NOTHING LESS

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness…

The object of our faith with respect to salvation is the most important and most essential element of our spiritual life. Every other aspect – our bodily healing, our material prosperity, even our moral rectitude – all pale into insignificance in comparison to this keystone; because without a correct foundation for our spirituality, every other spiritual and moral exercise will be in futility.

Ed Mote, in the opening lines of his classic hymn, outlines the “Immutable Basis” of his hope for eternal life: “Jesus’ blood and Jesus’ righteousness”.

His Blood

It is Jesus’ blood that justifies us before God. Not our prayers, not our kingdom service, not our penance... nothing; for without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins. (Heb 9:22 AMP).

The Bible is unequivocal on this key truth. Rom 5:9 says, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” and Eph 1:7 declares that in Jesus “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins”. (also Rom 3:25; Col 1:14;  Heb 9:12,14; 10:19).

His Righteousness

It’s also Jesus’ righteousness, not ours, that’s the basis of our fellowship with God (1Cor 1:30). At the Cross, God made Jesus “who knew no sin, to be sin for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Co 5:21).

These two, therefore, must be the foundation upon which every other spiritual exercise is based. All other ground, as Mote declares, “is SINKING SAND”.

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

“The Immutable Basis for a Sinner’s Hope”

 “One morning it came into my mind as I went to labour, to write an hymn on the ‘Gracious Experience of a Christian.’”

These were the words uttered by a certain British pastor in the year 1834. The man was Edward Mote, and the resultant hymn he spoke about is the now world-famous hymn, “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less”.

The Man

Edward Mote was a pastor and hymn writer born in London on the 21^st of January 1797. Though he met Christ at the age of 18, only in his 50’s did he enter the ministry and was pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham. West Sussex for 26 years.

Mote wrote around 100 hymns, but by far the best known of them is “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less”.

The Hymn

“My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” is part of the gospel hymns genre. The first stanza declares God’s grace; stanzas 2 and 3 concern the application of that grace in times of trouble. In the final stanza, Mote brings his hymn full circle with the ultimate realization of God’s grace.

The refrain of “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” refers to the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders and builds around the metaphor of Christ as a rock with a firm basis in Scripture (1 Cor. 10:4).

Mote’s original title for the hymn was “The Immutable Basis for a Sinner’s Hope”. I believe that this alternate title, though the words themselves aren’t in the hymn, is a precise summary of the message this lovely hymn presents.

The words have blessed saints and sinners for centuries, and are worth meditating upon once again:

 ‘On Christ the solid Rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand.’

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

The People of Christ

To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery...which is Christ in you, the hope of glory – Col 1:27

What is “Christ”? Christ means the “anointed one”; it’s the title given to Jesus as a testament of His unique fulfilment of all messianic prophesies.

What is “Christ”? Christ is God’s answer to Man’s problem. The first Adam fell and brought death and condemnation to all His descendants. So God came in the flesh in the person of Jesus, as the “last Adam”; that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1Co 15:22, 45).

Who is a Christian? A Christian is NOT a rehabilitated sinner or a “kind and unselfish” person (Encarta Dictionary definition).A Christian is NOT a Westerner. A Christian is one who has accepted CHRIST.

A Christian is a recreated individual, spiritually born again with new life. (2Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 2:10). At salvation, the Christian receives a new heart and a new heritage. The Christian is dead to sin and alive to God.

Sadly, we preachers still preach to Christians as though they’re inherently depraved and sinful, (yet become frustrated when they act accordingly). The “Christ” in CHRISTian is not a philosophy or an ideology, it’s a Person. When Christ enters into a life it means the Holy God has entered into that life. It’s a planted seed that, when nurtured correctly, will yield fruits of righteousness.

 

Because of the “Christ” in the CHRISTian, he/she is righteous and guiltless before God. They’ve been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into Christ; and are seated in heavenly places in Him, “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come” (Eph 2:6; 1:20; Col 1:13).

HALLELUJAH! 

I pray the Truths of the Christ we’ve meditated upon this week be your everyday experience in Jesus name.

 AMEN.

GREG ELKAN

The Place Called “Christ”

...even so in Christ shall all be made alive., – 1Co 15:22

“Christ” is a person and “Christ” is a place.

Eph 1:3 says God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. and Eph 2:6 says He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus

“Christ” is that place where no devil can reach you and where no condemnation can touch you. For if any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2Co 5:17; Rom 8:1).

