Luke 1:54 is for real !

Several years ago, after the LORD had blessed me with the Reality of His Word via several verses, our President then vetoed a ban on partial birth abortions. I picked up my well-used Bible and wondered what the LORD might have to say about abortion. At that point I had had several answers from the Hebrew portion of the Bible (Old Testament), and part of what was on my mind was: why not the New Testament?

Somehow it seemed right to expect an answer when I put my finger in blindly without watching. When I looked my finger was on a verse I had read and studied probably a couple times earlier. But the context of those two questions gave it wholly different meaning.

"He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers."
Luke 1:54-55, NIV (courtesy of BibleGateway.com)

This is from Mary's song upon being told by the angel that she would be the unmarried mother of the Messiah, who would among other things be worshipped as "Mighty God" and "Everlasting Father" (Isaiah 9:6) . This verse is about an unborn Messiah given through His unmarried mother, concerning mercy to Abraham and his descendants. Can there be a clearer verse about the purpose of the LORD regarding the unborn? Can there be a clearer confirmation in a verse form about the Reality of that Messiah? The One who is and shall be Lord of all things?

Now whenever I am faced with a scoffer, I have the answer to any foolish thing from his mouth, and to any doubts of my own fate. Luke 1:54 ! Like Job, I know my Redeemer Lives!

Some may wonder how anyone can take the Bible seriously. I didn't start that until age 49. My foolish mistake. Here is my collection favorite verses which only a truly Good and Righteous Lord would say, and said by Jesus the Christ. I dare any skeptic to look them up and give me a reason why any mere human or conspiracy of humans would say AND live them, as Jesus and His apostles did.

"But as for you, do not be called 'Rabbi,' because you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven. And do not be called masters either, because you have one Master, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
Matthew 23:8-12, HCSB. Hypocrites and cults prefer to avoid this one.

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way." Matthew 5:11-12, NLT

“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!" Matthew 5:21-22, NLT

“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God." Matthew 5:23-24, NLT (what religion-conspiracy of men teaches that?)

"Anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye—even your good eye —causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." Matthew 5:29-30, NLT

"Do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne.... Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one." Matthew 5:34-37, NLT. Beyond that is most often the temptation to steal glory from the LORD for personal pride.

"But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too." Matthew 5:39-40, NLT. Note this is about grave personal insult not unjust physical harm, see Luke 22:35-38 about unjust harm.

"I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven.... If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? ... If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:44-48, NLT

Matthew 5 is part of the Sermon on the Mount, which is intended to show how impossible it is to please the LORD by what you do. One can see how this relates to the Hebrew scriptures by examining Leviticus 19, in which the Hebrews are commanded to be Holy because the LORD is Holy. None of us can ever be that perfect, and failing one point of it is choosing Hell. The only salvation is in truly knowing the Lord, Himself.

Every reference Messiah makes to the "Son of Man" is pointing to Daniel 7:13-14. That is part of Daniel's prophecy about the end of time, where the Son of Man receives worship from all men and everlasting dominion over them, and prophecies to the very year when He will appear the first coming. Good "Son of Man" examples include: Matthew 20:17-18 predicting his imminent crucifixion, and Matthew 20:25-28 explaining His first coming is about saving as many lives as possible, not everlasting rule yet. Other such examples occur in the other Gospels.

Before it was time for Messiah to Be the passover sacrifice, He avoided confrontation because that would mean demonstrating power to avoid trouble too early. When the time had come for the Ultimate passover sacrifice all the Hebrew scriptures point to, Jesus confronted hypocrisy and human motives more directly. He gave the Hellfire of Matthew 23 to those in the religion- conspiracy for power who plotted to kill him, which included:

“You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not. That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I Am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins." Luke 8:23-24, NLT.

I AM is the phrase the LORD gives Moses to use to identify Who sends him (Exodus 3:1-15). In Hebrew it sounds like the name of the LORD Israelites are forbidden to say aloud. In that way the LORD gives Moses can speak of the LORD without violating law. This is one instance of Jesus naming Himself as "I AM", the synonym for the LORD which Moses was given. Failing to believe Who Jesus is, is calling the LORD's prophets liars and rejecting the most Holy Divine sacrifice to end all human made sacrifices.

