GOD BLESSES YOUR SEED

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, – Heb 6:10 

Each time the New Testament talks about giving, there is almost always the reminder that it is not without reward.

When our Lord spoke of giving in secret (Mt 6:1-4), He ended it by saying, “your Father who sees in secret Himself shall reward you openly.” In the well-known Lk 6:38, He says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your lap.”

The Apostle Paul, a champion of generosity for the church and the needy, had several assurances of divine blessings accompanying the act of giving.

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Gal 6:9

 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Php 4:19

 “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: 2Co 9:8

And this, his farewell remark to the Ephesian Brethren, “... remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Act 20:35

Amen.

Like the Apostle Peter said in his second epistle (2Pt 1:12), I do not write these things because you are negligent in them, but as a reminder, knowing full well that “you already know them and are firmly grounded in the truth you have received” (GNB).

Thank you for all the feedback during the week. The LORD bless you, and keep you: The LORD make his face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you: The LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

You’ve seen the end of June, you’ll see the end of December. The yearend will meet you well, blessed and established on all fronts in Jesus’ name.

Lots of Love.

GREG ELKAN

DOUBLE HONOUR

For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. – 1Ti 5:18

Greetings Beloved,

This week on TWFT, we’ve been looking at the touchy topic of GIVING. Probably because of cultural sentiments, or painful history, the subject of giving and generosity has become a sort of hot potato the average pastor doesn’t want to talk about – or to be seen to stress on; and I believe church-neutral platforms like this provides us a perfect medium to talk freely about it.

Giving, all forms of it, is a scriptural fact. Generosity is assumed of the Believer in the New Testament and is enjoined severally by the Apostolic writers (1Ti 6:17-19; Phm 1:14; Heb 13:16). We’re to give to the weak (Act 20:35), the saints (Rom 12:13;1Co 16:1-3; 2Co 9:12; Heb 6:10), the church (2Cor 8), the needy (Eph 4:28), the widow (1Ti 5:16), to our fellow brother or sister (1Jo 3:17-18)... and to our pastors and leaders.

Admittedly, that last item is the thorniest of the lot. But to leave a pastor without support or to barely sustain them is unscriptural. Sure, there’re fake pastors all round that entered into the ministry for the sake of their belly. It’s not a new thing; they abounded also in the days of the Apostles (Rom 16:18; Tit 1:11; 2Pe 2:13; Jud 1:12). But we mustn’t conclude all under that lot.

Paul tells us how to distinguish those who are rightly worthy of support. In Gal 6:6 (AMP) he says, “Let him who receives instruction in the Word [of God] share all good things with his teacher [contributing to his support]”.

The Good News Bible explains it better, “IF you are being taught the Christian message, you should share all the good things you have with your teacher.” (emphases mine). Fake pastors will fail this criterion.

He repeats this instruction (and qualification) again in 1Tim 5:17, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.”

The phrase, “double honour”, means adequate financial support (AMP), double pay (GNB), “ample honorarium” (HCSB-r), double compensation (ISV), etc.

While fake pastors, ‘prophets’ and “Men of God” abound, we mustn’t neglect the scriptural injunction of taking care of our overseers.  

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

A MIDDLE-LANE APPROACH TO TITHING

Now...concerning giving and receiving. – Php 4:15

It's jocularly said that all Christians become theologians when it comes to MONEY, and even more so when it relates to tithing.

The major problem about the Tithing controversy in the church is that neither side of the argument can claim neutrality. For the most part, those who insist the Tithe is still relevant in this Dispensation of Grace are Pastors – direct beneficiaries of that doctrine. On the other hand, those who reject the doctrine of tithing are usually those who are being asked to tithe. So it becomes hard to divorce theology from self-interest. And thus, the stalemate endures.

I may take some gratification in placing the blame of all this Tithing brouhaha on the Pulpit. For cherry-picking the Old Testament and attempting to scare the money out of God’s People though threats of divine punishment and  all,  the blame for the negative emotions surrounding giving to one’s Lord and Saviour should lay on them.

But what are the facts, really?

Let’s begin with the (in)famous “Will a man rob God” passage that gets flogged repeatedly every Sunday Morning (Mal 3:8-11).

It's already established by now that that is an OT instruction. “Now we know that whatsoever things the law says, it says to them who are under the law:” (Rom 3:19). Considering that the NT Believer is NOT “under the Law” it would be somewhat devious to keep quoting that passage.

