Coat Pocket Homilies

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Heads Will Roll

● Deut 27:26 . . Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this
law by doing them.

Something that should be emphasized is that the curse is irrevocable; so it's
very important to come to grips with it; and the sooner the better.

● Matt 5:18 . . For assuredly, I say to you: till heaven and earth pass away,
not one jot or one tittle will by any means pass from the law till all is
fulfilled.

In other words: whoever deserves that curse is absolutely certain to get it.

In point of fact, Deut 27:26 is grammatically present tense rather than
future, indicating that the curse is instant-- no delay and no waiting period.
i.e. it's already on the books hanging over people's heads like a guillotine
just waiting for the man in charge to give the executioner a signal to let go
the rope keeping the blade in check.
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Altars

FAQ: Is there an old testament example where God approved human
sacrifice?

REPLY: Yes.

● Gen 22:1-2 . . Now it came about after these things, that God tested
Abraham, and said to him: Abraham! And he said: Here I am. And He said:
Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land
of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of
which I will tell you.

NOTE: According to Gen 18:23-33, Abraham wasn't above challenging God's
judicial sensibilities. Had the old boy seriously believed that offering his son
Isaac as a burnt offering was wrong, he would've said something; in point of
fact, he had three days to think about it. (Gen 22:4)

Did Abraham slay Isaac? No; but did Abraham offer Isaac? Yes.

● Gen 22:9 . .Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And
Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound
Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.

The thing is: once an offering dedicated to God is placed on an altar, it's a
done deal-- whether the offering is dead or alive makes no difference. In
point of fact, the letter to Hebrews credits Abraham with offering his son in
obedience to God's command.

● Heb 11:17 . . By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac,
and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son

Had God disapproved human sacrifice, He would've stopped Abraham before
Isaac was laid on the altar.

FAQ: Why was it okay for Abraham to offer a human sacrifice, while not
okay for Jews?

REPLY: Abraham associated with God +/- 400 years before his posterity began
associating with God per Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The
laws on those books are not retroactive. (Deut 5:2-4 & Gal 3:17)

FAQ: Jesus was born a Jew and obligated to live under the jurisdiction of
those laws (Gal 4:4) How then was it not wrong for him to offer his human
life for the sins of the world?

REPLY: Jesus was put on track for the cross from the very beginning of the
cosmos (1Pet 1:18-20, Rev 13:8) In point of fact, the language and
grammar of Isa 53:3-10 was penned in the past tense +/- 700 years before
Jesus was born, viz: in God's mind, Jesus' crucifixion was already over and
done with.
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Nowhere To Run To, Nowhere To Hide

● Ps 139:1-12 . . O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away. You know what I am going to say even before I say it.

. . I can never escape from Your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, You are there.

. . I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night-- but even in darkness I cannot hide from You. To You the night shines as bright as day; darkness and light are both alike to You.

In a nutshell that's saying all the things we've done in secret-- privately, behind closed doors, and/or when we thought no one was looking --was observed, and it was noted.

● Heb 4:13 . . Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
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Longevity vs Eternity

It is very common for eternal life to be mistaken for immortality. The two
are not the same.

Immortality pertains to a body that's immune to death.

Eternal life, on the other hand, pertains to a soul that's immune to death.

It's possible for people to obtain eternal life prior to obtaining immortality.

For example: Christ had eternal life all along (John 5:26, 1John 1:1-2) but
according to Rom 6:9 and Rev 1:18, he didn't obtain immortality till after his
crucified dead body was restored to life.

Likewise his believing followers have eternal life now (John 5:24, 1John
5:13) but according to Rom 8:23-25, 1Cor 15:51-53, and 1Thss 4:14-17
they won't obtain immortality until their resurrections.

So when the Bible speaks of eternal life, it isn't necessarily speaking of
longevity, rather; it's ususally speaking of divine qualities, e.g. 2Pet 1:3-4
& 1John 1:1-2

NOTE: Eternal life and immortality are very important benefits primarily
because they protect people from the second death depicted by Rev
20:11-15.

● Matt 10:28 . . And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body
in Hell.
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The Master Of All That's Time

Everything is a foregone conclusion with God; nothing surprises Him. God
foresaw the forbidden fruit incident, He foresaw Cain and Abel, He foresaw
the Flood and knew He'd regret Man's creation, He foresaw the Tower of
Babel, He foresaw Sodom and Gomorrah, He foresaw the Exodus, He
foresaw the Holocaust, and He has known all along who would, who will, and
who won't believe in His son.

● Eph 1:3-5 . . Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons
through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.

