081. Healing Through Forgiving Others. Ephesians 4:17-5:2

Posted on August 12, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

There was a simple song sung many years ago which echoed how many of us felt coming from a background in which we had no time for God at all. It was like walking from the darkness into the light. It was like at last understanding the meaning and purpose of life. It was finding a new dimension for living.  It was a brand new radical change in which Christ became more important than anything or anyone. The simple words were,

What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, Since Jesus came into my heart!  I have light in my soul for which long I had sought, Since Jesus came into my heart!

God has made us as believers to be different from what we were before. That’s what Paul is writing about to the Ephesian believers in 4:20-24.   4:20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. He tells them how the new self is meant to behave.

1).   LIVING THE NEW LIFE GOD WANTS US TO LIVE. 4:25-28. Here St Paul gives a series of contrasts between the old life and the new life in Christ.

  • Speaking truth instead of falsehood. 4:25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. They may have been “loose with the truth” in their former days but now they had an obligation to speak the truth to one another. Why? Because they belonged to one another in the body of Christ. They had an obligation to be real and honest with one another as fellow members of the body of Christ.
  • Maintaining self-control and not giving room for the devil. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. Anger arises naturally when people become aware of fellow humans hurting one another by their words or deeds. There is a such a thing as “righteous anger”.  That’s what one wit said about his own anger, “I’m a righteous person so that means when I am angry it must be righteous anger!”  It is not as simple as that! Anyone can let their anger get out of control so that they do or say things that God has declared in His word to be sin in His sight. As Paul says in this verse, we are not to let our anger bubble away below the surface and not deal with it (letting the sun go down on our anger). Such an attitude is a recipe for disaster. It opens such people to Satanic attack because they have given him a foothold or an opening in their lives.
  • Becoming a Giver instead of a Taker.  28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. What a turn-around for some of those new converts in Ephesus! Many of them had formerly been used to acquiring their needs through taking the property of others through stealth. Paul now tells than that instead of taking, they should work for their own living and contribute to the needs of others.

In many parts of the world today there are those who feel that society owes them. They have a strong sense of entitlement. They may feel they are entitled to more money from the government or from their employer even though what they want may be completely unrealistic. Or it may be more recognition that they crave,  “I demand more recognition for myself (or my relationship)” etc.  The new attitude for the Christian believers is not focussed on what the world can do for them. Rather it is on what Christ wants us to do through them as individuals in His world. It’s about doing the will of God rather than our own human will. It’s about making our own personal contribution to this world under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It’s not “about me”, it’s “about Him” and fulfilling His will for us in His world.

2).   TALKING THE NEW TALK GOD WANTS US TO TALK.  4: 29-31.  Here is another series of contrasts for the new person in Christ.

i).         Once corrupting talk, now appropriate talk. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. What are the marks of appropriate speech? 

  • It builds up. The word here (oikodomeō) means to edify or strengthen.
  • It is appropriate for the occasion.
  • It helps those who hear it. (It gives grace to those who hear the words)

Rotary has a Four-Way Test which asks the following questions of the things we think, say or do. i. Is it the TRUTH?  ii. Is it FAIR to all concerned? iii. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? iv. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned? These could have come straight from this passage in Ephesians 4. 

ii).        Once saying what you wanted to say, but now pleasing the Holy Spirit by what we say and do. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. The Person of the Holy Spirit lives within each believer. He is able to make the believer to be appropriate in word and action on every occasion.

I can understand what it means to grieve the Spirit of God by inappropriate speech. Over the years I have counselled hundreds of people who were deeply wounded by what others said to them. Wounding words always wound. Poisonous lips poison the lives of others. Destructive utterances help destroy the physical or mental health of those they are directed towards.  Praise God He can bring healing of the effects of all these damaging words.

iii).       Once harbouring unhealthy attitudes but now letting them go. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. “Bitterness” in the Greek  is (pikria). We were told when we were studying Chemistry that picric acid was named after its acute bitter taste. Bitterness is like some vile evil acid that eats away inside you. The other characteristic of picric aid is that it highly unstable and explosive. It was used in explosives early last century. Many of us have had the misfortune of seeing people filled with bitterness almost explode in anger as they vented their bitterness against other people.

The writer to the Hebrews knew of the destructive power of bitterness and wrote, Heb 12:14  Pursue peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15  See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled. If you are harbouring bitter thoughts towards anyone and expressing them you are a menace to yourself, your family and the places where you live and work. If you express bitterness you are actually defiling others as well. That’s why Paul writes about bitterness, Put it away. Get rid of it before it destroys you and others contaminated by you.

The other trouble with bitterness is that it destroys our sense of reality. As Psalm 73:21-22 puts it, “When I became embittered and my innermost being was wounded, 22 I was a fool and didn’t understand; I was an unthinking animal toward You.” Bitterness prevents us from seeing people as they really are. It also badly affects our perception of God Himself.

The other attitudes to go are wrath and anger and clamour and slander and malice. What Paul is saying is that they are inappropriate for the children of God. They don’t have to live that way. They can be like God in His forgiving grace. They are all breaches of love and have to come to an end. They can go, as we repent of them and ask God to help us to become different. There is nothing more pathetic than a miserable, bitter person who spends his or her time going around mouthing things that are slanderous and malicious. Neither is there anything more dangerous than listening to such people and repeating what they said. Bitter people are deceived in their perceptions without knowing it.

3).   BECOMING MORE LIKE CHRIST IN OUR EVERYDAY ATTITUDES. 4:32. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave. Now that we are free of bitterness and all those other awful characteristics, how do we behave? Like God and like Jesus who showed us what God is like.

i).         A Kind Attitude. The word for “kind” (chrestos) is used in Mat 11:30 to describe the kind or gracious or easy yoke that unites us to Christ,  11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Jesus taught that His followers were to love their enemies and to be kind to them because as He said, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. (The word is also found in Romans 2:4, 1 Cor 15:33, 1 Pet 2:3.)

ii).        A Tender-hearted Attitude. Here is this wonderful word (splagchnos) or in this case (eusplagchnos). The (splagchnos) was seen as the seat of the deepest emotions eg., the liver etc,  or as we might say the heart. This word (eusplagchnos) means that which comes from a good heart. We often use it like that, eg., they have a good heart as a way of saying what a kind, gracious person they are. What they are saying or doing is from the heart, from a tender-heart.  The only other references is in the context of loving each other, 1 Pet 3:8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do we have a tender heart or a hard heart towards others? God says we need to love our neighbours and also to love our enemies and to be kind to them.

iii).       A Forgiving Attitude. Be forgiving like God was in forgiving us in Christ. 4:32 forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Here is the pattern for forgiving others. But how do we forgive those who hurt us? What does it mean to forgive?

Paul uses a different word here for “forgiving”. The usual word is (aphiemi) which mean to let go, to remit, to loose. But this word is even richer. It is (charizomai) which comes from (charis) meaning “grace”. It is used of cancelling the debt in forgiving sins. Eg., Col 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. It really means to grant freely, to bestow a favour, to give to those who don’t deserve the gift.

When God forgave us He did so because of what Jesus had done for us on the cross and because we asked Him to forgive us. There was nothing we could have done to deserve or earn our forgiveness. But God forgave us in His love and mercy because Jesus made forgiveness possible for you and me by bearing the penalty of our sin on the cross.

4:32 forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. If we are going to forgive in the same way that God has forgiven us then it means these things. We are giving those people who hurt us something they don’t deserve. They could never buy our forgiveness. They could never earn our forgiveness. But we forgive them freely as God forgave us freely in Christ. Following the pattern of forgiveness we see in Mat 18:27, we decide to show mercy to them, (They don’t deserve that.) We cancel the debt they owe us. (They could never pay back the debt they owe us.) We let them of the hook of our unforgiveness and set them free. (They don’t deserve that either but we choose to let it all go.)

The astonishing thing we discover is that when we forgive someone,  we ourselves become free. We are released from a wrong bonding to them. Forgiving others opens us up to more  healing. It frees us up to get on with the rest of our lives. Unforgiveness binds us in a negative way to the person we won’t forgive. Forgiveness brings incredible freedom to those who do it.

4).        Acting On What God Has Commanded Us. Forgiving Others.  

As Eph 4:32 and Col 3:13 remind us, forgiveness of others is not an option. It is a command from God. You may say “Well they don’t deserve it. It just makes it too easy for them. Surely they have to suffer for what they did.” Some years ago I was counselling a woman who was a full-time Christian worker. Years before as a teenager she had been assaulted by someone who should have been trustworthy but wasn’t. When I said “For your own healing you need to  forgive that man for what he did to you” she baulked and said “I can’t!” I said “Why not?” She said Because I don’t know if he has suffered enough yet for what he did.” 

I prayed a quick prayer “Lord what do I do here?’   The answer came as I said to her, “When you came before God and asked Him to forgive you of your sin,  did He say, ‘No I can’t forgive you because you haven’t suffered enough yet for what you have done’?” She replied, “No, He forgave me freely and completely because of what Jesus has done for me.”  Some time later she said, “I get the message. I’m now willing to forgive the man and to pray a blessing on him.” With many tears she did. But it brought a tremendous release and healing to her life as God set her free. She helped set herself free by forgiving someone she had to forgive for her own healing.

 

Whom do you need to forgive? Are you willing to follow the principles of forgiveness seen in Mat 18:27,  namely i. to decide to show mercy, ii, to cancel the debt they owe you and iii, to let them off the hook of your unforgiveness and to let them go free? That’s what God did for us. We need to forgive in the same way as St Paul has said in this verse.

Because it is often very difficult to forgive, or to know how to go about forgiving someone, I drew up a prayer that might help some people.

A PRAYER. FORGIVING PEOPLE OF THEIR SIN AGAINST US

Thanking God that He has forgiven us.

Dear Lord, I thank You that You chose to show mercy to me in Jesus. I thank You that You cancelled my sins through what Jesus did for me on the cross. I thank You that You make it possible for me to walk in freedom from guilt.

I receive Jesus into my life to be my Saviour from sin and to be the Lord of my life. I thank You for the forgiveness I now have in Him.

Forgiving the other person/people.

I come now before you to forgive that person/ those people who sinned against me.

I want to forgive them in the same way You forgave me.

  • I now choose to show mercy to ……………………….  and ……….
  • I forgive them of these sins……………. and ………. and ……….
  • I no longer hold those sins against them.
  • I let them off the hook of my unforgiveness as I release those sins and release them.

I pray that You would bless them by bringing them to Yourself so that they too can walk in  the freedom of forgiveness. 

Praying for God to heal the damage coming from the hurts we received through the sin of other people.

Lord You alone know the damage done in my life because of the sins of those people. I ask that You would heal me of that which You know needs healing, so that I can get on with doing Your will for me for the rest of my life.

Accept my grateful thanks for forgiving me, for healing me and for releasing me to forgive others. In Your mercy show me others whom I might need to forgive so that I can walk in a deeper degree of healing and freedom, and be the more equipped to love You and to do Your will.  I ask these things in the precious name of Jesus. AMEN.

Blog No.081.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Sunday 12th August 2012

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080. Modern-Day Idolatry. Wrongly Adapting To Modern Culture. Leviticus 18

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

When some folk hear the word “idolatry” they begin to think of other people bowing down to statues of various gods or other man-made images. Perhaps even bowing down before objects in nature that are thought to have supernatural power. But we fail to realise just how close to idolatrous we can become. We do so when we allow ourselves to adapt to changes in our culture that Yahweh, the God of the Bible, declares to be contrary to His will.

It is happening in today’s world. It is happening with our attitude to God Himself. We are replacing the God who declared Himself to be Yahweh (YHWH), the source of all things (whom Jesus described as “… the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” Mat 22:32) with the god of our imagining. We are replacing Him in our minds and our affections with other gods with different values.