The real problem is that the New Testament has few references to tithing.

Believers who attempt to dabble with the law will always get bitten; because the "tithe" in the OT amounts to 30% of one's income (for there're actually 3 separate "tithes").

However, this fact mustn't be used as an excuse to hog up all one's resources. The NT Church was known for her generosity, and their giving may well end up being over 10%.

Many Christians find the tithe to be a fair and workable plan for giving. So long as it's not made to be a coercive or legalistic system,

NT 'Tithing' should basically be about HONOURING GOD. It isn't Christlike to eat up all of one's harvest without acknowledging the Giver.

Additionally, ministries have come to rely on the Tithe for sustainance. If we can forgive them for their past errors and decide within ourselves to use the Tithe as an arbitrary minimum standard for giving, then the work of the gospel can continue and the people will remain blessed.

Having this truth in mind: The New Testament Believer Doesn't Give in Order to Be Blessed; He/She Gives BECAUSE They Already Are Blessed!

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

JESSE’S BOY

And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. – 2Sa 24:24

Though his words are taken slightly out of context when used during Offering time, King David’s original phrase, “I will not offer to God what will cost me nothing” reveals an important aspect of his mentality.

Many in the Church have a fundamental problem with what I term Upward Giving: giving to someone who is obviously better off than one is. It seems to go against the grain of rational thinking (and doesn’t Proverbs say something negative about “giving to the rich”?) Whether we realise this or not, this influences our  attitude towards giving to God’s work, for what does the Richest Personality in the Universe need from poor ‘Ol me?

David’s attitude of insisting on giving something valuable to God must have come from the training he got from Jesse, his father in Bethlehem.

In 1Sa 16:19 (CEV) Saul sent a message to Jesse: “Tell your son David to leave your sheep and come here to me.” This was the King of Israel talking. He has hundreds of servants at his beck and call, yet he was requesting for Jesse’s boy. Moreover, to make it even more acute, the king’s order indicated he knew the economic importance of David to his family.

Another man would have grumbled about the oppression of the powerful on the weak, but Jesse didn’t just comply, he loaded a donkey with bread and a goatskin full of wine, then he told David to take the donkey and a young goat to Saul. (1Sa 16:20 CEV). How incredible is that?

At another time when all of David’s brothers were gone to war against the Philistine’s Goliath, Jesse sent his boy once more to take food to his brothers at the battlefront. Soldiers of those days were civilians or militia, and their food provisions came from their families. However, Jesse’s family was different, because when their provision came, there was also something “for their captain”, (1Sa 17:17,18).

This practice of giving, unasked, to one’s betters must have made an impression on the young David. And we can see how it affected his attitude in giving to a God who is rich in all things.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The Unutterable G-Word

 Now...concerning giving and receiving. – Php 4:15

In today’s secularised society, it’s become the rule never to mention the three-letter word that begins with ‘G’. G-O-D has become the He-who-must-not-be-named when giving your valedictory speech, when writing your science report or when talking about the origins of life.

Christians, too, have their own taboo G-word. It’s the word the pastor has to stay up all night planning on how to broach it. It’s the word the newcomer or ‘Seeker’ must not hear from the pulpit lest he or she gets a wrong opinion of the faith. It’s the word that makes the heart of the congregation jump whenever it’s mentioned...

The G-word is “GIVING”.

It’s not that Believers are intrinsically stingy or not given to Generosity (another G-word), but in today’s economy, Giving is tied to Money, and the Church hasn’t had it great with them shekels.

We can’t shy away from the fact that Money is a real issue in today’s Church, especially for Evangelicals. The news media is awash with images of pastors with lavish lifestyles of 24-Bedroom mansions, rare-collection Rolls-Royces and Private Jets. We never miss the juicy gossips of the latest ‘pastor’ caught fleecing his sheep and carting away with millions under some weird convoluted miracle scheme.

Unfortunately, we project this larger-than-life, selective-coverage media image on every local pastor we meet. Does your pastor (and by that, I mean the person physically in charge of your local assembly) drive a Rolls-Royce?

The Mega-Pastors that hog up all the attention on TV and the Internet do not make up to 1% of Pastors worldwide and statistics show that 90% of American Christians do NOT attend a Mega-Church.

