King of the Jews

John 19:19-22

 ¹⁹Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. ²¹So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” ²²Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

ESV

I had the opportunity to read this passage at our Good Friday service this year. What a beautiful service it was in so many ways. Right after I read this passage, our praise team played one of my all time favorite songs: The Wonderful Cross.

I have been meditating on this passage for several days. The chief priests were so upset to find that Pilate had posted this inscription in the place where Jesus was crucified!  The Jews didn’t accept Jesus as their king. They vehemently rejected him as their king. They appealed to Pilate asking him to change the inscription to make it clear that Jesus merely called Himself the “King of the Jews.” I love the fact that God used Pilate in this way. Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written.” Did you catch the fact that many of the Jews read this inscription because Jesus was crucified near the city. In His sovereignty, God allowed the King of the Jews to be crucified right before the city of the Jews, clearly labeled in three languages as the King of the Jews!

Can you imagine the thoughts that were going through the minds of the Jewish community as they looked at this man on the cross, labeled as their King? I’m sure they would have felt so much better if Pilate had changed the inscription, but he didn’t!  They were forced to see Jesus on the cross, labeled as their King. You see the fact of the matter is Jesus was the King…He still is the King! Praise the Lord the Bible does record in Acts 6:7 that many of the priests did put their faith in Jesus as their King!

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

 What caused them to believe? At the end of the day it was God’s grace that drew them unto salvation, but I have a hunch.  Think about the evidence: Jesus hung before the city labeled the King of the Jews. At the moment He dies, the veil in the temple is torn from top to bottom! Then, the icing on the cake…the tomb was empty! They heard about the secret deal made with the guards and the lie they were paid to tell. Couple all the evidence with the drawing of the Holy Spirit and what do you get? You get born again Jewish priests!!

As for those who stood 2000 years ago in rejection of the King of Kings, they will stand before Him again.  This time they will acknowledge Him for who He is, but it will be too late.

 Phil. 2:9-11

⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Consider the evidence my friends! That Pilate said “I have written what I have written!” The veil was torn! The tomb is still empty! He is the King! – BP

 Luke 24:6a

He is not here, but has risen.

ESV

Who Are You_

Then He said, “A certain man had two sons.  And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. An not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”

 Luke 15:11-13

It’s funny that I read this passage involving the prodigal son just this morning.  A few days ago, my husband must have read it.  He said to me, “I think that story is more about the older brother than anything, don’t you?”

I thought for a moment and replied, “Well, I think it really can be about all three of them, don’t you think?”

As I read the passage today I had my husband’s statement in my mind.  When I completed the chapter, I sat and reflected.  Yes, I have to say, at this season of my life I seem to really identify with the older brother.  But there was a time in my life when I know that I identified more with the younger son.  What happened here?

I think whom you identify with depends on the stage of life you are sitting in.  I know for me, the time when I most understood the position of the younger brother was when I most rejoiced over my own allotment of grace.  When I was a new believer, I felt so much like this one son, caught up in the trappings of the world, sitting in the mud with the pigs, and realizing that there was a Better way, the Only  way!  I ran home to God, if you will on April 8, 1990.  He was waiting there, where He always was, glad to be reunited with another member of His creation, one who was dead and now was made alive in Christ.

“But when he came to himself, he said…’Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.’”

Luke 15:17a, 18b

But today.  Well, today, I am almost 23 years away from that moment.  Is grace any less amazing?  No.  But somehow, through the years of service and striving, I have begun to find myself in the camp more often with the older son.  I look around at the younger sons wallowing in the mire and I feel compassion, yes, but sometimes, I do feel disgust.  I read the news and then have to take three days off from it because I just get sick with what I read.  I will say, God help me if I ever get like the older son in my spirit so that I don’t rejoice over the homecoming of a lost soul!

