Birth and Preparation of Jesus Christ I: Luke’s Purpose of Writing

Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed. (Luke 1:1-4 KJV)

As we begin a long series on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will first look at the purpose of the first four books of the New Testament. Even though the first four verses in Luke 1 relates to Luke’s writing, it also tells the main reason for the books of Gospel.

In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon, the word “gospel” means a reward for good tidings or good tiding. The New Century Version dismisses the word “gospel” and has been replaced with “good news” for at least 102 times. The gospel means: “1) the glad tidings of the kingdom of God soon to be set up, and subsequently also of Jesus the Messiah, the founder of this kingdom. After the death of Christ, the term comprises also the preaching of (concerning) Jesus Christ as having suffered death on the cross to procure eternal salvation for the men in the kingdom of God, but as restored to life and exalted to the right hand of God in heaven, thence to return in majesty to consummate the kingdom of God; 2) the glad tidings of salvation through Christ; 3) the proclamation of the grace of God manifest and pledged in Christ; and 3) as the messianic rank of Jesus was proved by his words, his deeds, and his death, the narrative of the sayings, deeds, and death of Jesus Christ came to be called the gospel or glad tidings.”

Many today’s churches have lost the truth of the words of God, because some of us may have decided to apart from the faith and gives ears to the doctrines of devils (see I Timothy 4:1). As we see, many churches are celebrating Easter Sunday and Christmas as the part of Christian heritage. Truly, these two holidays arrived from the pagan religion and have nothing to do with our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this new study series, we will search carefully through the Scriptures to learn the true aspect of the Christianity. There are many preachers in the world today, who proclaim to be the true churches of Jesus Christ, but may have misled by the church doctrines. There aren’t certain doctrines we should or shouldn’t have in order to be followers of Jesus Christ. We are not separated by any church denominations. We all belong to one Lord, one Savior, one King, who is Jesus Christ. There are no Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, and Pentecostal churches in Heaven. The reason why many churches are corrupted, because we have decided to create several doctrines in order for us to be children of God.

In order for us to become children of God, we need to obey Him fully without changing His words. We need to search the Scripture carefully in order for us to understand God’s purpose.

Leadership 104: Born to Become a Leader
Topic: Leadership Training

Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 1:4-8 KJV)
Look to the life of Jeremiah. God already called him to become His messenger for His people while he was in his mother’s womb. Even though you may have unborn baby, do not decide to have abortion. I know this maybe the easiest thing to do when the couple wouldn’t want baby in their lives. The Bible recorded how King Pharaoh and King Herod wanted to kill babies. However, there maybe some options to save the life of your unwanted child. God can use the child to save His people from the darkness as Moses did. Or God can use the child as Jeremiah to proclaim His messenger.

Paul said in I Timothy 4:12, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

As we see in today’s America, we have become more like the people in Sodom and Gomorrah. We have seen many tragedies over the last decade because the American has been turning away from God. Some America churches have turning away from very its foundation and turn them into the house of selling merchandises.

We need to wake ourselves up and bring our national foundation back. Even our $1 bill has Freemason symbol on it, one of occultism. Do we think that there would not be a judgment of God in this country? Think again and research yourselves about our national history. Celebrating Christmas is the one of pagan practices which we have carried over many years; yet, some churches haven’t realized this occult holiday practice. In fact, Christmas doesn’t relate to the birth of our Savior, but it’s Christ’s Mass, which the Catholic Churches practice on sacrificing our Lord Jesus Christ shamefully.

We need to raise our youths to be appointed by God to lead our nation.

How many of you born to become a leader? A leader for the nation. A leader for the company. A leader for the Civil Rights. No matter what your ultimate life goal is, you will have experienced leadership skills. In fact, we all will become a leader of our life activities.

Leadership 102: Being a Courageous Leader
Topic: Leadership Training

There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1:5-8 KJV)

Now, I’d like to take you through leadership class 102. In the previous training, we went through obedience class. We must obey our leaders in order to be the second commander of chiefs. Now, here’s the second step in order to be a godly leader. We look back to the history of Joshua’s leadership.

