Categories
Devotionals

THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

September 27, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

Whenever mortal sinners like you and me approach the subject of the Incarnation of Christ, we are warned to “take off your shoes from your feet for the ground in which you are standing is holy ground.” We would do well to take heed! Let all remember that “spiritual things can only be discerned spiritually.” The carnal mind disqualifies itself “for it is at enmity against God’s law.”

Now, please read Hebrews 2: 5-8 first. Then consider these:

“Christ is presented here as being ‘lower than the angels,’ though ‘crowned with glory and honor.’ He is shown to be VERY MAN, as truly as in the first chapter He is shown to be VERY GOD. His humanity enables Him to be the kind of High Priest [merciful and all-powerful Intercessor, Mediator, Advocate] men need.

Categories
Devotionals

CHRIST’S HUMAN NATURE

September 14, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

CHRIST’S HUMAN NATURE

Please find time to prayerfully and unhurriedly read verses 1-18 of Hebrews chapter 2. Here are the first 4 verses(emphasis mine):

“Therefore we must give the MOST EARNEST HEED, to the things we have heard, LEST WE DRIFT AWAY. For if the word spoken through angels, proved steadfast, and every TRANSGRESSION AND DISOBEDIENCE received a just reward, HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE IF WE NEGLECT so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God AlSO bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?”

Heb. 2:1-4, NKJV.

SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER: “This chapter opens with a warning against INDIFFERENCE. It is the first of many admonition scattered throughout the book, which evince the author’s [apostle Paul] anxiety for the SPIRITUAL WELFARE of his readers. From the nature of the exhortations we learn that, unlike the Corinthians, the DANGERS threatening them were NOT MORAL DELINQUENCY but a GRADUAL DRIFTING AWAY from the things they had heard, COUPLED WITH a lack of desire to apply themselves to a SERIOUS study of the Word.

“The larger part of the chapter is devoted to a discussion of the HUMANITY of Christ. In the first chapter the author brought indisputable proof of the DEITY of Christ. In the second chapter he shows that it is NEEDFUL for Christ to BECOME A MAN IF He is to be a merciful and faithful High Priest.

“How else could He deal gently with the weak and erring? He MUST be TEMPTED IN ALL POINTS LIKE AS WE ARE for it is only by passing through the EXPERIENCE to which [all] men are subject that He can succor [save, deliver, empower] those who are weak!

“This section contains a warning against the SUBTLE SINS of apathy and carelessness. Paul was greatly concerned about the SPIRITUAL condition of the people. There were TROUBLOUS TIMES AHEAD for the church. Persecution would soon break out anew; in a very few years the Roman armies would take the city, the Temple would be destroyed, and the Christians would be compelled to flee for their lives.

“Despite this, THE CHURCH WAS NOT FULLY AWAKE. They were ADRIFT with no anchor. Their condition was critical, and MOST SERIOUS OF ALL, they did not sense their danger!” (Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews, 79, 80).

This is same condition we are facing today! The very signs taking place right now in America and the world are already announcing, in trumpet tones, that we entering the prophesied early time of trouble! Are we adrift or are our hearts and minds firmly anchored in the Rock, Christ Jesus and His Word—“It is Written,” “unto the law and the prophets,” “to the law and the testimony.”  Bless all, NMF 

Categories
Devotionals

THE ‘SECOND ADAM’ SUCCEEDED WHERE THE FIRST ADAM FAILED

August 26, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE ‘SECOND ADAM’ SUCCEEDED WHERE THE FIRST ADAM FAILED

“And so it is written, the first man Adam became a living being [soul, Gen. 2:7]. The last Adam became a life giving [‘quickening,’ KJV] spirit. However, the spiritual is not the first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust, the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly [spiritual, not carnally-minded]. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust [our unconverted state with an unregenerate heart], so we shall also bear the image [moral character] of the heavenly Man [the truly converted ‘new creature in Christ Jesus’].”

1 Cor. 15: 45-49, NKJV.

“The right hand of the Majesty on high’ is the seat of honor, or authority. This seat was given Christ when He had made purgation [‘purging’] of sin. He had finished the work given Him in earth to do. He had succeeded where Adam had failed, and had won for Himself if God [the Father] and the right to speak and act FOR MANKIND [as the ‘second Adam,’ and thus High Priest, Mediator, Intercessor, Advocate in the heavenly sanctuary where He ascended to at His resurrection].”