In a sort of paradox, the emergence of Mega-Churches and Celebrity Preachers has made the average pastor afraid of broaching the G-word to his congregation because they will say, “he wants us to give to him”.

However, Generosity is an integral fruit of godliness and is also a demand on the New Testament Believer (Rm 12:13; Hb 13:16; 1Jo 3:17).

Believers are called to GIVE! We mustn’t allow the lifestyle and practice of a few ministers and ministries become an excuse to allow the work of the Kingdom to languish.

Let’s snap ourselves out of this lethargy, and decide within ourselves to GIVE to God and His work.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

THE GOD WHO CANNOT LIE

For no word from God will ever fail. – Lk 1:37 (NIV)

The faith and confidence that we have in the Bible is tied to the nature of God. in John 17:17, our Lord qualified God’s word as “TRUTH”.

It’s quite interesting that the Bible doesn’t say that God does not lie, but that God CANNOT lie.

It’s unfortunate that some preachers interpret this to mean that even when He does lie, the lie automatically becomes truth (e.g. if God ‘lies’ that you bag is under the couch, the bag has to instantly appear there for that statement not to be a lie).

That’s a crass slur on the nature of God and goes against the scripture.

Beloved, the implication of that statement is that 3,000 years into eternity in Heaven God can change His mind about our eternal salvation and say He never said it was eternal. Then, by virtue of His deity and power, all records of His previous promises in time and in scripture will be automatically rewritten to accommodate this divine mendacity!

Is that the kind of God we serve? No!

Rather, with respect to our salvation, Paul declares that we live “In hope of ETERNAL LIFE, which God, WHO CANNOT LIE, promised before the ages began;” (Tit 1:2). Heb 6:18 reiterates the same theme, assuring us that it is “impossible for God to lie,”

The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away: But the word of the Lord endures forever. (1Pe 1:24).

Beloved, God has sent His word of blessing over you and it will NOT return to Him void (Is 55:11); it’ll stay with you and will surely manifest itself in your life. Heaven and earth may pass away: but His words shall not (Lk 21:33).

I ask you to use this moment to meditate on every promise God has made to you, corporate and personal, and know that of a surety they shall still come to pass. No promise is wasted and no prophecy is faded, every word from God to you shall come to pass in Jesus’ name.

Believe it, and see them manifest in your life. 

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

INFALLIBLE

 “That’s how it is with my words. They don’t return to me without doing everything I send them to do.” – Isa 55:11 (CEV)

For a Believer’s interaction with the Bible to be spiritually productive, he or she must hold it in the highest of esteem. They must see it for what it is – the very Words of God Almighty to humanity. That means they must affirm that it’s Inspired, it’s Inerrant and it’s Infallible.

The Inspiration and Inerrancy of Scriptures, though key to the foundation of our faith, can sometimes feel like the headache for only theologians and ‘intellectual’ Christians. But Infallibility is where the rubber meets the road. Because, after all has been said and done, we all want to be sure whether we can trust our lives and indeed our eternal destinies on the words in the Bible.

The Infallibility of scripture simply means that it is “incapable of failing”. The Bible is peppered with lots of promises and definite statements. It tells us that whosoever believes in Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life; it says that God will NEVER leave us nor forsake us; and in it Jesus says He is going to prepare our place and will come back again for us,  (Jn 3:15; 14:3; Heb 13:5).

If the Bible is not Infallible then, like Paul said, we are of all men most pitiable (1Co 15:19).

Our spiritual lives cannot rise above our opinion and understanding of the Bible. If the Bible is nothing more than a nice, useful book to us then we will get nothing but nice, useful advice from it. But if we see it as the ever-living, ever-abiding, incorruptible word of God, it’ll radically transform our lives for the better.  

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.

The grass withers, and the flower thereof falls away: But the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

– 1Pe 1:24-25.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

INERRANT

In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the ages began. – Tit 1:2

The first time I heard of the word, “Inerrant” was in 2004. Somehow the speaker assumed I should know what it meant.  But I concluded it was some sort of special jargon that theologians use to describe Scripture; because even up till now I've still not heard it used outside of theology.

Inerrant simply means “correct and containing NO mistakes”. So, it’s no wonder it’s not common. What document, system or construct ever made by Man can be to be so perfect, that we could say it “contains NO mistake”.

