Paul's Shout of Victory

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Rom_8:35-37

Paul suffered for the truth's sake, and yet we hear no complaints from his lips. As he reviews his life of toil and care and sacrifice, he says, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." The shout of victory from God's faithful servant comes down the line to our time: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Though Paul was at last confined in a Roman prison--shut away from the light and air of heaven, cut off from his active labors in the gospel, and momentarily expecting to be condemned to death--yet he did not yield to doubt or despondency. From that gloomy dungeon came his dying testimony, full of sublime faith and courage that has inspired the hearts of saints and martyrs in all succeeding ages. His words fitly describe the results of . . . sanctification. . . . "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 

The wounds and scars of our warfare will be to us, as to Paul, the trophies of victory. 

My Life Today - EGW

Christ's Victory as Complete as Adam's Failure

For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Rom_5:19

Christ is called the second Adam. In purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, He began where the first Adam began. Willingly He passed over the ground where Adam fell, and redeemed Adam's failure.

But the first Adam was in every way more favorably situated than was Christ. The wonderful provision made for man in Eden was made by a God who loved him. Everything in nature was pure and undefiled. . . . Not a shadow interposed between them [Adam and Eve] and their Creator. They knew God as their beneficent Father, and in all things their will was conformed to the will of God. . . .

But Satan came to the dwellers in Eden and insinuated doubts of God's wisdom. He accused Him, their Heavenly Father and Sovereign, of selfishness, because, to test their loyalty, He had prohibited them from eating of the tree of knowledge. . . .

Christ was tempted by Satan in a hundredfold severer manner than was Adam, and under circumstances in every way more trying. The deceiver presented himself as an angel of light, but Christ withstood his temptations. He redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall, and saved the world. . . .

In His human nature He maintained the purity of His divine character. He lived the law of God, and honored it in a world of transgression, revealing to the heavenly universe, to Satan, and to all the fallen sons and daughters of Adam that through His grace humanity can keep the law of God. He came to impart His own divine nature, His own image, to the repentant, believing soul.

Christ's victory was as complete as had been Adam's failure. So we may resist temptation, and force Satan to depart from us.

My Life Today - EGW

Be Steadfast, Unmovable

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

 1Co_15:58

Those who stand in defense of the honor of God, and maintain the purity of truth at any cost, will have manifold trials, as did our Saviour in the wilderness of temptation. The yielding temperaments, who have not courage to condemn wrong, but keep silent when their influence is needed to stand in the defense of right against any pressure, may avoid many heartaches and escape many perplexities, and lose a very rich reward, if not their own souls. 

Those who in harmony with God, and through faith in Him, receive strength to resist wrong, and stand in defense of the right, will always have severe conflicts and will frequently have to stand almost alone. But precious victories will be theirs while they make God their dependence. His grace will be their strength. Their moral sense will be keen, clear, and sensitive. Their moral powers will be equal to withstand wrong influences. Their integrity, like that of Moses, of the purest character. 

It will require moral courage to do God's work unflinchingly. Those who do this can give no place to self-love, to selfish considerations, ambition, love of ease, or desire to shun the cross. . . . Shall we obey His voice, or shall we listen to the soothing voice of the evil one, and be rocked to a fatal slumber just on the eve of eternal realities? 

Our Saviour longs to save the young. . . . He is waiting to place upon their heads the crown of life and hear their happy voices join in ascribing honor and glory and majesty to God and the Lamb in the song of victory that shall echo and re-echo throughout the courts of heaven.

My Life Today - EGW

The Will is the Deciding Power

Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Rom_12:2

There is nothing that can keep you away from God but a rebellious will. 

The will is the governing power in the nature of man. If the will is set right, all the rest of the being will come under its sway. The will is not the taste or the inclination, but it is the choice, the deciding power, the kingly power, which works in the children of men unto obedience to God or to disobedience. 

You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. You may believe and promise all things, but your promises and your faith are of no account until you put your will on the right side. If you will fight the fight of faith with your will power, there is no doubt that you will conquer. 