This, much more than Heaven, should be our passion. An excessive wave of heaven-fixation has swept through the Church and is dominating our message and theology. When fully analysed, this passion for heaven is no more than self-preservative behaviour, a sort of (HELL) FIRE INSURANCE:

 “I have to dodge Hell by all means. They say I should come for 3 services, I will. They say I should be fervent in church work, I will. They say we should come for evangelism, I’ll be #1 there... Ah! This Heaven, I must make it O.”

Meanwhile, the Omniscient, the One whose eyes are upon the ways of man, and who sees all his steps (Job 34:21), the One who shed His precious Blood for you so that you can be united with Him in communion, is observing the overarching motivation behind your zeal.

While Heaven is a promise to the Believer, that shouldn’t be our passion. Christ should be our passion, our Goal, and our fixation. That’s why the Epistles – the part of scripture most directly relevant to the New Testament Saint –talk more about Christ than about Heaven.

Some Christians’ passion is about heavenly mansions, crowns and rewards. Redeemed from destruction, they’ve now become ‘holy’ avaricious hoarders.

Beloved, there’s more to Christ than Heaven, and that should be our focus. The whole essence of Christian maturity, Paul says, is for us to come to the knowledge of the Son of God, and unto the fullness of CHRIST” (Eph 4:13).

Therefore, let Christ be your passion, and let Christ be your Goal. For even the “heavenly places” that people are striving for, is ‘in Christ” (Eph 1:3; 2:6).

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

The Proudness of Christ

but Christ is all, and in all. – Col 3:11

Phi 2:5-7 is the passage we usually turn to whenever we want to talk about “humility”. “Let this mind be in you”, Paul writes, “which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant”

Nevertheless, when you come to think of it, if Humility is “thinking of yourself less”, how much of that can that be said of Christ?

Unlike the traditional Prophets, He didn’t say, “Thus saith the LORD”, rather He’d declare, “Verily, Verily I say unto you...”

On the Emmaus Road, He chided the two disciples for not knowing that all the Old Testament Scriptures were about Him! (Lk 24:13-25) and in Jn 5:39  He said to the Jewish leaders, “Search the scriptures  because they testify of Me”.

Not really self-effacing, is He?

Of the Holy Spirit, He said, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father... He shall testify of me”. And again, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come... He shall not speak of Himself... He shall glorify me” (Jn 15:26;16:13,14). Psychologists today would see this as a clear case of egomania.

Nevertheless, true humility is not putting yourself down but placing yourself correctly. If Jesus had not stressed His pre-eminence to us, He’d have been doing us injustice. Because God’s solution for Sin is Jesus, and it would have done us no good if Jesus spoke less of Himself, or asked us to “look inward” for our deliverance.

That’s why the Holy Spirit does not talk about Himself but about Jesus. And that’s why the Father says we should “listen to Him (Jesus)”, (Lk 9:35).

We can be wrong in our theology about the Holy Spirit and still be saved, but there’s no salvation if we get it wrong with Christ. Hence, all World Religions, sincere as they may be, are leading their followers to damnation. For we can only worship God on His own terms, not ours. He has declared that He that would come to Him must come through Jesus. “For there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved” (Act 4:12).

This is why Jesus places all the focus on Himself; and why all of scripture is about HIM, not us. Christianity is not about discovering ourselves; it’s about discovering Christ. For all that we need, in this life and in the life to come, can only be found IN HIM.

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

The Purpose of “Christ”

... of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. – Mat 1:16

A couple of months ago here on TWFT, we had a series titled “For Your Sake”. It essentially was about how not factoring Jesus’s divinity makes us miss the whole purpose of the Incarnation. Reminding ourselves that Jesus is God Almighty puts a clearer perspective on the import of His miracles, His sinlessness, and His Death.

But Jesus is not only God, He’s also Man. This is important, and we should be subtly reminded of it every time we use the term “Christ”. “Christ” means anointed, but God can NOT be anointed, God is the Anoint-er! Acts 10:38 speaks of “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth...” (see also 4:27).

So what does this all mean? It means that “Christ” (see it as a term not a name) is God’s solution to Man’s problem: SIN. As a result of the Fall, we’re helplessly and hopelessly lost and separated from the infinitely Holy God. Regardless of whatever love He has for us, our SIN will perpetually make it impossible for us to fellowship with Him.

Ps 7:11 says, “God is angry with the wicked every day.”  We’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect standard. We’re rebels deserving of just judgment by the King.  But “God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, CHRIST (see that term again?) died for us.” (Rom 5:8).