Take for example the passage in Leviticus 18. In this passage God declares His will to Moses, And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God.” Here the “Lord” is (YHWH or Yahweh or Jehovah in older translations) and “God” is (elohim). The former is always used for the God of Israel whilst the latter is often used of Him but is also used for other so-called “gods”. In other words YHWH is the one true God, creator of all things. The same phrase “I am the LORD your God” occurs again at the end of chapter 18. What then does the chapter contain that is so important that Moses has to share it all with the people of Israel

As we read Leviticus 18 we see that God is giving warning to the people of Israel whom He has brought out of slavery in Egypt. He is leading them towards the Promised Land. He warns them that they must not adapt to the culture they left behind in Egypt. Nor must they adapt to the cultures they will meet as they journey through other nations on the way. He specified what those cultural No! No’s! were. They were in the area of the sexual behaviour. God required of His people behaviour which was in stark contrast to the behaviour prevalent in those other nations. The sexual behaviour of those nations was not to be adopted nor their culture absorbed by His people. Lev 18:3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. Rather they had to do His will as His people, Lev 18:4 You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God. 5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD. He sets the rules for all humans of all times to obey as He is creator of all.

The wrong behaviours God warned about through Moses were very detailed and specific. These are to be found in verses 6 to 23. At the end of those verses God declares in Lev 18:24-30, (24) “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, (25) and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.(26) But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (27) (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean),(28) lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.(29) For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.(30) So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.” It can be seen from the repetition of “all” or “any” or “none” outlined above, that every behaviour in the list was abhorrent to God and that His people should practise none of them.

For some people today to insist that some of those things declared there in Leviticus 18 to be evil in the sight of God, are “good” and to “welcomed” among the people of God and are “blessed” by God is contradictory to what He has said in His eternal word. He has declared His values on human sexuality. He does not change His values. He does not adapt His word to fit in with the prevailing culture. The reverse is true. Throughout His dealings with His people He wanted them to reflect His values by living lives that were different with His help. In this way there could be a transformation of the culture of the nations around them. He wanted His people to be light in human darkness. In words used of the nation of Israel (and more fully fulfilled in Jesus) Isa 60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. 3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Modern-day idolatry consists of replacing the God of Israel (YHWH who has declared His values in His word in places like Leviticus 18) with a god who has different values altogether. Such a god exists only in the imagination of those who attempt to make ‘him” (or “it” or “her”) a god who is more acceptable to much of modern culture. Such a god can help nobody. Only the true God YHWH, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is able to do so, because He exists. He longs to help those who turn to Him for true direction and fulfilment in life. He is the God of whom St Paul wrote in Phil 2:13 For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose. He alone gives us the motivation and the empowering to live in the way He has eternally planned for humans to live. Idols don’t have any power. But our idolatrous thoughts about the god of our imagination do. They have the power to lead us into greater deception and behaviour that God has declared to be eternally abhorrent to Him. Such deception may eventually have us saying, “good” and “blessed” about certain activities when God has plainly said, “evil”.

Blog No.080. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Saturday 30th June 2012

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079. “Awe in the presence of an awesome God.” Matthew 22:37-40

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

Many years ago I was very challenged by the words of the late A. W. Tozer who described worship as the “missing jewel of the evangelical church”. I have often pondered his words and see now even more clearly how right he was. Evangelical religion has much to commend it especially in the way it takes the word of God seriously as inspired by Him. In fact it takes God seriously so that much missionary activity has come from those of evangelical background and conviction trying to bring the truth of God to those who have never heard it.

But it is possible for any of us to lose our primary focus which should be on obeying the commandment Jesus called the greatest and first commandment. That is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV). One of the sadnesses of modern day religion is seeing how often people have ignored or neglected the first commandment in trying to obey the second commandment. But as I have shown previously, the first commandment sets the boundaries and guidelines for what is involved in loving one’s neighbour as oneself. Any action or word that God sees as unacceptable in His sight cannot be entertained as loving a neighbour if it is condemned by God Himself. It is total commitment to God that the first commandment envisages and anything that He declares as sinful or wrong can never be done by one person to another in so-called “love” or in “love for one’s neighbour”.

It is not only the wrong things that can be displeasing to God. It is anything that takes His place. Instead of having a sense of awe in the presence of God many act as though He was not present among His people. How the Spirit of God must be grieved when people act as though God were not there to hear their conversation or to witness their behaviour. It is as though they have no sense of the holiness and the majesty of God. They fail to be in awe of Him.

I remember hearing the words of the hymn “I exalt Thee” many years ago and finding a great release in expressing a sense of awe at the majesty of God as I sang the words. It was like “pure worship” as I expressed my desire to exalt Him in every area of my life. Many friends had the same experience. These were the challenging words of the song,

For Thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods
For Thou, O Lord, art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods
I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee
I exalt Thee, O Lord
I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee
I exalt Thee, O Lord

It was a surprise to me that many of my acquaintances at that time found such words uncomfortable to sing. They seemed to be threatened by the deep personal expression of reverence to God. However it is all so easy to get our focus wrong as we live in a world that doesn’t focus on God or stand in awe of Him. The world does “squeeze us into its mould” as JB Phillips famously translated Romans 12:2. The people of God need to break the mould and focus once again on the majesty of God as seen throughout His word. And to express their love and adoration to Him.

I recently read an article that I found challenging and helpful. The link here will take you to the article and I hope you find it as challenging as I did. http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/06/24/awe-puts-us-in-our-place/

It helped to explain why some believers don’t seem to have a sense of awe towards God. They have focussed on other things, often good things, and not on the Lord Himself. They seem to have lost their first love. This love returns as we re-commit ourselves to obey the first commandment to love God with all our being. Part of that is loving Him “with all our heart” in adoration, praise and thanksgiving for all He has done for us in Christ, and that can touch the emotions to say the very least.

Many people are seeking to love God with all their mind in trying to become as theologically sound as they possibly can be. That is marvellous and wonderful. But not if it squeezes out time or the desire to stand in the awesome presence of God. There is a difference after all in growing in knowledge about Him, and in coming to know Him more deeply and personally. Both are desperately needed in today’s world.

Blog No.079. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Thursday 28th June 2012

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078. Question:- “Would Jesus Be In Favour Of Gay Marriage? What Does The Bible Say?”

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

Answer: Jesus did not speak about gay marriage. It was not something He would have received from the Old Testament scriptures. He saw the Scriptures as being the word of God. He knew them. He obeyed them, He patterned His life on them. He encouraged His followers to do the same. Those scriptures gave the meaning to the concept of marriage in the opening chapters of Genesis. In chapter 1 the writer gives the God-given nature of marriage in His creation, Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Though men and women were both made in the image of God they were different from each other. But in their coming together there would be the continuation of the species through reproduction. They each had a part to play in the process but it was complementary. God had planned it so.

In Genesis 2 there is the more detailed account of the creation of humans. When God formed woman from the first man Adam, Adam recognised the difference but saw that they were complementary to each other, Gen 2:23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” The account continues with perhaps Moses as the writer used by God to make a statement about the nature of marriage. He wrote, Gen 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. So marriage was the exclusive bond between a man and woman in a relationship that was deeply significant. A new family would come into being through this God-appointed relationship. This was God’s purpose.

This is important to realise as we look at how Jesus viewed marriage. On one occasion He was asked about marriage and divorce. It is interesting to note how Jesus answered His questioners. He went back to the beginning of human relationships. He asked His questioners, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female” Mat 19:4. Making two different sexes was God’s idea in creation. But it was necessary for the continuation of humans through physical encounter. Jesus continued His answer by saying, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”. Jesus took these verses from the Old Testament very seriously as He quoted them. He saw them as coming from God Himself. Marriage and subsequent family life was His Heavenly Father’s idea. He too held the Father’s view of marriage as seen in those Genesis passages.

That was emphasised even more when Jesus replied to their question, Mat 19:7 “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He replied that God had allowed that as a concession to human weakness due to their hardness of heart. But Jesus emphasised again that this was not God’s original intention, but from the beginning it was not so. Mat 19:9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” Marriage in God’s purpose is one man united in love with one woman to the exclusion of all other people. Gay marriage is not, never has been , nor ever will be on God’s agenda for the humans He has created in His image.

Jesus’ attitude to the sins described in the Old Testament as “detestable” or “abominable” was the same as the Father’s, for He shared the Father’s view on human relationships and especially on the sanctity of marriage. There was no discord in the Godhead. As Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”

There are those today who argue that Jesus commanded us to love one another. Surely, they say, that means that we should accept one another regardless of our sexuality or sexual preferences. Surely if two people love one another, they say, then they should be permitted to be married to each other regardless of their sex. However what such people fail to appreciate is that there is a prior greater commandment that gives guidance and boundaries to obeying the lesser commandment. Jesus was once asked by a scribe, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Mar 12:28. Jesus replied, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

If people are to obey the greatest commandment of loving God with all their being, then they have to accept and act on what God says about every aspect of His world. This includes human behaviour. If He has declared homosexual activity as detestable or abominable as He has in Leviticus 18 and 20, then it means His “lovers” have to have the same opinion as their Creator and God. To disobey this great commandment by entering into relationships forbidden by Him leaves one open to deception and to the powers of darkness. The same applies to any sin. If we deliberately do what God has forbidden, we place ourselves in spiritual jeopardy. His love is always there for those who seek it in Him. He can forgive sins of all kinds. But the sin that Jesus warned us about which He said could never be forgiven was the sin He called “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”.

He spoke of that when He was being accused of being an agent of the devil as He went around bringing healing and deliverance to those who needed to be set free. God was working through Him but Jesus’ enemies saw God at work through Jesus’ ministry and called it “evil”. To deliberately keep on calling evil, “good”, and good, “evil” means that people have gone a long way down the track to never asking for forgiveness. Forgiveness for their rejection of God, for their rejection of His commandments and for their reversal of His values. If you never ask for forgiveness, you will never receive forgiveness. That’s why such people can never be forgiven. They close themselves off from the grace, love and mercy of God.

The sad news is that some people will miss out on being with God in heaven because of their failure to turn to Him in repentance. Paul describes such people in1Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: no sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, 10 thieves, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. But Paul adds the comforting truth that God’s power can transform all of us if we realise we need to be changed. God had transformed the Corinthians to whom Paul was writing, 1Co 6:11 Some of you were like this; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Praise God that He can work in our lives to set us free from all the things that would prevent us loving Him with all that we are and have. Praise God that He can free us to live for Him, basking in His love. Praise God that we can please Him by living in the dynamic power of His Holy Spirit in the way He has eternally planned for us to live.

Blog No.078. Jim Holbeck. Posted On Monday 18th June 2012

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077. Question. “What Does The Bible Say About ‘Gay Marriage’? Is There A Simple Answer?”

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

Answer:- The simple answer is that the Bible doesn’t mention gay marriage. Marriage in the Bible always refers to the union between a man and a woman.

However it’s an important topic to look at as there are many nations around the world exploring the concept of gay marriage at the moment. Though the Bible does not mention “gay marriage” it does have something to say about “gay” in terms of homosexual practice. The following are some of the references in the Old Testament. (We will look at New Testament passages in future articles).

Leviticus chapter 18. In this chapter, we read that the God of Israel (YHWH) gave commandments to Moses concerning the required behaviour to be adopted by His people. He had led them out of slavery in Egypt through the leadership of Moses. He instructed Moses to tell the people, Lev 18:3  You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. They were not to “do their own thing” either, but to do what was pleasing to God, Lev 18:4  You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God. In other words God was telling His people what was pleasing to Him (which He demanded they do) and warning them about the things that were displeasing to Him (which He commanded them not to do). This was not a consensus between YHWH and His people. This was His law for them because He knew what was good for His people and what was not.

 Amongst the patterns of behaviour which YHWH commanded them not to engage in (characteristic of Egypt and Canaan of that time) were a number of sexual matters. One of them was homosexual practice. Lev 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. So in simple terms God has made His view known. He expressed it in strong language. “Abomination” refers here to the act and not to the people involved in the act.  There were others things in the Old Testament that God declared to be “abominable” or “detestable” in His sight where the same Hebrew word toebah is used. For example in Pro 6:16-19,   There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18  a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19  a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. The word is also used to describe God’s attitude to idolatry and to the sacrifice of children. So it is no light thing when God declares all these things to be abominable in His sight. God loves people and wants them all to love and obey Him for their own good. He wants them to live in the way He (as their Creator) created them to live. He hates sin of all kinds including all forms of sexual sin as shown in the prohibitions seen in Leviticus 18.

