Jesus

The Exact Day

Valerie Cullers 4 Comments

This coming Sunday, the church will celebrate Palm Sunday, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people were praising him, saying , “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest.” Matthew 21: 9 But did you know that Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem was predicted almost five centuries before?

The Book of Daniel was written around 530 B.C. In it, many prophecies were given to Daniel about the people and land of Israel. They are so accurate that many don’t believe he could have written it. Some scholars believe it was written in the second century B.C. I, for one, believe it was written exactly when it says it was written.

Daniel had been studying the book of Jeremiah to try to figure out how long his people would be in captivity in Babylon. He realized that Jeremiah had spoken about seventy years. As he was praying for his people the angel Gabriel interrupted him and gave him more prophecies concerning his people Israel. One of these prophecies specifically speaks to Palm Sunday. “Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks; the street shall be built again , and the wall, even in troublesome times.” Daniel 9: 25

Prophecy experts know that each week is a week of years, i.e., sixty-nine weeks equals 483 years. The Jewish year has 360 days, so the total days would be 173,880 days. These numbers are certainly staggering. The decree went forth to restore and build Jerusalem by Artaxerxes Longimanus on March 14, 445 B.C., and Jesus rode into Jerusalem on April 6, 32 A.D., exactly 173,880 days later. This includes 116 leap days and 24 days between March 14 and April 6. (Information in this paragraph provided by Koinonia House, Chuck Missler 2004)

When you celebrate Palm Sunday this year, know for a fact that Jesus the Messiah’s entrance had been predicted centuries earlier to the exact day. Even though the people didn’t realize what was happening at the time, Messiah the Prince, did come to them on that very day.

This is just one example of predictive prophecy in the Bible. There were over three hundred prophecies that were fulfilled at the first coming of Jesus. You can be sure that the over two hundred prophecies that pertain to his second coming will be fulfilled in the same way. Nothing is random with the Lord. They will be fulfilled at the exact time; and on the exact day, they are supposed to.

Illustration courtesy of the Orthodox Church.

Lost

Valerie Cullers 14 Comments

When our oldest son was about three, we met some friends up at a lake. I was standing on one side of the boat ramp, and my husband and his friend were standing a few feet away on the other side of the ramp. Our son wanted to come over to where I was, and my husband said, “Sure.” He took off, and my hubby just assumed he was with me. He was busy chatting with his friend, and since I was in plain sight, he didn’t give it a second thought.

A few minutes later, my husband came over to where I was and he didn’t have Shawn with him. Shawn had walked right past me and was who knows where. Inside of me, I began to panic. There were lots of people at the lake that day, which only added to my consternation. My friends took off down the path, and I just stood there frozen. I could barely breathe. If something happened to my son, I knew I would not be able to live with myself. Second after second ticked by as I fought back hysteria. Thankfully, a few minutes later, our friends found him following the path along the lake, looking for me. To say I was relieved would be an understatement.

The Lord brought this incident back to my mind recently. When I think about the way I felt about my son being lost, it may, in some small way, reflect how the Lord feels when He looks down at His children and sees so many of them lost. I do not believe the Lord is panicked or hysterical, but the thought of losing them forever must be heart-wrenching. Millions are looking for Him, but because they are on the wrong path, they will never find Him. They will just continue walking until they walk right past Him into a Christless eternity.

Luke 19:10 says: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” That means that if you are lost, if you are looking for some sort of meaning in this life, some sort of God, some sort of something but don’t know what; He is looking for you…right now. He wants you to stop, turn around and look for Him, Jesus, the One who can save your soul and give your life meaning.

He cares for you more than you can ever know and He has no desire for you to spend eternity without Him. He will be crushed to lose you, a precious part of His beloved creation. No matter where you are, what you have done or where your search has taken you, it is not too late to find Him, the One your soul is ultimately looking for. His name is Jesus Christ and He will more than meet you half way. Turn around while you still can, while you’re still safe and while you still have hope.

Photo by Pexels. Courtesy of Pixabay.

Delusion

Valerie Cullers 6 Comments

Delusion – 1. a false belief or judgment about external reality, held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, occurring especially in mental conditions. 2. the action of deluding or the state of being deluded. Oxford Languages

I have had a deep concern lately about deception, especially about the deception that will be coming on the world in the near future. I have already talked about AI. The advancements it has made in the past year are staggering. I have recently seen videos that have been produced by AI that are realistic and almost impossible to tell they were computer generated. For a point of reference, think about the movies you have seen in recent years with their computer generated images. Didn’t the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park seem real? What about the scenes in Star Wars? Those movies were made decades ago and think about the advancement that has been made since then. Now with AI, soon you could watch a person on a newscast with a computer generated image give you the “news,” and you will not be able to tell if it is real or not. Sound too futuristic? Believe me, it’s coming.

