A Child's Question contd......

Yesterday I started to answer a question posed by Richard Herring to his mother when he was eight years old. He said that he noticed a 'discrepancy' on the first page of the New Testament' about the genealogy of Jesus, which shows that he is related to David and Abraham via Joseph. Apparently he said to his mother that if the Holy Spirit was the Lord's father then he couldn't be related to them (David & Abraham).

I intend to answer the question via a number of points which with the Lord's help will link together into a complete answer. These points are:

• Evidence through prophesy for Jesus being who he claimed to be
• The lineage to King David through Joseph
• The lineage to King David through Mary
• Jewish law and the rules of inheritance

The New Testament presents the Lord Jesus to different audiences as the promised Messiah and shows what is in the Old Testament concealed now in the New Testament becomes revealed.  What I find fascinating is that these Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament were translated into Greek three centuries BEFORE the Lord Jesus was born. Why is that important? Nobody and say that the facts about Jesus were later twisted to fit in with the events that occurred in the life of Jesus.

I work as a statistical expert in one of the leading aerospace companies in the UK. I have spent my working life teaching the use of statistics. I am a man that needs data, needs to see the evidence before I believe something is real, and I need to be convinced to my own satisfaction. It was through statistics and probabilities that the Lord reached out to me, and showed me the data the facts that Jesus was who He said He was the Son of God was 'statistically' certain.

Big claims I know! But God is a BIG God. Seek and you shall find says God's word. I did seek and I did find the living Lord God.

So where is this 'statistical' proof you might ask? If I were to say to you that a rare event was to happen next week I would be making a prediction. In biblical terms a prophesy. If I then went on to make other predictions that came true then you would have to admit that I, as a human being would be unique. How many predictions I would have to make to achieve this 'unique' accolade would be determined by the degree of proof you as an individual would need to be convinced. Some people might only need two or three predictions to come true to be convinced, while other more sceptical people might need more many more events to come true before agreeing that I was 'different'.

In the Old Testament there are well over 300 prophetic reference to Jesus Christ. Some have already been fulfilled, some are currently being fulfilled and some will be fulfilled in the future. If we just list 25 of these old testament prophesise and calculate the probabilities that one individual could fulfil all 25 predictions the odds on achieving all 25 are so long to be beyond chance. What about 100, 200 ......

In my next segment I will list as an example 25 prophesises and then expand on how the Lord Jesus can be of David's line by both blood and by Jewish law.

Finally .................................... a thought for today

Patience means awaiting God's time without doubting God's love.

A Child's Question

I get the Readers Digest which describes itself as the worlds Biggest magazine with 50 editions in 50 languages. I have been getting this magazine for more years than I care to remember, and mainly now just  zoom to the 'laughter is the best medicine' section and read no further. (memo to self - stop subscription next year).

OK. I do read other bits and I noticed yesterday 22nd October 2011 in the May edition of the Readers Digest (I know I am a bit behind with my reading) in a section called 'Books that Changed my Life' there was a piece written by a British comedian and writer called Richard Herring and one of the books that he had chosen was the New Testament.

However, even before I started to read in detail as to why the New Testament had helped change Mr Herrings life, I knew from the introduction to this man that he was not because he got saved, nor had he found the real purpose for his life.  Anyone who was doing a stand-up comedy tour around the UK entitled 'Christ on a Bike' would only be using the Lords name and Christianity to aid his laughs. (I did go to his website and it is much worse than I can even write about, but you can easily come to the conclusion that Richard is a committed atheist with a passion for mocking Christ's followers). The Lord himself fares much better than His followers and Mr Herring compares the Lord to the Fonz - a cool guy.

Now Richard is nobody's fool (in the eyes of the world) and as a son of a headmaster went on to be educated at Oxford University. When he was eight he said that he noticed a 'discrepancy' on the first page of the New Testament' about the genealogy of Jesus, which shows that he is related to David and Abraham via Joseph. Apparently he said to his mother that if the Holy Spirit was the Lord's father then he could'nt be related to them. He states that from that moment on he wondered if any of the things he had been told were true.

He did go on to say that there is some great things in the Bible that can have an enormous influence on you, even of it's to define yourself as an atheist. So this event apparently opened new perspectives on the world for Richard, in a lot of positive ways according to the article. This positive way turns out to be in him 'losing a religion'.

