Christ Archives – Sonshine's Journal

December 2, 2024December 2, 2024

Christ Knows…

Who is Jesus? — God has provided all you need to know …it’s in the Bible.

Revelation 2 The Risen Christ Knows…

What does He know but the good we have done but He also knows where we are failing. As He sits on his throne in heaven He looks down and sees the good along with the bad. He knows when we are successful in our witness and where we are failing. What secret am I/are you hiding from earthly peoples but is seen in heaven? As I walked along the street in Ephesus I wondered those thoughts and wondered what John saw and what he was thinking. How about Paul who also walked there? What was Ephesus like in their day? Was it like our cities today where there is hustle and bustle but little to speak of when it comes to the risen Christ? As I walk along on the street in front of my home what does Jesus see and hear? Does He see that my neighbors know that we attend church each Sunday but then all is silent the rest of the week? Do they know that I pray for them house by house and want them to know Jesus as their Savior? Over and over Jesus is reminding us that he who has an ear better listen. Am I listening? Am I conquering the sins of this world? Am I witnessing to my neighbors who are quiet but lost because I have not prayed enough or served enough or loved them enough?

October 16, 2024October 16, 2024

10.16.24. For the sake of Christ

2 Cor 12 Contentment

Our world is awash in trials and tribulations, persecutions and other traumas. Recently a pastor in Laos was murdered. Another church was burned as well as the church members’ crops destroyed. We read this from afar and our hearts hurt for these who lost so much. In our own country, a devastating hurricane has destroyed much, and many are without resources. Our own bodies are failing in so many ways. It seems that we are being bombarded front and back. Paul is telling the Corinthians and us to stand strong, be content. That is the hardest thing to do when you are feeling downhearted.

Contentment is a choice we must make, and it is a 24/7 decision. Paul wisely tells us that it is for the sake of Christ that we choose to be content, and we can say we can be content when we face these challenges.

So what challenges are you facing today? Are you weak? Has someone insulted your faith? Is your life full of troubles (family, finances etc.)? Are you being persecuted? No matter what can you step apart from these and say you are content and can face these for the sake of Christ?

June 17, 2024June 17, 2024

Christ the True God

Hebrews 9 Christ Our Sacrifice

Recalling the battle where the Philistines captured the Ark and their fear. The Hebrews author gives us a graphic picture of what it must have looked like and why they were so afraid. They had said unwittingly, a god is in our presence yet they turned not to the Holy God but to their false god, Dagon. Men clearly are blind to the power of the true God! Three times God revealed His power to them that they might turn to Him but they chose not.

Now the Hebrews author turns our attention to the true sacrifice of Jesus who entered, not the earthly structure made by men’s hands, but blessed by the Lord, but to the heavenly tabernacle by his death. “For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us”[Heb 9:24] Unlike the false god of the Philistines, our Savior is a true God who now intercedes for us to the Holy Father.

Be true to the True God, our Living and Interceding Savior, Jesus Christ!

September 7, 2023September 7, 2023

The Sovereign Lord…

Ezekiel 38-39 End of the End

God has spoken, and it will come to pass that all of God’s enemies will be found in their guilt. That was then, but this is today, so how do we take a passage like this and make it relevant? Look about you, Christian, and see the enemies of our souls. They are in our midst in social media and in false teachers and preachers. Peter told his audience to be sober and alert, for the enemy of our souls is not quiet but is like a roaring lion stalking his prey. [1 Peter 5:8] A former pastor said he has a “hit list” of those who need salvation and those who profess but do not possess by their life the living Word of God.

Ezekiel is shown the enemies of His people. Like then, we have today those around our world who say they will “devise an evil plan.” [Ezek 38:10] But, God is sovereign, and His plan will supersede any that the enemy devises. Even in Ezekiel 38, it is the Sovereign Lord who speaks and reminds them He has placed His prophets in the world to proclaim His zeal and His fury to ‘make my holy name known in the midst of my people, Israel.” [Ezek 38:7] God gave Israel His prophets, but the greatest prophet came in the Living Word of God: Christ!