Categories
Devotionals

THE BURDEN OF THE LAST MESSAGE STILL MINGLED WITH MERCY TO THE WORLD

June 24, 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE BURDEN OF THE LAST MESSAGE STILL MINGLED WITH MERCY TO THE WORLD

“All His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness.” Psalms 111:7,8 KJV.

When the laws of man, themselves blatant breakers of God’s law or even lawless or “a law to themselves,” enact laws and enforce them, the “fruit” or the result is only as good, reliable, truthful, lasting and righteous as the “trees” that bore them or from where they were plucked or fell from.

Categories
Devotionals

NEW GLORIES FROM GOD’S WORD DAILY

January 20 2020

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

NEW GLORIES FROM GOD’S WORD DAILY.

“Let us know. Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning. He will come to us like the rain, like latter and former rain to the earth.” Hosea 6:2, NKJV.

— “In the Scriptures thousands of gems of truth lie hidden from the SURFACE seeker. The mine of truth is never exhausted. The more you search the Scriptures with humble hearts, the greater will be your interest, and the more you will feel like exclaiming with Paul ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.’

Categories
FMM

The Humanity That Will Forever Share with Divinity the Throne of the Universe

Friday Morning Manna                         July 5, 2019

Nathaniel Fajardo

email: [email protected]

The Humanity That Will Forever Share with Divinity the Throne of the Universe

      “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest [most holy of the heavenly sanctuary] by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.”

Heb. 10: 19, 20, N.K.J.V. 

From Desire of Ages, pp. 23, 24:

     “Nearly two thousand years ago, a voice of mysterious import was heard in heaven, from the throne of God, ‘Lo, I come.’ ‘Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me.  . . .  Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.’ Heb. 10: 5-7. In these words is announced the fulfillment of the purpose that had been hidden from eternal ages.

Categories
FMM

The Humanity of Christ: What was It? (Continued from last week)


Friday Morning Manna 
                   May 17, 2019

Nathaniel Fajardo                          email: [email protected]

The Humanity of Christ: What was It? (Continued from last week)

No. 6:  The Indispensable Role of the Holy Spirit

“The Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the only-begotten Son of God, binds the human agent, body, soul, and spirit, to the perfect, divine-human nature of Christ.”

How many church creeds specifically declare that it is the Holy Spirit that binds the true believer, i.e., body, mind, soul and spirit to the perfect divine-human nature of Christ? How many of those still debating this issue will give this saving truth the attention it fully deserves and bring it into their discussions? Into their set of beliefs?  Into their moral character-building?

Categories
FMM

The Humanity of Christ; What was It? II

Friday Morning Manna                May 10, 2019

Nathaniel Fajardo                      email:[email protected]

The Humanity of Christ; What was It?II. PROMISES AND REWARDS OF STUDYING THIS SUBJECT

     “We must come to the study of this subject with the humility of a learner, with a contrite heart. And the study of the incarnation of Christ, is a fruitful field and will repay the searcher who digs deep for hidden truth.”- Ibid, Vol. 7, p. 905 (emphasis supplied).

     “The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us. It is the golden chain that binds our souls to Christ, and through Christ to God. This is to be our study.”- Selected Messages, Vol. 1, p. 244.  

     “When we want a deep problem to study, let us fix our minds on the most marvelous thing that ever took place in earth or heaven—the incarnation of the Son of God.” 7 BC 904.     

Three Inexhaustible Subjects Regarding Christ the Creator: His incarnation, His atoning sacrifice as the Lamb of God, and His mediatorial work as our High Priest. 

       “The theme of redemption is one that angels desire to look into; it will be the science and song of the redeemed throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. Is it not worthy of our careful thought and study now? The subject is inexhaustible. [1] The study of the incarnation of Christ, [2] His atoning sacrifice, and [3] His mediatorial work will employ the mind of the diligent student as long as time shall last; and looking to heaven with its unnumbered years, he will exclaim, ‘Great is the mystery of godliness’ [1 Tim. 3:16].”- Signs of the Times, Apr. 18, 1906; My Life Today, p. 360 (emphasis supplied).