This prompted me to ask:

• Was / are his mother and father practising Christians? There was a Bible in the home in his early youth!
• Why could his mother not answer the child's question?
• If she did not know the answer did she try to get Richard to talk to someone who could answer the question?

I was prompted to think about:

• The impact on a young life through ignorance of what the Bible actually says about the Lord's birth
• The eternal impact on a life, a soul that is going to be judged by the Lord himself.
• A need to respond to that question posed by Richard many years ago.

With the Lord's guidance over the coming days / weeks or however long it takes,  I will attempt to answer the question posed by Richard to his mother many years ago.

My prayer is that somehow, in someway Richard Herring will come to know the Lord as his own personal saviour and learn that Christianity is not about either losing or gaining a religion, but gaining Jesus. Knowing that Jesus Christ is alive and well and loves Richard Herring. It's all about relationship with the living God NOT religion.

Finally ......................... a thought for today

Our greatest privilege is to enjoy God's presence

Do you believe Jesus or do you believe a Theory?

I have wondered in the past how some people can call themselves Bible believing Christians, who fully accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, and yet believe that God has used evolution to get us to the state of development we are in today. They somehow have to 'fit' man made theories into the biblical narrative.

I was asked the other day by a person in work if I believed the book of Genesis to be a literal history of creation, or a series of allegorical stories! My answer, was that I do believe it to be a literal history of how we humans came into existence. But my belief is more than a basic trust based on nothing, it is a trust in the word of God as spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Himself believed in the Bible's teaching about the beginning of man. When replying to the Pharisee's question about divorce, our Lord asks them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE,' (Mat 19:4), and if we accept that Moses wrote the first four books of the Old Testament then again how can we reconcile the fact that in Our Lord again said in John, For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. (Joh 5:46).

Our Lord speaks to us as one who clearly accepts the historical accuracy of the Old Testament. If that were not enough evidence of our Lord's views and beliefs on the accuracy of the Old Testament, he also spoke these words to the disciples after his resurrection. "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." (Luk 24:44).

He was referring to the whole of the Old Testament, Our Lord Jesus Christ accepts it ALL. He says that it all Points forward to Him. Hence, if we indulge in our own particular slant on sections of the Bible, we immediately find ourselves at odds with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It has to be total belief in Him, in His Holiness, in His Deity. If we accept his Deity then we must accept His word is True. In other words Evolution Theory is a man made LIE.

Finally ............................... a thought for today

Every promise of God comes with His personal guarantee.

The Ideal Husband - Part 2

• What should be the degree of a husband's affection for his wife?
• Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (Eph 5:33)
• So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. (Eph 5:28)

• In addition to bestowing his love upon his wife, what honour should the husband give to her?
• Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. (1Pe 3:7)

I find it interesting, that if I as a husband do not honour my wife ,and show her understanding, my prayers will be hindered by my attitude, and demeanour.

• What responsibility has the husband to his wife and to his household?
• Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. (1Co 7:3)
• But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1Ti 5:8)

• What blessings does God promise to a Godly husband?
• Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine In the very heart of your house, Your children like olive plants All around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed Who fears the LORD. (Psa 128:3-4)
• Yes, may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel! (Psa 128:6)

Paul lays down the basis for happy wedded life in the words – “Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them”. Perhaps these instructions are not always well understood. Sometimes one of verses, and sometimes the other, is unduly emphasised.

Some men insist upon the first – “Wives, be in subjection to your husbands.” They interpret the words somewhat harshly, as if a wife were to be only as a servant to her husband, whose duty is to minister to his desires, to please him, to run at his every call and command. But it is not a Christian teaching.

In some older marriage services the words 'to love, honour and obey' as vows that are taken. It is to be particularly noted that Paul nowhere says – “Wives, obey your husbands.” In another place, where Paul gives another instruction, his words are – “Wives be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the Church”. No doubt the husband is the head of the household; but what a responsibility this teaching puts upon him! His wife is to be in subjection to him, “as unto the Lord.” He is to be to her what Christ is to the Church.