In this perpetual enmity between God and Man, “Christ” is the bridge. “ For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS” 1Ti 2:5.

 “Christ” is thus the meeting point between God and Man.

2Co 5:19 explains it clearer: “That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.”

This is the reason why God had to, essentially, reduce Himself to be Christ. It is all for our sake. He took our form and is eternally now referred to as “the man Christ Jesus”, that we may be partakers of His divine nature (1Ti 2:5; 2Pt 1:4). Oh what a Love? What ineffable, inexpressible love? This Grace is truly Amazing. Take out time today to thank  Him specially for the Cross?

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN 

The Person of Christ

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. – Mat 1:1

“Christ” is not Jesus’ surname. “Christ” was originally a verbal adjective meaning “anointed”. It comes from the Greek verb chrio (to anoint) and corresponds to the Hebrew mashach which means “to rub with oil”. Thus the two derivative terms, the Greek Christos and the Hebrew mashiyach (“Christ” and “Messiah”) are essentially the same thing: an anointed person.

Though there were several “anointed” in the Old Testament, with time, the term mashiyach became a proper title used for the expected Great King that was foretold by the Prophets to deliver the Jews from all their enemies.

In this sense, Andrew was one of the first persons to identify the man Jesus as the Christ. He said to his brother Peter in Jn 1:41, “We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, Christ”.

Thus “Christ”, just like “Messiah”, soon became a proper name and the Gospel writers frequently referred to Jesus as “Jesus Christ”. Paul even flips it often times in his Epistles as “Christ Jesus”.

But who is Christ Jesus and why did He come? The Bible explains it clearly:

1Ti 1:15 – “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”

Mat 1:21 – And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

This, much more than the fame, the miracles, the great teachings and iconology

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

The Gospel According To Faith

God’s way of making people right begins and ends with faith – Rom 1:17 (ERV).

When the Philippian jailer inquired of Paul and Silas what he needed to do to be saved, he got the concise reply, “BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved” (Act 16:31). In several other places in the book of Acts this predication of salvation on Believing is repeated (e.g. 8:37; 13:38-39).

 

Paul explains this concept in Rom 10:10, “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”.

Even the most popular verse in scripture (John 3:16) explains that eternal life is obtained by “whosever BELIEVES on Him...” 

The Christian Gospel is a gospel of faith. Indeed, it’s so intrinsically associated with faith that it is severally simply referred to as “The Faith”.

Why is this important? Because the power in the gospel of Christ with respect to salvation is only to “every one that BELIEVES” (Rom 1:16).

The Christian life is about faith from start to finish. If we were saved by faith, then we are preserved by faith. If we were delivered from Hell by faith, then we’ll be delivered into Heaven by the same faith. Paul says that the righteousness of God as revealed in the true Gospel is “from FAITH TO FAITH: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Rom 1:17).

Beloved, Second-guessing your salvation every morning is NOT living by faith. Equating tragedy in your life to God’s disfavour is NOT living by faith. Basing the presence of the Holy Spirit in your heart on your feelings is NOT living by faith. We must get the boldness back into our prayer life, into our confession and into our walk. Being fully persuaded that “He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Php 1:6).

The Gospel of Christ is not a Gospel of fear; it is a Gospel of FAITH.

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

The Mixed Gospel

You shall not sow your vineyard with different seeds – Deu 22:9

On Thursday, 31^st August 2017, Christianity Today magazine published a “Pew Research” article that showed that, 500 years after Martin Luther’s Reformation, many Protestants have strayed far from the pivotal doctrine that defined their identity. Which is “Sola Fide” (justification is through faith alone), and “Sola Scriptura” (Scripture is the only ultimate authority for Christian belief and practice and does not need oversight from church leaders or tradition to be read and understood).

Shockingly, the research showed that 52% of American Protestants polled say that both Good Deeds and Faith in God are needed to get into heaven! But also quite revealing is the fact that the same number of persons that believed Good deeds are required for salvation also say the Bible is NOT the only authority for Christian belief.

This little trivia makes us know that the farther we go from scriptures and start delving into human traditions and sense logic, the higher the tendency for us to corrupt the undiluted doctrine of the Gospel.

The Bible never says salvation is through Faith and Works, the Bible says “The just shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17). We are saved by grace through FAITH” (Eph 2:8); and Rom 11:6 tells us that “if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”

The mixed Gospel message – one that says we’re saved by faith, but afterwards our right-standing with God is maintained by works – is a reversion back to the works-based theology of the Dark Ages and stifles fruitful living.

