole country of Israel, because throughout the Old Testament, the people were waiting for the Messiah to come. Of course, they didn’t recognize when He came to the world as John 1:11 declared. Why? Why they didn’t recognize Him as their Father and King?

Look into today’s world. We didn’t know what would happen to World Trade Center before the 9/11 airplane hijackers crashed. Did we prepare to meet our enemies before that day? Why we so focused on our daily schedules and haven’t focused on God’s plan? If we follow God’s ways of human’s life, we wouldn’t miss the target of our enemies. If the Israelites obey the words of prophets, they wouldn’t miss the Messiah. They would celebrate His coming with Mary and Joseph. What if we do not recognize the Second Coming of Jesus and miss Him before the beginning of the Great Tribulation? What would we do?

In Luke 1:26, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth. There are two kinds of angels living between the heaven and this world. One of them is belonged to God and another is belonged to Satan. One of the days, God’s angels are going to battle against the armies of Satan. As we are living, the enemies of Christ gather to plan against the land of Israel. Now, the people of the world are planning to make One World Religion as the part of New World Order Plan through many national projects, such as the New Jerusalem Covenant Project through many Jewish and Christian denominations. About certain percentage of the world population will die because of the world tragedies, especially in Israel.

Throughout the Bible we see the people were struggling against their opponents. Good vs. Bad. In this case of Luke, Gabriel was a messenger from God. He was with Daniel when he explained the interpretation of Daniel’s vision (Daniel 8-9). He was with Zechariah when he delivered God’s message about John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-17, 19-20). Now, Gabriel is talking to Mary, a virgin who pledged to be a wife of Joseph, who came from David’s family.

As we see in Luke 1:26, this miraculous had taken place in Nazareth. It is located at farther north from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. As we read in Matthew 2, Joseph and Mary went down to Bethlehem to receive their Son. Micah prophesied this before the birth of Jesus: “But, you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6.) According to genealogies of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-37), He came from the family of the Old Testament. Matthew recorded the family of Jesus since the son of David, the son of Abraham. In contrast with Luke, he drew the family line since the day of Adam’s birth. As we look in John 1, there was the Word and the Word was with God in the beginning of His creation. We read in Colossians, Paul wrote, “He is the image of the indivisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things were hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17.)

In II Samuel 7, God promised to David that his son, Solomon, will build a Temple for Him. Also, God promised to David that his house and his kingdom will endure forever before the Almighty God. His throne will be established forever. God blessed David and anointed as a king of Israel through Samuel. Jesus is the Lion of Judah, because He came from the Tribe of Judah and David. That is the word form as Jewish. Most of Jewish people do not accept Jesus as their Savior, because they only depend on the Old Testament way to understand God’s character. Do you have the real picture or understanding of Jesus Christ’s character in your life?

The next verse, in Luke 1:27, is that a virgin woman, Mary, pledged to marry Joseph, who came from a descendant of David. If we look into Mary and Joseph, they were planning to divorce because he found that she was pregnant before their sexual relationship (Matthew 1:18-19). The NIV Student Bible said that is considering to Matthew 1:18-20, “Jewish custom in Joseph and Mary’s day recognized a state called ‘betrothal’ that feel somewhere between our modern commitments of engagement and marriage. A betrothal was binding than an engagement: It could only be broken with an act of divorce. And if a betrothal woman became pregnant, she was regarded as adulteress.” But an angel of the Lord said, in Joseph’s dream, which he considered not to divorce Mary because she found God’s favor in her (Matthew 1:20-21; Luke 1:28).

As we look at the beginning of Jesus’ life, what we, as Christian, would do when God calls us for His favor. There are so many ways to apart ourselves from God. Our entertainment schedules are becoming the most important activity in our own life. According to the search I’ve been doing, Dr. James Dobson, from the Focus on Family, and Chuck Colson promote the movie, Henry Potter, to the family leisure activity. All the magical and action movies are considered as the family activities. From the biblical aspect on the this and other movies that are related to witchcraft and fantasy, God warned us to apart from these activities (Leviticus 14:26; Deuteronomy 13:1-11). Instead, He called us to be His children and live in His kingdom with Him in love and peace, forever.

God called us to be in His family. According to Galatians 6:10, Paul said, “When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.” These believers could be your family, friends, neighbors, and/or employers, who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savor. In Hebrews 2:11 says, “Jesus, who makes people holy, and those who are made holy are from the same family. So he is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.” Do you have close family and/or friends who close to you and close to Jesus Christ? “It is time for judgment to begin with God’s family. And if that judging begins with us, what will happen to those people who do not obey the Good News of God?” (I Peter 2:17.)

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this ministry is to share with you how much God loves you and me and wants to come in our own life to take us through any obstacles in our daily life. As Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occultisms in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Have you asked God an awkward question about why this and why is that? Have you refused to listen to someone and you miss the opportunity? We all had experienced some rejections or miss the opportunity in our own life. From Luke 1:18-20, we will see how Zechariah misses the opportunity and needs to face the punishment until his son’s birth.

From the last two studies, we looked at John the Baptist’s family background and what an angel of the Lord had spoken to Zechariah. In Luke 1:13-17 says, “But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord. And he will go before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteousness—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’”

Remember Malachi prophesied that there was going to be a messenger before the Lord (Mal 3:1). The angel prophesied that this messenger will be a joy and delight to Zechariah, and many will rejoice because of his birth (Luke 1:14). Also, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and power of Elijah to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:15-17). But there was a conflict in the heart of Zechariah. Let’s read in Luke 1:18.

“Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

In this verse, Zechariah asked the angel a good question, but he blew it by adding how old his wife and he was. Let’s begin with his question: How can I be sure of this? When Moses climbed up to the burning bush and met the Lord, he asked Him how he could bring the people of Israel escape from Egypt. “How can I be sure of this is You, Lord?” Moses would ask. As we read in Exodus 3-4, we see that God gave Moses some of the signs He made. In Luke 1:13, an angel of the Lord said to Zechariah that his prayer has been heard. God will answer your prayer if you put your faith and trust in Him.

But we cannot argue against God. Paul asked us a question of arguing against God, “Does not the potter have the right to make out the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” (Romans 9:21.) It is hard for us not to argue against our families for what is the best for us as individual. As in Luke 1:18b, we find some excuses not to obey our parents. But do not mix with Matthew 10:34-36 on gaining God’s messages to our own life and obeying our own people. As God said, we need to honor our parents (Deuteronomy 5:16).

Do you know why the American families have created many problems? One of the reasons is that they do not have the relationship with the One who created of this world. We could worship Buddha or Hindu, but does he give the answer to our problems? How is our material thing? Do they give the solution to our financial issues? Buddha, Hindu, or other gods from any otherworld religions can’t answer the prayer of our needs. Even some Christian denomination groups worship the idols, such as the Mother Nature of the creation, rather than God, by misinterpreting the Scripture. Only Jesus can answer to our requests, because He proved Himself to be our God by showing us His resurrection and His love and justice. The only way He can answer to our prayers is that we don’t need to excuse ourselves from Him.

Read Luke 1:19-22 and see why Zechariah can’t speak. He rejected the Word of God’s promise by excusing himself. In this text, Zechariah saw a vision—a vision from God. We do not know how long he was in the Temple, but we understand that he saw a messenger of the Lord.

Now he can’t speak to his people for days rather than making signs (Luke 1:22). But look when Elizabeth became pregnant. “When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and five months remained in seclusion. ‘The Lord has been done this for me,’ she said. ‘In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.’” (Luke 1:23-25.) Are you the one of them, who wants doing God’s favor in your life? Take a break time from your regular hours and give your time to Jesus Christ.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this ministry is to share with you how much God loves you and me and wants to come in our own life to take us through any obstacles in our daily life. As Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occultisms in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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From the previous study, we looked at the background of John the Baptist’s parents, Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and his wife, Elizabeth, a descendant of Aaron (Luke 1:5). Zechariah and Elizabeth were “upright in the sight of God” as Luke reported. Of course, we looked to their marriage and how we could have successful single and/or marriage life in Jesus Christ as priesthood. In I Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful life.” That’s from the New Century Version. Revelation 17:8 tells us that whose names are not written in the book of life since the beginning of the world. What is this mean that God keeps record what we did with the salvation of Jesus Christ, while we are on the earth, and He will judge us according to that gift of salvation. If God didn’t find one of our names in the book of life will go to the eternal death.

Read with me in Luke 1:11-17.

“Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him [Zechariah], standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord. And he will go before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteousness—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’”

Luke 1:11 tells us that angel was appeared to Zechariah at the right side of altar of incense. To me, it seems that Zechariah was in the Temple of the Lord. From the Old Testament, the Temple was the Israelites place of worship. It was the most magnificent by King Solomon. As we see at the end of II Chronicles, the Babylonian destroyed the Temple, because the Israelites turned against God. From the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we see that the people of Israelites began to rebuild the Temple.

As we see in the verse 11 in Luke 1, an angel or messenger of the Lord appeared to Zechariah at the right side of the altar of incense. This is the most significant of phrase. Throughout the Bible we read about the right hand of God. In the Book of Revelation said that Jesus is sitting at the right side of God. But, wait, what is on the left side? Do this mean people, who use their left hands, would directly go to the Hell? I don’t think so, because Jesus said that God so loved the world that He gave us His Son to save us from the world (John 3:16-17). He prayed at the last moment of His life before the crucifixion, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (John 17:15.)

As we see Zechariah’s emotion in Luke 1:12, he was afraid when he saw the angel. We will see how Mary responds to the angel with this kind of emotion. The NIV Bible says that Zechariah was startled and was gripped with fear. What if you had a nightmare on the End Time, would you be scared? Daniel said that he became weak and sick for several days after he saw the vision of End Time (Daniel 8:27a). There is no doubts about we are living at very last day of our breaths. As we look at the events around today’s globe, we see many tragedies in Israel, the land that God puts the foundation of the world.

