Psalm 130 - There is forgiveness with God

This psalm is one of a group of fifteen which are called the ‘Songs of degrees’. The 19^th Century preacher Mr. Spurgeon said that they could also be called ‘The Songs of the Goings Up’ as it is certain that they were sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made their journey up to the temple. In these fifteen psalms selected truths are highlighted. This highlights the issues that God thought were important for his people to attend to if they were to know his presence and his blessing on their arrival.

National Holocaust Day 2023

Photos from own collection

Auschwitz was the largest Nazi concentration camp.  More than 1,100,000 men, women, and children lost their lives here.  Multiple train tracks led in to this extermination camp, no Jew ever came out!

All over the nation, places of public entertainment are closed, and last night a state ceremony was held in the Warsaw Ghetto Square in Jerusalem to honor the Jewish people who perished at the hands of Nazi Germany.

The flag was lowered to half-staff, and prayers were recited.  Holocaust survivors lit the six torches that symbolize the Six Million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust under Hitler's Final Solution.

Despite the process of dehumanization and annihilation that the Nazis unleashed on the Jewish People, necessitating a struggle for survival in the worst of circumstances, many Jews continued to exercise creativity, pursue education and culture, recite prayer, and observe the holidays.

"Many of those who struggled to maintain and preserve the human spirit did not survive the horrors of the Holocaust, but their deeds and actions are a reminder to future generations of the stamina and nobility of the human spirit," the Yad VaShem website states.

The Nazis packed Jewish people like cattle into railroad cars as they shipped them to their final destination at labor and extermination camps.  Those camps were part of Hitler's "Final Solution" to kill all of the 
Jewish People.

The Nazis intended that no Jew would survive the Holocaust.

Multiple tracks led from all over Europe to concentration camps like Auschwitz.  Jewish people were crammed into cattle cars and shipped to these death camps.  Very few survived.

Many were gassed immediately upon arrival and their bodies burned in ovens.  

Those who were healthy enough to work when they arrived were literally worked to death.

Two-thirds of European Jewry, that was one-third of all world Jewry, died in the Holocaust.

This horrible, unfathomable number—six million murdered—does not count the many Jewish children who will never be born because of this genocide.

Whole families were destroyed.  Some Jewish people who came out of the Holocaust were the sole survivor of their family.  They were left completely alone.  Many communities were utterly erased.

Those who came to Israel from Europe were a remnant.

Some of those who were gassed and put in the ovens were the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles of our Bibles for Israel Ministry staff.

May We Never Forget.

Paying tribute to the six million who perished in the Holocaust.  
Never Again!

Used by permission  

"The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.   Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing."  (Isaiah 51:3)

 

The 70th Anniversary of the State of Israel

One Day - Two Reactions

In April on the anniversary of the recommencement of the State of Israel the Jerusalem Post reported that ‘While Israeli Jews mark Independence Day with fireworks and barbecues, the flags that sprout everywhere in Jewish areas will be absent from Arab towns, and the thoughts of many there will turn to what they term the “Nakba” (catastrophe) that they associate with Israel’s birth. Part of a third of Israel’s Arab population is comprised of people (and their descendants) who became internally displaced from their villages and towns during the War of Independence.
Some Arab citizens will visit the sites of destroyed villages in the morning before joining in a symbolic “March of Return” in the afternoon. The fact that this year marks 70 years since those events makes it a particularly poignant occasion for introspection and taking stock.’

The same date and occasion produced two different reactions from two diverse groups of people. The same event affected both groups in completely different ways - gladness or grief, delight or dread, pleasure or pain.

Many events in history have produced diverse reactions, especially those that are related to events in the land of Israel. As regular readers of this blog will know one of my aims is to present to people the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sadly, the gospel often produces the same diverse reaction as events did in Israel last week. The cross, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ while producing immense blessing for those who are prepared to repent and trust Him results in great depression and judgment for those who refuse to acknowledge what was done at Golgotha was for them.

