The Name of Jesus

 

Philippians 2:10

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Today I want to address an issue that has arisen in recent times, causing confusion and doubt and alarm among many well-meaning and sincere believers. It is the mistaken idea that, if you believe in the name of Jesus, and not Yeshua, you are believing in a pagan god.

The notion that you need to address our Abba Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit by only using their Hebrew names (and not the names used in other languages) for you to worship the only true living God, is without grounds.

Let me give a practical example here. If someone you know has the name of Jean, this person will be addressed as ‘Jeen’ in England and as ‘Je-ahn’ in France. The pronunciation of the name does not alter the identity of the person bearing that name in the slightest. Consider that Myriam (Old Testament Hebrew) is Maryam in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke); Mary in English; and Maria in Afrikaans. All are transliterations of the original. This has to do with language, not identity.

Where then does the name Jesus come from? The name ‘Yeshua’ is the Aramaic form of the Paleo-Hebrew (the ancient Hebrew used in Israel and Judah) word ‘Yahushua’, which means ‘Saviour’. When the New Testament was written in Greek (the few Hebrew versions of books in the New Testament unfortunately do not exist today), the writers faced two major problems:  There is no ‘J’ sound in Greek; and names that end in ‘a’ are feminine in gender. Male gender is indicated by having an ‘s’ at the end. The front part of the name Yeshua therefore was written as ‘Iē’ to be pronounced as ‘Ee-ye’; and an ‘s’ added to the end, so that the whole name became ‘Iēsous’. This was just a sensible and logical manner to find the closest-sounding Greek pronunciation of the original Hebrew word. The name was then transliterated as Jesus in the English translations; Isus in Croatian; JeZiS in Czech; Jezus in Dutch; Isa in Turkish (to name but a few examples) - all referring to Yeshua our Saviour.

And our beautiful, faithful Jesus honours them all. We have heard testimonies of believers from deliverance ministries that demons flee at the name of Yeshua and of Jesus; that when people cry out to Jesus specifically for help in dire circumstances, He responds! I have not up to today heard of one testimony of an encounter with Jesus where He instructed His followers to start calling Him Yeshua from now on. Millions are still being saved in that precious name of Jesus.

Yeshua was also not an exclusive name in the time of Jesus, it was quite commonly used, in fact archaeologists have unearthed the tombs of 71 Yeshuas from the period of Jesus’ death.

This certainly does not mean that you are in the wrong when you do use God’s Hebrew names. Not in the least. But carefully examine your heart – what is your motive in doing so?

Points to ponder: Do you use the Hebrew names out of personal sincere conviction and preference? Or are you perhaps using God’s Hebrew names because you think that the other language names for Him denote a pagan entity? Do you judge other believers as unenlightened or uneducated or wrong when they do not use the Hebrew names?

What a beautiful name it is

A love of truth

 

Amos 9:15

I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

There is an eerie silence regarding end-time prophecies from pulpits around the world today. And I think that this is in part because of ignorance, as many seminaries and Bible schools allocate very little time to this topic during the courses that they offer; and in part because of the potential divisive nature of these prophecies – it cannot be denied that many favour Israel, and are against all other nations who have the destruction of Israel on their agenda.

Amos was active during 760-755 BC, and therefore gave the above prophecy about 160 years before Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon captured Jerusalem. We know that this prophecy is meant not for that time, but for the end times, because although Israel returned to their land again after being exiled to Babylon, they were dispersed once again in 70 AD by the Romans.

But then came the miraculous re-birth of Israel. Never in human history has a country and a nation been destroyed, its citizens scattered to all the corners of the earth, only to return to rebuild their devastated villages and farm their barren fields once again. And revive their ancient language to boot! And it is to the Israel of this time that Amos declares the word of God, Who always keeps His promises: never again will they be uprooted from their land.

Is God being unfair? No, God is called Jehovah-Tsidkenu, the Lord our Righteousness. From ancient times He has clearly stated that people and nations will be blessed if they obey the Lord and cursed if they do not (Deut 28:2,15). This includes Israel. They have been severely punished by God during their history up to now whenever they turned away from their God – they, along with the Gentile nations, are certainly not exempt from God’s wrath!

The undeniable truth is that our choices in life not only influence us personally, but also our immediate circle of family and friends, as well as our nation as a whole. Sin left unchecked, spreads like a cancer. If I deliberately choose to blaspheme God and ridicule His followers, I teach my children and wider family to do the same. The consequences of these choices to turn against God, then fall on them as well, and if my national leaders likewise choose to turn their backs on God, these consequences are invited on our nation collectively.

