Oh my heart,
I don’t even know where to start! Luke Chapter 3 lists the kings and the priests, who are known throughout history for killing Christ our King. Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests, and Herod was the King of Galilee. Pontius Pilote was Governor of Judea, and Tiberius was the Roman emperor. It’s interesting to me how much history, and geography, are embedded in Chapter Three. I wonder why this text wasn’t taught in my World History class? When exactly was the Bible excluded from literary diversity? Doesn't God say it is to our responsibility to pay attention and never forget his ways? This is such a travesty! Without his Word, we will certainly go astray! It's a complete absurdity! We seem to value human bureaucracy more than we love God‘s sovereignty! It’s truly a shame, that our schools and universities are putting out generations of people who believe we should be able to think our own way. Whatever administration rules at the time determines the beliefs of that mankind. Like in 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, that prayer would be taken out of the schools. And today, in the year 2020, the United States stands on religious diversification. Through the concepts of New Ageism, we teach reincarnation and secular humanism. This has become our new religion, we are self-centered gods connected through universalism. I could go on and on about the New Age spirituality, but I’ll stop for now and get back to Luke Chapter 3. John the Baptiste, the son of Zachariah. was living in the wilderness walking back-and-forth across the Jordan River. He preached repentance of sin through baptism so people would repent and be forgiven. Isaiah, the prophet, had foretold this when he said, “A voice from the wilderness would prepare the way of the Lord." John was so serious when he spoke - repentance of sin is not a joke! He was not speaking to hear his own voice. He was preaching to save souls, by letting them know they have a choice. His only goal was to bring back hearts to the Lord! He said, “even now - the ax of God‘s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees.” I don’t know about you, but I do not take that symbolism lightly! “All I perceive is Jesus saying, “I never knew you, now depart from me!” Holy! This response is so scary! Our fear of the Lord should be unwavering! Our suffering is only temporary! I certainly don’t want to live in sulfur and fire, for all eternity! Be assured, God's wrath is coming soon. And when it does - it will bring more than just gloom. You will be begging for the tomb, just to get away from what his wrath that will consume! The ten plagues in Egypt will only be a hope, during the end times, when Jesus opens the scrolls! If you don’t believe me, then read Revelation of John, the angel speaks to God’s love by showing us how the war is won. John the Baptiste said, “every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown out, into the fire - it will go just as Daniel 4:14 prophesied a long time ago. Many wondered if John was the one who was the Messiah to redeem Jerusalem. But John humbly said, “I baptize you with water but someone is coming soon, who is greater than I - I’m not even worthy to untie his shoes. When he comes he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire! He will separate the wheat from the chaff, because he is the winnowing fork. He will clean up the threshing floor, by putting his wheat in the barn, and the chaff into fire. , Don’t you see that Jesus came to bring both peace and harm! In fact, this is exactly what Jesus says in Luke, Chapter 12, Verse 51: “Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No! I came to cause division of men. This is totally what Jesus said! This is the church age, the time of great harvest! God is separating the cursed from the blessed. He does this through repentance, a turning back to God! This how knows a person's heart, the truth from a facade. We can’t even begin to know how much God loves us, until we fully understand the depravity of us! It’s hard to believe we are only saved by his purity, because there is nothing pure about me. It is truly only through the blood of Christ that we are made right! This is the Ministry of Reconciliation, is speaks to his unfailing love and faithfulness. “Jesus was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten and whipped so we could be healed again. All of us, are just like sheep, and have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own ways! Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of all of us. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never even cussed. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And like a sheep was silent, he did not open his mouth. He was unjustly condemned, and was led away. He shed his blood because we chose to do it our own way. He was buried like a criminal, and was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the Lord’s good plan to resurrect him. Through his suffering he was made into our sin offering! And when our blood calls out it's his worship God will hear. Yes, my forgiveness came at a great cost. Jesus laid down his life, on the cross. John the Baptiste knew all of this, when he told the people to repent! And so do I, which is why I testify to him! John was not afraid of the rulers of that age; he was put into prison for speaking against King Herod’s wrongful ways! I’ surprised me to only see three sentences that Luke wrote to share Jesus’s baptism. In verse 21 Luke describes an open heaven, and in verse 22 , he shared how Holy Spirit descended. In bodily form, the Holy Spirit came down, like a dove, with the Voice of the Lord. The Father said, “you are my son who I love, with you I am well pleased." I can not wait for God to say those words to me. Then leave it to Luke, a true historian, to end Chapter 3 with the ancestry of God's son. He lists 77 generations of men starting with Jesus and ending with Adam. It was totally cool to see that 10 generations existed between Noah and the first man. After Adam came Seth, not Cain or Abel, like one would suppose. because after Cain killed Abel, God told him to go! While Cain had descendants, it was not his lineage that God gave birth to his son. It was through Seth, Adam and Eve's third son. In the beginning humans lived a long time. Adam lived 930 years and Seth gave birth to Enoch when he was 105. According to Genesis the oldest human to ever live was Methuselah, who lived 969 years before he died. It was only two generations after Methuselah, that the world went completely wrong. The Bible tells us that God was overwhelmed with a broken heart. He was to ready to wipe the entire human race out. But there was one man who found favor with God. His name was Noah, and according to man, he was completely odd! He listened to God's instructions and built an ark, when there had never been rain that fell from the sky! Oh Lord, let me stop before I go into another story. This is not the time to talk about how Noah walked with God. I cannot wait to explore Luke Chapter 4, I know Holy Spirit is going to teach me so much more.
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