It’s also, as the Pew Research seems to indicate, evidence of biblical ignorance among Believers who are then forced to resort to logic and tradition instead. What the Church needs to get back to righteousness, is not more dogma and church doctrine, but more emphasis on scripture and the simplicity that is in the Christian Gospel message. (2Co 11:3).

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

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Fruits not Works

I’ve often met Christians who are angry that Christianity is presented to the world as something Easy. They claim that far from being easy, Christianity is a call to hardship, selflessness and rigour: a taking up of the cross and following Jesus! This doctrinal view places the mechanism of righteousness and godliness on the Believer.

However, Believers are not saved absolutely by faith ALONE and then afterwards left by themselves to live out the Christian life on their own strength. The same passage that says, “WORK OUT your own salvation” also affirms that  “IT IS GOD WHICH WORKS in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure;” (Php 2:12,13).

The Christian life is not “difficult” to live, the Christian life is Impossible to live! Because the absolute perfection upon which God predicates our relationship with Him is not a standard attainable by any form of discipline or regimen. (Only human-formed religions are Difficult but Doable.)

Overemphasising outward works at the expense of a preliminary working of the Holy Spirit will only lead to the crushing of those unable to live up to those standards and false righteousness to those who presume to do.

The New Testament life is only possible because of the inward workings of the Spirit, which then results in effortless outward manifestation. Hence, Paul designates the godly virtues of love, joy, meekness, etc. as “FRUITS” not “WORKS”, (Gal 5:22,23).

The solution to godlessness in the church is not rules and regulations, or thumping on an (endless) list of sins, but a constant emphasising of living in the Spirit.

For it is when we Walk in the Spirit that we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Gal 5:16).

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

The Gospel of Fear: Missing the Obvious

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men – Tit 2:11

The ostensive or supposed reason why several Pulpits preach “The Gospel According To Fear” is to SHOCK the Believers into conformity and holy living. It’s presumed that if the people live constantly under the threat of judgment and retribution, they would live a just and sincere life before God.

However, nothing could be further from the truth. Fear does not CHANGE behaviour, it only CONCEALS it. This is a vitally important truth we must remember; or else we’ll only be populating our pews with conforming, moral persons who are not really regenerated in their hearts. The African proverb, “Even a mad man knows how to run when the market is on fire”, shows us that Actions based on threats are not indices of transformation.

We should take a cue from the way that God, our Almighty Creator, relates with us humanity. When He decided to come down to Earth in the Person of Jesus He could have come in His “Full” glory – with thunders, lightning and fire (the Full is in quotation marks because His real FULL glory would obliterate us entirely! 1Ti 6:16).

However, He decided instead to come as a weak baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and from there set on to woo us through His love and not through His power.

From God’s dealing with Man while in the Garden of Eden, it’s clear He doesn’t want robots that have no choice but to obey. Righteousness in the presence of options is the beauty of the Christian life.

While it’s most noble for us to adjure righteousness and moral uprightness in the Church, we mustn’t forget that it’s “the grace of God” – not fear – that teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and that helps us to live sensibly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. (Tit 2:11,2). 

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

The Gospel According To Fear

For God has not given us the spirit of fear – 2Ti 1:7.

The English term “gospel” and its Greek equivalent, euangelion, both literally mean “good news”. It is used by the ancient Greeks for any “proclamation of victory”.

This seemingly technical definition of the gospel is important; because there’re many ‘gospels’ being preached in the world and right inside the church today that are NOT “Good News”.

One of these is what I call “The Gospel According To Fear”. This ‘gospel’, which operates under the paradigm of terror, has fast ensconced itself into Church dogma today.

The true Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is presented as a PROMISE not a THREAT; it speaks of God’s Love, not God’s condemnation. John 3:17 says “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.” What the World needs, is not a reiteration of its problem, but a proclamation of the solution: JESUS CHRIST.

What is this “Gospel According to Fear”? It’s any “Gospel” that emphases

Judgment and damnation over forgiveness and restoration, the threatenings of God over the Promises of God, the works and activities of the Devil over the Finished works of Christ: the punishment of Hell over the reward of Heaven.

The “Gospel of Fear” has the distinguishing characteristic of gratifying the speaker but alienating the people; because, just like all the other pseudo-gospels, it only has informative but never reformative power.

The “Gospel of Christ” is the only Gospel that is the “power of God unto salvation” (Ro 1:16). It’s the only Gospel that saves; and until we preach that gospel – and ONLY that gospel – we’ll only be informing people without giving them power to live in the righteousness that we presume to be pushing.

We need, therefore, to check our message from now on; and make sure that whatever we’re preaching is really “Good News”!

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

Lessons From Noah

Now all these things happened unto them for examples... – 1Co 10:11

Theologically speaking, Noah is a rich figure in terms of Old Testament typology. Like Rahab the Harlot, he is a picture of both the Saviour and the saved sinner, of Christ and the Christian.

CHRISTIAN

Noah is the first person in the Bible to be called “righteous”. Gen 6:9 declares him as tamiym; which is Hebrew for “without blemish, complete, perfect, without spot, undefiled, upright, whole!”

WOW! Are we talking about Jesus or Noah? We know he was a “preacher of righteousness”, but to say he was “perfect” seems to be stretching it, no? However, just as his great-grandfather, Enoch, Noah discovered the path to righteous blamelessness that many in the Church are still grappling with today: righteousness by faith.

We always talk of “Abraham the Father of Faith”; because he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. But centuries before Abram, Noah was declared to be an heir of the righteousness which is by faith (Heb 11:7).

Hab 2:4 says, “the just shall live by his faith.” This was how our Old Testament fathers obtained blamelessness before God. They may not have had a full picture of the mechanism, but like Job, they were confident that their Redeemer lives (Job 19.25).

CHRIST

Noah is also a picture of Christ. Gen 7:1 (CEV) says, “The LORD told Noah: Take your whole family with you into the boat, because You Are The Only One on this earth who pleases me.”

Get it? Only one man pleased God, yet 8 souls went into the Ark! This is the picture of salvation. The Father declares of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). Whosoever  receives Jesus is thus “accepted in the Beloved”. Being now justified by His blood, they are saved from wrath through Him (Eph 1:6; Rom 5:9). HALLELUJAH!

May these token lessons from our four forefathers be a blessing to you and yours in Jesus' name

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

About That Good-For-Nothing Father of Ours

So Methuselah’s life lasted 969 years; then he died. – Gen 5:27. (HCSB-r)

The Bible says we should “honour the face of the old man” and warns against people who are “not afraid to speak evil of dignities” (Lev 19:32; 2Pe 2:10); yet we tend to throw those directives away when it comes to the Oldest Man ever – a man who also turns out to be our common father!

The age of Methuselah has been the object of much derision, specifically with respect to the issue of Legacy. How many times have you heard some preacher or motivational speaker rant, “Look at Methuselah, he lived for 969 years, and what has he to show for it? Nothing!” And from there they would go on to lambaste him in the hope of inspiring young people to desire to not just live long, but leave long lines in the sands of time.

I’ve always had an issue with this perennial attack on Methuselah. He seems to have committed a crime for living longer than everyone else. For starters, As a Patriarch, he’s a key link in the chain that brought not just us, but Christ as well; and that’s enough to earn him some sort of deference.

Also, the attack on him is based on a warped definition of “Success” or “achievement”. He may not have 5,000 souls for Christ, or raised the dead, or built the Stonehenge (as far as we know J), but a look at the decadent and corrupt giant-infested world that he lived in shows he deserves a nod for holding up. His dad was Enoch and his grandson was Noah; this line of persons kept themselves while all around them went to the dogs.

And lastly, when you come to think of it, who says Methuselah never left a legacy? If he didn’t, we wouldn’t be talking about him today, would we? Methuselah was a STAYER; even in the days when people lived for centuries, he outlived them all! That means even by their incredible standards, Methuselah was still OLD.

His modern-day detractors would say that his entire 969 years was summed up in just 4 verses of scripture (as though their own super-rich, impactful life has gotten them even a verse); but those 4 verses speak volumes. They tell of living godly in a universally ungodly world, of being a dependable link in fulfilling God’s agenda on Earth, and of being a super-achiever even in a family line of super-achievers. These are vital things we should ponder upon.

SELAH! (methuSELAH?)

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

Enoch: The Man Who Was Not

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; – Heb 11:5

Many are not aware that there’re two ENOCHs in Genesis. The first is the son of Cain, (yes, the Cain that murderer Abel). For some reason, his father wanted his name to endure far beyond him and so named a city after him – the City of “Enoch”.  Apparently, that didn’t work out; a second Enoch came along and lived a life so remarkable, that it obliterated whatever memory anyone could have had of the first Enoch.

Enoch (son of Jared, not of Cain) is one of only two persons in scripture that never tasted death. The Bible says “One day Enoch was walking with God, and he disappeared. God took him” (Gen 5:24 ERV).