Look in Luke 1:13. The angel said to Zechariah that he does not be afraid. We do not have to be afraid when it comes to the crisis. Isaiah 55:8-9, the Lord says, “My thoughts are not like your thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Do not fear when it comes to crisis in your or my relationships. The word fear means afraid or setting our emotions in awkward situation. It also can be as in painful situation, especially in broken relationship, for at a certain amount of time. Do not fear when your or my business has been crashed down. Because on the second part of Luke 1:13 says “your prayer has been heard.” God has a great plan for each of our life (see Hebrews 11:40). He also said that He has a future and hope for our own life (see Jeremiah 29:11). We can’t go wrong, if we put God in our lives and trust Him and not lean under own understanding way in life (see Proverbs 3:5-6), because God told us so.

Read Luke 1:13c and see what God would do for Zechariah and Elizabeth. From Luke 1:13-17, the angel said to Zechariah that God would give you a boy in their old ages. In Genesis 21:1-7, we see how God had promised and gave Abraham and Sarah a child, Isaac. Isaac means laugher. Here was when God gave the first Patriarch a son, Isaac. As we continue read through Genesis, we see that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the Patriarch of the land of Israel, which it forms to twelve tribes of Israel from twelve sons of Israel or Jacob. This will lead to the 144,000 of Israelites that God will save before the Antichrist will show himself to the media (Revelation 7:1-8), plus those whose are living for Jesus Christ will be saved. But let’s go back to John the Baptist. Now we come to the description of John the Baptist that an angel is going to announce. (Next time, we will finish on this message series before we look to Mary and Elizabeth.)

As we read in Luke 1:14-15a, the angel of the Lord prophesied that John the Baptist will bring such a joy to the people and he will be great in the sight of the Lord. According to John 1, Matthew 3, and Luke 3, John the Baptist was preaching God’s message to the people by repenting their sins. Look in the second part of that verse, John will not drink any alcohol and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit (as Luke wrote about the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-13). In John 14:16-17a, Jesus promised His disciples that He will ask His Father to bring the Holy Spirit upon them, which will be fulfilled in Acts 1. Do you have the Holy Spirit in your present life? I’m not writing this message from my own idea, because the Bible declares that no one can contact with God unless the Holy Spirit would agree with God. We have the three persons inside in us. They are the soul, the spirit, and the living God. In the marriage, we would have God or material things, mate, and ourselves in our life. To have successful marriage, each of us needs God first.

In Luke 1:16-17, the angel declared that forerunner for Messiah will bring the people to God and he will go before Him to prepare the coming of Christ. “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6.)

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this ministries is to share with you how much God loves you and me and wants to come in our own life to take us through any obstacles in our daily life. As Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occultisms in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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On the week of August 29, 2005, the category between 3 and 5 Katrina Hurricane hits the most of southern states of United States, such as in New Orleans, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Many millions of people lost their home and their loved ones on that week. About 80 percent of land in New Orleans covered with water as if it happened on the day of Noah (Genesis 6-9). Many people who were in the southern coast are trying to survive with no where else to go and no food to eat.

Now, after this tragedy storm, many governments, churches, construction workers, and others around the United States are trying to help the victims with providing them to travel to shelters in other places, food, drink, medication needs, blankets, beds, money, and etc. Many news reports are gathering in southern states to inform us what's happening in the wealthiest lands.

Have you wondered why this country has many hurricanes during summer and other natural disaster? Have you why God let the people suffer from the natural disaster on innocent people? If we look back to what happened in Washington, DC and Pentagon, on September 11, 2001, many people were hurting, suffering, and worries, because some Islamic leaders were trying to hurt the United States.

Although some of us may understand why God allows this country suffer from many natural storms, earthquakes, and rebellion religious leaders, He does this for good reasons. Some storms may create from Satan and try to destroy us, but God is trying to reach to us to bring us to Him.

Read with me in Matthew 24:7.

Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

In Mathew 24, Jesus told His disciple about what kind of judgment that God will bring on earth on the last day. For us, in this chapter of Matthew, it tells us what happened in past, what's happening now, and what will be happening in near future. Matthew 24 is the miniature book of Revelation.

I understand that many prophecy teachers use Matthew 24 to predict the future events, such as the wrath of God. But I'm not going to talk more on the last day of prophecy; instead I would like discuss what's happening on the world right now and how we can survive from any storms and God's wrath.

A son of Pat Robertson, Gordon (Vice President of CBN) said, "The storm can happen at anywhere in anytime."

We all have to face storms in our lives sometime. Having storms in our lives can teach us life lessons and help us to increase our faiths in Jesus Christ. If you don't like to face the problems, it doesn't matter, because they will come to you. Look what Peter did to increase his faith when he saw Jesus was walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-33). Even though Peter was scared to walk on the water to Jesus, he tried to challenge himself to increase his faith. Unfortunately, he doubted the challenge.

The storm that the southern states had was like what Peter tried to do the challenge. Even though many people dead or survived from the Katrina, God was there in the midst of the storm.

The storm was their wake-up call from God. As the tragedy of 9/11, God was trying to call us to wake up from our dreamlands and it's time to surrender our wills to Him.

Some today's preachers proclaim that God will not judge this wealth and bless country, United States of America. I have a bad news for those who believe this. Although this country was founded by the foundation of God's Word, our country will not escape from God's wrath. If we look back from the history of America earliest time through now, we see many things have changed from the Christian value that our forefathers had. Nowadays, many Christians cannot have freedom to pray and read the Holy Bible at the public community; and the other religious people can free to express their religious values in anywhere. Since we let the other religions have the freedom in this country, our Christian value becomes weaker.

The Bible says that God will begin to judge those who are in His house (I Peter 4:17). He will not judge us according to our works, but He will judge us according to what we have done with the gift of salvation.

Let me ask you this question: What would you do if the hurricane hit your house? Although our country seems to be the most success nation, the storm is still going to hit our land and God will test on us with the storm.

Are you and loved ones ready for the return of Jesus Christ? If you are already have insurance to the eternally, are you ready to meet the people who are victims of Katrina Hurricane and/or who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior and introduce them the Lord Jesus Christ?

Katrina Hurricane 2005 may seem to be end of southern states history, but God is not going to end of people's breathe. This may be the beginning for the people to have a second chance to live their lives for Him. God would like let people to have revival in their lives by turning their hearts to Him.

How's about you? Are you ready to have a revival in your life? We do not have much time to live in this world. God will count down to the final day of our human history; then He will bring the judgment to the earth to wipe out all the evildoers and unrepentant persons before He would take us to the New Earth to live with Him forever.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, "That if you confess with your mouth, `Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, "That if you confess with your mouth, `Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Before the coming of the Messiah, there was a prophecy about the messenger, who was going to prepare the way for the Almighty One. In John 1, every person thought he was Elijah or the Prophet (John 1:21) when he preached the Good News of God’s Kingdom. As it is written in the Old Testament, "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way—a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him." (Mark 1:2-3 from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:1.) That person was John the Baptist. In the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we will see his character and mission for the Messiah to come. But before we look to John the Baptist’s characters, we need to look how he was arrived to this physical world.

As every person in the world came from their parents, John the Baptist came from the loving and godly people named Zechariah and Elizabeth. In today’s text, we will look to his parents’ background and how does this passage can be related to our society. If you have Bible on the side of you, turn to Luke 1:5-10; otherwise, you can read the passage that is next two paragraphs.

"In the time of Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well; along in years.

"Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside." (Luke 1:5-10.)

In this passage, we found that this event happened during the reign of King Herod. Also, it was a time of depression in the land of Israel, because they were begging for the Messiah to bring the peace. In the next chapter of Luke, Caesar Augustus issued decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world (2:1), which caused everyone went to his town to register (2:3).

In Luke 1:5, there was a priest named Zechariah, who lived during the reign of King Herod in Judea. As we look at Zechariah, he was a faithful man and priest, who came from the division of Abijah. Abijah means "God is my father." As we read in the Old Testament, there was Samuel’s corruption son (I Samuel 8:3) and a descendant of Aaron who led the eighth division of service in David’s sanctuary (I Chronicles 24:10). Also, Zechariah had a wife named Elizabeth, who was also a descendant of Aaron (Luke 1:5c). In Luke 1:6 says that they were upright in the sight of God, observing His commandments and regulation blamelessly.

As we look to their marriage life, let’s look into our world point view on the marriage. When I was at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, I met couple Christian people who shared with me their pass marriage life. As we discussed on the issue, they demonstrated me what they missed in their lives that caused in broken relationship with Jesus Christ. As we see on the media, many people would want to have marriage life because of the lack of love. Hebrews 13:4-5 says, "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’" If you are single as I am, don’t pressure yourself to try to find your mate, because God said that He will take care of your needs and He will celebrate the wedding feast with you in His place. Is the Church, which it represents as His bride?

In Luke 1:7 tells us that Zechariah and his wife had no children because of their old ages. Why God didn’t give them children? As we look Abraham and Sarah, God them a son, Isaac. But when the couple are faithful to God daily, He does not leave in one place. Instead, He waits until they are ready for a child. For instant, when I pray to God, He waits until I am waiting to receive His answer. Maybe you have a situation where you are not getting the answer to your needs.

But nowadays, some couples would decide to have long-term relationship and decide to astray from God. We see the news about the number of the people who decide divorce from each other or to have abortion—a murder of unborn baby. Yes, the baby came from God, and He will answer to your needs, but abortion is not an option. It will take a time. Even Zechariah and Elizabeth can refuse the waiting period that God is going to give a child, but they obeyed the Lord, as we will go further to see in Luke 1.

From Luke 1:8 to 1:10, we see that Zechariah was on the duty before God as being as priesthood. The Greek word for "priesthood" is hierateuma. It denotes "a priesthood" (akin to hierateuo), "a body of priests," consisting of all believers, the whole church (not a special order from among them), called "a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:5.)." It’s "a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)," the former term is associated with offering spiritual sacrifices, the latter with the royal dignity of showing forth the Lord's Excellencies.

As in Luke 1:9, Zechariah was chosen by lot and according to the custom of the priesthood. In the Old Testament, God chose the people of Levite, a descendant of Levi who serve God and worked in the temple. Priests were Levites, but not all of them, some had lesser duties. "And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside." (Luke 1:10.)

In the New Testament said that those who believe in Him is called a holy priest. "But you are a chosen people, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." (I Peter 2:9.) Even Jesus gave us the Great Commission to tell about the Good News of His kingdom (Matthew 28:18-20). In the household, we are called to serve each other.

