Monday, September 18, 2023

TRUSTING GOD TO DO HIS OWN GOOD WORK

 KEY VERSE: “And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me” (Mat 11:6)

 Jesus therein added another ‘beatitude;’ another “state of blessedness” or “supreme happiness” (bliss) (Harper 2001-2023).

‘And’ in the key verse means “likewise.” Likewise, what? That Jesus heals the sick and such from the previous verse (Mat 11:5). That would offend some. Why so? Because only God could do such things as giving the blind reception of their sight, the lame walk, the lepers cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead raised up, and for the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Many were offended at such a thing, but all those things verified that Jesus was the one on whom John asked and on whom the Jews had been waiting.

As it turns out, all those things offended the Jewish leadership enough that they wanted to kill Jesus. For what? Doing things that only God could do, and even the simplest thing as revealing the truth to the poor!

In modern days, many scoff at the notion of God healing. When someone has been ill but is made well, for them, Jesus has nothing to do with it. The doctor only diagnoses and treats; God does the healing, but nobody anymore seems to credit God, and if they do, they are called a ‘fanatic.’ Nowadays, few wait on God to provide the final method of healing the infirm.

I have had many friends that seemed to be dying, and rather than wait on the Death Angel, their caretakers became ‘gods’ themselves.

Dr. Kevorkian killed the infirm compassionately, but it remained him who did the killing. He was even imprisoned for mercy killing.

They, at one time, shot horses out of mercy for the creature. Now that is seen as cruel, so they merely change the process. They “put them away” in some humane manner. Pets of all types are put away in a humane way, generally by a lethal injection of some sort. Many would rather have their pets die without pain rather than have them in pain and still be alive. Mercy killing animals seems to be the humane way of killing brutes.

Paul wrote a truth, “For me to live is Christ; to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). [1] Implied therein is that if the Death Angel comes for a Christian, then death is gain, or a reward; that death should be welcomed.

One fine Christian lady was a faith healer and when she became quite ill with cancer, she turned to God, rejecting the treatment by a doctor. At first glance, it seems that her faith had killed her. However, just as it is the Angel of God that keeps a person alive, it too is the Angel of God that removes the last breath from a Christian. Her faith had healed her; she was given the reward of eternal life!

Many scoffed at the faith healer who seemed to be like scripture says, “Physician, heal yourself” (Luke 4:23). She seemed to be unable to heal herself; even though others saw people healed in her presence. It is because the woman was not doing the healing; it was because she had faith that the Holy Ghost of Jesus could heal the sick.

Jesus revealed that even death does not hinder him, bringing the dead man Lazarus back to life even though he had been dead enough to stink.

I submit that the lady’s faith did not cause her death but healed her. She trusted Jesus and Jesus healed her!

We only think of Jesus healing the sick and raising the dead, but the ultimate healing is death for the dead suffer no more because their flesh is no longer alive to suffer. God finishes the good work in you when the genome of the dead is raptured, and new incorruptible flesh is placed over the living soul. That reconstitutes the Garden of God and creates a New Garden in Paradise.

Paul revealed a mystery to the Christians at Corinth: 

51 We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Cor 15:51-53)

 Jesus said about his healing and preaching, “Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.” If “whosoever” is not offended at the healing and preaching of Jesus, he would not be offended if he changed them all the way to a new creature when Christ comes for them.

Many scoffed at that as well! Before Jesus generates new flesh for Christians, the dead must arise from their graves for the blessing.

Imagine the multitude who witnessed the death of Jesus. Some saw the Holy Ghost leave Him, yet He revealed that He continued to live on. The earth split asunder, not to receive the dead body of Christ, but to release the dead from their prison; to wit: 

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. 54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God.” (Mat 27:52-54)

 Jesus raised people from the dead; he raised even the long dead; perhaps He even raised John the Baptist and Adam. [2]

The centurion and the hundreds saw Jesus die and on Resurrection Sunday they must have been gathered as a unit, still guarding the area, as is the case with any crime scene. The graves were opened and those who had been dead went into the city, but the Roman guard did not pursue them because they understood that Jesus was indeed who He said He was; that Jesus was God in the flesh. They would have seen the dead walking as an army of King Jesus.

The Roman legion did not scoff; they were not offended that the ‘Great Physician’ could heal Himself. They were not surprised that the grave was empty because they saw so many graves that were emptied.

They never pursued Jesus when He escaped, surely because they would be pursuing God! Jesus, although convicted and murdered for His offenses, was never pursued by the Roman army. It appears that many were convinced, even Pilate, that Jesus was God and that any true God could escape punishment.