In other words: there are no new believers to God. He's already foreseen
every one of them back at the very beginning just as He's foreseen
everything else ahead of time before it comes to pass. (Isa 46:9-10)

Ergo: if somebody's name isn't already in the lamb's book of life per Rev
20:11-15, then their name will never be in it because the book is closed; it
was completed long, long ago.

NOTE: When I was a kid back in the decade of the 1950s, I asked my mom
how I have free will if God already knows all my choices before I make
them. Well; mom wasn't all that deep of a thinker, so she couldn't respond.
But the thing is: I make my own decisions; God doesn't make them for me,
He only foresees them, viz: God is the ultimate crystal ball, so to speak. (Ps
139:4)
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Foster Kids vs Adopted

● Eph 1:4-5 . . He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus
Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will

There are important differences between adopted kids and foster kids.

The latter have no inheritance rights, they have no right to be known by a
foster family's name, they have no right to address their foster parents with
a filial vocative like mom and/or dad, and they have no right to a place in
the family tree.

Plus, foster care is temporary. Older kids eventually age out of the foster
system and the State ceases to assist foster parents to continue providing
for them. At 18 the older kids are legally adults in my country, and the
responsibility for their providence is upon themselves. Ouch!

Adopted kids' circumstances are so, so much better. They are legally just as
much an adopted family's children as their biological offspring. Ergo:
adopted kids have inheritance rights, they have a right to be known by their
adopted family's name, they have a right to address their adopted parents
by a filial vocative, and they have a right to a place in the family tree.

Plus, adoption is permanent. Older kids don't age out of their adopted homes
so they always have a family support base to fall back on should their
circumstances become difficult. (cf. Luke 15:11-24)

Not every Christian is related to God as His kin by adoption. But those in
that envious position aren't left to guess at whether they are or not.

● Rom 8:15-16 . . For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to
fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we
cry out: Abba! Father! The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that
we are children of God.

NOTE: Abba is neither English nor Greek; it's Aramaic. The word means
father, but not as an ordinary noun. Grammatically, it's a filial vocative.

When my son points me out to one of his friends at the mall and says:
"That's my dad over there" then his use of "dad" simply indicates how he
and I are related. But when he shouts: Hey dad, I'm over here! then his use
of "dad" is a filial vocative because he's addressing me personally to get my
attention-- same noun; different sense.
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Sinless Perfection

● 1John 3:9 . .Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed
remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

I think we can be reasonably confident that 1John 3:9 is talking about God's
paternal descendant because born-again Christians are not 100% sinless
(1John 1:8-10, 1John 2:1) whereas Christ is. (John 8:29, 2Cor 5:21, Heb
4:15, 1Pet 2:22)

Jesus is in God's family circle by means of heredity (John 1:14 John 1:18
John 3:16, John 3:18, Heb 1:4, 1John 4:9) whereas born-again Christians
have been brought into God's family circle by means of adoption. (Rom
8:15, Gal 4:5, Eph 1:15)

So then; the birth spoken of by John 1:12-13 and John 3:3-7 isn't talking
about reproduction, rather; those verses speak of creation, i.e. God's
handiwork. (2Cor 5:17 Eph 2:10 Eph 4:24, Col 3:9-10)
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Divine Reproduction

● Acts 17:28 . . For in Him we live and move and have our being. As some of
your own poets have said; "We are his offspring."

The Athenian poets wrote about mankind in general which, if we go back to
the beginning, we see that mankind came into existence by means of
creation. In other words: mankind's origin is better understood as sort of like
when Geppetto constructed Pinocchio. The little wooden boy was the image
and likeness of its father but wasn't the father's direct descendant.

Textual evidence indicates born-again Christians are similar to Pinocchio,
viz: they are children of God by creation rather than His paternal
descendants. (2Cor 5:17 Eph 2:10 Eph 4:24 Col 3:9-10)

The thing is: were born-again Christians to be God's paternal descendants,
they would be divine beings because like gives birth to like, i.e. were God to
reproduce, His offspring would be God as when people reproduce, their
offspring are people. For example:

● Gen 5:3 . . And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son
in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.
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Long Live The King

Neither aqua life, winged life, nor terra life were created in the image and
likeness of God; only man has that distinction. And whereas we are told man
has a conscience, we are not told the same about the Earth's lower forms of
life so I think it safe to assume the animal kingdom is amoral; which can be
defined as having or showing no concern about whether one's behavior is
morally right or wrong.

The image and likeness of God also implies a sense of justice, i.e. an
inclination to honor good by penalizing evil.