Your part is to put your will on the side of Christ. When you yield your will to His, He immediately takes possession of you, and works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your nature is brought under the control of His Spirit. Even your thoughts are subject to Him. If you cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, you can control the will, and thus an entire change will be wrought in your life. When you yield up your will to Christ, your life is hid with Christ in God. It is allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You have a strength from God that holds you fast to His strength; and a new life, even the life of faith, is possible to you. 

You can never be successful in elevating yourself, unless your will is on the side of Christ, cooperating with the Spirit of God. Do not feel that you cannot; but say, "I can, I will." And God has pledged His Holy Spirit to help you in every decided effort.

My Life Today - EGW.

Has God turned against Israel?

Is the believe held by many Christians around the world true that God has turned against Israel after the crucifixion and rejection of Christ by the Jews and the subsequent stoning of Steven? Is there any proof that Israel is still the chosen nation of God and that He is with them today as He was in the past. Does the land that Israel occupy still belong to them after being taken captive to the nations for nearly 2000 years?

On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying,

 "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river,

the river Euphrates,the land of the Kenites,

 the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites,

 the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites,

 the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."

Gen 15:18-21  

Yes, God gave the land to Abraham and his seed, but then the Jews TURNED AGAINST Jesus and crucified Him. How can they then still claim the land is theirs after “God drove them from the land”? Our answer is in the following text:

Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I have spoken in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer reproach.

"But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home. (which happened in 1948 after WW2.)

For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.

And I will multiply people on you (6 million Jews killed in WW2, but 2500 years earlier God already promised that He will restore the population. In 1948 Israel was repopulated by 800 thousand Jews. Today there is over 6 million Jews in Israel), the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt.

And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

Eze 36:6 - 11

It is a historical fact that since the declaration of independence of Israel in 1948 there has not been a decade in which Israel was not involved in a war or some sort of armed conflict. Immediately after the signing of the declaration in 1948 the Arab-Israeli War (which before the signing since 1947 was a guerrilla styled civil war between Israel and Arab nations) erupted into a full scale war. Arab nations had tanks, aircraft and all types of modern warfare (of 1948) to their disposal. The Israelis only had their rifles and a few artillery. The Arab nations who participated in the attack all together had a population of more than 50 million people against a mere 800 thousand Jews in Israel.

“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
They shall never hold their peace day or night.
You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,
And give Him no rest until He establishes
And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
- Isaiah 62:6,7 NKJV

That year a miracle took place, one that can only be matched by Biblical history. In July 1949 the tiny nation of Israel managed to drive back their invaders and humiliate them before the world. The victory of Israel in 1949 clearly showed that Israel had turned their faces back to God.

Even though this was a clear sign that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had not forsaken His people, and a history of how He has protected Israel  as witnessed through the Bible, was not a deterrent for the Arab nations as they continued to build their armies and continuously organised Arab guerrillas to infiltrate from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan into Israel to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. As a result the Israelis launched what was known as the reprisal operations between the 1950’s and 1960’s destroying strategic targets and killing thousands of Arab troops, humiliating them further in the eyes of the world.

In June 1967 a war known as the Six Day War was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbours Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The nations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, as well as Russia contributed troops and arms to the Arab forces. Miraculously, following the war, the territory held by Israel expanded significantly ("The Purple Line") : The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan, Golan Heights from Syria, Sinai, and Gaza from Egypt. As its name suggests, this war by so many Arab nations against Israel lasted only six days and saw the seed of Abraham rising to their inherited status. 

It is unimaginable that a country the size of Gauteng Province in South Africa can defeat so many nations which were further supported by Russia. How is this possible if God has turned against Israel? Is there something more to this than what we as Christians originally believed or taught to believe? One of these answers can be found in the following scripture which reads:

And I will establish my covenant between me and you

 And your offspring after you throughout their generations

 for an everlasting covenant

to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Genesis 17:7

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

 Heb_13:8

 

Next… what role has Israel to play in the last days?