If constitutions and tax laws have no slips, there’d be no need for lawyers. If the codes of Operating Systems were inerrant then there’d be no market for the antivirus industry. But then, how dare we claim Scripture is exempt from this rule? How dare we assert that the Bible is flawless?

The people who oppose the Inerrancy of scripture come from two groups: those in the Church and those outside of it. Detractors outside the Church claim the Bible cannot be inerrant because it’s nothing more than the composition of fallible, biased men. And there’re those in the Church who worry that calling the Bible inerrant only places an undue burden on it and exposes it to unwarranted scrutiny and ridicule by critics.

But the Inerrancy of scripture is inexorably tied to its Inspiration. For if it is God’s Word, then it should of necessity contain no error; for God cannot lie. While Inspiration answers the question of why the Bible can be trusted, Inerrancy answers the question of to what degree can the Bible be trusted.

Most importantly, conceding that maybe some parts of the Bible may be wrong eventually makes ALL of it to be so. For the same Bible that says Adam lived an incredible 930 years also says that Jesus was born of a virgin. If it “may be wrong” about the former, what makes it not wrong of the latter?

The doctrines of incarnation and redemption are inseparably wedded to historical accounts of the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ. If the details of Jesus’ life are with error, why should His claims of salvation be believed? 

Without the affirmation of absolute Inerrancy of scriptures, we’ll fall into a slippery snare of Satan who aims to erode, subtly, the foundation on which our faith stands from under us.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN 

INSPIRED

All scripture is given by INSPIRATION of God, – 2Ti 3:16

What does it mean to say that the Bible is “Inspired”?

Translating 2Tim 3:16 into English must be particularly problematic because the English language ALREADY has a literary use of the term, “Inspiration”. 

In English, to be “inspired” means to be mentally stimulated to creative thought or activity; it also means to be extraordinarily good. Thus, saying the Bible is “inspired” places it in the same category as Shakespeare’s Hamlet or Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, or even Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.

But while the works of men may be Inspiring, ONLY the Bible is Inspired!

“Inspired” in this sense means that the authors of scripture were uniquely moved by God in the creative process such that the final outcome contained the very words of God for all people and for all time. The precision and exactness of scripture is so high that Jesus could base an entire doctrinal position on the tense used by the author of Exodus over a thousand years earlier (Mt 22:31,32), and Paul could hinge his theology on the fact that the “seed” used in the history of Abraham was singular and not plural (Gal 3:16). Only the Bible can be held up to such scrutiny.

A book by a Man of God may be inspiring, but only the Bible is Inspired!

The Bible does not need to be plugged in; it is its own power source. It has the power to transform the most degenerate sinner and empower the regenerate saint.

The Bible is the only book that can be read a hundred times and still be informative to the reader. It’s the only book that is relevant to the King and the Peasant, the rich and the poor, the Sinner and the Saint.

Pick up your Bible today and, like the Psalmist in 119:18, declare to God, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart:  – I Jer 15:16.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN  

SCRIPTURES IN AN AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, – 2Ti 3:16

Do people still believe in the Bible? Is the Bible still relevant today? Hasn’t

Science proven most of the Bible to be wrong?

From the beginning, the Word of God has always been under attack. Indeed, the very first words uttered by Satan were an attack on what God had said (Gen 3:1). Again, his very first words in tempting Jesus in the wilderness was a distortion of what the Father had said to Jesus at the baptism (Mt 3:17; 4:3).

For over 300 years, beginning from the so-called Age of Enlightenment the Bible has suffered an unprecedented level of attack from godless minds who had found (in science and logic) a useful tool to vent their opposition to God and to express their aversion to the unyielding moral demands of scripture.

While history shows us that the Bible has successfully withstood every attack on it, it also shows that it did so with the active cooperation and faith of the Believers that lived in those times. They went all out – even to death – to defend the inerrancy and inspiration of the Word of God.

Unfortunately, today we have a church that’s too wary of criticism and ever too malleable to ‘new’ interpretations of scripture. For fear of being labelled as insular, antiquated or even bigoted, the Church today is beginning to yield to immense external pressure to change the message of the Eternal Word.

In this weird paradox of things, our theologians are beginning to re-see scriptures through the lens of theories proposed by godless scholars who had never knelt been to Calvary. The Sinner now dictates the Sermon.

While we may claim comfort in the fact that we have not subscribed to the madness of wilful infanticide or the ordination of gay ministers, can we honestly claim to be immune?