Before Moses died, he chose his assistant to be the next leader to lead God’s people into Promise Land. Why? Joshua demonstrated his leadership role when the obstacles were challenged. Remember, he and Caleb were the only ones who chose to go to the battlefield to get the land for their people as Moses commanded. We must have courage before we’d decide to lead our nation. The Bible is not an only history book, but it is also an instruction for godly living or BIBLE (Basic Information Before Leaving Earth).

Currently, our nation is in economic crisis. Do you know why we are in $700 billion bailout situation? Even though many hurricanes destroyed our homes and supplies, our nation also borrowed so much of money from foreign country, such as China, for military purposes. Our nation is into materialism and cannot trust God to provide our nation needs. Let’s look into presidential election for a moment. Currently, McCain and Obama are trying to make false statements about their own opponents to win the election. One says he is trying to raise our taxes high to save our economic crisis and another says as totally opposite. What happened to our nation is turning our focus away from God. This was not a case in 1700s-1800s. But we are seeing many homosexuals come out from their closets, abortion and crime rates are going high, the education grading systems are lower standards, and Christian rights are taken away from the public community.

We need to pray for our nation. Mostly, we need to bring God’s name back to this country. We do not need to build more churches because we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. God commanded us don’t be discourage to lead our people. Even though this is what Satan wants us to do, we cannot step ourselves down as defeat by him. Instead, we need to obey God and have courage to lead our nation.

Leadership 101: Obey God Carefully
Topic: Leadership Training

Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. (Exodus 23:21 KJV)

Do you like to follow the hundred pages of instructions in order to make your brand new HD television works? Probably not. We always skip pages to read the TV and other manuals. But if we don’t follow the instruction, how can we do in our career field?

Sometimes, we wouldn’t like to follow our schoolteachers, parents, lawyers, doctors, and even God’s instruction. As a result, we would fail the test. Even God gave a road map to the Promise Land, the Israelites decided to refuse God’s command and spent their lives in the wilderness for forty years.

This coming November is a critical month for the U.S. Presidential Election. We have Obama or McCain is trying to go to the White House. We should not elect either of candidate by their looks or what they would promise to do for us, but for their oaks on the Word of God. The last two presidents, Clinton and Bush, failed their oaks on the Word of God. In fact, nobody, from previous presidents, didn’t realize that we have idol (statue) in our capitol that don’t represent Christian nation. This is why we have terrorist attack, crime, natural disaster, and capitol punishment. We didn’t remove our idols, including the national idol, and decided to Christianize them.

Let’s harkened to the words of God carefully.

Prophecy to the Rebellious Leader
Topic: Prophets

Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease. But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back? And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. (II Kings 1:1-6 KJV)

Over the last three to four months, I have been discussed on unpopular messages on sins and God’s judgment. Even though we may do not like to hear on the wrath of God on this world, it is still coming. Even though governmental scientists created the most hurricanes, God is still in control the path of hurricane. We all are numbered to leave this earth and spend in the eternity with God or in Hell.

As Elijah prophesied about King Ahaziah’s death, God has His schedule to end of our earthly lives. I know that the world is preparing to lead many people to the New World Order through technologies. About two weeks ago, the Free Lance Star newspaper showed an article on new communicator device that is attached and controlled by human’s tongue. This communication device is for the people with disabilities who have difficult to speaking. Even though this new device would be good to use for those have speech impairment, it also explained how far the technologies go that can connect to parts of human skins. It also explained us that how far the world is preparing for the appearance of the Antichrist. We are getting closed to that stage.

I do not think America would come to the point to realize that our country has been sinned against God until He would bring the judgment of fire. I understand that this is a harsh sentence, but it is the true. The reason why God numbered Ahaziah’s life was that he sinned against Him and led the nation to idolatry. September 11, 2001 tragedy was just beginning of God’s judgment on our nation.

