Spiritual Nuggets

For 02-15-2009

136. Jesus honors one’s free will and will not go where he is not welcome. Especially this is apparent when people wanted Jesus to leave their area as with the Gadarenes (Mark 5:16-18) or not even come in the first place:

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village. (Luke 9:51-56)

Jesus never entered that Samaritan village because he was not welcome! Imagine the blessing they missed since they didn’t want him to come because he would be going on to Jerusalem.

On the other hand, Jesus never drives away any who come to him:

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. (John 6:37)

He will even go with people who want him for healing purposes:

Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. (Mark 5:22-24)

The Lord won’t reject anyone who comes to him, but will leave those who don’t want him around.

137. Just think what it would have been like to travel with Jesus during his earthly ministry. There was a constant flow of wonderful teachings as well as miracles. But that’s not all. Sometimes Jesus scathingly rebuked others, including his own disciples, for their unbelief and failure to cast out a demon:

“O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” (Luke 9:41)

They had faith for salvation, but not for casting out that demon. Jesus expects us to act on what we have been exposed to.

138. How can we escape the corruption of this corrupt world? Is it by withdrawing as a hermit to some secluded place in the wilderness? Is it possible to escape, in that way, even in a busy city? The answer is yes to this last question. The key is knowing the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which occurs at salvation.

If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.” (2 Pet 2:20-22)

139. Once saved always saved people often say we have to sin all the time. By saying such they are denying we can obey God, which we must do to have eternal salvation (Heb. 5:9)! Besides that, they are also denying we can resist the devil and he will flee (James 4:7) and that we can stand up under any temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). Moreover, the Philippians always obeyed:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, (Phil 2:12)

Calvinism is a distortion of God, a distortion of grace and a distortion of sin’s consequences.

140. After Jesus died on the cross, where did his spirit go? The Bible says:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Mat 12:40)

That is not referring to his physical body which was placed in a tomb on the surface of the earth. Mt. 12:40 refers to the place where Jesus’ spirit and soul went. That same place is also referred to here as hades:

He looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. (Acts 2:31, NASB)

Jesus’ soul/spirit wasn’t abandoned to hades (nor did his bodily flesh decay in the tomb). Hence, hades, where Jesus went after his death, is in the center of planet earth. That is also where it is so hot that rocks melt and are spued out of volcanos on the earth’s surface. At this very moment as you read this, the wicked dead are tormented in that horrible place. (The righteous dead, now, go straight into the presence of God.)

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