When we come to the marriage, there is a different rule between the husband and wife to live God’s way. In I Timothy 2, Paul said that a man should be ahead of his household. The woman does not allow to teach or to have authority over a man, but to listen quietly (I Timothy 2:12). But the women should be reverent in the way they live (Titus 2:3a). As we read Titus 2:3-6, Paul told us that the job description for women should be supposed to do in the family. Nowadays, there are some marry women go out to work and make salary for families. From Genesis 1 to Genesis 2, God created the universe with His mighty hand and He created Adam, the first person that He ever created. Adam was a man, who lived in the Garden. God called Adam to have dominion over the earth. Then He created a woman, Eve, from the one of Adam’s bones. God didn’t call Eve to have the same right that Adam received. But when we see in Genesis 3, the serpent tricked Eve to understand what’s good and what’s bad, which caused Eve received the same right as Adam. To have successful marriage life as in priesthood, we need to let God gives us the duty assignment of household.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this ministries is to share with you how much God loves you and me and wants to come in our own life to take us through any obstacles in our daily life. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occultisms in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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In the first four books of the New Testament (NT) of the Bible is on the life of the Jesus. The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are four different eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life. Although they each tell about the same person, in the same location, during the same time in the history, they each told their stories from their unique perspective.

Some biblical scholars think the four books of the Gospel are for four main geographical regions of the world. As Matthew published his book on Jesus, his book was for the Jewish audience, this links the OT (Old Testament) and NT (New Testament). His view on Jesus as the Messiah ("Anointed One" or "Christ") and King promised in the OT. Matthew emphasizes Jesus’ authority and power.

The Gospel of [John] Mark would probably be written for those were pragmatic Roman readers. His Gospel stressed action and gave a straightforward, blow-by-blow account of Jesus’ work on earth.

John has a different, more reflective style than the other Gospel. Its author selected seven signs that pointed to Jesus as the Son of God and wove together everything else to underscore to that point. His Gospel would probably be written those were non-Jews or Christians. Many church leaders pointed that this book is good starting point to walk with God in the daily basis for the young Christians.

Lastly in between the two books of Mark and John, Gospel of Luke. Luke was also a fine writer of the NT period. He was a doctor or some kind of research specialist. He stressed the births of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. In Luke 1:1-4, he said, "Many have undertaken to draw an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty things you have been taught."

The next several weeks, we will study and deal with the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke. There are several theories of behind of this Christmas story. Some researchers might think that it is all about the symbolism of planets, religions, mythical goddess, and/or tight into the end of the world. But, here, I would like to share the story of Christmas with you in christianology, direct information from the Word of God, not from the human point view.

All the four books of the Gospel are about the Good News of Jesus Christ. They tell us that God brought His Son, Jesus, to save us from our sins in once for all. Although Dr. Luke wrote the second volume of the Gospel, Book of Acts, he emphasized the importance of the Church (Greek word for katholikos or in English word for catholic or the universal church) world after Jesus went to the Heaven.

In the books of the Gospel tells us about how Jesus came to the world as baby in a manger, but in the Book of Revelation gives the description of how Jesus Christ will come again as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16). In the books of the Gospel, Jesus faced many sufferings and trials while He was on the earth, but as we read in the final chapter of the Bible, He will come back to defeat Satan and his armies. In the books of the Gospel, He went back to the Heaven and be with His Father, but in the Book of Revelation, He will come back to take us His kingdom as He promised in John 14:1-4. Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17)

But, sadly, in our modern day of the Church, many of us have really focused on the things in this world and have little thought about the kingdom of God. We might usually hear the word of our preachers about Christian family, marriage, financial issues, and our cultural issues, but we might do not hear about His kingdom and/or hell as often.

Yes, many church leaders might have the fear of teaching of the true identity of the Gospel, such as in Matthew 10:34-36. If your family or mine do not gain the truth of God and still follow their tradition ways of the Christian life, and you or I have received the truth from God everyday, then we have to choose to determine to follow our people or God to live in Christian life. We cannot live in two ways of life for God while we are still living with our family members. We can try to witness them by our actions. Jesus didn't say that He came to the world for not bringing peace to the world, but a sword (Matthew 10:34). In Hebrews 4:12-13 says, "For the word of God is living and active. Shaper than any double-edge sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

As we conclude this portion of the study series, let us think in which ways that we can live for God. So many of us would think that we are living in a right way and preaching the Good News of Jesus and His kingdom in a right way, but at the bottom line is that we do in wrong ways to pass God's Word to the other. Since the tragedy of 9/11, I wanted to know what this tragedy had to do with the End Time. As I spent with one of my Christian friends and searched the Scriptures and other resources from the Internet during my last 8 months at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center, God gave me more understanding of the Holy Scripture on the world event since the 9/11. Once I have the absolute truth of God, I cannot stop growing from my spiritual life. Yes, there is a time when Satan tempts me, but I cannot stop searching for the Scripture, because of God. And I cannot stop to share God's Word with you, family of Jesus Christ. His Word is the true way to live in the physical world.

Are you ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ when He would return to rapture members of His Church? Are your family and your friends ready to meet the Savior of their lives? If you are lukewarm with your relationship with Christ and want to have that relationship back, please consider confessing all your sins to Him and He will forgive your sins at once for all and will give you the rest.

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Have you noticed in today’s American world that which sex of human does have the most of house and outside duty? If we look into the business world, we would see that the most of women would sit in the office and work for her family. According to the study of psychology that one of what woman need within marriage is the financial support. As we will see in Genesis 3, the problem of marriage would spread it out.

But, first, we need to look at the duty of man. The word “man” comes from the Hebrew word for Adam or human being. Throughout the first couple chapters of Genesis, we will see several words of man use. Starting verse 26, the human life begins. The first 25 verses in Genesis were that God was preparing for human to have life before He would create one.

In this session, we will discuss the importance of a man and his duty before we changed the first principal of how man should live in this generation. Turn to Genesis 1 and read with me verses 26-31 as we conclude the first chapter in the Bible.

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all^[a] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

As we look into the first part of Genesis 1:26, we see that God was speaking to somebody. He may be speaking with His angels, Holy Spirit, or His Son, Jesus. I suggest Jesus because we read in the books of Gospel and said that He is the same as His Father. In fact, Jesus said in His prayer, “…that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You…” (John 17:21.) In Hebrews 1:6 (quoted from Psalm 97:7), God said to His Son that let all of His angels worship Him. And Paul said in Colossians 1:15-18, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”

Then God said to His Son that let both of them to make a man or human being in Their image. Now, look into the verse 26 closely. God and His Son first created a man, just like them. It doesn’t say that They created a woman, although we will see that God created a woman after all in the next verse. But, in verse 26, He first created the man on the sixth day of His creation

In the second part of verse 26, God let them to have dominion over every creature on the earth. Wait a moment. How strange that second part of the verse said them and not him. Please don’t misunderstand that God created more than one man. But the second part of this verse may be the summary of what Adam and Eve were doing in Genesis 2.

In fact the next verse says, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

If we look back in verse 26, God gave a man some responsibilities while he lives in this earth. This is the first principal of man duty within marriage and business. We misunderstand this over the centuries. God created a woman for a man and not for herself. Nowadays, we see that many women are going out of their house and do outside jobs for families. Or women who charge over the church. Why? There are many men would take care over their houses while their wives do all the hard work during the day. As we see in Genesis 3, a man was not totally wake while his woman decided to listen to the serpent. Since the event occurred in Genesis 3, most of our men would become weaker than women. Men have a lot of emotional stress. If he saw his wife cheats him, he immediately to chance to have emotional stress.

If we, as men, to have successful life, we need to know that God called us to be the head of our families under Him.

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Have you wonder why God created different kind of animals? Have you wonder if animals have souls and would go to the Heaven with the rest of believers? Although there’s no reference if animals have souls or would enter the kingdom of God, God created them for us to enjoy with them while we are living in this temporary home.

Let’s read Genesis 1:20-25:

Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens." So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

The Bible gives us some information about animals. As we read in this passage, God created creatures on the fifth day of His creation (Genesis 1:20-23). These creatures are included the extraordinarily large one, included all sorts of fish and mammals, even dinosaurs. There are only few people who believe that the dinosaurs weren’t in the Noah’s ark when God brought rain for forty days and nights, so they concluded that the dinosaurs were not existed.

According Genesis 1:25, God created the beast or wild animals (NIV) on the fifth day. The word “beast” or “wild animal” can also refer to dinosaur. If we don’t see the exact word in the Bible, it doesn’t mean that God didn’t create the dinosaur.

Not only God created the living creatures for our enjoyment, He created them for our physical health. In Genesis 9:2 says, “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.” And in the next verse says, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.”

God gives us which animals that we should eat or not to eat:

• Leviticus 11:9: These you may eat of all that are in the water: whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers--that you may eat.
• Leviticus 11:3: Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud--that you may eat.
• Leviticus 11:21: Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth.
• Leviticus 11:22: These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.
  [If you are fan of Fear Factor TV show, eating insects, the contestants might know what they are doing.]
• Deuteronomy 14:11: All clean birds you may eat.

God blessed them to be fruitful and multiply on the earth, so every creature can live life with us and provide us food for our strength.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Before we would go farther with our study on Genesis, let’s revisit Genesis 1:5 for a moment. Verse 5 is important to understand about the 24-hour period began. Most of us think 12:01 AM is the beginning of the next day. But in Jewish time, the next day begins at 6:01 PM and it ends at 6:00 PM on the next day.

Why?

If we read Genesis 1:5 carefully, it doesn’t say “…morning and the evening were the first day,” but it’s reverse. Also, in Genesis 1:2, there was darkness covered the earth before God created the daytime. This is the important to know if we study on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now we will read that how the day actually began. Let’s read Genesis 1:14-19:

Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

In this passage, it explains that how God separated from darkness to light. If we go back to early session, God provided the light since there wasn’t anything to give the earth light. Now on the fourth day of His creation, God created the two great lights to rule the day and night. One of them is the greater light, which is the sun; and another is the lesser light, which we call it moon. Also, He made stars.