Having revival meetings will not be enough to prevent us from God’s judgments. Many pastors think having several revival meetings mean to save the sinners. No! This is wrong way to have revival meeting. This has to do with believers. We need to regenerate ourselves before we’d do the mission to lead the lost souls to Jesus Christ. Let me say one fact about September 11 tragedy. After this tragedy event, about 34,000 American citizens turned to Islamic faiths. Why? Islamic leaders explained that their faiths were stronger than Christianity by destroying the World Trade Tower and Pentagon.

God doesn’t want let any of His people would face His wrath. But we let Him to punish us as Israelites faced forty years of God’s disciplines until their children reached the Promise Land. I do not like to receive bad prophecy from God before I’d die. I don’t know how many true prophets are living today, but when it’s time for God in action, He will bring true prophets to bring His words forth to the nation and individual at the last time.

Worldwide Idolatry II
Topic: Idol Worship
Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Deuteronomy 5:7-11 KJV)


How many of Christians have kept the first ten commandments of the Lord perfectly? Probably none. If there were one, the person would answer these few questions perfectly.

Have you never lied?
Have you never been practiced adultery?
Have you ever lived a perfect life?
If the person would answer these questions with all yeses, then he’d try to cover his sins. Romans 3:23 says that we all have sinned. There is none who live a perfect life according to God’s will, except Jesus Christ. The Bible says that we have High Priest, who experienced all kinds of temptations that came to his life, but He didn’t sin against God (Hebrews 4:15). That person was Jesus Christ. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days, He didn’t fall onto the devil’s traps (Matthew 4:1-11).

Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that America have failed to stand for God for the last three centuries? I just watched the National Treasure that contained hidden secret on the Declaration of Independent, which it related to Freemasonry, one of satanic religions. Even though this movie was good, but the treasure that the national founded forefather was hidden in the secret temple of Freemasonry. Even today, Freemasonry is still existed in America.

Since we let the other countries can enter to the United States, we also opened our door to the other religions. Now, we see that the Roman Catholic Church recognizes as one of Christian church denominations. We also see that Las Vegas Casio is becoming more like heavenly place, where many people can go and have a lot of funs no matter what their circumstances are.

We cannot have God and worldly gods. As my pastor’s wife said in today’s sermon, America has more gods than any other religions. This is why some churches go astray from God. I believe that TBN started their televangelist ministries from good solid foundation, but as they got into money to be involved, we see that they are making multimillionaire ministries and their faiths are not stronger than in 70s, 80s, and 90s. Now, Praise-a-Thon program is not about spreading the Gospel all over the world, but raising some multimillion dollars for their media needs.

Sowing a $1,000 to TBN or CBN is not what God wants us to do. Although they need money to carry the Gospel message to the other parts of world, we need to begin the ministry what we already have and not what we need to have.

We need to bring the Ten Commandment back to White House, Supreme Court, schools, homes, entertainment industries, etc. We also need our churches become in unity and not making more denominational churches. Having more denominational churches are making God’s people more separation from each other. We do not need title Baptist, Pentecost, Methodist, United, or Calvary before the word Church. These are useless to God’s Kingdom. We only need the church that represents Jesus Christ.

What are we going to do idols? We cannot go to Jesus until we’d trash away our own idols.

Worldwide Idolatry I
Topic: Idol Worship

Concept of Friendship with God
Topic: Relationship

The Way of Following Jesus
Topic: Living Life
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Mark 1:34 KJV)

Who do you like to follow to live a life? This is the easy question, but maybe the hardest to answer. Most of us in childhood, we can have dream of anything we want. Children may want to be themselves as pop stars, doctors, mommies, and daddies. But as they’d grow older, they begin to narrow their dreams. Paul said in I Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”



But there is the one of important question to answer yourselves: Whom do you like to follow for the rest of eternality? We may not hear this question from the televangelists or pulpits. But this is the most important question for us to answer ourselves. Are we going to follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and King or reject Him and loose our eternal life insurance? We must understand when we are on the judgment seat, God is not going to ask us about how much of money we made or how many people we led to Him, but what did we do with the gift of salvation that He gave us.

It is sad that we do not hear the message on SALVATION as often. Today, we may hear the sermons on Christian living value, financial success, end time, but no salvation message. We need the salvation message more than ever. So we can share the Gospel message to the other people. That’s all Gospel about.