Yes, yes, yes, you may say to me…so what? I would say to you that that is just one level of deception that is on the horizon. There is even a deeper level of deception, i.e., delusion, that will affect the people of the world. As many have rejected God and His word, they will be open to the delusion that God Himself will send upon them. As they have rejected the real Savior, they will readily accept the false Christ that is coming to “save the world.” As we read in 2 Thessalonians verses 9-12, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

How scary is that…that a holy and righteous God will actually send people strong delusion to believe the lie? And what lie is this, you might ask? Well, there will be one coming who will look like a man of peace, a man who can solve all the world’s problems, and people will believe him. At one point, he will declare himself to be the God and Savior of the world, and he will be satanically energized and show the world all power, signs, and lying wonders with all unrighteous deception. Sounds pretty far out, doesn’t it? But just think about it.

Already we have people searching for someone who can bring peace to the world; one who can solve all the world’s problems. At the moment, they are thinking in political terms. Where is the person who can bring peace to the Middle East, stop the war in Ukraine, solve the food shortages, put an end to the violence, and have a solution to the economic problems? I know people who are looking at certain political figures and believe their guy is the one who can do it.

When we are looking for a human to provide the world’s answers, we are only a step away from accepting the man who will come on the world scene, one who looks and acts the part. It is not too far out to think that people will fall at his feet. Think about what Paul-Henri Spaak, former Belgian Prime Minister and Secretary General of NATO said, “We do not want another committee, we have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and be he god or devil, we will receive him.” He made this statement decades ago before the world was in the state it is in right now.

This man is coming on the scene, the world is looking for him. The Bible says he will come, and I believe he is alive today, waiting in the wings to fulfill his role in the end times. It is important that we know these things ahead of time so that we can make the right choices now while we still have the chance.

Photo by Gerd Altman, courtesy of Pixabay.

Bruised, Broken or Shattered?

Valerie Cullers 20 Comments

Many times in life, we find ourselves in pain. Something has happened to us, and we must deal with the consequences of it. We may have caused the pain to ourselves, or someone else may have done it. Either way, we need help. We need Someone who can take the pain away and heal us.

Lots of things can knock us around in life. Circumstances, the loss of a job, a best friend moving away, or some other life changing situation comes crashing into our life. We feel bruised; others may not see it but we feel it just the same. We are hurting. No, we are not bleeding on the outside but our spirit has been bruised. Is there Someone we can go to, Someone who cares? When describing Jesus in the Scriptures we read, “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.” Isaiah 42:3 We can rest assured that when we come to Him with our hurts, He will help us. He will not rebuke us for our weakness or our pain.

What about when we have sustained a bone-crushing injury? Something has happened to us that we cannot ignore or hide. Maybe we have lost a loved one or have been accused of something falsely. We need help, and we need it badly. Can anyone come and splint our injury and help us while we go through a time of restoration? Again, in describing the work of the Lord, we read that, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3 All we have to do is call out to Him when we need help, and He will be there.

Is the Lord big enough to help us when we have suffered a soul-crushing injury? We feel we have been run over by a steamroller, and there is not much left of us. Perhaps our spouse has run off with another person. Perhaps the business we have spent a lifetime building has gone bankrupt. Perhaps a hurricane or other natural disaster has taken from us everything we own. Is the Lord big enough to help even when we go through our worst times? I’m talking about those times when we can hardly speak because of the pain we are in. We feel our life is over, and there is nothing to be done. Can He help us even when our hearts are shattered? Jesus is talking about himself in Isaiah 61: 1-3, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Yes, we can look to Him. Jesus is big enough to bring us through our soul-crushing disaster, heal us from our heart-shattering pain, and give us new life again. We just have to ask.

Farewell Patricia

Valerie Cullers 17 Comments

“OVER AND OUT”

My dear friend, Patricia, found out she had inoperable cancer about three weeks ago. She put it on Facebook so that her friends and family knew. Her hubby asked people to come for short visits as they had put her on hospice.

A friend and I went a few days later. She was upbeat and wanted to share some things about her life with us. There were no tears from either side, hers or ours. Instead, there was a peaceful acceptance as we prayed together for the last time.

People came that first week and then she had difficulty talking as her lungs continued to fill with fluid. She posted short notes on Facebook and then a few days later turned off her phone. She continued to post on Fb and then about ten days ago came her final post. Her last words to us were “Over and Out.”

I can’t tell you how that post comforted me. She knew she was passing into the arms of Jesus and was ready to go. It took about ten days until she finally took her last breath. The woman lived a life of love and in the end she went fearlessly into the next life. Farewell, Patricia. I will miss you but you will always be a shining example to me.

Photo by Gerd Altman. Courtesy of Pixabay.

Good vs. Saved

Valerie Cullers 11 Comments

“Good people don’t go to heaven, saved people do.” Skip Heitzig

Billions of people on earth are busy doing good works in order to get to heaven. They are doing things such as fasting, following religious traditions, giving alms, feeding the poor, going to church, etcetera. They are trying their hardest to be good enough so that when they die, they can go to heaven.

The problem with this approach is how do you know when you have done enough to get in? Do you think that God puts all of our good works on one side of the Celestial Scale and our bad deeds on the other side, and then if the good ones outweigh the bad, we are admitted into heaven?