When we show embarrassment at “some parts of the Bible”, or shy away at the crass incredibility of some Bible stories, or are excessively willing to kowtow to the ‘facts’ of some scientist’s latest discovery instead of the express truth written in scripture, then we are just as guilty as Scripture-Twisters.

Let us stand for the Word of God. Let us look to it and it alone for inspiration; and get to the point where we believe every jot and title written therein.

Let’s be like the man who once said, “I believe the Bible when it says a whale swallowed Jonah; as a matter of fact I’d believe if it said it was Jonah that swallowed the whale; if God said it so, then that’s what happened!”

AMEN

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

CHRIST PASSOVERS YOU

for whe I se the bloude, I will passe ouer you, – Ex 12:13 (Tyndale Bible)

The English term “Passover” that has gone into common use today is a legacy of William Tyndale, the 16th century Biblical translator and reformer. He used it in his 1534 Bible translation as the English equivalent of the Hebrew “pasach”, which God used when He spoke to Moses about the event (Ex 12:13).

But interestingly, this restricts the broad scope of the meaning of the term. Because though pasach means “to pass, spring or skip over”, it also means “to  hesitate, to hover over, or to guard (i.e. protect)”.

This second meaning is made clear when we see how it is used in Isa 31:5: As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over (pasach) he will preserve it.

This understanding distinguishes the LORD from the marauding Death Angel that attacked Egypt that night. He hovered over His people to exempt them while Death took over the land.

The LORD didn’t stop ‘pasach’-ing His people after then, (as evident from Is 31:5); but what was a limited manifestation of His goodness in the Old Testament is a perfect, complete reality for us today.

Because “Christ our Passover” (1Co 5:7) hovers over us to deliver us when calamity strikes and destruction falls. Since we “dwell in the secret place of the Most High”, we shall abide under His shadow and covering. In the time of trouble, He shall hide us in His pavilion, and shall be a shelter and a strong tower from the enemy for us (Ps 91:1; 27:5; 61:4).

In this current climate of fear, uncertainty and terrorism; the LORD your Passover shall Hover Over you; He will defend your estate (all your property) and your family; and His Blood shall exempt you from harm in Jesus name.

A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.

There shall no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. –  Ps 91:7-11.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

Greg Elkan

THE IMPLICATION AND APPLICATION OF THE BLOOD

For whosoever shall CALL upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. – Rom 10:13

When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to his disciples, he called Him “the Lamb of God, who takes away THE SIN OF THE WORLD,” (Jn 1:29). And the other John writes in his first letter that “the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour OF THE WORLD,” (1Jn 4:14).

Indeed, previously, he had affirmed that Jesus was the propitiation “for the sins of the whole world,” (1Jn 2:2).

When Jesus died on the Cross, He took on Him the sin of all mankind: past, present and future. God, in His omniscient wisdom and infinite love, had made a provision for the eventual transgression of Adam (and thus, of all his descendants) by the slaying of the Lamb “from the foundation of the world” (1Pe 1:19-20; Rev 13:8).

The Cross is God’s answer to Man’s Sin, not Hell Fire. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved,” (Jn 3:17).

Unfortunately, this does not automatically mean EVERYBODY will go to Heaven. God will not force anyone to accept His gesture of love; it has to be accepted.

At the first Passover night, though the Israelites were all assured of exemption from death, they still had to apply the blood of the slain lamb. All of God’s promises to them would have been invalid if they had not taken that token step of faith in applying the blood on their doorpost.

It’s those who CALL on the name of the Lord that will be saved (Rom 10:13), and it’s those who BELIEVE that will not perish (Jn 3:16). This is why Paul enjoins us to take this Good news of reconciliation to the whole world (2Cor 5:18-21); telling them that God is not out to ‘get’ them, but that He has gone ALL OUT to save them – if they would only ‘apply the blood’ by accepting Jesus.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

WHOSOEVER

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, – Ex 12:13

The fact that the firstborn son of every household in Egypt was going to die was not something hidden. Moses – who had become notorious by now in all of Egypt for his previous nine plagues – had declared it openly to the Pharaoh in his court.