The chapter closes with the YHWH’s general command to the people of God, Lev 18:30  So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.” To practise any of the things He declared “abominable” in chapter 18 would render them guilty and unclean in His sight.

Leviticus chapter 20. In verses 7 and 8, YHWH commanded the people, Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. 8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.  His people were to set themselves apart from the nations around them and to reflect His holy character. They would do that by keeping His statutes and living as His sanctified (set apart) people. The same prohibition on homosexual activity is seen in verse 13. But this time His judgment is pronounced not only on the action but on the people involved in the action.  Lev 20:13  If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. YHWH was concerned that His people live in the way He knew was best for them. He also wanted them to show forth His character among the peoples they would meet as they journeyed towards the Promised Land. He wanted His people to be different and not to adopt the culture of the peoples about them. They would be held accountable to YHWH for any deliberate rejection of His commandments. He gave His reason in verse 26 You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine. Unholy behaviour in His people was not permitted by a holy God.

 YHWH is the Creator of all peoples. He sets the rules for how people are to behave as His creatures in His creation. His people have a special responsibility to do so, as He can give them the grace to live as He wants them to live. Those who do not as yet belong to the people of God are accountable for their failure to seek His forgiveness for all their sin committed through not observing His laws. They are also accountable for their failure to seek His grace to be different.

As we see later in Romans 1 it is not just homosexual activity that is condemned by God but every activity that does not reflect His character. The list of sins condemned there includes “29 …all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31  foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32  Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” Every single person needs to repent before God of guilt in any of these areas. They need to seek His forgiveness. They also need to seek His grace and help to not do those things again. It is very disturbing however that there are some who say that homosexual activity is “good” and is pleasing to God. Some go further and argue that God would be pleased with “gay marriages”. Such folk imply that homosexual activity is not evil in the sight of God when in fact God has declared it an abomination in His sight. To tell people what God has declared about homosexual behaviour (and all forms of sin) is neither homophobic nor judgemental. It actually is a loving thing to do as it is seeking the best interests of all those involved. To actively encourage people to engage in homosexual activity is not love but is actually homophobic behaviour as I suggested before in a previous article.

Well if there is so much rejection of God in this world and some behaviours in the world are contrary to what God has commanded in Leviticus chapters 18 and 20, why does He tolerate it? The answer is the same for all peoples everywhere who sin against God in any way. In His love He is giving us all time to repent of all our sin and to seek His forgiveness. He revealed this through His apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:8  But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9  The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11  Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness  … 14  Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

God has declared in no uncertain terms that all sin including homosexual activity is contrary to His will. Thus the term “gay marriage” is an oxymoron because the words are incompatible in the sight of God who instituted marriage on a different premise. His intention has always been that a marriage is the relationship between a man and a woman who commit solely to each other in love.  Politicians and others may press for changes in definitions such as “marriage”, but the originator of the concept of marriage  is not going to change His mind about marriage. Ever!  Leviticus chapters 18 and 20 will still challenge humanity for eternity as will every part of the eternal word of God. But God is willing and able to help us to live in the way He wants us to live, if we ask for His forgiveness for all our sin and trust in His grace to live as He wants us to, to His glory.

Blog No.077.  Jim Holbeck.  Posted On Monday 18th June 2012 

 

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INDEX OF BLOGS

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

 

INDEX OF BLOGS by Jim Holbeck based on date posted

Clicking on numbers below will take you to those blogs.

No.001. FORGIVENESS. To Forgive. Is it possible? 2011/02/04

No.002. FORGIVENESS. Do I Need To Be Forgiven? Do I Need To Forgive? Some answers. 2011/02/06

No.003. FORGIVENESS. The Freedom That Comes From Forgiveness 2011/02/08

No.004. Forgiveness. How Can We Understand What It Means? 2011/02/11

No.005. FORGIVENESS. God’s Nature Is To Forgive. (Selichah). 2011/02/11

No.006. FORGIVENESS. God Brings Release To People. (Salach) Part 1 of 2. 2011/02/14

No.007. FORGIVENESS. God Brings Release To People. (Salach) Part 2 of 2. 2011/02/15

No.008. FORGIVENESS. God Removes Our Sin From Us. (nasa). Part 1 of 2. 2011/02/22

No.009. FORGIVENESS. God removes Our Sin From Us. “nasa.” Part 2 2011/02/23

No.010. Evangelism. Sharing Jesus with other people 2011/02/23

No.011. Forgiveness. God Covers Over Our Sin. (Kaphar and Kasah) 2011/02/27

No.012. Forgiveness In The 21st Century. A Practical Example 2011/02/28

No.013. Forgiveness. Genesis 45-50. The Story Of Joseph 2011/03/04

No.014. Forgiveness. Psalm 32.  A King Found Forgiveness.  2011/03/05

No.015. Forgiveness. Psalm 51. A King Wanted To Be Forgiven. 2011/03/07

No.016. Forgiveness Of All Sin. Psalm 103. 2011/03/11

No.017. Forgiveness. Removing The Stain Of Sin. Isaiah 1:18. 2011/03/13

No.018. FORGIVENESS. Isaiah 43:25. Sin is blotted out and not remembered. 2011/03/14

No.019. John 3:1-17. To Perish Or To Have Eternal Life? 2011/03/20

No.020. FORGIVENESS. Why “Good Friday” Is “Good”. God blots out our sins. Isa 44:22. 2011/04/21

No.021. Easter Day. “Christ Is Risen!” 2011/04/22

No.022. Jesus Stands And Knocks. Are We Listening? Revelation 3:20. 2011/05/22

No.023. Pentecost. Part 1. Motivation and Empowerment for Living. Acts 1:6-8. 2011/06/12

No.024. Pentecost. Part 2. God Motivates and Empowers His People. Philippians 2:12-13. 2011/06/20

No.025. SALVATION. God Says Not “By Good Works” But “For Good Works”. 2011/06/26

No.026. John Richards. A Teacher On Christian Renewal And Healing. Died 19June2011.An Australian Tribute 2011/07/08

No.027. FORGIVENESS. HEALING. Isaiah 53:4-6. The Messiah To Bring Peace. 2011/07/11

No.028. FORGIVENESS. Jesus The Messiah Died to Bring Healing. Isaiah 53:4.    2011/07/25

No.029. FORGIVENESS.  Jesus the Anointed, the Messiah Died For Sinners. Isaiah 53:5-6.  2011/08/03

No.030. Forgiveness. Abundant Pardon. Isaiah 55;6-7.   2011/08/08

No.031. John Stott. A Mightily Used But Humble Servant Of God. 2011/08/08

No.032.  Suggestions For Searching Through Holbeck Blogs.  2011/08/10

No.033.  Outline of Ephesians Chapter 1:1-14.     2011/08/15

No.034. Outline of Ephesians Chapter 1:15-23.    2011/08/15

No.035. Outline of Ephesians chapter 2.  2011/08/16

No.036. Outline of Ephesians Chapter 3. Paul’s God-given Ministry to the Ephesians.   2011/08/22

No.037. Outline of Ephesians 3:1-6. The Purpose of Paul’s Ministry to the Ephesians. “YOU belong to God.”   2011/08/22

No.038. Outline of Ephesians 3:7-13. The Purpose of Paul’s Ministry to the World-wide Gentiles.   2011/08/22

No.039. Outline of Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul’s Prayer For The Ephesians.  2011/08/24

No.040. Prayer Based On John 15:5-7. Receiving Through Abiding in Christ.  2011/08/31

No.041.  Healing of Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS. Motor Neuron disease. 2011/09/18

No.042.  Outline of Ephesians 4:1-16.  ”Become what you are in Christ”.  2011/10/31

No.043. Outline of Ephesians 4:17-32. “Become what you are in Christ.”  2011/11/02

No.044. Outline of Ephesians 5:1-21. “Walk in love”.      2011/11/12

No.045. Outline of Ephesians 5:21-33. Mutual Submission in the Body of Christ. (Part 1 of 2).  (2011/11/22

No.046. Outline of Ephesians 6:1-9. Mutual Submission in the Body of Christ. (Part 2 of 2). 2011/11/23

No.047. Outline of Ephesians 6:10-24. Spiritual Warfare.   2011/11/23

No.048. FORGIVENESS.   Iniquity Forgiven. Sin Not Remembered.  Jeremiah 31:34.  2011/11/27

No.049. FORGIVENESS.  Guilt Cleansed And Forgiven.  Jeremiah 33:8.  2011/11/27

No.050. HOMOPHOBIA. Who is guilty? A Surprising Possibility!  Romans 1.  2011/12/16

No.051.  A Prayer based on Romans 12:1-2. Total Commitment.     2011/12/17

No.052. A Prayer based on 2Peter 3:8-14. Being Prepared For Jesus’ Coming.  2011/12/17

No.053. Who is the Jesus Christ of Christmas?     Luke 2:10-12.    2011/12/24

No.054. “What’s Happening?” A Search for Meaning In Life. Ephesians 3:1-12.   2012/01/01

No.055. “The Body as a Temple of the Holy Spirit”. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.  2012/01/19

No. 056. “Jesus Sets The Captives Free.” Mark 1;21-28.   2012/01/29

No.057.  A Prayer for Freedom from the Powers Of Darkness.   2012/01/29

No.058.  Jesus. His Willingness And Ability To Heal. Mark 1:40-45.   2012/02/12

No.059. The Transfiguration of Jesus And Our Transfiguration. Mark 9:2-9.  2012/02/19

No.060. Lenten Studies. Part1. “The Healing Of Our Hurts”. Philippians 1:1-11. 2012/02/22

No.061. The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus. Jesus’ Ministry and Ours. Mark 1:9-15.  2012/02/16

No.062. Lenten Studies on Philippians. Part 2. “God is in Control!” Philippians 1:12-26.  2012/02/29

No.063. Sermon on Mark 8:31-38. “The Need to Commit Oneself to Jesus.” (Jesus is Coming Ready Or Not). 2012/03/04

No.064. Lenten Studies on Philippians. Part 3. Phil 2:1-11.    2012/03/07

No.065. Lenten Studies On Philippians. Part 4. “God At Work Through His Humble People.” Phil 2:13-30.  2012/03/15

No.066. Lenten Studies in Philippians.   Part 5.  ”Getting Ones Focus on Jesus”. Phil 3:1-21.  2012/03/23

No.067. Lenten Studies in Philippians. Part 6. “Rejoicing In The Lord.”  Philippians 4:1-7.   2012/04/02

No.068. Lenten Studies in Philippians. Part 7. “Focussing on the Good for Victory.” Philippians 4:8-23.  2012/04/06

No.069. Easter Day.  “The Resurrection of Jesus. A New Life With New Possibilities”. Acts 10:34-48.  2012/04/08

No.070.  “From Doubt To Belief!” John 20:19-31.  2012/04/17

No.071.  God Can Heal The Mess We Get Into. “Repent. Return. Receive.” Acts 3:12-26.  2012/04/25

No.072. Christian Ministry.  Ability Or Availability? 2012/05/04

No.073. Christian Ministry. “Rust out? Burn out? Opt out? Is there another way?”  2012/05/05

No.074.   The Assurance Of Salvation. A Reflection on 1John 5:9-13.  2012/05/21

No.075.  The Relevance Of Pentecost For Today. The Gift of the Holy Spirit.  2012/05/22

No.076. “To Perish or Not to Perish? That is the Question.” John 3:16.  2012/06/04

No.077. Question. “What does the Bible say about “Gay Marriage” ? Is there a simple answer?” 2012/06/18

No.078. Question:- “Would Jesus Be In Favour Of Gay Marriage? What Does The Bible Say?”  2012/06/18

No.079. “Awe in the presence of an awesome God.” Matthew 22:37-40.  2012/06/28

No.080. Modern-Day Idolatry. Wrongly Adapting To Modern Culture. Leviticus 18. 2012/07/01

No.081.  Healing Through Forgiving Others. Ephesians 4:17-5:2.   2012/08/12

No.082. John 6:35-58 Could Be John 3:16 Writ Large!  2012/08/15

No.083. Galatians 1. It Can Never Be “Christ AND” For Salvation.    2012/08/20

No.084. Galatians 2. Paul’s Message Of Salvation Through Faith In Christ Alone.  2012/08/21