Be alert beloved! Be on your guard! Jesus said, stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. [Matt 26:41]

December 14, 2022December 14, 2022

Angels or Christ?

Hebrews 1-4 It is Christmas time, and we spend exorbitant amounts of money to decorate our homes with Christmas trees. Usually, but not always, we place an angel at the tip-top. In reading these chapters, the early believers did much the same in their worship by elevating angels over Christ. He wrote to remind them that angels are merely ministering spirits. They are NOT the Son.

Over and over, as we have read the letters to the early believers, we have seen that the NT authors repeatedly remind their readers to stand firm and elevate Christ! The unknown author of Hebrews continues that train of thought; Christ must always be pre-eminent. He, not angels, came to earth to die for the people’s sins so that He could be their High Priest! He warns them to stand firm and not to harden their hearts. Did they, and do we get the point? Angels are ministering spirits; they are NOT the Son.

This Christmas, do I keep Christ first? When I look at my tree, do I see an angel there just as decoration? Is Christ first?

June 20, 2021June 20, 2021

What is in your foundation?

Eccl 7 – 12 After 12 whole chapters of pithy sayings, Solomon finally concludes that all that he has found has little of any value. Only what is done for God will pass the test of time and eternity. He poses the last question by asking us to choose what we will build on. Eccl 12:13-14 Wisdom teaches us that “each builder’s work will be plainly seen, for the Day will make it clear, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what kind of work each has done. For God will evaluate every deed, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

Paul echoed that same counsel in the first book to the Corinthians, chapter 3. He reminds them that no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. He is the pure and lasting foundation that will weather the storms of life. He is the rock upon which we should build our faith because when the storms of life come, the materials we have chosen will prove to be that which lasts or will fail. He also reminded the Corinthians that each work will be plainly seen and be tested by fire. If we have chosen the suitable materials, they will withstand the fire on “that day” of judgment.

Both authors remind us that what we choose today will either last through eternity or be burned up, even though we will be saved.

What materials have you chosen to add to your foundation?

August 31, 2016

Romans 12:2 “Are you a Duck, Frog, Salmon or Transformed Believer?”

butterfly feeding2 The duck idiom says “if you look like a duck, swim like a duck, quack like a duck, you must be a duck.” According to abductive reasoning this may or may not be true but it does reflect how we might be seen in the world. We have melded into the fabric of society and no one knows we are not a duck but a believer in Christ. Therefore, Paul reminded his readers to not be conformed or molded into the world’s system just like the frog scenario. We are put into the pot and the enemy heats up the water but we are unaware that we are being cooked!

Also, just as a salmon swims against the flow of the river to achieve its place to spawn so we must swim against the false current of the world’s philosophy. The salmon faces many trials to arrive so too we will trials and enemies. Therefore we must be saturated with the Word so that we can discern truth from error. [Heb 5:14] We have this promise: He who hath begun a good work in you will complete it at the day of Christ but until then we are moment by moment being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is His work that is being accomplished as we surrender and become a living sacrifice. It is all His power and all because we are a new creation in Christ. He enables us to “behold the glory of the Lord.” (2Cor 3:18] This is how the mind is renewed — by steadfastly gazing at the glories of Christ for what they really are.

How does the world see us; ducks, frogs, salmon or a transformed believer in Christ?

August 26, 2016

The Permanence of the Eternal God

unspashRosesHandss2 Life seems so short. This week seeing the children I taught now with their own children growing up so fast was a wake – up call as to the fleeting life I now live in contrast to the permanence of God. I am just like a rose in God’s garden, I need tending but eventually the rose will fade and so will I. That is why I must redeem each day for Him as I was reminded recently when a young family’s life was cut short and all 5 entered eternity from the 2 mos. old infant to the 5 yr old child, the 3 yr old child along with their parents. We never know when God will call us home. Do I want to hear well done thou good and faithful servant? My answer is yes. .

Before God created the world as we know it, God was eternal and He still is so. A 24 hr day to us is like a thousand years in God’s sight. This is the true meaning of God being omniscient, omnipotent.