God created the sun to rule the daytime. Now, the sun is located on the center of our galaxy. The earth is the third planet away from the solar system or solar energy (sun). Nobody can make it to the sun, because the sun is very hotter than furnace, stove, and regular fire. God created the sun to give earth the light. The energy that we use is from the sun. It has great light source and has a great duty over the earth.

Unfortunately, some people use the sun as god. If we look Catholic Church, we would see the sunshine over the Virgin Mary as she held onto God’s Son, Jesus Christ. This practice was appeared since the ancient Egyptian time.

God created the moon to mark off the seasons (Psalm 104:19a). Throughout the Old Testament, the New Moon appointed the feasts of the Lord that He wanted let them to have (see Numbers 10:10; 28:11-15; 1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 31:3; Ezra 3:5) In Paganism, it symbolized the Queen of Heaven (see Jeremiah 7:18; 44:7-19, 25), which the Roman Catholicism version of Virgin Mary as their goddess.

Genesis 1:14 tells us that the moon and sun be for signs, seasons, days, and years. Although we understand the seasons, days, and years, some of us may misunderstand what signs mean. The word sings in Genesis 1 does not only mean the End Time. We must understand that God created the world for His pleasure.

God let sun and moon be the sign for this reason:

1) Weather (Matthew 16:2-3)

2) Testimony to God (Psalm 8; 19; Romans 1:14-20; 3)

3) Divine judgment (Joel 2:30-31; Matthew 24:29)

4) Navigation (Matthew 2:1-2)

After He created all these things that day, God saw that it was good. If He dislikes idea, He wouldn’t create anything on earth. We must realize God created things on Earth for His pleasure and not ours.

Are you ready to be the witness for Jesus Christ? Most today’s scientists are trying to study the light and may not realize where it actually comes from. Unfortunately, we have the answer from God’s Word.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Have you wonder how many galaxies are outer spaces? There maybe billions of galaxies are outer space that we cannot come up with. Even though we cannot name them all, God knows every galaxy that He ever made. Two of them are the Heaven and Earth. God created the Heaven and Earth.

As we are continuing studying in the Book of Genesis, we already have discussed about the foundation of the universe. In Genesis 1:1-2, we discovered that Jesus was in the beginning of the world. Also, in Genesis 1:3-5, we discovered that God was the resource of light. As we read in the Gospel of John, Jesus declares that He is the light of the world (8:12). If there is no light, we still would be in the darkness. In fact, we wouldn’t be alive because of lightless. Since God is the resource of light, He gave us breathe to live on this planet.

Now, let’s go deeper of earth creation. Read Genesis 1:6-13:

Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

Beginning verses 6 through 8, we see that God created Heaven in the midst of the waters. The word “firmament” in verse 6 means the portion of God’s creation named “heavens,” that which man saw when he looked up, i.e., the atmospheric and stellar heaven.

In the Bible, there are three layers of heavens. First, God created heaven that is on the atmosphere of the earth, which we are living now. Second heaven is a place for dead people can have rest until their time to go to the eternal home, which was called Paradise. Unfortunately, this Paradise does no longer exist after the resurrection of Jesus. Before the New Testament era, every dead people entered this Heaven for short time until Jesus raised them from the dead and took them into His place. And third heaven is a place that God created for us to stay in until He will take us to the New Earth.

In Genesis 1, God created the Heaven, sky, on Earth, so we can enjoy His creation. Later on Genesis 1, we see that God created something else on the Heaven as a sign of time period. Also, notice, God separated the Heaven from the water, which we can tell that the Earth was fulfilled with water in the beginning of the word. Although we don’t know how God would take on the second day to create Heaven in the midst of the water, God created this beautiful heaven on the Earth for His sake.

On the third day of His creation, God created land and seas on the earth (1:9-10). As we studied on this, we must understand what the formation of earth was like before God brought the rain for forty days and forty nights. Currently, most scientists indicated that this planet has covered with 70 percent of water in this time of period.

If we read Genesis 8-9 on the account of after flood, we read that Noah was having a hard time to find a dried land. With this account, I may believe that the earth was almost covered with land before Genesis 6. Also, we know that the New Earth will cover with 100 percent of land.

God created a land for not only we or other creatures can walk on the earth, but God also can provide us food, trees, and fruits that we can enjoy in our lives. He doesn’t left things out before He created us. If He created us on the third day, how can we eat or live? That’s why Jesus said that He’s going to the Father to prepare a place for us and He will come back to take us with Him (see John 14:1-4).

After He created all these things that day, God saw that it was good. If He dislikes idea, He wouldn’t create anything on earth. We must realize God created things on Earth for His pleasure and not ours.

Are you ready to be the witness for Jesus Christ? Most today’s scientists are trying to study the light and may not realize where it actually comes from. Unfortunately, we have the answer from God’s Word.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Have you wonder how God created the Heaven and Earth? If you wonder how God was able to created living things, the first five verses in Genesis tell us that God spoke His Word to the universe and it formed as the Earth and Heaven. John 1 tells us that God was the Word and the Word became flesh and dwell among us (see John 1:1-3, 14). God’s Word is so powerful that He can create the world.

Before we would go to further discussion, let’s read in today’s text as we go and explore on God’s creation.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness wason the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5)

We already studied Genesis 1:1-2 from the previous section, but I would like to revisit and discuss how these verses can connect to the next three verses. Genesis 1:1-2 is the beginning of how the earth appeared. Before God created the Heaven and Earth, there wasn’t any form of God’s creations, except God’s kingdom for Him. We don’t know what events have taken place before the creation of the universe. Only God know what it took place.

Genesis 1:2 says that there was no form of Earth, except the globe with no creation on it. The earth was totally dark until God created the light—a bright light. Some today’s scientists believe on the Big Bang Theory—a universe explosion from nowhere. But, in Genesis 1 says that God created the Heaven and Earth and not exterritorial from somewhere on the outer space. There was a beginning point of the universe, that is, God began to create the Heaven and Earth. God spoke His Word to create all things that we can enjoy and honor Him as King of kings and Lord of lords.

First thing that God created was light. It would be the sun, but that is in verses 14-19. Here, God was the provider of light (II Corinthians 4:6). This light will also be the eternal source of light. John says in Revelation 22:5 as he had a vision about the New Heaven and New Earth, “There shall be night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.” Would we be great that we can be in His kingdom? This light is the same as what it’s written in Genesis 1:3.

We might wonder why God created the sun on the fourth day since He is the provider. Although He is the light of the world (John 8:12), God knew one of the days that we would decide to refuse Him as the ultimate light. He said in Isaiah, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways (55:8).” God knows everything before we would ever sin.

On the first day of His creation, God created the morning and evening. God created this day period, because He knows we would need rest during the 24-hour period. Although we don’t know how the time system work on that day, God gave light during the day and lesser light during the night.

As we see in later chapter 1, Adam and Eve were on the Garden of Eden. They might tell the time according to direction of the sun.

As God is the light of the world, He calls us to be in His light and spread to others. He would like us to be the light of the Gospel for the loss. As Jesus says in Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Are you ready to be the witness for Jesus Christ? Most today’s scientists are trying to study the light and may not realize where it actually comes from. Unfortunately, we have the answer from God’s Word.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Gen 1:1-2)

The first four of words in Genesis 1 are “In the beginning God…” From these simple words, we know that there was somebody at out of the universe, who was the supreme of the universe, God. There was the God before the earth formed. There was nobody else beside Him. That is the one of good things that we cannot be confused about the Person who created the universe.

Unfortunately, most people created themselves their gods and put them as creators. For example: Moslems believe that their religion arrived from Allah. If they believe that Allah began the Islamic faith, where was Allah before the creation of the world? Most religious scholars believe that the Islamic faith came from Ishmael, a descent of Moabites and one of the sons of Abraham. If we look Abraham’s life, we see that God refused him to multiply his descendants from Hagar’s firstborn son, Ishmael, Egyptian slave. We will discuss further on this later on. In the meantime, let’s go to the next discussion question.

Okay, who is God of the universe? Before we would go to this question, we must understand that there is only one God in the Bible. Although there seems to be a strict god in the Old Testament and loving god in the New Testament, there is only one God. For example, the natural father disciplines his child if his child is doing bad thing, but not everyday. Instead, the father gives his child some loves and praises when his child is doing well. This is same method that God is using. So, do not confuse yourself between the Old Testament God and New Testament God, but there is the God in the Bible.

Throughout the Bible, we see God reveals Himself who He is. There are many descriptions to describe who He is. In Genesis 1:1, we recognize God as the Creator. He created everything in the beginning of this world. He is called Himself the Word (John 1:1), Savior (Luke 1:47), Alpha and Omega (Revelation 21:6), and the last Adam (I Corinthians 15:47), just few.

In Colossians, Paul explains us who God was in the beginning of this world. He says in Colossians 1:15-18, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”

Does this description of person familiar to us? Of course, we recognize Him as our Lord Jesus Christ. Although His name is kept secret in the Old Testament, we see Jesus’ work on the people of Israel. In Genesis, Jesus appeared to Abraham as Melchizedek, priest of Most High and king of Salem (which it called later as Jerusalem). (See Genesis 14; Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7:17, 21.)

Jesus was in the world since the Day 1 of creation. He was and is the God of the universe. But there was somebody else with Him. Read verse 2. We see that there was also the Spirit of God. Who is the Spirit of God? In John 14, Jesus gave promise to His disciples that He will send the Holy Spirit, who will help them to carry on His mission. Likewise, we see that God has a Helper in Genesis 1, which we will discuss Him later.

Notice that I didn’t call the Holy Spirit as it. Some preachers may call the Holy Spirit as it. We need to be careful about this. The Holy Sprit is the third person of the Trinity. God is the God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Again, the Holy Spirit carries His tasks according to the will of God. We see the Holy Spirit carries our prayer to God and return our request with answers from God (Romans 8:26-27).

How do these two verses reflect to the New Testament church? What is sufficient event that was carried throughout many generations in Genesis 1:1-2? Well, there are several reasons why we need to understand from these two verses. If we do not know the Book of Genesis, we wouldn’t know how our world began in the beginning.