We must deny ourselves to Jesus Christ. This means that we must live as Jesus lived and follow His words. Do we know why the world hated Christians in early Church era, but love them more today? We are not radical for Jesus enough than as in the early church era. Today, the world loves Christians so much because many church leaders bring messages on what they want to hear. This is why some preachers are popular today, such as TD Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Pat Robertson, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn.

We cannot please both God and the world. We must pick which side we are on. Jesus said that in order to follow Him by denying ourselves and follow Him. Even though this is not a popular message today, we just cannot tell God to save us without denying ourselves first.

Build the Church Upon the Name of Jesus Christ
Topic: Church

In the past couple messages, I discussed about how today’s churches are corrupted by their denominational backgrounds. For example, the Church of God doesn’t believe the existence of the Trinity in the Bible. Or some churches believe in the doctrine of the spirit of water as the gospel message. If we believe that the spirit of water to access to God, how it can take us to the eternity? If we don’t believe the Trinity, how can we understand who made the wind, earth, and us? We have three parts as persons—spirit, soul, and physical body.

Many Catholic Churches use Mathew 16:18 recognize that Apostle Peter as the pope, who started the church. However, this verse does not say that. Jesus didn’t give permission for Peter to take the religious position. Jesus said that He will build His church upon the earth that the gates of hell cannot knock against it. His church is not a building, but His people. We are the church that Satan and the devils cannot break through.

You may the next statement as shock. There is no Scriptural reference for certain types of denominational church. None. The denominational church began at the reformation period and it meant separation between church groups. Let me say this: The Roman Catholic Church is not a denominational church, but it’s the pagan religion. Mormonism is not a Christian church, because they believe in the other gospels as the Latter Day of Saints. God doesn’t care about denominational churches. However, we cannot pick certain doctrine into our churches. We need the whole council of the Word of God.

Paul pointed out that Jesus is not separated (I Corinthians 3). If we are children of God, we are not supposed to be separated from each other. Do you know why we have so many bible versions? Some of us are trying to justify our sins as sinless. The New Century Version Bible, for example, omits the word gospel and replaces with Good News. Or we do not see the words, such as condemnation, fornication, ashamed, guilty, or sinful.

Many televangelists are falling apart from God. Sadly, we see that they put their names on the title of their ministries. I decided not to put my name as ministry, because 1) this web ministry is not about me, but God; 2) putting my name as ministry is sinned against God; and 3) it’s about bringing the people into the relationship with God.

Let me ask you. Are you building your church upon the Rock? If your church is sand and come to realize that you need to build it with the rock foundation, please surrender your life to Jesus Christ by asking Him forgiveness of your sins and invite Him to your life.

Judgment Begins in the House of God
Topic: Church

In Revelation 2-3, God warned these seven churches of Asia that He will judge them according to their works. God doesn’t care how many activities we do in the church. He does careless about our religious practices or selling Christian products. But He only wants to have relationship with us.

The judgment begins in the house of God first before He would judge the world.

Two Ways to Live a Life (Part II)
Topic: Living Life

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:7-8 KJV)

I believe we are in the last generation before Jesus’ return on the earth to establish His kingdom. As we see in today’s news, our nation is beginning to taste another depression era due to economic crisis on the prices of gas and food. CNN reported that we are getting ready to reach $6/gallon on gas. In political area, many state leaders are arguing about to legalize the homosexual rights. In addition, we are getting ready to vote our 44^th president between McCain (R) and Obama (D); and many people have created problems between of these two candidates.

What have we gone wrong? Why many of us have a hard time to live in our country? As we see today, we cannot live comfortably with our people. Instead, we’d need to create some issues out of it. We have forgotten the right standard to live a life for eternal purpose. Nowadays, many churches are separated from the unity and created some denominational churches. Again, to have denominational churches mean to create other religious groups within the Christianity, such as Mormonism, Baptist, Pentecostal, Evangelical, and United Methodist.