No.085.  Sodom. Any Relevance For Sexuality Today?  2012/08/23

No.086. Jesus and Sexuality and Marriage.  2012/08/24

No.087. How Did The World Come To Be In Such A Mess? Is there an answer?  2012/08/30

No.088.  Galatians 3. Jesus Is God’s Only Way To Himself. 2012/09/01

No.089.  Humans. Basically Good? Or Prone To Evil? Mark 7:20-23.  2012/09/02

No.090. Boak Jobbins. (1947–2012). Former Dean of Sydney. A Tribute From A Former Colleague. 2012/09/03

No.091. What’s happening in the USA? An American analysis of the 2012 Election race.  2012/09/07

No.092. Galatians 4. Overview. The Freedom Of The Children of God.  2012/09/17

No.093. Galatians 5. Outline. The Choice We Face. To Live God’s Way Or Our Way? 2012/09/17

No.094. Galatians 6 outline. Paul Sums Up His Epistle. Freedom Not Bondage! 2012/09/20

No.095. Real Life Stories. “Just whisper Jesus’ name. He is only a prayer away.” 2012/09/21

No.096. The Father God Who Delights To Answer His Children’s Prayers.  2012/11/02

No.097. Healing a Church, a City and a Nation. 2 Chronicles 7:14.   2012/11/11

No.098. What Do You Want Jesus To Do For You? Mark 10:35-45.   2012/11/18

No.099. John Chapman. 1930-2012. Gospel Lover And Gospel Preacher. A Tribute.   2012/11/19

No.100. Who is the Jesus Christ of Christmas? (An Overview).    2012/12/12

No.101. Who is the Jesus Christ of Christmas? Part 1 of 4. Jesus the CREATOR.  2012/12/12

No.102. Who is the Jesus Christ of Christmas? Part 2 of 4. Jesus THE SAVIOUR.  2012/12/16

No.103.Who is the Jesus Christ of Christmas? Part 3 of 4. Jesus is THE LORD. 2012/12/17

No.104. Who is the Jesus Christ of Christmas? Part 4 of 4. Jesus the JUDGE.  2012/12/18

No.105. The Challenge of the Christ of Christmas. Galatians 4:4-5.  2012/12/31

No.106. Another New Year Resolution? Or A New Beginning? 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. 2013/01/01

No.107. We Need To See Ourselves As God Sees Us. Seated With Christ! Ephesians 2:4-7.  2013/01/13

No.108. Forgiveness.  God Casts Our Sins Behind His Back. Isaiah 38:17.  2013/01/22

No.109. Forgiveness And Life For Those Who Turn From Sin To God. Ezekiel 18:21-23. 2013/01/23

No.110. Forgiveness. How God Gets Rid Of Human Sin. Micah 7:18-19.  2013/01/26

No.111. “Healthy Christian Living.” James 1:19-27.  2013/02/08

No.112. The ABCDE of Becoming more Open To God For His Blessing. “A” for Abiding.  2013/03/03

No.113.  The ABCDE of Becoming More Open to God. For His Blessing. “B” for Believing. 2013/03/10

No.114. The “ABCDE” Of Becoming More Open to God For His Blessing. “C” for Consecrating.2013/03/11

No.115.  The “ABCDE” of Becoming More Open To God For His Blessing.  “D” for Dethroning.  2013/03/112

No.116. THE “ABCDE” OF BECOMING MORE OPEN TO GOD FOR HIS BLESSING. “E” for Enthroning.  2013/03/14

No.117. Divine Comedy 2. God in the Dock regarding Marriage. Genesis 2:24.  2013/03/30

No.118. US SUPREME COURT AND REDEFINING MARRIAGE. Decision? Division? Treason?  2013/04/07

No.119. Same-Sex Marriage and God’s plan in Genesis 2:24.  2013/04/

No.120. A Tribute. The Rev Thomas John Jewett. Australian Pastor-Teacher. 1927- 2013. 2013/05/17

No. 121. What Characterised the “Such Faith” of the Centurion. Luke 7:1-10.  2013/06/01

No.122. Healing. A Hidden Gem In The Story Of The Centurion In Luke 7. 2013/06/02

No.123.  “What’s Wrong With The World?” Rebellion Against God! Romans 1:17-18.  2013/06/19

No.124. “What’s Wrong With The World?” Revolting Humans! That’s What! (An Overview of Romans 1:17-32).  2013/06/24

No.125. “What’s Wrong With The World?” Humans Replaced God With Idols! Romans 1:18-32. 2013/06/26

No.126. Praying For Healing For A World In Rebellion Against God. Through Its Idolatry. Romans 1:21-24

No.127. Praying For Healing For A World In Rebellion Against God. Through Its False Religion. Romans 1:23-25.  2013/08/23

No.128. Praying For Healing For A World In Rebellion Against God. Through Its False Sexual Practices. Romans 1:24-27.  2013/08/25

No.129. Summary of Romans 1:17-32. Human Rebellion against God.  2013/09/03

No.130. A Tribute. Bishop Dudley Foord. 1923-2013. (Double E, Double E) Evangelism. 2013/09/16

No.131. Our Identity. Becoming What We Were Meant To Be In Life. 2 Corinthians 3:17-end. 2013/10/01

No.132. Feeling Guilty? Is It Conviction By The Holy Spirit Or Condemnation By The Devil? 2013/11/23

No.133. The Danger Of Rejecting The Person Of Christ. (Not just at Christmas!) 2013/11/25

No.134. Jesus Appeared (at Christmas) And Will Appear Again. The Need To Be Ready. Titus 3:1-7. 2013/12/09

No.135. Bishop Peter Chiswell. 1934-2013. A Former Bishop of Armidale NSW. A Tribute. 2013/12/10

No.136. Christmas. The Time When God Sent Forth His Son. For Us. Galatians 4:1-7. 2013/12/15

No.137. Denying The Power Of God In Today’s World. 2Timothy 3:5.  2014/01/26

No.138. Rejecting God’s Commandments Means Missing Out On His Blessings. 2014/01/31

No.139. An Outline of Psalm 139. The Character Of The God Who Knows, Loves And Cares. Series No. 1 of 7.   2014/02/06

No.140. God Knows Everything About You And Still Loves You. Psalm 139:1-6. series No. 2 of 7.  2014/02/10

No.141. The God Who Is Present Everywhere. Psalm 139:7-12. Series No. 3 of 7. 2014/02/14

No.142. The Omnipotent God.  He Can Do All Things. He Made Us. Psalm 139:13‑18. Series No.4 of 7. 2014/02/17

No.143. A Prayer Of Openness To God. Psalm 139:23-24. Series No.5 of 7. 2014/02/23

No.144. Using The Truths Of Psalm 139 In Counselling Situations. Series No.6 of 7. 2014/02/24

No.145. Applying The Truths Of Psalm 139 In Counselling Situations. Series No.7 of 7. 2014/02/25

No.146. Praying To Bring About A Better World. Psalm 139:23-24.  2014/03/16

No.147. The Inescapability Of Good Friday For Every Human. (Part 1 of 2). 2014/04/14

No.148. The Inescapability Of Good Friday For Every Human. (Part 2 of 2). 2014/04/16

No.149. Victorious Christian Living? (Part 1 of 3). We Must Have The Right Focus In Life. 2014/05/22

No.150. Victorious Christian Living? (Part 2 of 3). Fulfilling Our Obligation To God). 2014/05/23

No.151. Victorious Christian Living? (Part 3 of 3). Allowing God To Work In And Through Us. 2014/05/23

No.152.  Galatians 1:3-4. The Jesus Who Sets Us Free. 2014/07/21

No.153. Galatians 2:8. God At Work. The Secret Of Christian Ministry.  2014/07/21

No.154. Galatians 2:20. The New Life. Part 1. Crucified with Christ. 2014/07/25

No.155. Galatians 2:20. The New Life. Part 2. Christ Lives In Me.  2014/07/27

No.156. Galatians 2:20. The New Life. Part 3. God’s presence In His People. 2014/07/29

No.157. Sermon on Mark 1:21-27. “Setting The Captives Free.”  2015/03/02

No.158. Sermon on Mark 1:29-34. “Taking Advantage Of The Opportunities For Receiving God’s Blessing and Healing.”  2015/03/02

No. 159. BEWARE OF INSULTING THE PROPHET JESUS! 2015/03/15

No.160. Easter! We Are Risen! We Are Risen Indeed! Ephesians chapters 1 and 2.  2015/04/06

No.161. The Person of Jesus. Jesus as the CREATOR. 2015/11/06

No.162. The Person of Jesus. Jesus the SAVIOUR. 2015/11/08

No.163. The Person of Christ. Jesus the LORD. 2015/11/09

No.164. The Person of Jesus. Jesus the JUDGE. 2015/11/09

No.165. God as King of the Universe and A Friend to His People. 2015/11/23

No.166. The Need For People To Repent Of Their Sins. Sermon Outline On Luke 3:7-18. (The Gospel For Advent 3)  2015/11/28

No.167. Humans Can Be Deceived. Genesis 1-3 And The Fall Of Humankind. 2015/12/09

No.168. “Gabriel! Gabriel! Wherefore Art Thou Gabriel?” (A Christmas Puzzle. Luke 1). 2015/12/22

No.169. Rebuilding What Has Broken Down In Life. (Part 1 of 2). Nehemiah Chapter 1.  2016/01/11

No.170. Rebuilding what Has Broken Down In Life. (Part 2 of 2). Nehemiah Chapter 8. 2016/01/14

No.171. The Great Faith Of An Unlikely Soldier Led To An Amazing Healing. Sermon on Luke 7:1-10. The Great Faith Of An Unlikely Soldier Led To An Amazing Healing. Sermon on Luke 7:1-10.  2016/01/21

No.172. The Prayer That Can Change The World (And You Too!) The Lord’s Prayer. An Introduction.  2016/01/28

No.173. The Prayer That Can Change The World. The Lord’s Prayer. The Fatherhood of God. “Our Father in Heaven.” (Study 1 of 9). 2016/01/30

No.174. The Prayer That Can Change The World. THe Lord’s Prayer. “Hallowed Be Your Name.” (Study 2 of 9). 2016/02/18

No.175. The Prayer That Can Change The World. The Lord’s Prayer. “Your Kingdom Come.” (Study 3 of 9). 2016/02/23

No.176. The Prayer That Can Change The World -The Lord’s Prayer- “Your Will Be Done” (Study 4 of 9)  2016/03/10

No.177. The Prayer That Can Change The World. The Lord’s Prayer. “ Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread. ” Matthew 6:11. (Study 5 of 9).  2016/03/14

No.178. The Prayer That Can Change The World. The Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive Us Our Sins.”(Study 6 of 9).  2016/03/21

No.179. Sermon on John Chapter 21. St Peter. Moving From Failure to Fruitfulness.  2016/04/10

No. 180. The Prayer That Can Change The World. The Lord’s Prayer. “Lead Us Not Into Temptation.” Matthew 6:13. (Study 7 of 9).  2016/04/17

No.181. The Prayer That Can Change The World. The Lord’s Prayer. “Deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:13. (Study 8 of 9) 2016/04/25

No.182. The Prayer That Can Change The World. The Lord’s Prayer. “Yours Is The Kingdom And The Power And The Glory, Forever And Ever. AMEN” Matthew 6:13. (Study 9 of 9). 2016/05/03

No.183. How To Pray When You Don’t Know How To Pray. The 2016 USA and Australian Elections.  2016/05/09

No.184. The Coming Elections in 2016. For What Sort Of People Ought We To Vote? The Characteristics Seen In The Beatitudes In Matthew 5. (Part 1 of 2).  2016/05/17

No.185. For What Sort Of People Ought We To Vote? The Characteristics Seen In The Beatitudes In Matthew 5. (Part 2 of 2)  2016/05/21