Jesus said: "For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning.... When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me! Which of you can truthfully accuse me of sin? And since I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.” Luke 8:44-47, NLT. Who did He say they don't listen to? Who was speaking?

"Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?”Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!" At that point they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden from them and left the Temple. Luke 8:56-59, NLT. Again He names Himself "I AM".

On the night of His betrayal before the Passover sacrifice Jesus went with the disciples to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas then led some officials from the chief priests and a detachment of soldiers with torches and weapons to the garden.

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I Am he,” Jesus said... As Jesus said “I Am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! John 18:4-6, NLT

After He invited them to arrest Him a second time, Peter mistook the moment as the time to strike for the everlasting rule.

"And one of them struck at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear. But Jesus said, “No more of this.” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.” Luke 22:50-53, NLT. They didn't arrest Him earlier because His miracles were too many and too public, so too many of the people believed Him. These are words of One who COULD be in control, but yields that for the purposes of the LORD.

Hebrews were forbidden to hold night trials by Mosaic law, but they held one as follows.

The leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus, so they could put him to death. But they couldn’t find any. Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other.... Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” Jesus said, “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” “Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!” Mark 14:55-64, NLT

Of course they had His true testimony that He claimed to be Lord as the Messiah, but no evidence that it was a false claim punishable by Mosaic law. What deceived them was false teaching by the priests was there would be a sacrifical Messiah-like person (as in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22), and a separate ruling Messiah as in Daniel 7:9-14. Since Jesus clearly did not intend to rule then, they wanted to believe false human teaching that He could not therefore be the Messiah.

The religion-conspiracy who wanted the crucifixion posed the threat of riots to intimidate the Roman governor, who being human cooperated. On the cross, Messiah said one more thing to them, and to all Men, which could only have come from the Lord.

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. Luke 23:32-34, NIV

Crucifixion is a form of torture in which one must use one's severely injured ankles and wrists to lift up, so breath can be taken in. Death comes with exhaustion, exactly as King David's Psalm 22 described it a thousand years before crucifixion was invented outside of Israel. It is death by suffocation when one cannot lift himself up one more time.

The living move with loud tortured breaths. There are no "accidental" survivals of crucifixion. If such were to happen the guards themselves would be executed for failing their duty. This is why the guards broke the legs of the men still breathing at the end, so they would finally suffocate. But the Messiah, due to the extreme tortures even before the crucifixion was already dead. This is why John 19:34 notes there was water in His chest cavity when the guard stabbed the Messiah's body with his spear, death was already sure.

After the Messiah's body disappeared the religion-conspiracy concocted a wild story about the body being stolen despite the tomb guards (Luke 28:11-15). This was an obvious lie only someone who wanted to could believe. Roman tomb guards like the execution guards would themselves be executed for failure. Like the Governor the Roman guards cooperated with the story.

I am sure I could find more such verses Messiah said, which only the Righteous Lord of all things would say. There are many more that only a Righeous LORD would publish, but most of them are not historically connected with Jesus words in the flesh which is our most important point here.

If you have become convinced you need the only Messiah, Focus On the Family has counselors who may help you. Look for them at www.family.org. Don't put it off because the LORD won't always be patient with you. I should stress that Focus on the Family is in no way connected with our content here.

Why again I love Grunts

Here again (in a different re-telling) is my story about WHY I am thankful to every kind of combat military, beginning with Infantry. Several things happened that I now understand were real Blessings from God.

I finished college in January 1968, when the Tet Offensive began. Uncle Sam sent me a letter that the Army wanted my bod. I wasn't very aware of what the war was about, all I knew was I didn't want to be shot at in the jungles of Vietnam. By the time for inductment arrived, I had enlisted in the Navy which was glad to get college grads, even with bad eyesight like mine.

At Navy boot camp in San Diego, whenever we swabbies felt the marching and discipline were too much, all we had to do was look through the chain link fence at the Marines in their bootcamp, going through their version of a warmup to survive Hell.