We, as Christians, must hold the true about who created us. If there is no God, there would not be anything created in this planet. We wouldn’t be alive. The church wouldn’t exist for somebody to give honor the Creator. Although Genesis is a book of the Old Covent, it leads to who Jesus is. Again, Apostles John and Paul declare that Jesus was in the beginning of the world.

We also need to understand about the Trinity. God is the God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They are whole parts of God and each has 100 percent of the being. Jesus declares in Matthew 28:19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

We worship our God, not because the freedom that He gave us, but He created us and gave the freedom to choose to honor Him. In the next section of the study, we will study more further of this section of the study.

Are you saved? Are your love ones and friends saved in the grace of God through Jesus Christ? The purpose of this study is to help you to become closer relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:1-3.)

If you are lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus Christ and want to know Him as your personal Savior and Lord of your life, please consider asking Him to forgive your sins and invite Him into your life. Paul says, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believed and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” (Romans 10:9-10.) If you have done in your private room or workplace, then you need to tell to your friends or love ones about what you have done, so they may rejoice with you and want to have that relationship with Christ in their own life. There are many occults in the world, which do not know the love of God and His great plan for those who believe in Him. As it is written in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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It is actually being said that there is sexual sin among you. And it is a kind that does not happen even among people who do not know God. A man there has his father’s wife. And you are proud! You should have been filled with sadness so that the man did this should be out of your group. (I Corinthians 5:1-2)

In Proverbs 5, we studied about how our cultural world becomes an adultery world. Since Eve refused God’s command until these days, we, as men, let give women to have dominion over the house of the family. Also, we looked at what our media is doing over the sin of adultery.

Revelation 2 explained that what one of the seven churches is going about to do something with this sin. The church of Thyatira, which we recognized it as the Roman Catholicism in today’s term (See Revelation 2:18-29), we see that many people are taking the role of adultery in seriously way. As it is written in the Holy Bible, we also see this action of sin takes place in today’s Catholic churches throughout the media.

Are we in the day of Sodom and Gomorrah that Genesis 19 explained to us? What is this mean? Are we going to see the appearance of Antichrist before the rapture of churches? Before we look these questions, let’s back up to the sexual conduct in the Jewish history and in the last portion of Proverbs 6.

“Marriage was the time for sexual relations, as premarital and extramarital relations were biblically forbidden. Both adultery and fornication were forbidden by biblical lawn. A girl found that not to be a virgin on her wedding night was liable to be stoned to death for disgracing her father’s house. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21.) Likewise, in the cases of a man found to be sleeping with another man’s wife, or with a woman in a city who is betrothed to be married, both the man and the woman were stoned to death.

“The biblical code is also full of regulations about unnatural sexual acts practiced by the pagan world and deemed ungodly and defiling for the Israelites. (Leviticus 18.) In the New Testament, there are many verses on the Church’s view of sexual conduct (I Corinthians 5:1-2; 6:12-20; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5, etc), including within marriage (I Corinthians 7:;3-7). Since the sexual standards of the non-Jewish, non-Christian world were very low, and Christianity attracted many social outcasts and prostitutes, the rules of sexual conduct needed to be clearly understood.” (Taken from “Almanac of the Bible” by Geoffrey Wigoder, Ph.D.)

This sexual conduct code was very aware to the people of Israel since they had Moses. In Leviticus 18, God gave Israelites some rules about not having sexual relations outside their marriages. It was a law that they needed to keep in their lives. “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell the people of Israel: “In the past you lived in Egypt, but you must not do what was done in that country. And you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their customs. You must obey my rules and follow them. I am the LORD your God. Obey my laws and rules; a person who obeys them will live because of them. I am the LORD.”’” (Leviticus 18:1-5.)

Unfortunately, they refused God’s law about sexual relations. After the day of Sodom and Gomorrah, their ancestors refused to have sexual relationship with the strangers. But when King David ruled over the land of Israel, people began to follow with the strangers and had been decided to get marry. In II Samuel 13, we read that Amnon, David’s son, was trying to have a sexual relationship with her sister, Tamar, who was a virgin. Of course, before Amnon committed adultery, his father, David, was fallen into that same trap. While David was in his palace and his armies went to war, he began to fall in love with Queen Bathsheba. (II Samuel 11.) As the Scripture was written, Queen Bathsheba was very beautiful looking woman to David and had a sex with him. As we read the rest of chapter, David married Bathsheba, who had a husband in her life, and the Lord hated what David had done. In II Samuel 12, we read that David came to the realization of his sin and received his punishment from God by the death of his one of sons.

After his punishment, “Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife. He slept with her and had sexual relations with her. She became pregnant again and had another son, whom David named Solomon. The LORD loved Solomon.” (II Samuel 12:24.) Then his son, Solomon, did the same act as his father did. Even God made sex in marriage; many of us have misused way since the years of King David.

The first 29 verses in Genesis 19 explained why and how the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. It was their lack of sexual desired to fall their cities. Although Sodom and Gomorrah wanted to have sex with Lot’s daughters, the “LORD sent a rain of burning sulfur from the sky… and destroyed those cities.” (Genesis 19:24-25a.)

According to Epistle Jude pointed out what would happen to those who are acting like Sodom and Gomorrah: “Also remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other towns around them. In the same way they were full of sexual sin and people who desired sexual relations that God does not allow. They suffer the punishment of eternal fire, as an example for all to see.” (Jude 7.)

Even we are living on the earth, this act is still going on. This is not secret a crime of adultery. In Revelation 2, we see that Jesus gave Thyatira Church a warning about this sexual sin. But, we also see that today’s Roman Catholicism is carried this act to the local churches in the America. (See chapter on “Warning of Adultery” for more details.) Even Pope John Paul II is recognized as a global religious leader, he and his church leaders are ignoring this sin of adultery. As it is written in the revelation of Jesus, “The kings of the earth sinned sexually with her, and the people of the earth became drunk wine of her sexual sin.” (Revelation 17:2.)

Because the sexual sin is a dangerous activity in the world since the day of Sodom and Gomorrah, Solomon said, “My son, keep your father’s commands, and don’t forget your mother’s teaching. Keep their words in mind forever as though you had them tie around your neck. They will guide you when you walk. They will guard you when you sleep. They will speak to you when you are awake. These commands are like a lamp; this teaching is like a light. And the correction that comes from them will help you have life. They will keep you from sinful women and from the pleasing words of another’s unfaithful wife.” (Proverbs 6:20-24.)

Solomon wanted his son to have successful life without turning away from God. One of the reasons our cultural world is made disaster area is our country freedom contract. Since the United States gave women the right to have men’s position, we have forgotten what the Scriptures have to say about to have godly living with family. We see that many family members are going separate away to live life. We see that they are in danger with their children. We see that many public schools are teaching their children about sex, gay, witchcraft, occults, and other world religions. Even the entertainment is overflowing with these activities. For example, movies Harry Potter and Star War Epistles are contained fantasy and witchcraft, which God had forbidden to His children these activities; and we are allowing our people to watch movies for their entertainment and education.

Unlike the word of Solomon, we are pleasing to ourselves with these activities. Even though some of us have rejected these activities, we are overflowing to ourselves with jobs, family members, friends, and our materials like household, car, money, physical relationship, and entertainment. Solomon warned his children to listen and pay attention to their father’s advice, so they may have a successful life.

Solomon gave us some points to avoid adulteress life.

“Don’t desire her because she is beautiful.” (Proverbs 6:25a.) Even though you find a beautiful woman in your life, it doesn’t mean that you decide to marry her. Again, your woman may have a lack of interest you, as we studied Proverbs 5, or not.

“Don’t let her capture you by the way she looks at you.” (Proverbs 6:25b.) This is the most popular way a man draws to attention to the woman. This is the same trick method that Satan used to Eve. Listen: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden?”’” (Genesis 3:1 NIV.) Although Eve answered correctly, Satan (or serpent) gave her the second answer in beautiful and trickily way. Even today many women dresses sexy, they can trick some men into the physical relationship. And that is the dangerous activity for the most men to caught into. “A prostitute will treat you like a loaf of bread, and a woman who takes part in adultery may cost you your life.” (Proverbs 6:26.)

If you want a good relationship with your partner, then take Solomon’s advice. He wrote, “You cannot carry hot coals against your chest without burning your clothes, and you cannot walk on hot coals without burning your feet. The same is true if you have sexual relations with another man’s wife. Anyone who does so will be punished.” (Proverbs 6:27-29.) Even John the Baptist said that it is not lawful to Herod takes sexual relations with his brother’s wife. (See Matthew 14:3-5; Mark 6:17-20.)

“Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger. Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, thought it costs him all the wealth of his house. But a man who commits adultery lacks judgments; whoever does so destroys himself.” (Proverbs 6:30-32 NIV.)

If you are practicing adultery with the other people outside the marriage, then your relationship have been destroyed. Many American younger and older people, especially between ages 15 and 22, think that this sex practice will help them into the good marriage. Even the MTV and BET Channels show this as their ways to teach the young adults as education and entertainment. Then we see that many couples are showing on the Court TV programs to resolve the marriage and family issues. Again, we are in the generation where Sodom and Gomorrah had lacked the good sex in the marriage; and we are following them to the next generation.

In Revelation 18, we see that many nations will be fallen into adultery as the fall of Babylon (or Roman Empire) is approached. “After this I [John the Divine] saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: ‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. For all nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the grew rich from her excessive luxuries.’” (Revelation 18:1-3 NIV.)

Some scholars think this passage refers to United States of America as reference to Babylon, this is why. As we live in USA, we see that many Christian activities are going around the 50 states and this country has a lot of merchants and stores that many of us can purchase. Pastor Chuck Smith, in Costa Mesa, California, pointed that we have more automobiles is available than in any other countries of the world. In additional to this information, we see many sexual clothes in variety stores and sexual activities are going on across U.S. As we looked at the last couple months, the American Catholic priests had been abusing the children sexually. If we look into the Roman Catholic churches (There are differences between the Catholic churches and the Roman Catholic churches. The original catholic or universal church began since apostles of Acts. But the Roman Catholic church is a religion that is mixed with Christianity and Paganism.), we see that they are teaching many false doctrines and worshipping Mary, mother of Jesus, as Queen Mother (see Jeremiah 44:19-25), and saints. Over 900 years, the Roman Catholicism practiced sexual abuse in the church secretly; and, now, it opens to the public communities. How this terrible thing happens? We have been so focused on the world and not have realized that the Book of Revelation is beginning to fulfill to this generation—a generation that we are living today.