No.186. SOME NEWS re Holbeck blogs. 2016/06/01

No.187. CORE TEACHING OF THE HEALING MINISTRY. An Introduction. 2016/06/02

No.188. HEALING MINISTRY. CORE TEACHING. STAGE 1 TOPIC 1. Becoming The People God Wants Us To Be.   2016/06/02

No.189. “What Sort Of People Should We Elect To Government?” (Adapted from a sermon preached on Sunday 26th June 2016.  2016/06/27

No.190. A Prayer For Healing For Ourselves, Our Loved Ones And Our Nation. 2016/07/24

No.191. Q&A. Giving the right answers to questions. About Jesus. 2016/07/29

No.192. Praying our way through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Eph 1:1-2. A gracious greeting about God’s love and peace. 2016/08/05

No.193. Praying Our Way Through Paul’s Letter To The Ephesians. Eph 1:3. Thanking God for what we have in Christ.  2016/08/13

No.194. Marriage For Same-Sex Couples? The Problem With an “Eticsibelp”. (A back to front Plebiscite.)  2016/09/21

No.195. SUMMARY of articles on Sexuality and same-sex marriage. 2016/09/30

No.196. Hebrews 13:8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (What that should mean for us today.)  2016/10/19

No.197. “FAITHFULNESS.”.Adapted From A Sermon On The Fruit Of The Spirit.  Galatians 5:22-23. 2016/10/20

No.198. Does God Really Listen To Us When We Pray? Some Thoughts On Prayer. 1 John 5:14-15.  2016/10/27

No.199. “Abiding in the Love of Jesus.”  Adapted from a sermon on John 15:9-10. (No 1 in series of 3 on Love. Joy. Peace) 2016/11/13

No.200.  “Sharing In The Joy Of Jesus.”  Jesus said, “… that My joy may be in you.” John 15:11. (No.2 in series of 3 on Love, Joy and Peace). 2016/11/20

No.201. “Experiencing The Peace Of Jesus.” Jesus said, “My peace I leave with you.”John 14:25-31. (No 3 in series of 3 on Love, Joy and Peace).  2016/12/04

No.202. “Coming Ready Or Not!” Are We Ready For The Second Coming Of Jesus? (Based on sermon on Sunday before Christmas. 4th Sunday in Advent). 2016/12/23

No.203. How to have a blessed life in 2017. 2017/01/03

No.204. [“Post-truth” trumped by “The Truth” in 2016 and every year!] 2017/01/08

No.205..  “You need to realise that it’s only hurting people who hurt.” (Holbeck Helpful Hint No.1) 2017/01/12

No.206. “Transfiguration” today. Who? Me? The challenging, comforting truths of 2 Corinthians 3:17-end.   2017/02/26

No.207. A Sermon Outline For Easter. Luke 24:13-35. “THE JESUS WHO BRINGS HOPE.” What Easter means.  2017/04/06

No.208. Good Friday. Good for whom? God’s wrath “satisfied”? 2017/04/13

No.209. “STUDIES ON FORGIVENESS.” Is It Possible To Be Forgiven? Is It Possible To Forgive? The Good News!  2017/04/14

No.210. FORGIVENESS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. The Meaning of Forgiveness.  2017/04/14

No.211.  “Forgiveness in the Teaching Of Jesus.” (The Parable Of The Unmerciful Servant. Matthew 18:21-35).  2017/04/14

No.212. Examples Of Forgiveness In Action In The New Testament. Jesus. Stephen. Paul. 2017/04/14

No. 213. PRACTICAL FORGIVENESS. Alternatives To Giving Unhelpful Advice such as Saying No.1 “You must forgive God!” (5th in series of 10.)  2017/04/17

No.214. PRACTICAL FORGIVENESS. Alternatives To Giving Unhelpful Advice such as this saying, “YOU MUST FORGIVE YOURSELF.” (6th in series of 10.)  2017/05/01

No.215. PRACTICAL FORGIVENESS. Alternatives To Giving Unhelpful Advice such as Saying No.3 “You Must Forgive and Forget!” (7th in series of 10.) 2017/05/01

No.216. “HOW TO REALLY FORGIVE ANOTHER PERSON.” (8th in series of 10.) Some Suggested Steps For Doing So 2017/05/01

No.217. FORGIVING THOSE WHO HURT OUR LOVED ONES. (9th in series of 10.) 2017/05/01

No.218. A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO REALLY FORGIVING ANOTHER PERSON. (10th in series of 10.) 2017/05/02

No.219. SUMMARY OF TEACHING ON FORGIVENESS. (And suggested ways on how to use the material on Forgiveness). 2017/05/03

No.220. Changing The World Through Believing Prayer! Helping people move from where they are, to where God wants them to be! (The audio of a sermon preached on 18th June 2017 refers to the diagram.)  2017/06/26

No.221. REPENTANCE. Everyone needs to repent of sin to have victory over it. But just what is sin?   2017/07/03

No.222. REPENTANCE. The need to repent of sin. But what is sin? Gaining a little understanding of some New Testament words for sin. 2017/07/10

No.223. Repentance. What is it? 2017/07/20← 223. Repentance. What is it?

No.224. REPENTANCE. As seen in the ministries of John the Baptist and of Jesus. 2017/07/24

No.225.REPENTANCE IN THE MINISTRY OF THE EARLY CHURCH. St Peter’s messages remain a challenge to us today! 2017/07/27

No.226. REPENTANCE. Saul the Persecutor became Paul the Preacher of Repentance. 2017/07/29

No.227. REPENTANCE. Lessons from the writer to the Hebrews. A Personal testimony of a transformed life. 2017/07/30

No.228. REPENTANCE. The apostle John urges repentance for everyone in his epistles. 2017/08/14

No.229. Repentance in the Book of Revelation. The message for today! 2017/08/16

No.230. Summary of My Recent Articles on Repentance. 2017/08/16

No.231. REPENTANCE. How do we pray expressing our repentance to God? 2017/08/19

No.232. Why does our national broadcaster appear to support only the “Yes” side of the same-sex vote? (The story of Sodom.) 2017/08/25

No.233. What relevance do Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 have to changing the definition of marriage in Australia? Should I vote “Yes” or “No” to same sex ‘marriage’? 2017/08/26

No 234. What the New Testament really says about same sex relationships in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Why we should vote “No” to change the definition of marriage to include same sex relationships.  2017/08/28

No.235. What insight does Romans 1 have to the same sex marriage debate? Does it favour a “Yes” or “No” vote? 2017/09/04

No.236. How Did The World Come To Be In Such A Mess? There is an answer in Romans chapter 1! And a message of hope!  2017/09/06

No.237. What does the Bible say about marriage? Is it just between a man and a woman or can there be other “couplings”? What will a plebiscite do for marriage in Australia? 2017/09/08

No.238. The Anglican Church of Australia agrees with me! About same-sex “marriage”. 2017/09/10

No.239. What is involved in Voting Yes or No for same-sex marriage? 2017/09/11

No.240. If in doubt about a change in the definition of marriage in Australia, don’t vote for change! 2017/09/12

No.241. Homophobia. Who Is Guilty? A Surprising Possibility! 2017/09/17

No.242. Romans chapter 1 in outline. What does it tell us about the world today? 2017/09/21

No.243. Is The Antichrist At Work In The World Today? (Does this account for the present chaos throughout the world?)  2017/09/28

No.244. How can we learn to rejoice no matter what? An answer in Philippians 4. 2017/10/13

No.245. “Learning to rejoice in the Lord no matter what!” A Sermon on Philippians 4:4-7 preached at Port Macquarie Anglican church, on Sunday 15th October 2017. [An 82nd Birthday gift to me from Stuart our Rector.) 2017/10/17

No.246.  Genuine love. What is it? How should it behave? Romans 12:9-13.  2017/11/01

No.247. The Humility of Spirit-filled Believers. Pardon? Say that again! Ephesians 5:18-21. 2017/11/09

No.248. The Challenge of the Christ of Christmas. [For you and me!] Galatians 4:4-5. 2017/11/19

No.249. Some Relaxed Reading about The Christ of Christmas. 2017/11/23

No.250. Do You Want To See The Power Of God Being Released Into Today’s World? Ephesians 1:15-23. [Part 1 of 2]  2017/11/30

No.251. Do You Want To See The Power Of God Being Released Into Today’s World? Ephesians 1:15-23. [Part 2 of 2.]  2017/11/30

No.252. The Australian plebiscite results favoured same-sex marriage. The “No” voters lost! Or did they?  2017/12/03

No.253. Why is it that many people do not understand the things of God? How can we all help change the world for good? (Part 1 of 3)  2017/12/18

No.254. The Things That Can Never Be Changed In This Changing World. (Part 2 of 3). 2017/12/19

No.255. DOING WHAT WE CAN TO CHANGE THE WORLD FOR GOOD. (Part 3 of 3). 2018/01/09

No.256. What is the good news behind the same sex marriage decision of the Australian Parliament in December 2017?  2018/01/18

No.257. TAKING ADVANTAGE OF GOD-GIVEN OPPORTUNITIES. [Sermon on Mark 1:29-39]. 2018/01/26

No.258. What is involved in Forgiveness? (A You Tube Skype teaching by Jim Holbeck recorded by The Healing Ministry at All Saints Episcopal Church, Winter Park, Florida.) 2018/02/02

No.259. JESUS’ TRANSFIGURATION AND HOW WE CAN BE TRANSFORMED. (Suggestions for sermons on Mark 9:2-9 the Gospel for Sun 11th Feb 2018.) 2018/02/04

No.260. Who is Jesus? He is the CREATOR! (First in a Series of 4 on Jesus).  2018/02/05

No.261. Who is Jesus? He is The SAVIOUR. (Second in a series of 4 on Jesus). 2018/02/05

No.262. Who is Jesus? He is THE LORD. (Third in a series of 4 on Jesus.) 2018/02/07

No.263.Who is Jesus? Jesus will be the JUDGE of all. (Fourth in a series of 4 on Jesus. 2018/02/07

No.264. Lent. What is it? Any relevance for me in 2018? 2018/02/11

No.265. The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus. Jesus’ Ministry And Ours. Mark 1:9-15 [the Gospel for Sunday 18th February 2018]    2018/02/11

No.266. Why do people do evil things? (Another High School Shooting Tragedy in the USA.) 2018/02/17

No.267.  A sermon on John 3:1-17. To Perish or to have eternal life? 2018/02/28

No.268. Sermon on John 12:20-33. The Importance Of Significant Moments In Life. (Gospel for Sun 18th March 2018)  2018/03/04

No.269. An Alternative Sermon On John 12:20-33. “The Hour Has Come!” (Gospel reading for Sun 18th March 2018)  2018/03/09

No.270. Good Mental Health. A Brief Overview from a Christian point of view. 2018/03/16

No.271. Love Makes The Most Of Every Opportunity. (Sermon suggestions for Mark 14:1-9 for Palm Sunday 25March 2018).  2018/03/18

No.272. THE WORLD IS SCREAMING OUT FOR TRUE HUMILITY NOT FOR HUMAN GREATNESS! Philippians 2:1-11. 2018/03/25

No.273. “Good Friday!” What the “Good” God did for an undeserving world. The truth in Isaiah 44:22 for today! 2018/03/30

No.274. Jesus Wept For People during His Last Days On Earth. “Jesus wept!” Would He weep for you today? John 11:35 and Matthew 23:37. 2018/03/31

No.275. “FROM GLORY. THROUGH GORY. TO GLORY!” The Easter story in 6 words. (Micro version!) Part 1 of 2.  2018/04/04.

No.276. “FROM GLORY. THROUGH GORY. TO GLORY!” The Easter story in 6 words. (Expanded version!) Part 2 of 2.  2018/04/04← 276.“FROM GLORY. THROUGH GORY. TO GLORY!” The Easter story in 6 words. (Expanded version!) Part 2 of 2.