“So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’”

 Luke 15:29-30

Who knows?  Maybe one day I’ll have to identify more with the father.  I hope not.  But with five children, I stand a good chance of having to stand by the window and watch and wait.  I know that ultimately this role of father in the parable is God’s.  However, I know that in this wicked world, many parents must stand in this place.  They pray for their wayward children to realize the error of their ways and to return home.  A wayward child may force me into this role.  I may one day wear this burden as a prayer warrior.  God help me to do what I am called to do.

No matter what season of life, or what character in this particular parable I most identify with in this moment, God is still faithful.  May we run home today, strive hard today, or stand and pray hard by the window today.

-bbm

“And he arose and came to his father.  But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him.” 

“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.  It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

 Luke 15:20, 31-32

Covered by the Blood

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

In looking at what 1 Corinthians says about God’s agape love, I’ve been thinking about the phrase that love “bears all things”.  Below are a few different translations of the same verse:

 KJV: Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

NIV: It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

NLT: Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

The following is from Clement of Rome, early Church Father.  It comes from his Letter to the Corinthians and was written around AD 96.

“Who can describe the bond of God’s love?  What human being can rightly tell the excellence of its beauty?  The height to which love exalts us is beyond our speech.  Love unites us with God.  Love covers a multitude of sins.  Love bears all things.  Love is longsuffering in all things.  There is nothing corrupt or arrogant in love.  Love allows no schisms, and gives rise to no seditions, but does all things in harmony.  Love is what makes all the elect of God perfect.  Without love, nothing is well-pleasing to God.  In love the Lord has taken us to Himself.  It was because of His love for us that Jesus Christ our Lord gave His blood for us by the will of God, His flesh for our flesh, His soul for our souls.  You see, my beloved, how great and wonderful a thing is love!  No-one can declare its perfection.  Who can find anyone who is fit to dwell in love, except those to whom God has granted such fitness?  Let us therefore pray, and beg of God’s mercy, that we may live blameless in love, free from all human parties that prefer one person above another.”

The Greek word for bears (4722) is (stego from stege = a thatch or roof or covering of a building) derives its first meaning from stege and thus means to cover closely, to protect by covering and then, to conceal and then, by covering, to bear up under.

This is the love that God has shown to us and continues to show to us.  As we think today about what Jesus did on the cross, let’s thank him for the blood sacrifice.  1 Peter 1:18-19—“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

For it is the “blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).  It was this greatest act of love that atones, or covers, our sins.  Leviticus 17:11–For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”

The word for atonement is “a primitive root; to cover”.

Have your sins been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ?  Have you accepted the atonement gift of love that bears all things?

Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins!

-RB

John 3:16

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Holy Week

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise   Psalm 51:16-17

Holy Week

Holy week has always been a time when our family has stopped everything to observe and pray. For that matter, Lent has always been a time of abstinence and prayer. The Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday which signifies the beginning of the forty days of Lent, usually around the second week in February. Lent ends on Good Friday. The last week of Lent is Holy week which begins on Palm Sunday and ends with the Tridium of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. On Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent all meat would be abstained from. It is also the practice to “give up” or fast some aspect of life such as sweets, TV, or something else which would be a sacrifice to do without. Also, we were all expected to be especially loving to our fellow man and charitable to those in need. We did these things like clockwork every year. While all of these things are good, they should not be done because it is “that time again”. I am reminded of a verse:

 ⁷ But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Son of Man is also Lord during every day of Lent and throughout the year! God does not want a group offering of sacrifice, prayer and religious fervor. He wants to hear from us, individually. While corporate worship and group prayer is joyful and biblical, there are some things such as fasting and individual prayer which are between you and God alone. He loves His children and wants a separate relationship with each one as any good parent does. God desires that we love and serve Him each day of every year. I am not saying that everyone who observes lent does not worship and adore God throughout the year. What I am saying is this, go quietly and pray throughout the year. Serve God by serving His people all year. He does not want His children to “give up” something for lent. He wants us to love each other as He has loved us.