If a man will insist on his wife fulfilling her part, he must also insist on honestly fulfilling his own part, – all the sacred duties which are his as a husband. What, then, is the husband’s share in this happy home making? “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it”. A husband is to love his wife. Is love despotic? Does love put its object in a servant’s place? No; love serves. It seeks not its own. It desires “not to be served, but to serve.” It does not demand attention, deference, service, subjection. It seeks rather to serve, to give, to honor.

Finally .................................. a thought for today

Looking for perfection in a man? Look to Jesus.

The Ideal Husband - Part 1

• What position does the husband occupy in the family?
• "For the husband is the head of the wife" (Eph 5:23)

• What beautiful illustration of head ship precludes any abuse of this prerogative?
• For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. (Eph 5:23)

• To whom will the godly husband be subject?
• But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. (1Co 11:3)

• How should husbands relate to their wives?
• Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. (Col 3:19)

J. R Miller wrote in "Week - Day Religion". Religion is love, and a religious home is one in which love reigns. There must be love in action, love that flows out of all the house intercourse, showing itself in a thousand little expressions of thoughtfulness, kindness and unselfishness, and gentle courtesy.

There can be very few more beautiful pictures of wedded love that were penned by the wife of Charles Kingsley as she closed her loving memoir with these words : “The outside world must judge him as an author, a preacher, a member of society, but those only who lived with him in the intimacy of every day life at home can tell what he was as a man. Over the real romance of his life and over the tenderest, loveliest passages in his private letters a veil must be thrown, but it will not be lifting it too far to say that if in the highest, closest of earthly relationships a love that never failed – pure, patient, passionate – for six and thirty years, a love which never stooped from its own lofty level to a hasty word, an impatient gesture or a selfish act, in sickness or in health, in sunshine or in storm, by day or by night, could prove that the age of chivalry has not passed away for ever, then Charles Kingsley fulfilled the ideal of a ‘most true and perfect knight’ to the one woman blest with that love in time and to eternity. To eternity, for such love is eternal, and he is not dead. He himself, the man, the lover, husband, father friend – he still lives in God, who is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” And why should not every marriage in Christ realize all that lies in this picture? It is possible, and yet only noble manhood and womanhood, with truest views of marriage and inspired by the holiest love, can realize it.

Surely true head ship is a picture of this type of love. The love that Christ has for his Church

Finally ..................... a thought for today

What matters to Jesus is what's on the inside.

In His Grip

Isa 49:15-16
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands".

Psalm 40:1
I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit,out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock. He put a new song in my mouth.

I think that no matter how old we are we need to be in a safe pair of hands. The weaker you are the more support you need. I would imagine that if you were in a slimy pit full of mud, slowly going under you would cry out for help, hoping upon hope that someone strong enough will pass by that can get you out. I can see me stretching out my mud covered hands in desperation. Then the 'grip' that will never slip, never weaken, never let go is felt and we know instinctively that we will be saved from the pit.

Thank you Lord for your hands, pierced for my sins, thank you Lord that your hands reach out to us in love and compassion, to save us from the pit of hell, to a new life based on you as our sure foundation.

Still About, but Missing the Posts

Sorry for the delay in posting my thoughts. The two useful brain cells are currently being overloaded with work. The old body is being abused by attending two of my daughter’s graduations and preparing for one daughter’s wedding on the 25th of this month.

This Friday I am attending Amanda’s graduation at Queens University at Belfast in Northern Ireland. She has qualified with a Bachelors degree in Theology from Queens University. She intends to return to complete a Masters degree in September after she gets married and settles into married life.

A couple of weeks ago my wife Hazel and myself attended the graduation of Amanda’s twin sister Gillian. She graduated from Stirling University in Scotland with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and she also is returning there to do a Masters degree in Social Work.

The photo shows Gillian and Hazel my wife relaxing after the graduation. These are just two out of the four beautiful women in my family. Beautiful women not only in how they look, but beautiful in terms of their hearts, minds and souls. I am a blessed man and I praise the Lord for his favour on my life.

I still have not got my computer fixed which does cause me problems in posting to my blog. I am hopeful that tomorrow the HP technical person will have finally found out what they are going to do to fix the problem, once and for all time.

Finally……… a thought for to-day

How to Avoid Frustration
Keep your shoulder to the wheel
Your hand to the helm
Your eye on the ball!
Your nose to the grindstone
Your ear to the ground
And you will not have time to
Put your foot in your mouth.