The church urgently needs to address wrong thinking among its members regarding Israel, holding them up to the absolute truth which is revealed to us in the Bible, and not the relative truth widely broadcasted today which is based on lies, only to tickle the ears of  listeners as Paul warned about in 2 Tim 4:3 “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

Points to ponder: Upholding truth in a loving relationship is what true discipleship is all about - to correct wrong perceptions and behaviour in love and without judgement.

A love for Truth

God has many sons

 

John 3:16

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.

I am sure some of you are now scratching your heads and thinking – “this verse so clearly says that God gave his only Son, how can He then have many sons?” The answer lies in the word only, which is the Greek word monogenē, derived from monos (only, unique, solitary) and ginomai (only-born, sole) and means only-begotten; unique.

At the time of His birth, Jesus was the only son of God born of a woman here on earth, which in that moment, made Him very unique indeed.

Who then are the other sons of God? We read of some of them in Scripture - In Luke 3:38, where Luke lists the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph, Adam is referred to as the son of God. We know that God created Adam, he was not born here on earth. Luke 20:36 calls the fallen angels we read of in of Gen 6, sons of God, and we know that God created the angels. In Job 38:7 God asks Job where he was when the sons of God shouted for joy at the creation of the earth, showing that God created them long before the earth came into being. None of these sons of God we read of up to here, were born on earth, all were created by God.

But my friend, do you appreciate that you are also a son/daughter of God? You can read this in many places in the Bible, for example Gal 3:26 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” The moment you chose Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour, you were adopted into God’s family; Jesus calls you His brother/sister; you became a new person and received the Holy Spirit – awesome! Along with Jesus, you are now unique sons/daughters of God, born here on earth, but with citizenship in heaven, entitled to all the privileges this brings.

There is someone who now is extremely jealous of your new status, as he himself can never aspire to this level of sonship.

In Job 1:6 we learn that Satan was also created as a son of God: “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.”  This happened again in Job 2:1. Through his own choices, he rebelled against God and lost his precious position in heaven. His ongoing opposition to God ensures that he will never regain what he had lost, and he knows this full well.

Do you now understand why he hates believers in Jesus so much? That all he wants to do to them, is steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10)?

Points to ponder:

Meditate on what it means to have the privilege of being a son/daughter of the Most High God. When the realization of it saturates your soul, you will also call out with David: In God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me? And revel in the fact that Jesus has disarmed Satan and his demons on the cross – your adversary has no weapons! (Col 2:15)

Children of God

Which Bible translation?

 

People often wonder which Bible translation is the best one to use. There are about nine hundred English translations of the Bible, or portions of it, from 1526 up to today!

How then must I choose which Bible to use? No single English translation will ever represent all the meanings or nuances of the original biblical languages perfectly. This is because those languages are so dissimilar to English – the sentences are constructed differently, and there may not be an exact English word to match the original language word. That one word may also have many different meanings attached to it.

Use the translation that best suits your personality, as your primary go-to Bible. For people with a teacher redemptive gifting, this may be the Amplified Bible, and you will also find at least 6-10 other translations and concordances on their desks. If you have a mercy redemptive gifting, there may only be one worn-out Bible next to your bed, which you probably received when you were 8 years old! You may not be someone who appreciates a translation that keeps to the original text so strongly that it renders a very stilted or unnatural way of reading, and you therefore may enjoy an interpretive Bible more. It remains good advice, however, to have at least one other translation to use for comparison, or even to use an app like Bible Hub for example, where various translations are given parallel to each other – this will help you pick up what the true intent of the original text is.

I would caution against using any translation that was prepared by one person acting alone as your primary source – there must be accountability among many advisors so that the whole translation does not become slanted into representing one person’s view of what the text is saying. Use such a translation as an additional reading only, and enjoy doing so!

Let us look at one verse to see how different translators worded it:  Ps 90:12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. This is from the NIV. In the New Living Translation, it reads Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. The King James Bible says So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. The Brenton Septuagint Translation has and who knows how to number his days because of the fear of thy wrath? So manifest thy right hand, and those that are instructed in wisdom in the heart.

The translation for this verse that touched my heart this morning, was from the Contemporary English Version: Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.