-mes

^12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12

 

Facing Failure

Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written. . .” (Mark 14:27)

As you follow Jesus you will face moments of great distress. At times it will seem that events conspire to cause you to stumble in your relationship with Him. You do not initiate them, but they arise from opposition or the intensity of your circumstances. Nevertheless, failure is the end result. The disciples faced such fierce opposition to their Lord that they all failed Him on the night Jesus was crucified.

Peter boasted that he was incapable of forsaking Jesus (Mark 14:29–31). Yet Jesus assured the disciples even before their failure that it was inevitable. The Scriptures had prophesied it. God always knew the disciples would fail His Son; He wasn’t caught by surprise. He had made provision for their shortcomings, knowing He would eventually develop them into apostles who would fearlessly preach the gospel, perform miracles, and teach others. Later, when the risen Christ encountered Peter on the seashore, He did not ask Peter for a confession of his sin, but a confession of his love (John 21:15–17).

You may fear that your failure has caught God by surprise. Perhaps you promised, like Peter, to stand with the Lord, but you failed. God was just as aware that you would fail Him as He was with the original disciples. He has made provision to respond every time you stumble. Don’t think that somehow your failures are bigger or more complex than any God has dealt with. If you are facing challenges that seem overwhelming, don’t be discouraged. God has already foreseen them and prepared for them.

-bmi devotional

1 Corinthians 10:13 

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Parenting 102

 Prov. 22:15    Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Recently I had the opportunity to teach a Bible class at SCA.  I taught on the subject of parenting.  Today I get the chance to teach at SCA once again, but I won’t be teaching the students.  I will be teaching the teachers.  What is my topic?  I find it funny that our topic is Classroom Management, and more specifically discipline.  Isn’t that what we do as parents?

You know, discipline really is a means of correction.  Now, obviously, the way I discipline in a classroom is different from the way I discipline as a parent.  (Well, let me make a disclaimer here.  The way I discipline as a parent is EXACTLY the way I discipline in my home school classroom!  Just as my kids!)  But teachers in the school do not have those same liberties.  But discipline must take place because misbehaving is most certainly taking place!

In preparing for the class on parenting, I found that discipline has three main threads:  punishment, instruction, and warning.

Punishment is designed for correction.  If a child’s rebellious acts and attitudes don’t have clearly understandable and unpleasant consequences, then an immature child will not change those actions or attitudes.

Instruction is the tool that trains the child on what is right and lets them know what is expected.  The wise child listens carefully.  The foolish child blows it off and rejects the instruction and is destroyed.  You can find a ton of evidence supporting this fact in the book of Proverbs.

Warnings are special forms of instruction.  Parents should utilize warnings to identify improper conduct, and stress the consequences of continuing that conduct.

Now, I shared with the students that once you hit about 13-14, you begin to think that you know everything and you don’t need advice from your parents anymore.  This attitude results in a lot of needless tragedy.  I encouraged them that wise children listen carefully when their parents speak.

Discipline of any form must be given in love.  If I discipline my children in a rage, then I will as quickly produce a rebel just as if I never disciplined them at all.  If I want unconditional obedience, then my discipline must abound with love.

I can’t just motivate my kids in negative ways.  I can’t just threaten them with the fear of punishment.  I’ve got to couple that with positive motivation.  God often reminds us in His Word that obedience is blessed.  I can control a kid up until about 12 with fear, but if I don’t tie discipline to love, then once that child hits the teens, they’re lost to me, and possibly lost to God.

How does this tie in with my lesson today on managing your classroom environment and utilizing discipline?  It’s the same.  Yes, the consequences of bad choices will be different.  I’m not going to be taking the rod of correction in my hand literally.  (Some students need corporal punishment.  That’s another discussion.)  But I can still take the rod of correction figuratively and hold it tightly as I set expectations (rules, if you will) and use these to instruct the students as to what I expect of them.  I utilize warnings to continue this teaching.  I do utilize punishment – unpleasant penalties – to motivate them toward keeping the rules.  I lace these through with a good helping of love and care.