Now, imagine with me this scenario on the declared evening of the plague: a snoopy Egyptian notices some hustle and bustle among the Israelite slaves and sneaks closer to observe them. He sees each household kill a lamb and smears the blood on their doorpost and concludes that it must have something to do with the coming death plague, (the Israelites had been miraculously spared from the previous plagues, Ex 10:23; 8:22; 9:4, 9:26). Now what would happen if this Egyptian decides to move his entire family that night into one of the Israeli houses covered in blood?

The Death Angel made no distinction; indeed the exemption of the Israelites from the 10^th plague had nothing to do with their ethnicity or heritage, it was The Blood. If an Israelite had no blood on his doorpost that night, he would have lost his firstborn son; conversely, if an Egyptian household stayed in a blood-smeared house, they would have been spared as well.

The Bible didn’t say the Angel asked questions of the ethnicity and nationality of the inhabitants of each household; all that influenced its decision was the Blood – or the absence thereof. 

This principle, which is a precursor to the Cross, is what salvation by faith is all about, because God is not a respecter of persons (Act 10:34; Rom 2:11).

“There is neither Greek nor Jew”, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” (Col 3:11)

Jesus is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, (1Jn 2:2). And the most popular verse in the Bible says that “WHOSOEVER believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. (Jn 3:16)

There’s no strange formula or ritual needed for salvation; it is a “WHOSOEVER” provision: “For WHOSOEVER shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. – Rom 10:13

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

DOUBLE JEOPARDY AND DOUBLE DEATHS

“...nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” – U.S. Const. amend V. 

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree. – Gal 3:13

When the Death Angel went through the land of Egypt on the night of the first Passover, he brought death to EVERY household in the land. From house to house, this Foul Sprite moved and snuffed the life out of at least one person in each home.

But here’s the interesting thing, whenever he came to the house of an Israelite, he’d see blood smeared on the doorpost. This signified to him that “There Has Already Been a Death in This House, move along; entering this house even after you see the blood would cause double jeopardy”.

The term “double jeopardy” is a legal provision in the common law of most countries (and even enshrined in the U.S. constitution), that forbids a person from being tried for the same crime twice.

When we look at scripture, we see that this is a principle that has its foundation in the Divine Justice system of Calvary.

The whole point of the Cross is judgment! The Cross was not about “exemplary sacrifice”, “symbolic obedience”, or any of such watered-down infernal doctrines we hear today.

At the Cross, Jesus took on Him the punishment and judgment for our transgressions (2Co5:21; 1Pe3:18). This is the basis of the Believer’s “boldness in the day of judgment” (1Jn 4:17) and our unashamedness at His Coming (1Jn 2:28).

On the Day of Judgment, those who have hidden themselves under the Blood of “Christ our Passover” (1Co 5:7) will be spared from “the Second Death” (Rev 21:8) – because there has already been a death there.

AMEN.More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

THINKING AGAIN ABOUT THE BLOOD

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. – Rom 5:9

Of the several feasts/festivals that the Jews were required to keep in the Old Testament, three are most important: the Passover, the Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost), and the Feast of Tabernacles. Of these three, the Passover is Chief.

The Passover is a dramatic re-enactment/commemoration of the great deliverance of the Israelites from the brutality and enslavement of their Egyptian former hosts. Their men and women were forced to hard labour and their newborn sons were ordered by the Pharaoh to be killed (Ex 1).

This grim picture forms the backdrop to the Passover. In a series of dramatic plagues, Moses – God’s prophet – warned the Egyptian Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. But since he stubbornly refused, even after 9 calamities, God unleashed the BIG ONE: the killing of EVERY firstborn son in the land of Egypt in one night (Exo 12:12).

Only those who obeyed the divine instruction of smearing the blood of a lamb on their doorposts were spared of this calamity.

 “Now all these things” Paul says, “happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” (1Co 10:11)

As the book of Hebrews points out, all of these are types and shadows of deeper spiritual realities. In the New Testament, John the Baptist calls Jesus “the lamb of God” and Paul refers to Jesus as “our Passover”, (Jn 1:29;1Co 5:7). The slavery in Egypt is typical of the bondage of sin that every human being shares in; and the Death Angel represents the certain and just judgment for sin that we all deserve.

When all analysis of the Passover has been done, it all boils to one thing: The BLOOD. The LORD says, “When I see the blood, I will Pass Over you”, (Ex 12:13)

If you haven’t done so lately, take a moment to ponder on the life-saving, judgment-shielding Blood of Christ.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN