“Depths of our sin, Heights of His Mercy” – A message from Psalms 36, which looks at the depths of wickedness to which men’s hearts can sink, and the great heights of mercy the Lord shows to those who come to Him.

Psalms 15 raises the question of who may have close fellowship with the Lord. Then it describes the high level of righteous character that is necessary in the way we live. And we learn what we as Christians should be like, and can be, in Christ, since we also see how He passed that test with flying colors, on our behalf. In the end you will worship Him and call upon His name to become more like Him than before. So His promise of close fellowship with Him is kept, right here and now.

1 Peter 4:1-11 helps us a Christians born again to a living hope to know how to stand in righteousness in our behavior, even against great pressure from the world. We learn to stand together in the strength the Lord provides. He is glorified, and our future rewards are secured.

Living Hope III: Love one another, Love the word

1 Peter 1:22-2:3 shows us how those born again to a living hope need to grow up in our salvation through feeding on the word of God and loving each other fervently. We were born not to stay infants but to become what God made us to be. This passage teaches us how.

In Part 2 of “Living Hope” we look at “Holiness Now,” from 1 Peter 1:13-21. Since God is our Father now on the basis of His Son’s perfect sacrifice for us, we now have both motivation and enabling to submit to Him and become holy in our conduct because of Him.

Politicians in America are saying we need to protect abortion rights “for our daughters.”

No.

My daughter needs her gym locker room protected from perverted men entering it.

My daughter needs the floodgates of porn closed, so that she can find a husband of clean mind and heart.

My daughter needs violent criminals dealt with, not defended.

My daughter needs to be protected from the prospect of being drafted into the military.

My daughter needs all of her first and second amendment rights secured for her safety, her faith, and her right to say what she wills.

My daughter does not need to have the opportunity to kill my granddaughter.

1 Peter 1:1-9 is a beautiful exposition of the greatness of our security once our faith is in Christ, and teaches us how wonderful our future shall be, even if, when necessary God puts us through trying circumstances for our benefit.

Peter’s Triumph – In Acts 15, we read the last words Peter says to us in the book of Acts, and it is a simple yet very profound examination of the gospel and the perfection of salvation by grace alone received by faith alone in Christ alone, for everyone no matter what they have done. This truth is one to rest in, find unity in the body of Christ in, and to defend strongly and publicly, even in the presence of church leaders who challenge it and want to add a work or two or a ritual to the pure gospel. On that note, our study of the life of the apostle Peter comes to a close.

Peter’s Second Prison Break – in Acts 12, incidents in the life of Peter and the church teach us about prayer, faith, and trusting God in the world eager to mock Him and persecute His followers.

Today I watched the speech made yesterday to the US Congress by the prime minister of Israel. The bulk of the speech laid out the solid case for Israel defending itself from its enemies such as Hamas in Gaza in the current war, before pledging Israel’s continuing commitment to be an ally of the US in defense of freedom and asking for America’s appreciated support of his nation to continue. All what could be expected in the speech, and supported by wise people of any political persuasion.

But what didn’t make the news, and what I found most interesting and not necessarily foreseeable, was how Netanyahu closed the speech. He announced his vision for what he’d like to see in the middle east, which he emphasized would bring “peace, prosperity, and security” to the region. He suggested there should be an alliance of nations in the middle east like NATO, which he suggested should be named The Abraham Alliance. It would be governed by a treaty that is a covenant of the involved nations who commit to an end of war against each other. Both parties in the Capitol gave a standing ovation to the idea.

Come, Lord Jesus, come. Take Your bride away and glorify Yourself on the earth through what You do here in preparation for Your return, so that Your kingdom will come and Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

An online friend sent a couple theology questions last night. Here is the answer to one of them that I sent.

What happens when we Christians die, is it going straight to heaven or being asleep until the resurrection?