We do not need to throw up our hands in defeat against this rebellious generation.  We must draw the boundaries, teach them the boundaries, warn them as they draw close, and punish them when they cross outside the circle.  All the while we must affirm to them how much we love them and desire to see God work in their lives through these situations.

Is this easy?  Not at all.  I told the students in Bible class and I will tell the teachers today, it’s much easier to just ignore bad behavior and look the other way.  But parents and teachers who do this do not truly love their children.  They love themselves and will not do the hard work of discipline.  The next generation will pay with their very lives for our lack of obedience.

-bbm

Prov. 10:1 A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother

Prov 17:21 He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow; and the father of a fool hath no joy.

Prov. 23:24 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.  Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

 

Eagle Eye

Acts 17:26-27

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

My husband and I have just recently discovered something about an area near our house that we didn’t know. We have discovered that we have bald eagles that live only about ten minutes from our house.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were driving down Jackson Lake Road when my husband saw a big bird sitting in a tree. We stopped and turned around to go back and look at it. Upon closer inspection, we saw that it was a golden eagle. As we started to drive back away, we then noticed a bald eagle flying down the middle of the Ocmulgee River. It was beautiful. Ever since that time, we’ve been going back to that area and have walked along the river trails looking for the eagles.

A lot of times we don’t see anything. There has been one time when I stopped by myself after work and took a video of a bald eagle sitting in a tree and then flying back up to the nest. Another time, my husband and I saw one flying with a fish right when we drove up. However, when we got out of the car and walked around, we couldn’t find it again.

I’ve been trying to get a really good picture of one of the eagles so that I can get it printed out and framed to hang in our house. In fact, I even took my mom there because she takes really good pictures, but we could not find a bald eagle that day.

The weird thing about this discovery is that I’ve been driving past these eagles and the huge eagle nest that is on top of an electric pole every day going back and forth to work…and yet I didn’t realize what I was driving past. So it is with God. The bible tells us that God is close by and that he knows our every actions and thoughts. However, there are people who do not realize what they are missing.

Eagles have one of the strongest eye sights in the animal kingdom. Their eyes can see 4 to 8 times better than the average human. The good news is…you don’t have to have an eagle eye to find God. In fact, he promises that if we search for him, we will find him.

-RB

Jeremiah 29:12-13

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD.

Flee and Don’t Look Back

2 Peter 2:4-9

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)– if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

As I’m getting ready to teach Jr. High girls tomorrow about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, one particular point really spoke to me personally about my life so I decided to write about this lesson.

As we can learn from the New Testament reference above, Lot was a righteous man who was distressed about the sin that surrounded him in the city of Sodom.  However, even though he was righteous and God was merciful in sparing him and his family from the destruction, we can see in Genesis 19 that Lot was not unaffected by his choice to live in that city.  Being surrounded by the evil wickedness constantly around him had consequences on his decisions and life.

For starters, we can see in Genesis 19 that Lot was willing to sacrifice his virgin daughters in order to protect his guests.  That’s not right!  However, because of where he was living, maybe that type of thing didn’t seem so out of place.  Genesis 19:8—“Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

Next, we see Lot being hesitant to obey the angels.  It becomes clear that he really didn’t want to leave the city and its people.  Genesis 19:15-16—“With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”  When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.”

We also see Lot not trusting the angels by refusing to go to the mountains as they were instructing.  Genesis 19:18—“But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die.”

Finally, we can glean from the scriptures that the consequences of sin can affect our loved ones as well.  The future son-in-laws did not believe that Lot was serious and stayed behind in the city.  Lot’s wife disobediently gazed back intently to the city and turned into a pillar of salt.  Lot’s daughters performed acts of incest in the mountains showing the influence that Sodom had on them thus resulting in two nations who were opposed to God’s people (Moabites and Ammonites).

Why do some of God’s people fall in with the corrupt world rather than willingly flee a society destined for destruction?