Points to ponder:

The Bible shows us God’s character – His holy, unchanging, faithful, gracious, and loving character. In it we learn how to avoid error; how to help others; all about Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross; to name but a few. It records history; it reveals science secrets. It contains many prophecies of what is yet to happen in the future. It has innumerable treasures just waiting to be discovered with Holy Spirit’s help. Stop fretting about which translation is better or worse, and just start reading your Bible – you will be richly rewarded!

The B I B L E

The traditions of men

 

Matthew 15:3 “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

It is inevitable that certain practices will be picked up from the culture in which we live and make its way into our religious gatherings as a church - for instance, Japanese church members might remove their shoes at the entrance to their meeting place. This does not make it wrong in and of itself, as culture is part of our very being, but we need to exercise great discernment to decide whether those cultural influences contribute to the holiness of our worship of God, or detract from it.

Paganism was the dominating religion of the Roman Empire until the fourth century. During the reign of Constantine, many features of paganism were brought into and absorbed by the Christian church. Even though he granted Christians freedom of worship, his actions showed that he held on to his superstitions and beliefs in pagan magic. However, the Christians were so grateful to be granted the right to exercise their religion that the temptation to accept these pagan rituals in their services became too great to resist.

These pagan festivities were given a Christian veneer in the hope of redeeming them from their obvious occultic sources. We can name Easter and Christmas as examples of this, but in a sense, the timing of these festivals has been redeemed by the fact that for thousands of years, many authentic believers have gathered during these times to bring honour and glory to the one true God, and not to the pagan deities that the feasts were originally dedicated to. These believers mostly adhered to the events narrated in the Bible, not using the pagan symbols otherwise associated with these feasts.

Halloween, on the other hand, cannot be redeemed on any level. Not the timing of it, nor the elements thereof. The origin of Halloween lies some 2000 years ago in the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Absolutely all the traditions associated with the modern Halloween celebrations can be traced back to these ancient occultic spiritual festivities and beliefs, all bringing honour and glory to the devil and his evil spirits by firstly celebrating them, and then by giving in and bowing before their presumed power over human beings. (Only presumed power, because the truth is that at Calvary they became a defeated, disarmed enemy!)

The most damaging effect of this tradition on our children is the polluting of their minds and the defiling of their innocent imaginations, instilling fear instead of teaching them that fear is not from God and therefore is subject to His presence and power in their lives.

God very clearly states His commandment regarding our participation in feasts honouring the evil one, in 1 Cor 10:21 “You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too.” And in Eph 5:11 “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”

Points to ponder:  Is Halloween contributing to your holy worship of God? You have a decision to make here: are you going to dishonour God for the sake of your traditions?

In Christ alone

Children of God without fault

 

Philippians 2:15

so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world

This seems like a tall order – how can we be blameless, innocent, uncontaminated, without fault - while we are living in a morally corrupt and spiritually perverted generation? Without spots or blemishes while we are living here on earth in our natural bodies, as the above verse seems to suggest?

To understand this verse, we of course must read it in the context of what was written before it. We read in verse 12 that we have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. This does not mean that we must earn our salvation, but that we have to do our very best to live our lives in such a way that all areas of our lives show evidence of God’s presence in us. This will be the case if we have a respectful reverence of God - the fear and trembling being the result of our awesome encounters with the living God, not our fear of God because we feel guilty about our sin. We have to persistently refuse to live like the world around us dictates, making the right choices over and over again, never yielding to ungodly pressure to do otherwise.

Verse 13 shows us that God takes immense pleasure in energizing us and creating in us the power and desire to both will and work for Him.  This is not a reason to decide to do nothing on your part because He is doing it all inside you. If you understand His Lordship and presence all around you, it motivates you to be more dedicated to Him.

Paul gives practical ways to accomplish his entreaty, in verse 14. We have to stop complaining and disputing, and according to Spurgeon this means to stop complaining against the providence of God (let Him do what seems good to Him); against one another (do not raise controversy amongst your brethren); and against the ungodly world (of non-Christians).

This then leads into our verse 15. With God’s help inside us, we are ever preparing ourselves and working at it to be seen as people that are completely unable to harm or devour; no ungodly actions can be attributed to us; we follow and obey our Shepherd with total commitment; we refrain from complaining and bickering. Christians and non-believers alike cannot find evidence of wrongdoing in our lives; and our God does not judge us because we are under the covering of atonement through our faith in Jesus. Who then remains to condemn and find fault in us?

