Avalon Chronicles #129: Headline: Wise Men Visit Herod

      Herod's press secretary woke the king up and said there have arrived at the palace wise men, who have traveled from the East. They asked Herod, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." (NKJV: Matthew 2:1-2). This got Herod's attention, because this was a direct threat to his sovereignty. Herod demanded of his staff, "Where is this birth to happen?" In the immortal words of Mark Twain, "I wonder who found that out?" The answer came back from what the prophet Micah had written seven hundred years previously that the birth was to have been in Bethlehem of Judea. 

     Herod sent the wise men to Bethlehem with instructions to report back to him so that, "...I may come and worship him also." The wise men went to Bethlehem, but proceeded home without a return visit to Herod. Herod realized that the birth of this young boy could prove a direct threat to his reign. It is written in Matthew 2:16, "Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he set forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under." An angel had appeared to Joseph to instruct him to take the child Jesus and escape to Egypt until Herod soon died thereafter. 

     Christendom celebrates the birth of Jesus on December 25th each year with great merriment and celebration. The tradition of sharing of gifts began with those to Jesus from the wise men. But, what is the larger picture here? Again, it was the move of Satan through his instrument Herod to kill Jesus, who would be the means through His earthly ministry to bring forth God's plan for humanity's redemption. Jesus' birth would be the final nail in the coffin to disrupt Satan's plan since the Fall in the Garden to stop God's goal to establish a way by which those, who choose to believe in the Coming of the Christ, would have the privilege of living eternally with God. 

WE CELEBRATE THE GREAT GIFT OF THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD ON THIS DAY!

Avalon Chronicles #128: Instruments of God

      The book of Isaiah is a powerful book of the Bible. I am studying the Prophecy Study Bible General Editor Tim LaHaye. It is 59% prophecy in the King James Version. My study is highlighted by NIV Halley's Bible Handbook by Henry H. Halley. Isaiah was a prophet of the southern kingdom of Judah, when the northern kingdom of Israel had already been overcome by the Assyrian Empire, which in 734 B.C. took away the population. In 701 the "Assyrians were stopped before the walls of Jerusalem by an angel of God." In Isaiah chapter ten the headline is "Assyria the Instrument of God." The footnote to Isaiah 10:5 states "Isaiah declares that Assyria was a rod in the hand of God to discipline Israel, even though the prideful Assyrians did not intend to cooperate with God. The prophet's intention is to make it clear that Assyria will not conquer Israel by her own power, but by God's permission." 

     Isaiah's main place in prophecy was to carry forth "...a series of warnings aimed at Judah and Jerusalem (chaps 1-5)" which sound the alarm to the moral decay of the Jewish nation. Eventually Jerusalem is isolated by Assyria, which conquered all of Judah except for Jerusalem. Then Assyria is overcome by the Babylonian Empire, which takes the inhabitants of Jerusalem to Babylon and only a tenth will later return. The overriding message is that nations and empires stand and fall only by the allowance of God, almighty. God will always prevail. It is God's world. He created it. He set forth certain rules of behavior and demands obedience to his laws. The Old Testament establishes his standards for humanity.

     As a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior I have studied the laws of God. I have attempted personally to adhere to them in my daily life. I have not been perfect nor can any of us, but we can never cease to attempt to live by God's standards. Unfortunately, I am very cognizant of the moral decay in my own native land much less throughout the world. The question on my mind is when, whether and how may the moral decay so prevalent in the United States bring God's judgment. Will there be a God's instrument to discipline us? 

Avalon Chronicles #127: Worldly and Spiritual Employment and Commitments

      A few weeks ago in a sermon I heard the preacher compare/contrast an employment commitment and the analogous aspects of a dedication of faith to our Lord God, once we become Christian. As is known to all, a responsibility in employment with a company/corporation is a two way street. For an employee it requires knowledge and application of talents thereof to the actual mission and what is their part to the eventual success of the final product or service. It takes a dedication of loyalty to the employer. In return the employer has certain responsibilities to provide: a satisfactory and safe working environment; a paycheck on an agreed upon schedule according to employment contract; and support for the employee with certain benefits. 

      I am not sure I have ever included any humor in my years of writing this blog, but one occurred to me for this subject. Here goes. A man was applying for a job and asked the personnel manager, "Does your company pay for health insurance?" "No," the personnel manager said, "You pay for it. It is deducted from your salary each month." The applicant said, "Well, the last place I worked, they paid for it." The manager said, "Did they provide you with a life insurance policy?" "Yes." "And profit-sharing?" "Yes." "And paid vacations?" "Yes." The applicant continued enumerating all the benefits he had previously enjoyed such as bonuses and gifts, etc. etc. The personnel manager then asked the applicant, 'Well, why did you leave the company?" The applicant, haltingly replied, "They folded." Case closed!

     The preacher elaborated in his sermon on his main idea. It was, that, accepting Jesus as one's personal Savior, derives a significant gift of unlimited benefits by our Lord in return that far transcends anything we give to God. What must we give? We must believe in loyal and undiminished faith that Jesus is Who He claimed He was two millennia ago, when He was birthed in Bethlehem in human form. We must believe He was not of this earthly world. We must believe what the New Testament declared He was and what He taught humanity. Once in faith we believe He died on that Calvary cross and shed his blood for us for His forgiveness of all our sins, past, present and future, we derive the ultimate gift of Eternal Life.

     First and foremost I have believed and have faith that my benefits received are derived from an underlying understanding that God is in charge, completely and eternally in every aspect of my life and my world. He answers prayers. He heals us body, soul and spirit. What is our responsibility for this contract? It sounds simple, but it is not? We must be sinless (which we cannot be due to original sin for mankind), but we know we can be restored and cleansed by coming back to Him and confessing those sins in the Name of Jesus. We also know we must forgive all others that have hurt/slighted/wounded us in our lives or we will not be forgiven. God's benefits never change. We fail in our part of the contract. We are human, but, in our underlying belief, we serve a God, that is always there for us, even when we lose faith and lose our way. The key is to stay in the fights and battles of life (personally in military terms, tactically and in overall individual life's fights and battles) and (again in military terms the strategic battles) always in our lives of the effects of the great eternal struggle of all mankind, that of God versus Satan, who controls our earthly word.

     Final admonition: Follow up and fulfill your side of the agreement and your life will be better!