No.277. Time to elect a new Race Discrimination Commissioner in Australia. I have a suggestion!  2018/04/26

No.278. Factors Influencing Mental Health. Human Enemy No.1. “The World”. THE ENEMY AROUND US. (Micro version)  2018/05/01

No. 279. Factors Influencing Mental Health. Human Enemy No.1. “The world”. THE ENEMY AROUND US. [Macro version].    2018/05/04

No.280. An amazing, amazing story! An “insignificant” man who made a “SIGNIFICANT” contribution to this world. “Heaven tonight?” 2018/05/31

No.281.The Incredible Rescue of Footballers in Thailand. A Prayer-Answering God. Some Thoughts On Psalm 139.  2018/07/11

No.282. Factors Influencing Mental Health. Human Enemy No.2. THE ENEMY WITHIN US. The Flesh. Our Fallen Human Nature. (Study 2 of 3.) 2018/07/20

No.283. Factors Influencing Mental Health. Human Enemy No.3. THE ENEMY AGAINST US. THE DEVIL AND THE POWERS OF DARKNESS. (Study 3 of 3.)  2018/08/29

No.284. Praying Our Way Through Paul’s Letter To The Ephesians. Ephesians 1:4. We are chosen by God Himself to fulfil His purpose for us in His world. 2018/09/01

No.285. The World Needs God’s Healing Love And Power Now! Let’s together pray it into being! Praying through Ephesians. 2018/09/01

No.286. Praying Our Way Through Paul’s Letter To The Ephesians. “Blessing God Who Blesses His People By Adopting Them Into His Family. Ephesians 1:5.” 2018/09/03

No.287. Praying Our Way Through Paul’s Letter To The Ephesians. Ephesians 1:7-10. Christ Brings Unity Among Diverse Groupings Of People. 2018/09/04

No.288. Praying Our Way Through Paul’s Letter To The Ephesians. Ephesians 1:11-14. “Praising God For All We Have Now In Jesus And For Our Full Inheritance In Him.” 2018/09/06

No.289. Praying Our Way Through Paul’s Letter To The Ephesians. Ephesians 1:15-23. “How God wants us to pray for ourselves and for His people throughout the world!” 2018/09/08

No.290. A Summary of the articles on Ephesians Chapter 1 on “Praying our way through Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.” 2018/09/08

No.291. “Danger! Saints at Prayer.” Praying through Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. 2018/09/12

No.292. “LET US PRAY!” A Compilation Of Prayers Based On Ephesians Chapter 1. (Changing The World Through Believing Prayer.) 2018/09/12

No.293. Changing The World Through Prayer. Praying Through Ephesians 2:1-7. 2018/10/11

No.294. Changing The World Through Prayer. Praying Through Ephesians 2:8-10. 2018/10/12

No.295. Changing The World Through Prayer. Prayer Based On Ephesians 2:11-13. The Joy Of Belonging!  “Brought Near” By Jesus’ Death. 2018/10/18

No.296. Praying through Ephesians. Ephesians 2:14-16. In Christ, Hostility Gives Way To Peace. 2018/10/20

No.297. Praying through Ephesians. Ephesians 2:17-22. Being thankful for the joy of Belonging! 2018/10/20

No.298. A COMPILATION OF PRAYERS BASED ON EPHESIANS CHAPTER 2. 2018/10/21

No.299. Sorry! Saying “Sorry” Unfortunately Doesn’t Bring Full Closure To Some People. Is there another way to bring closure for people who have been deeply hurt or abused?  2018/10/25

No.300. An Outline Of Ephesians Chapter 3. The “Mystery” of the Gospel. 2018/11/06

No.301. “Halleluia, I belong!” Praying through Ephesians. Ephesians 3:1-6. 2018/11/08

No.302. “Taking Hold Of Our Unsearchable Riches in Christ!” Praying Through Ephesians. Ephesians 3:7-10. 2018/11/09

No.303. Thank you! A big “Thank you” for reading the articles on my blog-site! 2018/11/13

No.304. Are We Living In God’s Real World Or In A False Make-Believe World Opposed To God? Thoughts from Hebrews 10.  2018/11/22

No.305. The Jesus of Christmas. Just Who is He? Why should He matter to me? 2018/12/21

No.306. The Mystery Is Revealed! Ephesians 3:1-12. Epistle for Epiphany. 6th January 2019. Posted 2018/12/30

No.307. People Really Can Change! New Creatures For A New Year! 2 Corinthians 5:17. Posted 2018/12/31

No.308. Jesus Heals “Untouchables!” The Implications Of The Story. Luke 5:12-16. [Part 1 of 2]. Posted 2019/01/22

No.309. Jesus Heals Untouchables. Luke 5:12-17. [Part 2 of 2. Healings God Does In Today’s World.] Posted 2019/01/23

No.310. The Steps Of Faith Needed For Healing. Luke 5:17-26. Posted 2019/02/01

No.311. “Hey! I’m The Victim Here!” The Curse Of “Victimhood” In Today’s World. Posted 2019/02/01

No.312. Bitterness Mixed With Victim Mentality. A Disastrous Cocktail For The World! How To Bring Healing To A Confused Hurting World! Posted 2019/02/03

No. 313. A Tribute To A Humble Servant of God. Bruce Robert Moon. 1941 to 2019. Posted 2019/02/10

No.314. “Praying for Spiritual Strength.” Ephesians 3:14-19. [In the Series, ‘Praying Through Ephesians.’] Posted on Thursday 14th February 2019.

No.315. Striving for significance? You don’t need to as a believer! The truth of Ephesians 1:4.  Posted on Wednesday 20th March 2019.

No.316. Was The Australian Rugby Union Star, Israel Folau Wrong To Publish An Article That Offended Many People? Some thoughts from an ‘Oldie!’ Posted on Wednesday 8th May 2019

No.317. THE MISSING “FACTOR” IN THE CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE. What if….. Jesus?  Posted on Saturday 11th May 2019

No.318. Recalling some healings. [A Podcast of a talk at a men’s breakfast at Grace Church, Port Macquarie in June 2019]. Posted on Tuesday 25th June 2019

No.319. The God Who Can Do More Than We Ask Or Imagine. Ephesians 3:20-21. [Praying our way through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.] Posted on Sunday 14th July 2019.

No.320. CHRISTIAN UNITY IS POSSIBLE! AND ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL! You ARE One In Christ!  BECOME One In Practice! Ephesians 4:1-6. [Praying Our Way Through Ephesians.] Posted on Sunday 21st July 2019

No.321. God Wants All His People To Be Filled With His Presence. AND He Has Made It Possible. He Tells Us How In Ephesians 4:7-16. [Part 1 of 2.] Posted on Sunday 11th August 2019

No.322. Solving Some Of Rugby Union’s Problems. A View From An Elderly Fan. Posted on Tuesday 13th August 2019.

No.323. God Wants All His People To Be Filled With His Presence. AND He Has Made It Possible. He Tells Us How In Ephesians 4:7-16. [Part 1 of 2.] [Part Of The Series ‘Praying Our Way Through Ephesians.’] Posted on Thursday 29th August 2019

No.324. “Who Is Jesus?” The Most Important Question We Can Ever Ask And Answer! Posted on Sunday 01 September 2019.

No.325. What God Really Wants To Do Through His Church. His Ultimate Purpose In Building Up The Body Of Christ? [Part 2 of 2.] Ephesians 4:13-16. [Part of the series “Praying Our way Through Ephesians.”] Posted on Friday 6th September 2019

No.326. Ephesians 4:17-24. Contrasting The Old Life With The New Life Christ Brings. [In the series “Praying Through Ephesians.”] Posted on September 9, 2019

No.327. Does Nature control the world? Posted on Thursday 26th September 2019

No.328. Solving Some Of Rugby Union’s Problems. For Future Rugby World Cups and International Tests. Posted on Monday 30th September 2019

No.329. A Tribute To A Wonderful Godly Woman. Carole Ann Holbeck. My Late Beloved Wife and Very Best Friend. Posted on Sunday 3rd November 2019

No.330. A FURTHER TRIBUTE TO MY BELOVED WIFE CAROLE ANN HOLBECK. 1943-2019. Posted on Monday 11th November 2019.

No.331. Ephesians 4:25-32. Encouragements To Live As A Christian. God’s Advice In How To Do It! [In The Series “Praying Through Ephesians.”] Posted on Monday 25th November 2019

No.332. Ephesians 5:1-16. Walking In Love And In The Light. [In the series “Praying through Ephesians.”] Posted on Monday 2nd December 2019.

No.333. Love Came Down At Christmas. Accepting That Love Personally Today! The Truth of Revelation 3:20. Posted on Sunday 8th December 2019

No.334. Why Jesus came at Christmas. The Unimaginable, Unappreciated Depths Of The Christ Of The Christmas Message. Posted on Friday 13th December 2019

No.335. Jesus Did Tell Us Why He Came To Earth At That First Christmas! Now Is A Great Time To Reflect Personally On Why He Came! Posted on Monday 16th December 2019

No.336. “Christmas! The Good News That Can Overcome The Bad News! Victory!” Posted on Saturday 21st December 2019

No.337. Honouring Jesus at Christmas! And All Year Round! Affirming More Of The Truth About Jesus During Holy Communion Services. Hebrews 12:2.   Posted on Monday 23rd December 2019.

No.338. New Year’s Eve Greeting, 2019 from Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Tuesday 31st December 2019

No.339. “A New Beginning! When The Eternal ‘I Am’ [Jesus, The Son Of God] Became Something He Never Was Before- A Human! Because Of Us, And For Us!” John 1:1-18. Posted on Thursday 2nd January 2020.

No.340. Praying Through Ephesians. Eph 5:17-16:9. Being Filled With The Spirit And The Possible Consequences In Lives Lived In Mutual Submission. Posted on Monday 6th January 2020

No.341. PRAYING THROUGH EPHESIANS.  Winning The War In Spiritual Warfare. Eph 6:10-24. A Suggested Prayer. Posted on Friday 10th January 2020

No.342. Sharing Our Faith Using A Simple ABCD Formula!  Explaining THE Faith. Testifying To OUR Faith! [Part 1 of 5]. Posted on Saturday 11th January 2020.

No.343. An Overview Of An ABCD View Of Christianity. [Part 2 of 5.] Posted on Tuesday 14th January 2020

No.344. An Overview Of An ABCD View Of Christianity.  Section B] Believing That Christ Came To Die For Sinners.[Part 3 of 5.] Posted on Thursday 16th January 2020

No.345. An Overview of an ABCD View of Christianity. Section C. Counting the Cost.  [Part 4 of 5.] Posted on Friday 17th January 2020.

No.346. An Overview of an ABCD View of Christianity, Section D. Doing Something About It [About Putting Belief Into Action.]. Part 5 of 5. Posted on Friday 17th January 2020.

No.347. Some Tributes To Some Godly Women on St Valentine’s Day 2020. Posted earlier but linked to Index on Wednesday 25th March 2020.

No.348. Some Biblical Material To Read And Listen To During The Coronavirus Lockdown. Posted on Wednesday 25th March 2020.

No.349. Responding To The Coronavirus Threat. Faith Can Overcome Fear. The Better Way Of Love! A Personal Note. Posted on Friday 3rd April 2020.

No.350. Because Jesus Rose, Our Hopes Can Rise As Well. Easter Day And Its Rich Meaning For Those Who Grieve Loved Ones. [John 13:1-6 And Other Verses on Jesus’ Resurrection and Second Coming.] Posted on Thursday 9th April 2020.

No.351. The Challenge of Coronavirus. Ready? The Challenge of Jesus’ Second Coming. Ready?  Posted on Thursday 23rd April 2020.

No.352. The Decision That Every Human HAS To Make. The Challenge Of Rom 12:1-2. From Conformation to Transformation! [Part 1 of 3]. Posted on Monday 11th May 2020.

No.353.The Decision That Every Human In Every Age In Every Place Has To Make. Conformation or Transformation? Romans 12:1-2. [Part 2 of 2.] Posted on http://www.jimholbeck.blog on Thursday 14th May 2020

No.354. “Praying In” The Truths of Romans 12:1-2. Total Commitment To God! Which Every Human Needs To Make! Posted on Sunday 17th May 2020

No.355. The Holy Spirit Who Came At Pentecost Is Just Like Jesus. Who He is! What He does! Posted on Sunday 17th May 2020

No.356. Pentecost. Motivation and Empowerment for Living. Acts 1:6-8. [Part 1 of 2.] Posted on Sunday 24th May 2020.