 

To live for God, we don’t need denominationalism in our vocabulary. Instead, we need a house where we can come together, in unity, to worship God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Leadership 103: Pass Through Obstacles
Topic: Leadership Training

But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour… (Isaiah 43:1-3a KJV)

Have you go through obstacles that were so hard to finish it? Being in leadership, it is not always easy to stand for those who you loved. I know that President-Elect Obama will have to face the new challenges as he will lead our nation within the next four to eight years, even though he may have less military skills.

Let’s look a couple of things to become a leadership. Even though you may receive the highest honorable award from your leadership position, it is not honor thing to do to king or queen yourself. I know that this is the main problem in today’s church. Pastor Joel Osteen is leading the American people into that direction. His teaching is trying to promote on peoples’ lives rather than God. There is no great thing that would compare to our Holy Father.

We all have failed to live our lives as holy. Jeremiah 1:5 tells us that God knew us before we came out from our mothers’ bellies. He brought us to the earth. There’s no reason to climb ourselves up more than God.

The main reason that we face many obstacles in our lives is because we are humans that have choice to do good things or bad. We cannot blame Adam and Eve for our choices. This is false teaching that many preachers proclaim that we have to blame our ancestors for our wrong choices.

We face many obstacles in our lifetimes because of three reasons. First, we decide to go hard way to live our lives holy. Second, Satan is trying to attempt us to sin against God. Third, God wants us to go through challenges to build our faiths in Him. So, we always cannot blame our ancestors for our life challenges. They are not responsible for our life choices.

Jesus died for our sins. This doesn’t mean that we irresponsible to pay the price. Instead, we have to obey His words and spread the Gospel to the world.

Two Ways to Live a Life (Part I)
Topic: Living Life

How to be Wise Man
Topic: Living Life

The Book of Proverbs was written by a foolish man who turned against God and learned hard way to live for Him. We know this man as King Solomon. King Solomon began his life by following God’s advice. We understand that God choose Solomon to build His temple rather than his father, David. In I Kings 3, Solomon didn’t ask God for the worldly power, but he asked for wisdom. As a result, God gave him more than what he asked for.

 

“And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.” (I King 3:11-13.)

 

The word fear in Proverbs 1:7 means reverend or respect. To be wise men, we need to learn how to respect one another. Even though Jesus is considered as our Savior and Friend, we also need to respect Him as our Lord and King. Jesus has the authority to judge us or save us when we stand up at the Judgment.

Even though King Solomon sinned against God, he came to realization of his sins and reunited with Him. That is wise decision King Solomon had done for his God and his people.

Behind the Scene
Topic: Living Life

The Word of God III: Promise of the Word of God
Topic: Word of God

The Word of God II: Warning of Changing God’s Words
Topic: Word of God

The Word of God I
Topic: Word of God

Relationship with Finance II
Topic: Money Matter
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24 KJV)



Money doesn’t have a power to rule over us. Unfortunately, some of us have caught up with making more money whether through the business, television ministry, marketing, and selling yourselves to the night club. Nowadays, we hear about a small microchip that goes through the skins of pets and can tell the information about that pet and tell the price. And then this process will go to the human’s skin to keep their personal information in the skins. This plan already has been launched in some countries. Revelation 13 talks about how the antichrist would appear to the world as the millions of people would take the mark of beast in their right hands or foreheads.


We cannot make the money as our master. As I said in the pervious message, many America churches have so caught up with marketing their churches. Bishop TD Jakes operates two or more mega churches in different locations that would cost $1 million or more. Making more churches or becoming a world famous preacher doesn’t make us to have access to Heaven.


Giving our money to our local churches or communities are the biblical principles. We tithe to our local churches because God commanded for us to do so and so we help our churches to keep running to help members and others as well. One thing we should not do is putting the church as marketing place. Remember Jesus was disappointed when He saw that Jerusalem Temple was like the marketing place (Mark 11:15-19). Our churches should be a house of prayer (Mark 11:17) and not a house of thief.

We need to set differences between God and money. There is right way or wrong way to handle our money. We can be fallen in love with our money, but it doesn’t satisfy us in all the way. There’s limited that the money can do, but if we have our relationship with God, then there is no limit to break our relationships with Him.