FAQ: According to Gen 9:5, animals that kill people have to be put down.
Doesn't that imply they can be charged with murder?

REPLY: Well; one can scarcely accuse an animal of murder when the animal
is incapable of understanding what murder is. But it goes further than that:

● Gen 9:2-3 . .The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the
earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the
ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands.
Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the
green plants, I now give you everything.

That passage empowers man with the right to slay animals, but I have yet
to encounter language in the Bible empowering the animal kingdom with the
right to slay man. In point of fact, in the beginning, God subjected the
animal kingdom to man's dominance.

● Gen 1:26 . . And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

* All in all, I think we have to concede that animal life was, and is, meant to
be expendable; whereas human life was, and is, meant to be revered.
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Dramatized Raptures

I've watched a number of films pertaining to the rapture and every one of
them left out the part where the remains of 2,000 years of deceased
believers from all over the globe will be restored to life.

The films also left out the part where folks unified with Christ rise into the air
to meet him. Instead the films showed them here one second and gone the
next, but I rather suspect the event should be easily observed all 'round the
world if it proceeds as described by 1Thess 4:13-17 because 2,000 years of
believers added to the world's current believers, will likely construct a flash
mob resembling a mini Oort Cloud when they all levitate together at one
time to rendezvous with the Lord up in the sky.

The mob is likely to get pretty noisy too what with all the cheering, laughing,
and shouting that's sure to take place when Jesus' followers receive their
new bodies; which of course will be immune to death and the aging process.
(1Cor 15:51-53)

* The "blink" component of the rapture pertains to the miraculous
transformation that Jesus' followers will undergo during the event. (1Cor
15:51-52)

The films also showed tiny children being taken while their parents are left
behind. That's highly doubtful because minors have often been collateral
damage in the Bible when God slammed their parents, e.g. zero children
survived the Flood, and 120,00 would've been lost had God found it
necessary to follow thru with His threat to annihilate Nineveh. (Jonah 4:11)

One of the films depicted a Christian pastor left behind and to him it was no
mystery. He frankly admitted to being a career minister rather than a called
minister, i.e. he was a man of business rather than a man of faith. In real
life, there will likely be quite a few like him miss the cut because numbers of
men coming out of seminaries take up the cloth as a career rather than due
to a longing to be of use to Christ.

I once heard a retired pastor say on radio that if the rapture were to occur
Saturday, quite a few churches would have no members missing Sunday
morning. That's a strong possibility as some card-carrying, church-attending
Christians, are so because it rounds out the week and it looks good on a
social resumé

NOTE: People left behind shouldn't let the rapture cause them panic because
it isn't the end of the world. They can still get themselves spared retribution
and perdition, viz: it's not like all hope is lost. In point of fact, vast numbers
of folks from all over the globe will be spared during the interlude between
the rapture and Christ's feet touching down on the ground to set up the
kingdom conditions foretold by the prophets in the old testament. (Rev 7:9-14)
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Faith vs Reasoning & Logic

FAQ: Atheists have plenty of sensible reasons for rejecting Christianity and the
Bible. What sensible reasons do you have for accepting those things?

REPLY: None.

FAQ: How it is that you trust Christianity and the Bible without knowing for
sure whether they're true?

REPLY: My conscience insists Christianity and the Bible are true, viz: it's an
intuitive conviction that I am unable to shake off.

Why does anybody believe what they believe? Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu,
Bahá'í, Hare Krishna, Jehovah's Witness, Mormon, Catholic, Baptist,
Judaism, Voodoo, Wiccan, Jain, Druze, Native American, etc, etc, etc. The
answer? Because it grips their heart-- the core of their being --which is very
different than persuading someone with reasoning and logic.

When folks are persuaded to buy into a religion by means of reasoning and
logic, they can be just as easily persuaded to give it up by reasoning and
logic. But someone whose heart is gripped by their religion is not easily
removed regardless of how strong, how sensible, how convincing, nor how
logical the opposition's argument. In point of fact, one of the prerequisites to
salvation is believing with one's heart rather than one's head. (Rom 10:8-9)

FAQ: Are you suggesting people end up in Hell merely because their intuition
failed to convince them that Christianity and the Bible are true?

REPLY: My personal opinion? I suspect atheists are not entirely honest. They
profess very sensible reasons for rejecting religion while down deep inside
they're a mite worried.

Mark Twain once said he didn't believe in an afterlife; nevertheless expected
one. Twain likely meant that for humor, but it's actually a pretty realistic
statement.
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