 Among whom you shine as lights in the world. This is not an instruction to shine; it is a statement of fact. We are shining lights. What do lights do? Lights expose things; they show the way; they are used to alert you of danger; they bring goodwill and cheer; they are used to make sure that things are safe.

Points to ponder:  Being in a dark place is a greater incentive to shine. How brightly are you shining? Which areas in your life are in darkness, and you are not letting God shine through?

 Shine Jesus shine

Experiencing God

 

Gen 3:9

But the LORD God called to Adam, and said to him, “Where are you?”

Ever since time began, God wishes us to have a relationship with Him, to have a divine connection with Him, to experience Him. The evidence for this abounds throughout both the Old and New Testaments.

In our quoted verse, God did not ask Adam where he was because He did not know - He was asking Adam why he was hiding from Him. He was showing Adam His willingness to re-establish the connection between them, no matter what had happened to break it off. It was now up to Adam to decide how close to God he wanted to live his life.

God never intended for us to know Him on a purely intellectual level, He is always longing for us to know Him through unique personal experience. Regarding this we can learn so much from Moses, who had such a remarkable walk with the Lord.

He had an intimate relationship with the Lord:  Deut 34:10 “There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.”

He experienced intimate communion with the Lord: Ex 33:11 “Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend…”

This gave him special intimate privilege:  Num 12:5 “Then the LORD descended in the pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle. “Aaron and Miriam!” he called, and they stepped forward. And the LORD said to them, “Now listen to what I say: “If there were prophets among you, I, the LORD, would reveal myself in visions. I would speak to them in dreams. But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the LORD as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?”

How then are we to go about knowing God in this new, fresh and life-giving way? We must approach Him in humility; willing to learn; with childlike faith because the deeper things of God are beyond our mental capacity to understand. He wants our love more than anything else, which will ensure that we spend time with Him; waiting on Him, and not just squeezing our meeting with Him somewhere in between our rushed daily schedule of activities.

Someone who knew very well what an intimate walk with the Lord looked like, is Walter Beuttler.  Here is his description of one of his personal encounters with Jesus: “As soon as I did this, the Lord walked through the door into the room where I had been waiting upon Him. I did not see or hear Him, but it was so real that sight could not have made it any more real. The Lord walked in, and His presence followed behind Him, which was as a Royal Dignitary walking to His Throne with a long robe following, which spread throughout the entire room.” May this recollection inspire us to move ever closer to God!

Points to ponder:  Refocus. Put Jesus at the centre of everything you do!

Turn your eyes

Those who hate peace

 Ps 120:6-7

Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war!

If we look at current events, these words seem to come from Israel’s collective soul throughout history! The roots of the Jewish people in the land of Israel spans thirty-five centuries, and their presence there has been unbroken during all this time. Even after Rome destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, renaming the region Palestine and exiling a portion of the population, some Jews remained. In the roughly two thousand years after this, many different empires came to colonize and rule Palestine, disappearing again, while Jews remained there during all these changes. This fact notwithstanding, when the modern great return of Jews to the land began, the Arabs living there had developed a Palestinian nationalism and a desire for independence, and they rejected the right of the Jews to self-government.

The mediation process to establish a two-state mandate in Israel started in 1936 and has been ongoing ever since. In that year, the British Peel Commission offered the Arabs 80% of the disputed land. Israel voted to accept their portion of 20%, the Arabs rejected this offer and continued their violent rebellion against British rule. This has unfortunately been the pattern for no less than four subsequent offers from mediators up to now, where the Jews voted four times to accept a mandate of having two independent states in Israel, which the Arabs rejected outright four times and then followed this up by waging war or initiating terrorist actions against Israel.

In Gen 16:10-12 we read that the Angel of the Lord gave a glimpse into the future of Ishmael, son of Abraham by Hagar, and ancestor to the Arabs of centre, western and North Arabia. It says: …  “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. He will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” The Angel foresaw the scenarios playing out between the Arabs and the Jews in Israel, thousands of years ago.

Is there a solution to this problem? Yes there is, and the solution does not lie in dividing up the land of Israel. God warns very clearly in Joel 3:2 “I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for harming my people, my special possession, for scattering my people among the nations, and for dividing up my land.”

The answer is a Man, Jesus! He is the Messiah the Jews are longing for, the Redeemer of all other nations on earth, including the Arabs. In Him, Jew and Arab will unite as one new man, operating out of His love, joining hands, and making Israel prosper among the nations!

