Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ author: Harold W. Hoehner asin: 0310262119

The Prophets Still Speak: Messiah in Both Testaments author: Fred J. Meldau asin: 091554041X

The New Testament does not stand alone, it is the direct outgrowth of prophecy and it's fulfillment. The very reason that the new testament is accepted as God's word is because it meshes in perfect union with the first testament. For the first testament does the unthinkable. Not only does is tell the historical story of the people of Israel from it's inception; but it also contains in that story dozens upon dozens of explicit prophetic descriptions regarding the entire sum of the “ancestry, birth time, forerunner, birthplace, birth manner, infancy, manhood, teaching character, career, preaching, reception, rejection, death, burial, resurrection and ascension” ¹ of one called The Christ in Greek, The Messiah in Hebrew, the Anointed One in English.

Woven throughout the text of the old testament prophets, laws, songs and history are predictions spoken and written hundreds or thousands of years before they were fulfilled to the smallest letter in their detail. It is as if at the founding of the United States of America someone had written a complete biography of Ronald Reagan. Such a feat is not only impossible but to have done so would have marked not only the character of the writer himself as being lead by God but would have marked Ronald Reagan infinitely more important than he was as a mere mortal.

To everyone who has ever wondered and perhaps still wonders if Jesus really is a savior I would urge you to consider not only the words and fulfillment but the circumstance of the prophecies of Jesus. The Prophecies were given so that you may see them fulfilled and seeing them, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God.

Originally posted at http://gephartr.blogspot.com

What an important question! Ever since childhood I have been taught and believe in one single answer: believe on the name of the LORD Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And it is such a true answer. But it also the simple answer; the milk of the answer - as it were. So, if I am saying this is not the entire answer, what do I think the answer is?

Read the following quote from Romans. The bolded sections are bolded by me to point out the "meat" of the answer.

Rom 3:21-26 (NLT)

Fit To serve - Part Two

Every one of us are called to be servants and yet in Acts 6 the early church saw a distinct need to select and ordain a unique group of men for a specific servant task in the church. They did not merely select warm bodies for the job a practice that is all too common today. What they did was issue a call for the congregation to select seven worthy men who could be trusted completely to do the job not only with integrity but in righteousness as well. It was required that they would be fit to serve the church.

Originally posted at: http://gephartr.blogspot.com

So, with the waves that have been crashing against my boat this week, these lyrics have been bugging me the entire time (lyrics at bottom). "Sheep go to heaven and goats go to hell" at first gave some comfort - but not for long. Then the thoughts start striking that you don't want that goat to go there; they aren't usually that bad of a person - they must only be having a bad time. So instead, I should be praying that God can reach their heart and teach them from this circumstance.

Dt 14:22-15:1 (New Living Translation)
“You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored—and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.

Originally posted at http://gephartr.blogspot.com

Earlier I discussed how my earliest (misguided) belief thought that the Old Testament was "old" and useless and that the Law was abolished. I discussed how I thought that the New Testament was the only thing with meaning. I did not understand that the New Testament could not be fully comprehended without the Old Testament. Now that I have truly begun to read the Old Testament for understanding, I again am reading the New Testament with a new "pair of glasses."

Originally posted at http://gephartr.blogspot.com