No.357. God Motivates and Empowers His People. The Blessing of Pentecost. [Part 2 of 2.] Philippians 2:12-13. Podsted on Wednesday 27th May 2020.

No.358. PENTECOST. Culminating The Christ Event. From Christ’s Incarnation To Christ’s Pouring Out Of The Holy Spirit. [A Thumbnail sketch of Salvation in Titus 3:4-6]. Posted on Friday 29th May 2020

No.359. The curse of victimhood and other factors on the human race. Posted on Thursday 18th June 2020

No.360. The Unholy Triumvirate. Adding Entitlement To The Dangerous Cocktail Of Victim Mentality And Bitterness. Why The World Is In Such A Mess! 

No.361. A Prayer That Needs To Be Prayed For A World In Turmoil. The Prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola. Posted on Sunday 28 June 2020.

No.362. The Future Is In God’s Hands, Not Man’s. [The Message Of The Letter To The Ephesians.] Posted on Sunday 12th July 2020.

No.363. Liberating News! Freed From Destructive Comparisons! What Is The True Basis For Making Comparisons? Posted on Wednesday 29th July 2020.

No.364. Memories That Bring Tears To Your Eyes And Praise To Your Lips. A Personal Reflection. 2Corinthians 12:9. Posted on Friday 21st August 2020

No.365. Conformation To The World Or Transformation To The Likeness Of Christ? That Is The Question! What Is Your Answer? Romans 12:1-2. Posted on Sat 12th September 2020.

No.366. THE EXTREMELY URGENT NEED FOR PEOPLE TO SEEK FORGIVENESS FROM GOD AND TO FORGIVE ALL THOSE WHO HURT THEM. OR ELSE! Posted on Wednesday 16th September 2020

No.367 Reflecting On The Changes In The World In The Light Of The Truth Of Romans Chapter 1. Posted on Sat 03 October 2020

No.368. A Modern Problem Of Hatred, Discrimination And Judgmentalism. A Reason and the Answer! God’s Plan For A Peaceful World Where Everybody Matters. Posted on Thursday 08 October 2020

No.369. Reflecting On Birthdays. A Personal Note Written On My Own Birthday. Coping With Personal Grief. Posted on Friday 16th October 2020

No.370. Life’s Unforgettable Moments. A personal Reflection. Coping with Personal Grief. Posted on Saturday 17th October 2020 

No.371. What do you think of Joe Biden as the President-elect [and probably President] of the USA? Posted on Sunday 08 November 2020

No.372. Remembering Remembrance Days. A personal memory. Posted on Remembrance [Armistice] Day Wednesday 11th November 2020

No.373. Failing To See The Obvious. Again! The Words Solstice And Armistice. And A Personal Note! Posted on Monday 16th November 2020 {This was previously posted only Facebook page on 11th November 2020.]

No.374. A Prayer Based On 2 Peter 3:8-14. Being Prepared for Jesus’ Coming. [From the Epistle for 2nd Sunday of Advent, 06 December 2020.] Posted on Friday 06 December 2020.

No.375. Ephesians 1:3. Thanking God for what we have in Christ.[Part of Epistle Reading for Sunday 03 January 2021.] Posted on Sat 02 January 2021.

No.376. Perfect Love Casts Out Fear. Reading 1 Jn 4:13-21. My Sermon preached at the Healing Service in St Andrew’s Cathedral Sydney on Wed 9th August 2000. Posted on Monday 04 January 2021.

No.377. Honouring a very special person Carole Ann Holbeck-1943-2019.

No.378. A Wonderful Birthday on Sunday 7th February 1943. Kharagpur, India. A Blessing to Thousands of People Worldwide! Posted on Sun 07 February 2021.

No.379. SOME TEACHING ON FAITH AND THE PRAYER OF FAITH ESPECIALLY IN REGARD TO HEALING. Posted on Tuesday 20th April 2021.

No.380. Reflecting on Contribution that All Saints Booval [Ipswich] made to Jim And Carole Holbeck. Posted on Tuesday 25 May 2021

No.381. A “Thank You” to all my friends, from Carole Holbeck [nee Tapsell] 1943-2019. Posted on 04 July 2021

No.382. Special Life-Changing Days In Our Lives. Posted on Saturday 21 August 2021.

No.383. Jesus the Creator. Number 1 of 4 topics. Posted on Tuesday 12 October 2021

No.384 Jesus the Saviour. Number 2 of 4 topics. Posted on Thursday 14 October 2021.

No.385.Jesus the Lord. Topic 3 of 4.Posted on Tuesday 26 October 2021.

No.386 Jesus the Judge. Topic 4 of 4. Posted on Wednesday 27 October 2021.

No.387. THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS CHRIST! He cannot be ignored! Posted on Thursday 04 November 2021

No.388. The Basis of a Healing Ministry. [A sermon I preached at a healing service in St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney in 1997.] Posted on Tuesday 09 November 2021.

No.389. God Works Through His People. John 14. [No2 in a series of 2]. A sermon OI preached at a healing service in St Andrew’s Cathedral,Sydney in 1997.] Posted on Wednesday 10 November 2021

No.390. A SERMON ON JOHN 14:12-14. God can fulfil His promises. [The text of a sermon I preached at a healing service in St Andrew’s Cathedral. Sydney probably in the early 2000’s.] Posted on Wednesday 10 November 2021.

No.391. Thoughts on Remembrance [Armistice] Day 2021. Posted on Friday 12 November 2021

No.392. How God Sees Us As His Children. 2Thessalonians 2. Posted on Wednesday 01 December 2021

No.393. SOME CHRISTMAS ARTICLES TO READ AND LATER LISTEN TO ON SPOTIFY. Posted on 06 December 2021

No.394 In all things God works for the good of those who love Him. Romans 8:28. Posted on January 20-. 2022

No.395. Take advantage of the opportunities to receive healing. Sermon from February 1990 on Mark 1:29f. Posted on Monday 24 January 2022

No.396. Thinking As We Should About Ourselves. Romans 12:3-4. Posted on Thursday 26 January 2022.

No.397. Living Without Anxiety. God’s Answer! 1 Peter 5:6-7. Posted on Tuesday 22 February 2022

No.398.    Be anxious. For nothing! God says! Philippians 4:6-7 Posted on Monday 07March 2022

No.399. A Loving Warning and a Gracious Invitation. Luke 13:1-9. The Gospel Reading for Sunday 20 March 2022. Posted on Wednesday 16March 2022

No.400. Some Thoughts on The Meaning of Easter. Posted on Saturday16 April 2022

No.401. Galatians 5:1, 13-25 The New Testament Reading for Sunday 26 June 2022. Christian Freedom! Posted on Monday 13 June 2022

No.402. A Sermon on Luke18:31-43. JESUS’ POWER TO SAVE AND TO HEAL
Posted on June 16, 2022 by Jim Holbeck

No.403. Christian Love In Action. [Galatians 6:1-10. Epistle Reading For 03 July 2022]. Posted on Saturday 25June 2022

No.404. Colossians chapter 1. New Testament Reading for Sunday 10 July 2022. Posted on Tuesday 28 June 2022

No.405. Jesus “Has The Whole World In His Hands.“ Colossians 1:15-23. A New Testament reading for Sunday 17 July 2022. Posted on Friday 01 July2022

No.406. On Colossians 2:6-15. A Reading for 24 July 2022. Posted on Sunday 03 July 2022

No.407. Colossians 3:1-11. Living The New Life In Christ. Reading for Sunday 31 July 2022. Posted on Wednesday 06 July 2022

No. 408. HEBREWS 11:1-3 AND 11:8-16. WHAT IS FAITH. A Reading for Sunday 07August 2022. Posted on Thursday 14 July 2022.

No.409. Hebrews 11:29-12:2. The Heroes of Faith REALLY Believed. A Reading for Sunday 14 August 2022. Posted on Tuesday 26 July 2022

No.410. The Blessings Of Belonging To A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken. Hebrews 12:18-29. [A reading for Sunday 21 August 2022.] Posted on Thursday 28 July 2022

No.411. Hebrews 13:1-8 and 13:15-16. Sacrifices Pleasing to God. [A reading for Sunday 28 August 2022]. Posted on Saturday 30 July 2022

No. 412. Philemon 1-21 Jesus Sets The Captives Free And Brings Reconciliation. A Reading on Sunday 04 September 2022. Posted on Wednesday 03 August 2022

No.413. Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners. 1 Timothy 1:12-17. A Reading on Sunday 11 Sept 2022.Posted on Tuesday 09 August 2022.

No.414. 1 Corinthians 1:18-24. The World Must Commit To Christ As Lord. A Reading on Sunday 14 September 2022.  Posted on Saturday 13 August 2022

No.415. On 1 Timothy 2:1-7. Why Prayer Is Needed For The Whole World. A Reading for Sunday 18 September 2022. Posted on Sunday 14 August 2022

No.416. On 1 Timothy 6:1-19. “Wise Words For A Diverse Church.” Reading for 25 September 2022. Posted on Friday 19mAugust 2022

No.417. Personal Memories Of Special Glad and Sad Days. Posted on Sunday 21 August 20223

No.418. On 2 Timothy 1:1-14. Faithful Ministry In A Hostile World. For Sun 02 October 2022. Posted on Wednesday 24 August 2022

No.419. On 2 Timothy 2:7-15. Focus on Jesus in Your Message And Stand Firm. A reading for Sunday 09 October 2022. Posted on Thursday 25 August 2022

No.420. On 2 Timothy 3:14 To 4:5. Preaching The God-breathed Scriptures. For Sunday 16 October 2022.  Posted on Friday 26 August 2022.

No.421. On 2 Timothy 4:6-8 & 16-18. How St Paul faced Imminent death. A Reading for Sunday 23 October 2022. Posted on Saturday 27 August 2022

No.422 on “Praising God For His Ministry In People.” 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12. A Reading for Sunday 30 October 2022. Posted on Friday 02 September 2022

No.423. On “Preparing For The Second Coming Of Jesus.” 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 for Sunday 06 November 2022. Posted on Tuesday 06 September 2022

No.424. “The Necessity For Disciplined Living.” On 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 For Sunday 13 November 2022. Posted on Saturday 10 September 2022

No.425. Colossians 1:11-20. Christ The Perfect One Loves Imperfect People. Reading for Sunday 20 November 2022. Posted on Tuesday 13 September 2022

No.426. Some Holbeck Blog News September 2022. Posted on Wednesday 14 September 2022

No.427. Becoming The People God Wants Us To Be. Core Teaching Stage 1 Topic 1. Posted on Friday 16 September 2022

No.428. The Freedom That Comes From Forgiving. [An extract].Posted on Tuesday 20 September 2022

No.429. THE FREEDOM THAT COMES FROM FORGIVENESS. Core Teaching Stage 1. Topic 2. Posted on Thursday 22 September 2022

No.430. BECOMING OPEN TO GOD. (PSALM 139. A prayer based on the character of God.) Core Teaching Stage 1. Topic 3. Posted on Saturday 24 September 2022

No.432. LEARNING TO RECOGNISE AND REMOVE BARRIERS TO HEALING. Core 1 Topic 4 Posted on Thursday29 September 2022

No.433. HOW TO BECOME MORE OPEN TO RECEIVE HEALING. [Core 1 topic 4a. This follows on from previous article No.432.] Posted on Saturday 30 September 2022

No.434. “HOW TO ‘HANG IN’ FOR HEALING AND BLESSING.” [Core Teaching Stage 1 Topic 5.] Posted on Monday 03 October 2022

No.435. Becoming the Person God Wants You To Be. [Living in the Kingdom of God]. Posted on Wednesday 05 October 2022

No.436. Core 2 Topic 2 THE FREEDOM THAT COMES FROM  FORGIVENESS. [A Guide On How To Really Forgive Another Person.]  Posted on Wednesday12 October 2022

No.437. GETTING THE RIGHT FOCUS TO OBTAIN WHOLENESS IN LIFE. [Based on 2 Corinthians chapters 3 and 4.] Posted on Tuesday 18 October 2022

No.438. THE VALUE OF THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER WITH THE LAYING ON OF HANDS. Core 2 Topic 4A. Posted on Wednesday 19 October 2022 

No.439. GUIDELINES FOR PRAYING FOR PEOPLE WITH THE LAYING ON OF HANDS. Core 2 Topic 4B. [This follows on from the previous article No.438 on the biblical background to the Laying on of hands.]mPosted on Thursday 20 October 2022

No.440. PRAYER AND THE PRAYER OF FAITH. [Core Teaching Stage 2 Topic 5.] Posted on Thursday 27 October 2022.