The problem with this kind of thinking is that our good works are not quantifiable. How much do we have to give in order to have really done a good work? Does showing up for church or at the local temple qualify as a good work? Do we get credit for being nice to our family or those who love us? Who’s keeping score, and when do we know when we have done enough?

I spoke to a person a while back, and we were talking about good works. He certainly had given more to the needy than most people, and I’m sure he hoped that would count for something when he stands before the Lord. He was raised in church, but somehow had forgotten about Jesus. So, I asked him, “If we can get to heaven by doing good works, why did Jesus have to come to earth to die for our sins?” He didn’t have an answer to that.

The answer to that question is, by way of inference, that of course we can’t get to heaven by our own good works. That is exactly why Jesus had to come to earth, because none of us is good enough or can do enough good works to get into heaven. Someone had to pay the price for our sins in order to secure our way into heaven. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3: 16-17

Are you trying as hard as you can to be good enough for God? Are you doing good work after good work in order to be accepted by Him? Why don’t you take a step back and take a good, hard look at Jesus. Can you see that He is the only One who can get you where you want to be when you die? Let me know if this is a new thought for you.

Reductive

Valerie Cullers 9 Comments

Have you ever used the word reductive? Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines it as, “of, relating to, causing or involving reduction.” When you use it in a non-scientific sentence, you are talking about reducing something or someone. I have been thinking about that term in relation to Jesus.

You see, Jesus claimed to be many things. The most astounding claim He made was that He was in fact, God’s Son, and one with the Father in essence. His words, not mine, “I and My Father are one.” John 10:30 The one cardinal doctrine in mainline Christianity is that Jesus, God’s Son, is in fact, also God.

Any other characterization of Jesus is reductive. Some claim He was a prophet. Some believe He was the finest man who ever lived. Several offshoots of Christianity believe Jesus was an angel. Some Eastern religions believe He was an Avatar, a special being who came to earth to enlighten mankind. None of these definitions are inherently bad, they are just reductive. They reduce Jesus to something less than He claimed to be.

When deciding who Jesus is, we must take His claims seriously. He is either who He claimed to be or He is a liar. There is really no other choice. If you have decided that Jesus is something less than He claimed to be, then please, read the Gospels and make an informed decision. Is He the Son of God, i.e., one in essence with the Father, or not? Any other opinion about who He really was is reductive.

Image by Jeff Jacobs. Courtesy of Pixabay

The Last Call

Valerie Cullers 19 Comments

Have you ever taken a train trip before? When you are in the station, you wait for your train to be called so that you can board. After it has been announced a few times, you hear, “Last call for Train #35 going to Torino.” That last call means that if you are in the station, you have a very short time to get on board before the train leaves. There will be no other notice that the train is leaving. You will hear the air brakes release, and then the wheels begin to roll. If you are not on board, it leaves without you.

I look around at our world today, and I believe we are hearing “The Last Call.” Everywhere I look, there is violence, war, pestilence, plagues (including Covid), and the disintegration of societies. I do not see our world moving in a positive direction. I cannot imagine that man, after all he has done to mess up this world, is going to make it a better place. Those who believe that man is capable of creating “an ideal society” are sorely disillusioned. Believe me, if man could have done it, it would have happened a long time ago.

Jesus talked about a time like this on the earth. He said, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” Luke 21: 10-11.

Surely, anyone who is listening and looking around can hear the announcement: “We are nearing the end of the age as we know it. It is time to answer the call. Jesus is coming soon for his people. Turn to Him before it is too late.”

Have you heard the call? Are you just waiting for another and then another announcement, unaware that soon there will be no more, and it will be too late to get on board? I hope not, because surely what comes next is not going to be pleasant, and no one wants to be around for the final act.

“For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say ‘peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5: 2-3

Please, I beg you, answer the call before it is too late!

Where the Bodies Are Buried

Valerie Cullers 7 Comments

Have you ever started a new job and the person taking you around said, “Let me show you where all the bodies are buried?” You know that what they mean is, “Here’s where the dead files are” or “Here is where the office secrets are kept.” In the case of the lab where I worked in my early twenties, there really was a place where the bodies were (down the hall and to the right).

When you travel to various cities, they also have places where the bodies are buried. Some have beautiful cemeteries, and others have famous catacombs, such as Rome and Paris. Those places can be quite eerie to walk through, but that is literally where the bodies are buried.

When it comes to matters of religion, many religions can point to where the body of their leader is buried. Other sects that began in the distant past can only imagine where the body of their founder may be.

But for Christians, we cannot show you a place where the body of Jesus is buried. You see, He is not lying in any grave on this earth. He died, and three days later, he rose from the dead. This is a documented historical fact. When the women came to take care of his body after he had died, an angel said, “He is not here, He is risen.”

We can, however, show you where the bodies of certain saints are buried and where we believe others have been interred, but The Body…No. So the next time someone says to you, “Let me show you where the bodies are buried,” remember Jesus, the One Person who cannot be found in a grave and take hope.

Image by Pete Linforth. Courtesy of Pixabay.