This type of response to the gospel was expected. In 1st Corinthians chapter 1 the Apostle Paul records that 'the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but to us which are saved it is the power of God'. The same man writing in Romans chapter 1 verse 16 states 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth'. The inference being in the latter passage that the God who has the power to save cannot do anything but condemn those who refuse to believe in Lord Jesus Christ.

The same message, which offers to all who are prepared to believe salvation, forgiveness and peace with God when a person refuses to repent results in the opposite. The message of salvation will ultimately be the evidence that God will use to condemn unbelieving individuals on the day of judgement. 

One other passage comes to mind in this respect - 2nd Corinthians chapter 2. At the end of that chapter, the writer is reflecting on the response that people have to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to those who preach the message. He says that to some people we, as God's messenger's, are a sweet savour of Christ. To some people that is the preachers are the fragrance or the smell of death (in other words the feel condemned by what they hear). To others, the fragrance is the fragrance of life, in other words, the gospel liberates them and brings them life through faith in Jesus Christ. 

I wonder which of these two responses to the gospel will be yours?

My prayer is that you might enjoy eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. But sadly the alternative could be that you face eternal judgment because you rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.

The choice is yours – please choose wisely.

Important Message for everyone who reads this blog!

If I could have everything I wanted would I give it up under any circumstances?

http://goodnews4liverpool.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/barrow-in-furness/

Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are?

Now in its 10^th series to air on the BBC, the genealogy documentary series ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ regularly attracts an audience of more than 6 million viewers.

While we dig into the ancestry of famous celebrities, there is a lot of controversy about the origin of the most famous person in history – Jesus Christ.  Christians believe that Jesus is God’s Son.  In the New Testament, Jesus frequently referred to God as his “Father” (see John 5:17).  Significantly we read in the next verse that the Jews sought to kill him, because they understood that he was claiming to be “equal with God”.  In John 10:30, Jesus describes himself and his Father as being one in essence, that is, divine, and as a result we read in verse 33 that the Jews once again try to stone him.

However, many do not believe that the Bible is authored by God, but just another piece of ancient literature and it has become fashionable for sceptics to hold that these supposed quotations of Jesus were simply made up by the early church and added to the gospels.  So our question is: ‘Who did Jesus think he was?’  Let’s look at two more occasions where Jesus claimed to be divine; two quotations that are accepted by mainstream critical scholars as historically authentic as actually said by Jesus.  The early church is an unlikely source for them!

1. During Jesus’ trial by the Sanhedrin as recorded in Mark 14, the high priest asks him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Jesus replies (v62), "I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."  The high priest tore his garment, and the verdict of blasphemy with the death sentence was delivered by the Sanhedrin.  They knew that Jesus was identifying himself as the Old Testament ‘Son of Man’ figure who appeared to Daniel in a vision (Daniel 7:13-14).  Daniel’s ‘Son of Man’ is described as eternal, glorious and sovereign ruler of an everlasting kingdom.  The Sanhedrin’s verdict of blasphemy demonstrates that they knew that Jesus was claiming to be God.  Now, while ‘Son of Man’ was often used by Jesus to refer to himself in the gospels, it is very unlikely that this title was inserted as an invention of the Church, because the title only occurs three other times in the New Testament (Acts 7:56; Revelation 1:13; 14:14) and only three times in all other Christian literature during the Church's first 120 years.  Since neither Jesus' opponents nor his supporters are likely sources for this title, Jesus himself is its most probable.

2. In Mark 13:32, talking about the end of the world, Jesus says, "no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."  This text suggests that there is something that he, the Son of God, does not know.  If the disciples were forming a fictional account, these are words they would never put in Jesus’ mouth.  Again, Jesus himself is the most likely source of this statement.

The Bible says that our forgiveness from sin and eternal wellbeing in Heaven depends on the worth of his person as the unique Son of God.  It is his divine nature that gives value to his death as a sacrifice for us.  Each of us needs to personally answer Jesus’ own question: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ (Mark 8:29).

Written by Guest Blogger