Month: April 2022

Categories
Mid-week Manna

THE LAW OF LOVE: TRANSCRIPT OF GOD’S CHARACTER

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 13, 2022

THE LAW OF LOVE: TRANSCRIPT OF GOD’S CHARACTER

Sharing the top of the list of Christ’s gospel mission on earth, fallen in sin, the transgression of His law of love, Isaiah the gospel prophet, announced: “The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will MAGNIFY THE LAW and make it honorable” (Isa. 42: 21, KJV. Be sure to read verses 1-22 for fuller context).

When Jesus who saves His people FROM sin, is “Emmanuel, being interpreted, GOD with us” (Matt. 1: 21, 24), the “Word made flesh,” John 1:14, etc.), is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” for “He changest not” and “His word is forever settled in heavens” was asked the question by one of the scribes, “Which is the FIRST COMMANDMENT (or law) of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is ONE Lord. And thou shalt LOVE the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind, and with all thy strength (or might); this is the FIRST commandment.

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt LOVE thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment (or law) greater than these [the first and second].”Mark 12: 28-31.
Jesus simply quoted Moses through whom He spoke through centuries earlier See Deut. 6: 4.

This clearly tells us that God’s love is mirrored and reflected in His law, which is the written transcript of His character of love. Jesus’ familiar declaration is, “If you LOVE Me, keep My commandments (or law of Ten Commandments).” John 14:15.

Apostle Paul faithfully repeated this unchanging truth in these words: “LOVE is the FULFILLING of the LAW.” Rom. 13: 10, last part, Verses 8, 9 refers to last six commandments of the Decalogue which defines our love and duty to our “neighbor,” or fellow men.”

Therefore the mirror image of Rom. 13: 10, according to the spirit and the context is, “Fulfilling the law is love [for God and our fellow men]. The “first of all the commandments,”’ is of course the FIRST four commandments which clearly defines and specifies HOW and in WHAT ways God expects us to LOVE HIM. It is His will and way, not ours. In divine things, we can obey without loving but we cannot love without obeying.

In His gospel message and work, which He revealed to Paul (and all the disciples and apostles) Christ came in order to “MAGNIFY the LAW and make it honorable” (Isa. 42: 22), the word “fulfill” the law is practically the same as “magnify” the law, and since God is love, and His law is love, it can be said without doing violence to the sacred truth that Christ also came “to magnify the Father’s love and make it honorable” for Satan and law-breaking “ungodly men” had cheapened, corrupted, and made it “dishonorable,” turning His divine love and empowering, grace “into lasciviousness” (Jude 4).

“Fulfill” in Matt. 3:15 is translated from the Greek word “pleroo,” meaning “makes replete,” as in cram; furnish, imbue.” In Isa. 42:21 the word “magnify” is translated from the Hebrew “gadal,” meaning “to make large in various senses, as in body, mind, estate of honor; also, in pride; to advance, bring up, exceed, excellent, wax great,” (From Strong’s Hebrew and Greek lexicons).

Till next week’s MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

Categories
Mid-week Manna

GOD IS LOVE: SO IS HIS LAW

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 6, 2022

GOD IS LOVE: SO IS HIS LAW

Among many others of original precept and principle in the Sacred Word, the following few attest to this eternal truth: God is Love, so is His Law.
First, petition the throne of grace for the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Then read from your Bibles (preferably the KJV) the following:
1 John 4: 7, 8. 16. Speaking through David of Himself, Christ declared (emphasis mine): “O how I LOVE THY LAW! It is My meditation all the day.” Ps. 119: 97. The invisible God the Father of love is revealed in His visible (readable) written Word but more so in His visible “only-begotten Son” “by whom the worlds were created by Him and FOR Him” (Col.1: 16, 17; cf. John 1: 1-3, 10; Heb. 1: 1-3, 8, 9, etc.).

Of Christ Jesus, “the EXPRESS IMAGE of the glory of the presence” of the INVISIBLE Father of LOVE, life, light, and truth John declares: “That which was from the beginning, which we have HEARD, which we have SEEN with our own eyes, which we LOOKED UPON, and OUR HANDS HAVE HANDLED, of the Word of life”(1 John 1:1).

The reason why HATRED is worsening in the world in all its myriad forms and expressions whether unfeigned, overtly expressed, or physically demonstrated aggressively or is sly, suggestive, or implied but just as virulent, evil, corrosive, and destructive, is because the LOVE of God, who hates all evil and unrighteousness, including hatred for His law which enjoins love for our fellow men and fellow sinners is because God’s love does not abide and control the heart and mind (as was the experience and thus the expression of John and his fellow disciples!).

And in eternal things, there exists no void of neutral grounds. There are only two masters in this fallen, sinful world: Christ the Savior of mankind and Redeemer of the world He created, or Satan the master usurper, pretender, deceiver, “the enemy of God and man” and destroyer of souls.

By the knowledge and light of truth made available to us individually during our conscious and rational lifetime, as free moral agents, we choose whom we worship and serve (obedience
is the highest form of worship) whether God in Christ unto eternal life, or Satan, pretending to be God or Christ through his main agencies, unto eternal death.

The reason why LAWLESSNESS, which invariably breeds and results in all manner and degrees of disruptive disunity, confusion, unbridled passions, gross intemperance, mayhem, anarchy, revolts, bloodshed, pain, suffering, and death is because the LAW of God has been, for so long derided, trampled upon underfoot, called a “burden” and a “curse” and then blasphemously replaced by counterfeit, man-made religious laws by the apostate churches and denominations and blindly embraced by their sincere yet gullible votaries and adherents who have been taught from childhood to implicitly trust their religious leaders, honor the decretals of church councils, venerated traditions and long-held superstitions over the “Thus saith the Lord,” and “It is written” of the the sacred Bible.

Until next week’s MWM, God bless all, NMF.