Now, that’s awesome! But why did God take Him?

Contrary to our children Sunday School teachings, it wasn’t because he was so sinless that God had to take him out before he got corrupted by the rest of humanity. Enoch was not ­sinless, the Bible says “ALL – including Enoch – have sinned” (Rom 3:23). There’s a difference between moral uprightness and sinlessness. The former will not take you to Heaven, let alone make you skip death in the process. Yet the Bible says Enoch was translated because he “pleased God”.

What did he do to please God? Hb 11:5 tells us the answer. “BECAUSE OF FAITH Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven” (AMP).

The ERV renders the whole story in simple English:

Enoch was carried away from this earth, so he never died. The Scriptures tell us that before he was carried off, he was a man who pleased God. Later, no one knew where he was, because God had taken Enoch to be with him. This all happened because he had faith.

That was the key. In a world characterized by sinful faithlessness, Enoch stood out due to his faith.

Beloved, faith is premium with God. Do you have faith? Don’t belittle it, it’s precious, and has great recompense of reward. (Hb 10:35; 11:6; 1Pt 1:7). There’s no limit to what God can do for you when you live in faith. As with Enoch, He’ll even break protocol for you to show the world just how pleased He is, because of your faith.

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

The Devolution of Adam

In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. – Gen 2:17

The Bible teaches the truth of Evolution – negative evolution that is. Contrary to what our biology textbooks tout as irrefutable “fact”, Man and chimpanzees do NOT have a common ancestor. In Genesis 1, when God was creating the animals, He spoke to the waters to bring up the fish and the birds (1:20); He spoke to the ground to bring up all kinds of land animals and creatures (1:24); but when He wanted to create Man, He spoke to HIMSELF! (1:26).

Evolution tells us that we were once oafish cave men who are only now getting better. The Bible teaches that we were made in God’s image and are getting worse!

Even after the Fall, Man was still so intellectually advanced that he excelled in math, science and art. The Egyptian pyramids were composed of enormous 20-tonne limestone blocks that were cut to an incredible precision of plus or minus 1/16^th of an inch!

Ancient languages were much more complicated than modern ones! Any person today who can fluently read Sanskrit (the language of ancient India) would be considered a genius; yet that was their normal language. Some ancient languages would alternately write backward and forward: one line from left to right, and the next line from right to left, all the while using no paragraphs, and not even spaces between word and sentences! Try asking a schoolboy to write and read like that today.

Even our bodies are degenerating. A birthday of 200 years today will set a world record, yet Adam lived up to 930 and was alive to see the great-grandson of his great-grandson (Enoch)!

From the moment Adam sinned, our spirits became dead, our mental faculties began spiralling downwards and our bodies began to deteriorate. That’s why we need the Last Adam, Jesus. In Christ our spirits are recreated, are minds are renewed and at His return, we’ll inherit new bodies that will live forever.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1Co 15:22) Halleluyah!

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN

Lessons From Our Four-Fathers

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due...honour to whom honour. – Rom 13:7

The Bible places great emphasis on respect to the elderly. Other than the charge to honour all men (1Pet 2:17; Rom 13:7), it enjoins us to “rise up before the grey headed, and honour the face of the old man” (Lev 19:32). The fifth of the Ten Commandments, (which Paul points out is the first of them with a promise attached), says you should “Honour your father and your mother,” (Dt 5:16, Eph 6:2). Even our respective cultures show great reverence to the “ancestors” and “forefathers”.

With increasing modernisation seems to come an increasing disregard for the aged. Yet without them, there would be no us – both literally and philosophically. Our current successes and achievements are based on their previous works – research, discoveries, blunders, errors. Even the “failures” among them have lessons to teach us; for their failures show us what not to do.

This is especially true of the Bible Patriarchs. “Patriarch” not in the Jewish usage of the word (Abraham, Isaac, etc.) but in the literal, direct sense. Because we sometimes forget that it isn’t only Adam that is our common father. From Seth down to Noah, humanity has TEN different men that we are all descendent from!

These are the real, ancient forefathers that make our cultural “ancestors” look modern in comparison. Their average age then was an incredible 857.5 years! How much could you learn from an 857-year-old man? A lot. That is why this week we’ll be learning and paying homage to the forefathers; or in this case, just FOUR Fathers: Adam, Enoch Methuselah and Noah.

For whatever things were written before were written For Our Learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. – Rom 15:4

AMEN.

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

GREG ELKAN