We think of Houdini and his tricks. Jesus made Houdini seem an amateur. Jesus walked to the Cross with the crowd screaming for His death, and then God came undone as He revealed the Light, the Man, and the Ghost of Jesus. [3] Then, those who were patient enough to wait – the Roman Legion who were persuaded — saw Jesus regenerated as He merely walked through the walls of the tomb with glorious, regenerated flesh.

The Jews were offended; they remain offended to this day! Jesus revealed His Identity to the mob but most of them refused the truth; that Jesus is God in the flesh. They have not been blessed because they refuse to accept Jesus as the truth; that He is the Messiah in whom they wait.

The centurion, ‘Longinus’ by name, was not offended by what he saw. The other centurions who mocked Jesus and gambled for His apparel, once they witnessed Jesus come undone, they became a new legion who could see living souls all around them arise from their graves. God had changed them; they by then had bright eyes and could see what others could not see!

Earlier in this commentary, I touched on death and the humane way of killing. Jesus was killed humanely for according to the chief priests, it was for the benefit of the Jews.

In their eyes, they were doing a good thing. They were protecting their God, fearing that their God was incapable of fending for Himself. Their ‘Almighty God’ who they claimed, they made feeble. He was a God that could not fend for Himself, a God who was so weak that death could hold Him, and a God that could not heal, even Himself. They themselves became ‘God” because it was them who would overcame the meek, seemingly defenseless man on the Cross, just hanging there waiting for the angel of death to take Him.

Jesus, in the key verse, was speaking about the Jews and whosoever questioned His abilities. If they accept that Almighty God is as mighty as He claims, then they would be blessed with extreme happiness — with bliss in Paradise.

Soon, I will be doing a video on the old subject: a glass half empty of a glass half full. Many see death as emptiness while others see it as fullness, or completeness.

For some, Jesus’s healing and teaching was the glass half empty but for some, it was the glass half full. In this situation, the ‘glass’ is the cup, or vessel, of Jesus. They failed to see what was in the seemingly empty part of the glass — the Holy Ghost who is the Power of God.

The Jews did what seemed to be a humane thing; they killed a ‘crazy man’ that perceived Himself as God. That was the ultimate sin for them, and the best they could do is to kill the Man for saying it. They could not wait on their Almighty God to heal the insanity of the man; they surely saw it a way to reward him with an afterlife, of course caring not that it might be in Hell for His claim.

Society has yet to learn their lesson. We still kill for humane reasons; babies are killed in the womb because that is the ‘humane’ thing to do. There is no way that they could be happy, so women ‘bliss’ their own children by taking their lives from them.

Not to be outdone, families even take the power of God into their own hands; they cannot wait on God’s Death Angel to come, so they ask that He come quicker. I am referring to euthanasia.

If the Jews had been godly, they would prayed to their Almighty God to heal the ‘crazy man,’ Jesus. But, no; they would not wait on God to cure His infirmity, so they took it into their own hands.

Even many well-meaning families slip into Satan’s trap. Hospice seems a good thing, and caring well for the dying is indeed humane. However, is it humane to withhold food and drink from the dying? I believe that the truly humane way would be to pray for God to act quickly to bliss the dying person, not to withhold life sustaining nourishment from them. It is as if the Angel of Death requires help to come, not in God’s time, but in our timing.

However, hospice is meant to be a good thing and as with all things too much ‘goodness’ kills as the Jews showed. As it turned out, Jesus excused those who thought they were doing good things for God, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted His raiment and cast lots” (Luke 23:34).

‘Euthanasia’ is humane people doing what they think is good and means death done well. It is done well by others without having to wait on God. Some of them just refuse to die and linger even longer; maybe because the Death Angel awaits the good people to leave the scene.

Jesus would say to them, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” and then they would continue their ‘good” work and part the raiment and cast lots, just as they did with Jesus. In modern terms, they would probate the wills and debate on who gets what.

Sometimes death is speeded up for the love of money and the division of the estate. At other times, probably most often, it is so that the loved-one does not suffer. (Or is it for the living to no longer suffer?)

But who knows what suffering, or not, goes on in the minds of those knowing where they are and why they are there?

This is not to condemn any family members nor even hospice. Their motives are good. Who knows how much quicker a sick person might die if we just leave them alone with the Angel of God to Comfort them as they of course administer drugs for the pain.

What should we do to make death easier? I pray that God takes me swiftly and without pain, and when the Death Angel comes, for my family to welcome Him. They too can pray that Jesus comes quickly and that death for me be painless.

(picture credit; encounterhumber.wordpress.com; "Encounter with Christ")



 

 

 



[1] For more on that philosophy see my book with that title.

[2] See my book, The Skull of Adam, for more about raising the dead at the first resuurection.

[3] Refer to my book, Adoil Come Down: Arkhas Came Undone.

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