What would you do if you commit adultery in your life? Solomon said, “He will be beaten up and disgraced, and his shame will never go away. Jealousy makes a husband very angry, and he will have no pity when he gets revenge. He will accept no payment for the wrong; he will take no amount of money.” (Proverbs 6:33-36.) Have a good relationship with your partner in your life rather than committing adultery with the other people. God has a plan in your partnership or marriage in your life.

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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My child, be careful about a giving a guarantee for somebody else’s loan… (Proverbs 6:1a)

What are some dangers of being foolish? What are some traps that the people can rob you? Over 1,000 TV commercial ads desired you to buy their merchandises with the low interest rate. They wanted people to buy their merchandises to gain more money. Many people spend more than $1,000,000 on the TV commercial ads. Many people have made guarantee commitments for their customers to buy their products. Are there dangers going on behind the guarantee commandments?

Nowadays, the Psychics Network Reading is commercialized over the hundred channels throughout U.S. The sponsors always say that they can help you to predict your feature. Like the magi and witches (see Daniel 2 and Matthew 2), they have the power of witchcraft to make many feature prophecies. Unfortunately, a CBN Founder Pat Robertson, who invites some occults into his TV program, explained that those psychologists helped the only one percent of the American people to make their dreams come true. Those who practice witchcraft are in real danger to the American people, because their guarantee commandments are falsely used. Not only they are in the danger from the people, they are doing what God said that it’s wrong. (See Deuteronomy 13:1-11.)

Are you aware when someone made guarantee commitment to you? For example, your neighbor wants to offer you a $1,000 to pay your house mortgage. Then you said that you will pay the money back to your neighbor within 30 days. But, after 30 days, you decide to ignore the guarantee commitment and decide to buy a $1,000 worth of car.

What would be your neighbor saying about his money property? Think about it. What would your neighbor is going to you? Solomon said, “My child, be careful about giving a guarantee for somebody else’s loan, about promising to pay what someone else owes. You might get trapped by what you say; you might be caught by your own words.” (Proverbs 6:1-2.)

Even today in this country, many political leaders, even our current president, George W. Bush, and commercial ads want to give some promises that would make the people happy. Then their promises would never happen. Former President Bill Clinton made some lies about his sexual scandal to the nation. Even he committed adultery outside his marriage; he proclaimed that he didn’t have the affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Why these events are happening in the America and rest of the world? Why the lies are popular to these days? One of the reasons of the words of lies is the one of the signs will appear at the scene of the coming of Antichrist after the rapture of the church. In Revelation 13 explains us many people will worship the beast, who will be going to pretend like he is Christian and Christ. Even today, we see that many Christian TV and radio programs proclaim that pastors and reverences can heal the disease upon the people or force the demons out from the person in the name of Jesus Christ, although they rush into the demons without recognizing that they are in the spiritual war with Satan. Or they make a prediction of the second coming of Jesus, although Jesus said that no one, even His angels, can tell the time of His arrival to the earth. (Matthew 24:36.)

When you caught by your neighbor, Solomon gave the rule to get free out of the death of guarantee. He said, “My child, if you have done this and under are your neighbor’s control, here is how to get free.” (Proverbs 6:3a.) Most of the American parents may have the lack of giving a good tip of advice to their children. They may give children some advice how their children have the successful life after their schools. But when the children come to the hard decisions, such as alcoholism, materialism, religion, and paganism, most parents may come to the conclusion of their decisions before the children ask another question. Unlike the modern day of parenting, Solomon gave his child a step of instruction.

First, doesn’t be a proud person (Proverbs 6:3b). God hates a person who has pride herself. Although He loves the people are in the earth, He hates those who are self-sinners and be in proud. In Epistle John said, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. These are the ways of the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. None of these come from the Father, but all of them come from the world.” (I John 2:15-16.) There are three things that God hate in this passage:

1. Wanting to please our sinful selves: Misusing sex, using alcohol, night parties, and etc.
2. Wanting the sinful things we see: TV and movie with pornography, violence, romance activities, and etc.
3. Being too proud of what we have: Family, marriage, awards, money, car, house, and etc.

Second, go to your neighbor and beg to be free from your promise (Proverbs 6:3c). This is the hardest thing to do in the America today. As we live in today’s society, many teenagers and parents are fighting each other to get what they want. Many parents have decided to divorce from their spouses because of their disagreements. Many teenagers have frustration in their minds because their parents are in the war zone.

But Solomon gave away the secret to get the freedom from these distractions. That is asking them for forgiveness. This is the same way that Jesus forgave our sins. If there is no forgiveness, how we beg for freedom? Jesus didn’t just die on the cross to show that He is the King of kings. He didn’t just die over and over again, like the Roman Catholicism believes. He died once on the cross to pay our sins and resurrect to His Father, so we can be with Him for eternity. Paul wrote, “When we were unable to help ourselves, at the moment of our needs, Christ died for us, although we were against God. But God shows his great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:6, 8.)

Are you hurting inside of your life? Are you trying to hide something from your neighbor, co-worker, or family? Why not asking them for forgiveness? “Don’t go sleep or even rest your eyes, but free yourself like a deer running from a hunter, like a bird flying away from a trapper.” (Proverbs 6:4-5.) Don’t excuse yourself without asking them for forgiveness.

Are you a lazy person or obedience person when your father asks you to do something for him? In John 6 recorded the situation with more than 5,000 people. We do not know the exact number of people. There may be 1,000 people came up to Jesus or 10,000. Men, women, children, grandparents, and grandchildren may show up to Jesus. But Jesus fed all the people with five loaves of breads and two small fishes. (John 6:1-15.)

Before Jesus fed them bread and a fish, His disciples questioned Him about how they could feed all the people on the field. Of course, Jesus knew what He is going to do, but He wanted to test His disciples. “Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread, so these may eat?’ But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.” (John 6:5-6.)
What would you do when Jesus ask you to feed the multitude of people with your small amount of money? What would you do when your parents ask you to clean the whole house within one day? You may say, “You are crazy. I cannot clean all around the house in 24 hours.” And you may ask your parents to have another day of extension. That was the same reaction to Philip’s situation with Jesus’ question. “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” (John 6:7.)

Solomon said, “Go watch the ants, you lazy person. Watch what they do and be wise.” (Proverbs 6:6.) Go to the smart person and learn from him. Remember when Jesus gave us the illustration of two ways to build a house. One is a wise builder and another is a foolish builder. (See Matthew 7:24-29.) In Psalm 1, there are two ways of living in life on the earth, but only one of them is what God wants us to live by. Like the ants, we can live by God’s rule. “Ants have no commander, no leader or ruler, but they store up food in the summer and gather their supplies at harvest.” (Proverbs 6:7-8.)

We do not need more government and political laws to survive our needs. We need Jesus Christ and His Word in our lives. The pages of the Bible are filled with God’s promise and truth. It is the only book that explains us about our daily life in pass, present, and future. But God may ask us, “How long will you lie there, you lazy person? When will you get up from sleeping?” (Proverbs 6:9)

Even when we are doing our earthly tasks, God asks us these two questions. “Yet we know that a person is made right with God not by following the law, but by trusting in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we might be made right with God because we trusted in Christ. It is not because we follow the law, because no one can be made right with God by following the law.” (Galatians 2:16)

Are you sleeping in your job as it described in Proverbs 6:10-11? “Some people are wicked and no good. They go around telling lies, winking with their eyes, tapping their feet, and making signs with their fingers. They make evil plans in their hearts and are always starting arguments. So trouble will strike them in an instant; suddenly they will be so hurt no one can help them” (Proverbs 6:12-15.)

Are you one of them?

“There are six things the LORD hates. There are seven things he cannot stand…” (Proverbs 6:’16.) What are they? Why God cannot love the seven things that we are enjoying doing? Let’s go through them:

1. A proud look. God hates a proud looking person. He is a jealous God,. He hates a person who says, “I did this or that…” In Isaiah 14:13-15, Lucifer was trying to make a proud look upon himself by saying “I will…” for five time.
2. A lying tongue. When the serpent tricked Even in the Garden, Even and Adam had lied to God that they didn’t eat the fruit o9n the middle of the Eden. (See Genesis 3.) From the beginning of sin until now, many people have been used to the “white lie” and it became the growth of the worldwide.
3. Hands that kill innocent people. They are abortion, murder, kidnapping, and etc. The first person in this action was Cain, who murdered his brother, Abel, because God didn’t accept Cain’s gift. (See Genesis 4:1-15.)
4. A mind that thinks up evil plans.
5. Feet that are quick to do evils.
6. A witness who lies.

Someone who starts argument among families. (See Proverbs 6:17-19.)

Which of these are you needed to avoid in your life? If you surrender to Jesus Christ with your sins, He can forgive your sins and will make you His child for eternality.

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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"You have heard that the law of Moses says, `Do not commit adultery.' But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye--even if it is your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand—even if it is your stronger hand--causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:27-30 NLT)

In today’s media, we see many dangerous activities are going around the world. We have heard that many teenagers have already decided what they would like to do with their futures. We have heard many rumors of crises among families throughout the media.

In Matthews 5, Jesus taught a lesson about adultery to the multitude of people. He gave them a warning about having sexual sins in their lives. Even today, some churches take this teaching seriously, because our bodies are only for God and not for the world. But, nowadays, some of us take this warning too lightly and would have decided to take some opportunities to go into exploration with the strangers outside the marriage.

As we continue studying with the Book of Proverbs by each verse, Solomon gave his children a warning about adultery. In Proverbs 2:16-19, he gave his children a brief lesson to stay away from unfaithful wives, who would try to lead them to commit adultery.