Points to ponder:  Pray for all inhabitants of Israel to accept Jesus, as the peace of Jerusalem will only come when Jew and Arab together call out: “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem

And then the end will come

 Matthew 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

This verse is most often interpreted as being a prerequisite for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which of course it is, but the time of the fulfilment of it is later than most people realize – in the time of the last few years on planet Earth, called the Tribulation.

This becomes clear when we study the context of the verse where Jesus spoke these words. He was answering His (Jewish) disciples’ question about what the sign of His coming and the end of the age would be. Keep in mind that Jesus was speaking to Jews about the end of the age here, warning them about what they as Jews would be facing during what He called a great tribulation. You can pick up the clues proving this as you continue reading in Matth 24 about “those who live in Judea”; “those on the housetop” referring to the booths built during the feast of Sukkot; “pray that your flight is not on a Sabbath”.

That the Tribulation is meant for Jews primarily is further confirmed by two Old Testament prophets:  Jeremiah 30:7 “How awful that day will be! No other will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob (meaning Israel), but he will be saved out of it.”  And also the angel Gabriel explains to Daniel in Daniel 9:24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city…” where Daniel’s people of course are Jews and his holy city is Jerusalem, and the last (or seventieth) week referred to here, is the seven years of the Tribulation at the end of the age.

Back to our verse 14 quoted above.  In verse 15 following right after it, Jesus starts with “So”, connecting the two, and thereby placing verse 14 in a specific time frame.  He then speaks about the appalling sacrilege Daniel warned about, which is when the coming Antichrist will set himself up in the Holy of Holies in the third temple, declaring himself god, and demanding that all peoples everywhere worship him. He did not need to explain what he was referring to as His disciples - being Jews – knew the writings of their prophet Daniel. We know from reading Daniel that the timing of the event Jesus spoke about here, is in the middle of the Tribulation, right before God executes His final judgment through the seven bowls, leading to the end of the age.

When the book of Revelation speaks about this same time, we find our verse 14 of Matthew 24 being fulfilled, as we read in Rev 14:6 “Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people.”  The next events Revelation describes as happening on earth after this flying angel, are the seven bowls judgements, and then the visible second coming of Jesus.

It would seem that the end of opportunities to proclaim the gospel to all nations before Jesus returns and the end of all things then comes, lies here - in the middle of the seven-year Tribulation.

Point to ponder:  We have limited time!  When the bowl judgements start, it spells the end of God’s grace with mankind.  How can you increase your involvement in winning souls for Christ – ask Holy Spirit to show you new, creative ways to tell/show others Who He is!

The Gospel

I am a spirit being

 Is 26:9

My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

This is one place in the Old Testament where we become aware of the fact that we have a soul and a spirit, separate from each other.  We usually look to the New Testament to affirm this, as it is written in 1 Thess 5:23

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are mostly not aware of our spirits until it is pointed out to us that we actually have one!  We tend to live in the soul-area of human emotions, will and personality.  This is then also the part of us most often fed through worldly persuits like education, entertainment, promotions, hobbies, and the like.  Soul rules, and decisions are based on external factors which we filter intellectually and then choose the options best suited to our personality, our particular world-view, and our humanly-acquired wisdom.  Spirit is present but largely ignored, just going along for the ride, not allowed to really give an input.

But God!  When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, our spirits are instantly transformed and come alive to God!  We suddenly have a beautiful holy spirit within us, a place where God can dwell through His Holy Spirit, a place where God wants to meet with us and build a love-relationship with us, a place where we can behold Him – how awesome is that!

From then on, we have to start changing the order of command in our being.  God designed our spirit to be dominant and our soul to be subordinate to it.  And it really is a decision that we have to take concerning ourselves, as Scripture says in Prov 25:28 “ Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls”.  How do we go about it?

Firstly acknowledge that you are really a spirit being, who lives in a body and has a soul, with which you interact with the world around you.

Start feeding your spirit with spiritual food – read the Word; pray both in the Spirit and in the body through using your mind and speaking your earthly language; worship God; meditate on Him; actively seek a living relationship with Him; spend time with Him.

Bless your spirit with spiritual truths and promises from the Bible spoken over it – how?  Call your spirit to the fore and read those blessings over you, this is how you grow your spirit.

Points to ponder:  As you get up every morning, call your spirit to attention and instruct it to follow Holy Spirit’s promptings throughout the day, leading body and soul on this journey!

By Your Spirit