Yes we are to be light in the darkness; however, let’s leave the snares and entanglements of sin behind and never look back.

-RB

Luke 17:28-33 

“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.  But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.  It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.  On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.  Remember Lot’s wife!  Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.”

Dancing with God

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

Life is full and we as Christians go and grow through many different seasons. Sometimes the season may be very hard and the only way through is by clinging to Christ with all your might. Then there are those seasons which are like the sunshine (son-shine) after the storm. This has been a very sweet season for our family and I give God all the praise and honor and glory for it.

Our family has certainly contributed to the wedding industry with two daughters and two nephews taking vows this year. My oldest daughter is getting married in May. My husband is such a good sport! This is a God thing because two years ago David was a different person, of course I am talking about a time before his salvation. Let me just say that he has submitted to tuxedo fittings, engagement parties, losing two daughters at once and has been there to babysit, make arches, and lend support where ever he can. On that note I would like to add that he has agreed to take dancing lessons in preparation for Katie’s wedding. We have only had our first lesson but what a blessing it has been. First let me say the dance company is run out of a Baptist church in Monroe with all profits going to their youth group. On our first night we were given a welcome packet with the usual information and one very special addition. I loved this so much I wanted to share it.

-mes

Dancing With God

When I meditated on the word Guidance,

I kept seeing “dance” at the end of the word.

I remember reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.

The movement doesn’t flow with the music,

and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,

both bodies begin to flow with the music.

One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back

or by pressing lightly in one direction or another.

It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

The dance takes surrender, willingness,

and attentiveness from one person

and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word Guidance.

When I saw “G”: I thought of God followed by “u” and “i”.

“God, ‘u’ and ‘I’dance.”

God, You and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust

that I would get guidance about my life.

Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today is that God’s blessings

and mercies are upon you on this day and every day.

May you abide in God, as God abides in you.

Dance together with God, trusting God to lead

and to guide you through each season of your life.

I hope you dance!

Author unknown_________

Vicar of Jesus Christ

Matthew 16:16-18

 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” 

Last week, Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina (better known as Francis), was elected as the 266^th Pope of the Catholic Church.  This means that Pope Francis is now the “supreme headship of the Church on earth”.

Since Peter is believed by Catholics as being the very first Pope, this makes me look back at the scriptures in Matthew where Simon is given the name Peter (which means Rock).   As I read these scriptures, I realize that they must be understood in context with the surrounding verses.

Simon Peter has just admitted to Jesus that he believes Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  It is with this confession of belief, in which Peter had been given understanding by God of who Jesus is, that Jesus gives him the name of “Rock.”

Looking at other scriptures, they confirm that Jesus is the head of the church.  About Jesus, Paul says that “he is the head of the body, the church” in Colossians 1:18.  He is the “Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25).  Jesus Christ is also our foundation…for “no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

Peter rightly identifies himself as “Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ” in 2 Peter 1:1.  Thinking about this and what Jesus said in Matthew above, I am reminded of the importance of knowing who Jesus is.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the term Hypostatic Union refers to “a theological term used with reference to the Incarnation to express the revealed truth that in Christ one person subsists in two natures, the Divine and the human.”  In fact, the word “hypostatic” literally means “what we stand on”…our foundation…and union refers to the union of incarnate Jesus and God being one.

Is there a servant after Jesus that becomes head of the congregation?  The following statement is taken from the online Jehovah’s Witness daily text the day before the official new pope election referring to the Watchtower Society.  “Elders make decisions that affect the congregation. However, they make sure that they “do not go beyond the things that are written” in God’s Word. (1 Cor. 4:6) They also follow closely the direction they receive from the faithful slave. (Matt. 24:45-47)”

This too is another example of an unnecessary and dangerous substitute!

What beliefs do you stand on?  What serves as the foundations of your beliefs?  Are you trusting fully in Jesus Christ as the head or are you following after a vicarious, human substitute?

-RB

Luke 6:47-49 

As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.  They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.  But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”