If you are a man, it is very important to know and understand about the world’s ways to have sexual intercourse. In Genesis 1, God gave a man to have a dominion over everything on the earth and not the woman. (See Genesis 1:26.) Paul said to Timothy that there are different rules among men and women according to God’s creation. (See I Timothy 2.) Unfortunately, some church leaders would refuse to teach to the congregation. Nowadays, we see that more women are going to workplaces outside their homes than the men.

It is important to listen and understand what the Bible has to say about sexual life inside and outside the marriage. Sexual relationship is only made from inside the marriage. The Book of Hebrews says, “Marriage should be honored by everyone, and husband and wife should keep their marriage pure.” (Hebrews 13:4a.) The word pure means having nothing do with sin and committing adultery.

The first marriage was held in the Book of Genesis, between Adam and Eve. As we read in Genesis 2, “So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one body. The man and his wife were naked, but they were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:24-25.) God gave Adam a partner, Eve, from his bone. (Genesis 2:23.) We read from these verses that God allowed Adam and Eve to have a sexual relationship with each other inside the marriage. And we understand that they weren’t ashamed or embarrassed with each other being naked until we read Genesis 3, when they broke God’s convent because of the serpent.

As we read the first two verses in Proverbs 5, Solomon told his child to listen to his words of wisdom fully, so he would not fall into the sin of adultery. “My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen to my words of understanding. Be careful to use good sense and watch what you say.” (Proverbs 5:1-2.)

Remember that Solomon had experienced the sin of adultery when he ruled over the land of Israel. (See I King 11:1-14.) “He had seven hundred wives who were from royal families and three hundred slave women who gave birth to his children. His wives caused to turn away from God.” (I King 11:3.) That was how his problem seriously occurred. He would have about 1,000 kisses to his 1,000 women a day. We don’t know how Solomon survived with his wives. Only God brought him out of this adultery.

So, Solomon wrote these proverbs on “warning of adultery” to his children.

Even today, many men are very attracted by the women. Most women are trying to have their sexiest style appearances at public communities. As Solomon said, “The words of another man’s wife may seem sweet as honey; they may be smooth as olive oil.” (Proverbs 5:3.)

If we examine the women in the world, we see how they dressed by their appearances. Today, many music channels (MTV, BET, VH1, etc.) show how the women are by how they appeared in the TV and their words in many songs. Even on the radio, the women would try to make men attention to them. “But in the end she will bring you sorrow, causing you pain like two-edge sword. She is on the way to death; her steps are headed straight to the grave.” (Proverbs 5:4-5.)

What is the adultery means? Quoting from the Holman Bible Dictionary, "ADULTERY is the act of unfaithfulness in marriage that occurs when one of the marriage partners voluntarily engages in sexual intercourse with a person of the opposite sex other than the marriage partner."

Even you, man, are falling in love with your woman, she might bring you to many pains in physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This goes for opposite sex as well. The person may not concern for her partner’s needs. She only knows what she/he needs. Even you are not married with your partner; your mate may have the lack of interest in you.

If you have wife or girlfriend, you need to consider yourself with spending the time with your partner; otherwise, she means nothing to you. “She gives little thought to life. She doesn’t even know that her ways are wrong.” (Proverbs 5:6.)

Much adultery contains with homosexual diseases, HIV, cancer, AIDS, and other diseases that are related to the sexual relationship with opposite sex. Unfortunately, many of us, even we are called “Christians,” encourage ourselves to learn about having sexual relationship without going through marriage. We can learn these activities from TV, movies, Internet, merchandises, and even from children’s toys.

We even can see that many marry women are working full-time as employment outside the houses. About 80 percent of the women are working at their churches or at their workplaces. That’s why the most of men are depending on their housewives or women to charge at their homes.

Paul wrote, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting; in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” (I Timothy 2:8-15.)

In Proverbs 5:7-14, Solomon told his children about how they need to bewared having women in their lives. He didn’t want let the women to lead his children to adultery. Solomon said, “Now, my sons, listen to me, and don’t ignore what I say.” (Proverbs 5:7.)

If you find a woman that you desired, but, later on, you might find out that her plan is hurting you. She may plan to abuse you in sexually, emotionally, physically, and/or spiritually. There are many ways to abuse each other. The world contains this virus to fight among the people.

Even today, we heard that the priest from the Catholic Church abuse the children. Look in Revelation 2:18-29 and see how does Thyatira Church relate to that particular Christian denomination and their sexual practices. “The Church of Thyatira is known by Bible scholars as the Pagan Church—A.D. 606-End of Tribulation. This Church is also known as the Roman Catholic Church. It was at this time that many, many pagan practices were brought into the Church, "Christianized", and then called Christian and Biblical. If you read the verses [Revelation] 2:19-26, you will see that Jesus is calling this church a whore, a prostitute, and He says that He shall throw her into her bed and kill her and her children!” (Article: Did You Realize that Jesus Christ Commended the Church of Philadelphia for Being Fundamental? It's Absolutely True!“ from Cutting Edge Ministries.)

Abortion. Now, the women have the right to kill their own baby before the child is about to come out from the mother’s womb. God clearly said that you “must not murder anyone” and you “must not be guilty of adultery.” (Deuteronomy 5:17-18.) These commandments are from the Ten Commandments that God gave to the people of Israel. These commandments are that we should keep in our lives with the rest of eight commandments. But what our Supreme Court and ACLU do? They give women the right to murder unborn child. They let the school students learn the sexual behaviors in their public classrooms, which they also learn how they abuse each other sexually.

Solomon said, “Stay away from such a woman. Don’t even go near of her house, or you will give your riches to others, and the best years of your life to some cruel. Strangers will enjoy your wealth, and what you worked so hard for will go to someone else. You will groan at the end of your life when your health is gone. Then you will say, ‘I hate being told what to do! I would not listen to my teachers or pay attention to my instructors. I came close to being completely ruined in front of a whole group of people.’” (Proverbs 5:8-14.)

Are you in troubled in your marriage? Are you afraid that what your church leaders are doing to your family members? Nor are you afraid what our state government is doing? Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Accept my teachings and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives. The teaching that I ask you to accept is easy; the load I give you to carry is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30.)

If you want that load in your life that Jesus likes to offer you, just give up all you have to Jesus Christ by trusting Him. Do you have your personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you want the gift of wisdom that God is waiting to give you? If you are willing to deny yourselves to God, then pray this prayer in your heart, “Dear Lord Jesus. I am sorry for my sins. Now, I know You died for my sins because You love me so much; and You raised on the third day to be with me for eternity. Lord, I confess my sins to you and want to have my personal relationship with You. Lord, now I want to trust You as my Savior and King and walk with You in all the way of my life. I prayed in the name of Jesus, Amen."

“Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.” (Proverbs 3:16-18 NIV.)

Do you have a faithful wife or faithful girlfriend in your life? The Roman Catholic Church is an example of what your unfaithful spouse could do to you and your family. But I do believe that God may bring some of His children out from the Catholic Church to show the truth and the light of His kingdom. In that same way for your own wife, he may use both of you to reach the people.

Man, be “faithful to your own wife, just as you drink from your own well.” (Proverbs 5:15.) Be patient with her when she is having a rough time with you. Listen to her complain and give her some advice to live a godly life. “…husband, you don’t know; maybe you will save your wife.” (I Corinthians 7:16b.)

Don’t give yourself to another woman if you sincere love your first wife or girlfriend. Solomon said, “Don’t pour your water in the streets, don’t give your love to just any woman. (Proverbs 5:16.) If I have sex with another woman, for example, and being still bond with my true woman, then those HIV, AIDS, or other virus (that the second woman has) transfer to her life. More than that, I would just destroy the relationship with my true woman. Having a relationship with your woman must be private from the outside your home. This is just for you, your woman, and God inside the marriage. “These things are yours alone and shouldn’t be shared with strangers.” (Proverbs 5:17.)

In Proverbs 5:18-20, Solomon gave his sons a good advice to have a great marriage. To have a good marriage, you and your spouse must have similar interests, be happy in your marriage, have a biblical foundation in your relationship, and have encouragement to help each other. Finally, we must not be cheated each other with adultery. If you are married or non-married with your girlfriend, you need to have this warning of adultery in your personal life. Since Sodom and Gomorrah committed adultery (see Genesis 19), today’s America has been played alone with sexuality in the public community. Now, it’s nation wide to play this addiction and have not awake from the day of Sodom and Gomorrah.

“The LORD sees everything you do, and he watches where you go. An evil man will be caught in his wicked ways; the ropes of his sins will tie him up. He will die because he does not control himself, and he will be held captive by his foolishness.” (Proverbs 5:21-23.)

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Wisdom is the most important thing; so get wisdom. If it costs everything you have, get understanding. Treasure wisdom, and it will make you great; hold on to it, it will bring you honor. (Proverbs 4:7-8)

Witchcraft. Magic. Henry Potter. Occults. Religions. These are some of the belief systems are happening to the world today. Many people or some Christians believe that these practices are the only way to get happiness. They put these practices for their entertainment. What they valued have nothing do with God, but upon themselves. Is their wisdom coming from these or more practices? What is the Bible has to say about the importance of wisdom?

Today, many children are learning about good and bad in their schools. What the schools are teaching have nothing do with wisdom of God. Even today, many youngsters have already learned to enjoy to have the sexual relationship with their friends or learning about witchcraft by reading the Henry Potter books. There are historical documents behind the Henry Potter books and have nothing do with fun reading and English class after you learned the background and the biblical viewpoint of witchcraft.

In Proverbs 4, Solomon gave his children advice about how they could have successful life with receiving wisdom of God. “My children, listen to your father’s teaching; pay attention so you will understand. What I am telling you is good, so do not forget what I teach.” (Proverbs 4:1-2.)

Solomon is about to announce the lesson from his own childhood. His lesson is important to give his children, so they could apply to their lives and pass it to their children and grandchildren. It is the legacy that could last to many generations. Unlike the period of Solomon, we miss opportunity to teach our family member the legacy that our Heavenly Father taught. The legacy that Jesus taught, we have forgotten to pass His words to our family members, love ones, friends, and neighbors. Now, we come with our new legacy, legacy that comes from our media, Satanism, occult, and even from our own denominational churches. It is sad thing that some of us do not apply Jesus’ legacy to our lives.