There is a sense in which both are true, biblically speaking and I’ll explain how in a moment. But essentially, the answer is we who are believers and thus eternally saved by Christ and His sacrifice go to heaven where He is right away at the moment of our death. Indeed for the believer, death is a “passing away” as it is often called. Jesus said He goes to prepare a place for us, from which He will return for us, and that place He spoke of was heaven, because He was going to the Father where He dwells. (See John 14:1-7) He wanted His children to be comforted by that since He would be away from the earth while we’re in it. We could be comforted both by the Holy Spirit’s presence within us, and by the knowledge that Jesus is coming back to take us to heaven where He is.

Now that raises the question of where are those who have already died in Christ, since His return is still future. Have they missed out on being returned for and taken to heaven? Or are they still waiting for that? Or are they already with Him there now? The Bible’s answer is that they are already there with Him now, and they are waiting for their resurrection which is a future event. 2 Corinthians 5:8 is a verse Paul wrote about looking forward to dying, because, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” So we see that when physical death happens to the saved one (believers), his or her soul and spirit—the very essence of their identity and all they are, separates from this body; and immediately when that happens they will “be present with the Lord.” Actually, physically, literally there with the Lord in heaven—not just a metaphor. And they are alive and awake there. So that God, for example, was able to send Moses, who had died centuries before, along with Elijah, who had been taken up alive into heaven, to appear and converse with Christ on the mount of transfiguration.

When Christ does return for those of us in Him still living on the earth at the time of the rapture, He “will bring back with Him those who have fallen asleep in Him.” (1 Thess. 4:14) That brings us to the question of in what sense are those who live in heaven, waiting to come back with Him on resurrection/rapture day, asleep now? The Bible speaks of believers who have died as being “asleep,” not to say they are unaware of their surroundings or that they aren’t having the experience of heaven and God’s presence yet, but to reassure us of the certainty of the coming resurrection. Their bodies “sleep” in the grave, but they will rise again. Jesus spoke of Lazarus being asleep and His plan to “go wake him up.” The disciples didn’t understand, so Jesus explained that what He meant was Lazarus was dead. But to God, waking the dead will be easier than it is for us to wake our children who are sleeping.

Death is a shedding, or undressing of ourselves of these mortal bodies, in order to eventually put on the immortal glorified resurrected bodies that will be sinless, painless, and live forever. (See 1 Corinthians 15:53-55, a passage about the resurrection to come.) So our loved ones who have died in the faith are with Christ and have been so since the moment they left the body; and their bodies are asleep, waiting for the awakening of the resurrection when Christ returns for “those who are alive and remain.” (See 1 Thess. 4:14-17)

If you want to go deeper into that topic, my video message on John 11 is more detailed. Here’s a link: https://youtu.be/Yb06Togb1D8?si=1h8Qn16Qa2IZeeAi

The concept of “soul sleep” that those who are believers die and are unconsciously waiting for the resurrection without now enjoying the presence of the Lord is one foreign to the scriptures, though. It comes more from the cult that calls themselves “Jehovah’s witnesses,” as if they could be witnesses for Jehovah while rejecting the true identity of God the Son. They have arguments for “soul sleep,” but I would say they are patently untrustworthy to discuss the scriptures. Their leaders’ habit from the dawn of their cult has been to torture the scriptures until they confess to what they want. And their teachings are varied levels of bizarre ideas that truly no one could ever come up with just from reading the word of God without introducing the outside interpretations they alone demand. And even they believe that originally righteous ones from earth went to heaven. They just claim that Christ already returned more than a century ago and filled heaven to capacity with 144,000 saints so that now their “righteous ones” sleep until Jehovah comes because there is no room for them in heaven while they wait for His kingdom on earth. My city has hundreds of thousands of people in it, but God’s throne of heaven is a tiny place, don’t you know.

In short, everything the jw’s teach is hopelessly misguided and worthless, and should be dismissed without pause by anyone who wants to know God and hear from Him.

Take comfort that everyone who believed in Christ and His perfect sacrifice for sins on the cross, and later died, is with Him to this day, awaiting the moment He returns with them to give them resurrection bodies, and then change us into those bodies in the twinkling of an eye to then lift us up into heaven with Him.