As God created me he placed eternity in my heart [Eccl 3] that I might know and seek the eternal significance of what I do. And like a beautifully crafted tapestry, each thread I weave creates a picture of my life from birth to death.

And so with these thoughts I turned to Psalm 90 where these thoughts were ever before me: Life is fleeting; enjoy now but invest wisely in that which will count for eternity. Vs 3 reminds us that God makes mankind return to dust. Only our tombstone will recall the life we have lived. James says we are frail and like grass, we grow and we wither with the heat of the sun. The woman who came to King David spoke of life and death in 2Sam 14. She gave King David a visual illustration of life: we shall surely die and be like water spilled out on the ground. But too she saw beyond the grave to see that God does not take away life as our eternal end but rather has made plans so that we may not be cast from Him. It is called salvation and the price has been paid by His Beloved Son so that we might live eternally with Him.

Have you prepared for your eternal destiny?

June 16, 2016

Those Pesky Deadly D’s

jesus way truth lifea

As we continue through the letter titled simply Hebrews we are noting the fatherly yet teacher character. He has not been remiss to remind the reader that even though they might be like those who are facing almost daily persecution and difficulty in their lives, these readers should beware of drifting and disbelief which are part of the disease of the deadly d’s. Our archenemy has his arsenal complete with just the one for today it seems–like distraction. You are on your way only to be distracted from your appointed round by it! And then there is discouragement. Add to that list any more that begin with “dis..” and you get the picture.

But, Christ is supremely appointed as our high priest and he is greater than any “dis…” The author of Hebrews reminds us that we need to focus on Christ who is and was the perfect Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. As the Son, Jesus is superior to angels, superior to Moses and now superior to Aaron. And yet in his humanity he suffered, prayed deeply, was tempted yet without sin. This is why he could “[become] the source of [our] eternal salvation.”

It is why Jesus said about himself “I AM the Way, The Truth, the Life” and no one, not a single person alive now or before or in the future will come before the God of the universe apart from Jesus Christ. Many say that is so narrow-minded. I didn’t say it Jesus did. He is the one who died on that cross and rose again to new life. Consider then the source.

Think of being on a deserted island with no provisions. A rescuer comes. You have a choice, will you choose to trust him even though he is a stranger when he says, “if you trust me I will take you to safety.” You have a choice to follow or stay. The one who follows is just like the one who trusts the words of Jesus and is saved for eternity. The one who says no I won’t trust him has just lost their ticket to salvation/freedom, rescue and a life with God in eternity.

Have you believed and trusted God’s plan or are you thinking if I just love God it is enough? James said “Even the demons believe that – and tremble with fear” yet they are not saved for eternity. God’s plan may be narrow-minded in your eyes but that is His way, will you trust him? The blessings are out of this world!

June 14, 2016

Beware of the Deadly D’s

Hebrews chapter 5: The author of Hebrews has not been remiss to remind the reader that even though they are facing persecution and difficulty in their lives they should beware of drifting and disbelief which is part of the disease of the deadly d’s.

Christ is supremely appointed as our high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He is and was the perfect Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. As the Son, Jesus is superior to angels, superior to Moses and now superior to Aaron. And yet in his humanity he suffered, prayed deeply, was tempted yet without sin. This is why he could “[become] the source of [our] eternal salvation.”

The next deadly d has to do with diet. The readers were still infants feeding upon milk, the basic principles of the gospel and not feeding upon the meat of the Word. They knew Jn 3:16 but not the greater implication. They were like the disciples who over and over asked: “what does he mean?” They should have been teachers but just want their ears tickled. Instead of hungering, thirsting and being trained to discern truth from error they were satisfied just being spectators leaving the study of the scriptures to others. We see them today in our churches. They come faithfully to service but do not attend classes for instruction and fellowship. They may have accepted the WORD but are not feeding upon the WORD.

We need to be asking if we too are failing. Do I hunger for the solid food of the Word? Can I discern truth from error? Am I obeying Matt 28: “go and make disciples?”