Solomon wrote “When I was a young boy in my father’s house and like an only child to my mother, my father taught me and said, ‘Hold on to my words with all your heart. Keep my commands and you will live. Get wisdom and understanding. Don’t forget or ignore my words. Hold on to wisdom, and it will take care of you. Love it, and it will keep you safe. Wisdom is the most important thing; so get wisdom. If it costs everything you have, get understanding. Treasure wisdom, and it will make you great; hold on to it, and it will bring honor. It will be like flowers in your hair and like a beautiful crown on your head.’” (Proverbs 4:3-9.)

What if that was coming from Jesus to you? Are you going to listen to Him? Jesus said, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you will eat with me.” (Revelation 4:20.)

God wants let us to have happy and long life while we are still living in this physical planet. But we need to listen to Him and accept what He has to say to us. “My child, listen and accept what I say. Then you will have a long life.” (Proverbs 4:10.) Unlike those days, we would miss to listen and accept what our Sovereign Father has to say about us. Instead, we feel go to what our pastors said about God’s Word on Sunday morning.

Does God say that He is guiding us from the darkness of the world? Listen what Isaiah wrote about the people of Israel, “Before those people lived in darkness, but now they have seen a great light. They lived in a dark land, but a light has shined on them. God, you have caused the nation to grow and made the people happy. And they have shown their happiness to you, like the joy during harvest time, like the joy of people taking what they have won in war.” (Isaiah 9:2-3.)

God is a God who leads us into right direction of the life. The psalmist wrote, “Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105.) God is not a God of laziness, but He is a God who leads us to the truth of the gospel of the living God. The Bible is our manuscript to live a holy life with Him. It’s a foundation of the book that leads us to the successful life that God wants. “I am guiding you in the way of wisdom, and I am leading you on the right path. Nothing will hold you back; you will not be overwhelmed.” (Proverbs 4:11-12.)

Are you let God leads you to the abundant life that He wants you to have for eternality? Or are you following your own agenda and/or your own religious system (Buddhism, Muslim, Judaism, Catholicism, Baptist, or other religions or Christian denominations) that leads you to the happy life? Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10b NKJV.) Today, Jesus is knocking your door of your heart and wants to show you the road to the life.

Even today, many of us are trying to earn ourselves the glory. Our world system teaches us how to guard our lives to ourselves. We learned the world histories and cultures that could lead us the cultural life and not according to God’s plan. The children learned that practicing of the magic is having something to do with their entertainment; and their parents are allowing them to practice the magic tricks, watch the TV programs, and read the books that contain the witchcraft.

What Solomon is trying to accomplish with his children is having nothing do with witchcraft that God hates, but having to do with their successful lives. Solomon wrote, “Always remember what you have been taught, and don’t let you go of it. Keep all that you have learned; it is the most important thing in life.” (Proverbs 4:13.)

What have God taught you in your personal walk with Him during the last 10 or more years of your life? God has shown me what I can do to glorify Him through the gift of prophecy (teaching) and making some Disciples of Christ. He has taught me the purpose of my disabled life through the difficult circumstance. I believe what Apostle Paul says about God’s power: “With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine.”(Ephesians 3:20.)

Even though I am disabled, God can do anything with my life. Even though I am disabled, He has provided me to continue to have the life on earth to reach the people to Him. Even though I can’t make true friendship before November 2000, He provided for me before I arrived to Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center.

If you are in the situation where you cannot find the purpose of your life, stop doing your own ways and begin your life with Jesus Christ. “Don’t follow the ways of the wicked; don’t do what evil people do. Avoid their ways, and don’t follow them. Stay away from them and keep on going, because they cannot sleep until they do evil. They cannot rest until they harm someone. They feast on wickedness and cruelty as if they were eating bread and drinking wine. The good person is like the light of dawn, growing brighter and brighter until full daylight. But the wicked walk around in the dark; they can’t even see what makes stumble.” (Proverbs 4:14-19.)

God may say to you, “Pay attention, my child, to what I say. Listen carefully. Don't lose sight of my words. Let them penetrate deep within your heart, for they bring life and radiant health to anyone who discovers their meaning. Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do. Avoid all perverse talk; stay far from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; then stick to the path and stay safe. Don't get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.” (Proverbs 4:20-27.)

What are you going to do with His Word? The choices are yours.

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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Brothers and sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected. Do you learned and received from me, what I told you, and what you saw me do. And the God who gives peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)

"Whenever you are able, do good too people who need help." (Proverbs 3:27.) Whenever you are free, what are you going to do when you see the poor in the street? Are you going to ignore the person who asks for money or to help the person to meet his/her needs?

Do what is good in the eye of God. If we hate what's poor, then God will hate our actions. "If you have what your neighbor asks for, don't say, 'Come back later. I will give it to you tomorrow.' Don't make plans to hurt your neighbor who lives nearby and t6rusts you." (Proverbs 3:28-29.)

This is true. We do not need to make our love ones or neighbors feel bad or hurt their feelings. When I hurt to my love ones, she would feel bad about me. In this passage, Solomon is talking about how we need to be watchful when we meet and talk to the other people. In Proverbs 3:28, we do not need tell other people that they need to come bake here or there later to pick up something. No. Instead, we must help them with God's love.

As we see on the media, we heard about the war is going on from person to person, nation to nation, and country to country. Recently, we heard about abusing a child from the one of the church leaders and it brought attention to the nation wide. The most hateful act was brought to this time of period that God hates.

"Don't make plans to hurt your neighbor who lives nearby and trusts. Don't accuse a person for no good reason; don't accuse someone who has not harmed you." (Proverbs 3:29-30.) Instead, we share the love of Jesus Christ and share each other's problems and solve them with His love.

If I am being jealous that my friend has weapons in his side pocket, do I need to ask him where he got them from? I might decide to buy a gun to show who I am. It's show down.

God's Word said we must stay away those who use violence, mistreatment, and misusing sex to show off to the world. It's easy that we see the other person who has much greater idea than ours. Then, we may decide to put them into the competition. The world teaches us that we need to protect ourselves and we need to have power, wealth, and fame. The world also leads us that we need to have more political leaders and economic systems to survive our lives in this country. We so often forget what Jesus said to have the eternal life and would decide to follow the world occults' ways of living.

"Don't be jealous of those who use violence, and don't choose to be like them." (Proverbs 3:31.) If we decide to follow and love them, than we are waiting for God's punishment. This is the most God hate to punish us, but we are making Him to do in us. If God say to me no to sex before my marriage, but I decide to do it anyway, then I'm being trouble. "The LORD hates those who do wrong, but he is a friend those who are honest." (Proverbs 3:32.)

Yes, God allows let's us to decide what we like to do, but He can't take our serious mistakes. Instead, He may call us to take out from our mistakes or He maybe waiting for us to be realized what we did wrong.

‘'The LORD will curse the evil person's house, but he will bless the home of those who do right. The LORD laughs at those who laugh at him, but he gives grace of those who are not proud. Wise people will receive honor, but fools will be disgraced." (Proverbs 3:33-35.)

Are you be in right with God? If you are unsure, ask Him to come to your life by repenting your sins in your private room or home.

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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My child, hold on to wisdom,… Don't let them out of your sight. (Proverbs 3:21)

What would we do when we have pressure of worry? What would you do when your life turns to disaster? What would you do when you face with your financial problem? What would you do if your spouse or your sweetheart decides to cheat on you by having another mate? Are you going to make the things worse or just giving up?

The world does teach us to make the choice to create more problems in our lives rather than holding onto the faith and wisdom of God. If I decide to break my relationship with my woman because I found a greater woman in my life, then I just have made crisis, for instance, and the problem is getting worse because I cheated on her. She has two choices to resolve this problem. She could walk away from me or could hold on to the faith of God and wait for God to heel this problem. What if this was your situation or mine?

God says, "My child, hold on to wisdom,… Don't let them out of your sight." (Proverbs 3:21.) He knows you will go through difficulties. He knows the problems that you have will go pass away as sweep through wind. It's not just holding on to wisdom, but has a good sense. Read Proverbs 3:21 again and discover that God wants us to have a good sense to the problem. Make the solutions, as God wants to be. That is having a great victory over the darkness.

Paul said, "You know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. All those who compete in the games use self-control so they can win a crown. That crown is an earthly thing that lasts only a short time, but our crown will never be destroyed. So I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something-not just the air. I treat my body hard and make it my slave so I myself will not be disqualified after I have preached to the others."(I Corinthians 9:24-27.)

Then if you hold onto God's wisdom and faith, you will have a good and long lasting life. "They will give you life and beauty like a necklace around your neck. Then you will go your way in safety, and you will not get hurt." (Proverbs 3:22-23.) We know that most of our daily lives are hacked days. We might be ready and go for our work by between 6 and 8 a.m. Then we might have a lot of papers work in our offices. The papers work may need to be done by 5 p.m. of the day. In the meantime, we might have something else to do and papers work; and we are getting really dizzy with all the assignments. What else to do when we would have heavy load of the office work?

The answer: Hold onto God's wisdom and faith. Trust Him. "Trust the LORD with all your heart, and don't depend on your understanding." (Proverbs 3:5.) We can trust God to take away our heavy barriers. Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28.) You can trust your money, but it can't help you to rest rather than creating more issues. You can trust your religion system, but it might give you more religious rules rather than comfort. But you can trust and follow Jesus to give you the rest from all of your worries. He is the only one who can give you the answer to your needs.

"God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life." (John 3:16.) In this context, Jesus isn't talking about the world in this planet, but is talking about His kingdom (the New Jerusalem and the new earth). Are you stepping out your faith and trust God's wisdom? "When you lie down, you won't be afraid; when you lie down, you will sleep in peace. You won't be afraid of sudden trouble; you won't fear the ruin that comes to the wicked, because the LORD will keep you safe. He will keep you from being trapped." (Proverbs 3:24-26.)

"Lord, whoever read this message and want to turn to You fully, I pray that You touch them and may Your Word to touch their lives. I don't know what kind of troubles they are facing. But You know their sufferings and what they desired. I pray that this message may flow through their hearts. I prayed in Your name, amen."

Posted by MGJC Web Ministry at 12:01 AM EDT

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