I asked for officer training, so had to wait maybe four months for a Navy decision. They asked us what we might do while waiting, so I signed up to be a punched card jockey. They had me preparing and delivering reports, including the report of sailors who needed orders after being turned down for officer training. I actually handed a report of my own availabililty to the Petty Officer who managed those decisions. He asked me what I wanted to do, so I said Computers !

He cut my orders for computer basic skills school in San Francisco at Treasure Island, and field specific school for Operations Control Centers in Washington, DC. I made one of the top three grades in the last school so they gave me choice of orders. That is how I got two years of shore duty in the middle of Oahu, living at Wheeler AFB next to Schofield Barracks (both are shown in movies about Pearl Harbor). I was working UNDER pineapple fields about 1/3rd mile east of Schofield at Kunia tunnel, an alternate operations control center in case nuclear threat forced evacuation of Pearl Harbor.

Since that training plus waiting took a year, all that Sweet shore duty took up three years of my four year obligation. After that third year, the Navy decided to send me to sea duty aboard the USS Constellation. Those three years gave me the chance to gain E-5 rank as a Data Processing Petty Officer. That is about as high as any enlisted can get without a longer commitment. This meant by the time I showed up on the Connie, I was high enough for daily management of our computer room, rather than scrubbing decks, cleaning rancid ashtrays, or worse.

Aboard the Connie, we had a couple months still of shore duty in San Diego. Then we did go to war via the Phillipines to Vietnam. Aboard the Connie, I worked sometimes 10 hour days, but in perhaps the only air-conditioned space aboard ship. Not like most of the guys who worked in sweltering heat, doing unpleasant or dangerous things.

For example I never had to handle planes up on the flight deck, where an engine can blast you off the deck into the sea (from five stories up) or worse. Once we were having a rare day off with a picnic on the flight deck, when we got a warning of unknown ships or planes approaching. We had to clear the deck so the two ready-five fighters (ready to launch in five minutes) could take off. That was when a flight deck crewman got sucked INTO one of the jet intakes. He was eventually flown off to a hospital in critical condition. I never did hear if he made it, or whether there was a real threat. This is a real story, not a movie script.

So now you know why I feel greatly in debt to every Grunt who chooses to do what I avoided, going in harm's way for us at home. Also to those pilots who flew every day risking Hell on earth for my sake. And to those sailors who took boats up the rivers, FIBERGLASS boats, hoping to out gun or outrun whatever posed a threat. There are many more folks, of course because I always had dozens of ships and planes protecting me in that multi-thousand ton ship with its one air conditioned computer room.

So yes I had plenty to be thankful for, and none of it deserved. No wonder I found it easy to start taking the Bible seriously. Once you do that for real, the God who wrote it begins treating you seriously right back.

Is THIS the Freedom we ask our Best to pay the Cost of?

PLEASE IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 OR SQUEAMISH, note that except for the Scripture link, every link in this post is to an anti-abortion website which publishes very difficult images. They SHOULD be difficult to look at, because they are about human beings being mutilated to death for profit.

Looking for reasons to be on with publishing about the Reality of the Creator's Truth, I found Abortion Statistics that some 1,370,000 babies are aborted in this "free" country every year. That is over two and a half babies killed every minute, because so many of us doubt the Reality of the Creator and His Truth.

Looking further to see what authority this website has, I found something even more concrete and horrible. Their campaign to convince the Home of the Free and the Brave how horrible we are to the unborn, with graphical pictures of the unborn being murdered. The home page of Center for Ethical Reform at http://www.abortionno.org/ has a ten second delayed video I couldn't bear to finish watching.

Their campaign to waken up Christians to the issue features large handheld signs they take to larger churches. It is based upon ...

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Matthew 28:18-20, NIV

These signs are among the more tolerable images, about the calling of every Christian who knows Christ is real. My favorite is: Would Jesus use bloody signs to make his point? My only additional question is: We ask our best to pay the cost of our Freedom. Is this the Freedom we want them to pay for?