No.441. Memories One Can Never Forget.”Your wife just passed away.” Posted on Friday 28 October 2022

No.442. GOD’S GRACE IS AVAILABLE TO THOSE WHO HAVE FAITH. [Core Teaching Stage 2. Topic 6]. Posted on Wednesday 09 November 2022.

No.443. CORE TEACHING ON HEALING. SUMMARY OF STAGE 1 TOPICS posted on Friday 11 November 2022

No.444. SUMMARY OF CORE TEACHING ON HEALING TOPICS STAGE 2 posted on Friday 11 November 2022

No.445. BAD NEWS ABOUT HUMANS. OUR NEED FOR GOD’S HELP. Core Teaching Stage 3 Topic 1. Posted on Wednesday 16 November 2022

No.446. GOOD NEWS FOR HUMANS. WE CAN BE DIFFERENT. Core Teaching Stage 3 Topic 2. Posted on Tuesday 22 November 2022

No.447. A New Way Of Living. Insights from Ephesians 5. [Core Teaching Stage 3. Topic 3]. Posted on Saturday 26 November 2022 

N0.448. “How to Grow in Faith.” Core Teaching Stage 3 Topic 4. Posted on Thursday 08  December 2022

No.449. “Helping Other People Become Different.” [Core Teaching Stage 3 Topic 5.] Posted on Saturday 10 December 2022

No.450. Walking In The Fullness Of God’s Amazing Grace. [Core Teaching Stage 4 Topic 1]. Posted on Thursday 15 December 2022

No.451. Spiritual Warfare. Being Strong In The Lord’s Strength. [Core Teaching Stage 4 Topic 2.] Posted on Wednesday 21 December 2022

No.452. Putting On The Armour Of God. (Ephesians 6:11). Core Teaching Stage 4 Topic 3.  “Put on the full armour of God.” Posted on Monday 02 January 2023

No.453. Spiritual Warfare. Standing In The Armour Of God. Eph 6:11-15. Core Teaching Stage 4 Topic 4. Posted on Saturday 07 January 2023

No.454. Spiritual Warfare. “Praying in the Spirit.” Ephesians 6:18. Core Teaching Stage 4 Topic 5. Posted on Thursday12 January 2023

No.455. Praying For All The Saints. Ephesians 6:18. Core Teaching Stage 4 Topic 6. Posted on Saturday 14 January 2023

No.456. The Privilege Of Entering Into The Tapsell Family. [Remembering my wedding to Carole Tapsell on 22 January1966.] Posted on Monday 16 January 2023.

No.457. Core Teaching Stage 5 An Overview. Posted on Tuesday 17 January 2023.

No.458. Repentance. Core Teaching Stage 5 Topic. [MINISTERING IN THE AREA OF REPENTANCE]. Posted on Thursday 19 January 2023.

No.459. Reflecting On The Love Of God We Experience In Our Lives. Posted on Saturday 21 January 2023

No.460. RENUNCIATION AND RESTITUTION. Core Teaching Stage 5 Topic 2. Posted on Sunday 22 January 2023

No.461. HELPING PEOPLE RECEIVE CHRIST AS SAVIOUR. [Core Teaching Stage 5 Topic 3]. Posted on Monday 23 January 2023

No.462. “Submitting to Christ as Lord.” [Core Teaching Stage 5 Topic 4]. Posted on Tuesday 24 January 2023. 

No.463. Ministering in the area of being Spirit-Filled Continually. Core Teaching Stage 5. Topic 5. Posted on Wednesday 26 January2023

No.464. Sharing in Fellowship and Service. [Core Teaching Stage 5. Topic 6.] Posted on Thursday 26 January 2023.

No.465. Summary of All Core Teaching Modules. Posted on 27 January 2023

No.466. SHARING GOD’S LOVE IN THIS LIFE. 1 John 4:7-16. Posted on Tuesday 07 February 2023

No.467. God’s Love For His People. Isaiah 43:1-7. Posted on Sunday19 February2023

No.468. How To Forgive Those Who Hurt Us. Psalm 32. Posted on Saturday 25 February 2023

No.469. Proverbs 3:5-6. God Makes Straight Our Paths. Posted on Tuesday 14 March 2023.

No.470. Taking Opportunities To Show Love. Re-reading Blog No 271. Posted on Sunday 19 March 2023.

No.471.The Hoped-for Gentleness of Christian Ministry. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12. Posted on Sunday 26 March 2023

No. 472. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE ANOINTED BY GOD? Posted on Wednesday 29 March 2023

No.473. The Blessing Of Being Anointed By God. But Who Are The Anointed? (Part 1 of 4). Posted on Friday 31 March 2023

No.474. The Blessing Of Being Anointed By God. (Part 2 of 4). Why The Dispensation Of The Holy Spirit May Differ In The New Testament Era From That In The Old Testament Era. Posted on Wednesday 05April 2023

No.475. THE GOOD FRIDAY CROSS THAT DIVIDES HUMANITY. Luke 23:39-43. [Paradise or Lostness.] Posted on Good Friday 07April 2023

No.476. The  Blessing Of Being Anointed By God. But Who Are The  Anointed? (Part 3 of 4). Posted on Monday after Easter 10 April 2023.

No.477. The Blessing Of Being Anointed By God. But Who Are The  Anointed? (Part 4 of 4).  Some Possible Conclusions. Posted on Tuesday 11 April 2023

No.478. The God Who Helps In Times Of Trouble. Jonah 2:1-10. Posted on Thursday 04 May 2023

No.479. Obedience To God Brings His Blessings. Jonah 3. Posted on Saturday 06 May 2023

No.480. Jonah 4. Having The Right Motivations In Life. Posted on Wednesday 10 May 2023

No.481. Ephesians 1:15-23. “Knowing The Power Of God In Our Lives.” Posted on Wednesday 24 May 2023.

No.482. Difficulties Should Lead Us To Repentance. Joel chapter 1. Posted on Friday 26 May 2023

No.483. The Good News Of A New Beginning. Joel chapter 2. Posted on Sunday 03 June 2023.

No.484. Guidelines for praying for people at church services. Posted on Friday 23 June 2023.

No.485. Changing The Upside Down, Back to Front World In Which We Live. Posted on Wednesday 28 June 2023.

No.486. RECONCILIATION. What Does It Mean For Today? Posted on Saturday 01 July2023

No.487. “Fear Not!”  Why Believers Have No Need To Fear. Posted on Monday 03 July 2023

No.488. Whom Do We Need To Fear? “Fear Him!” Posted on Thursday 06 July2023

No.489. The Meaning Of The Word “Appropriate.” Food For Thought! Posted on Monday 17 July 2023.

No.490. Matthew 14:22-31. Title: “Reach out to Jesus for Healing.” [Lectionary Reading for Sunday 13 August 2023]. Posted on Monday 24 July 2023

No.491. Sermon on Matthew 15:21-28. Title: “Great is Your Faith.” [Based On Lectionary Reading In Many Churches On Sunday 20 August 2023.] Posted on Tuesday 25 July 2023

No.492. The Freedom of Forgiveness. Psalm 103. [Posted on Sunday 06 August 2023.]

No.493. HOW IS THE BIBLE THE “INSPIRED“ WORD OF GOD? Posted on Monday 14 August 2023

No.494. MARVELLING AT THE LORD’S PLANS FOR OUR LIVES. PSALM 139. Posted On Monday 21 August 2023

No.495. Sermon on Matthew 18:15-20.  “How to prevent hurt and how to heal hurting people.” Gospel reading for Sunday 10 September 2023. Posted on Tuesday 22 August 2023

No.496. John Wrote His Gospel To Enable People To Trust In Jesus. John 20:30-31. Posted on Tuesday 05 September 2023

No.497. Getting Rid Of Unhelpful Thoughts. 2 Corinthians 10:5. Posted on Friday 08 September 2023

No.498. How Deep The Father’s Love For Us. Luke 11:1-4. Posted on Saturday16 September 2023

No.499. God Wants Us To Bring Our Needs To Him [Mat 7:7-12.] Posted on Sunday17 September 2023

No.500. BECOMING THE PERSON GOD WANTS US TO BE. Posted on Sunday 24 September 2023

No.501. How Acceptable Are Believers To God? The Message of Ephesians 2:1-7. Posted on Wednesday 27 September 2023

No.502. Faith, Hope and Love in 1 Thessalonians 1. [The Example Given By  The Believers In Thessalonica.] Posted on Monday 16 October 2023.

No.503. COPING WITH THE LOSS OF A LOVED ONE. Posted on Monday 30 October 2023

No.504.  The RAPTURE. If Only It Were True! 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Posted on Monday 06 November 2023

No. 505. REMEMBRANCE [Armistice] DAY. A Deeper Meaning. Posted on Saturday 11th November 2023

No.506.“Encourage the Fainthearted.” [Oligopsuchos, ὀλιγόψυχος].1 Thessalonians 5:14. Posted on Friday 17 November 2023

Updated on Thursday 23rd November 2023

No.507.A Prayer Based On Romans 12:1-2. Total Commitment. Posted on Thursday 23 November 2023

No.508. 2 Thessalonians 3:5. A PRAYER TO PRAY FOR EACH OTHER! Posted on Saturday 09 December 2023

No.509.The Greatest Christmas Gift Given To You And Me. Posted on Sunday 24 December 2023

No.510. A New Creature on New Year’s Eve 1958. Posted on Sunday 31 December 2023

No.511. THE JESUS WHO CANNOT BE IGNORED. [Hebrews 1:1-4.] Posted on Saturday 06 January 2024

No.512. JESUS CHRIST IS A BETTER MESSENGER THAN THE ANGELS.  Hebrews 1:4-14. Posted on Monday 08 January 2024

No.513. Reflections on life. Life with my beloved Carole. Posted on Wednesday 10th January 2024.

No.514. THE DANGER OF NEGLECTING THE SALVATION GOD OFFERS US. [Hebrews 2:1-4.] Posted on Friday 12 January 2024

No.515. Jesus became a human to save humans. Hebrews 2:5-18.Posted on Sunday 14 January 2024.

No.516. Hebrews chapter 3. Jesus Greater Than Moses. Why We Need To Keep Trusting In Him! Posted on Thursday 18 January 2024.

No.517. Hebrews Chapter 4.  There Is A Sabbath Rest For The People of God. Posted on Saturday 20 January 2024

No.518. Hebrews 5. Christ Is The Better High Priest Than All Other High Priests. Posted on Sunday 21 January 2024.

No.519. Hebrews Chapter 6.  A Warning Against Falling Away From Christ. Posted on Friday 26 January 2024

No.520. TEACHING VIDEOS ON HEALING BY JIM HOLBECK ON YOU TUBE. Posted on Monday 29 January 2024

No.521. Hebrews chapter 7. Jesus The Greatest High Priest Secured Eternal Redemption For His People. Posted on Wednesday 31 January 2024

No.522. Hebrews chapter 8. “The New Covenant is Much Better Than The Old.” Posted on Saturday 03 February 2024

No.523. Healings that impact the world. A Man Healed of Lou Gehrig’s Disease [A.L.S.] Posted on Sunday 04 February 2024

No.524. The Privilege Of Marriage. A Blessing From The Lord. Proverbs 31. Posted on Tuesday 06 February 2024

No.525. Hebrews chapter 9.  Jesus As The Great High Priest Of A New Covenant Secured An Eternal Redemption. Posted on Sunday 11 February 2024.

No.526. What Is “Shrove Tuesday?” Its Meaning And Purpose. Posted on Monday 12 February 2024.

No.527. What Is The Origin And Significance Of Ash Wednesday? Posted on Tuesday 13 February 2024.

No.528. “What is Valentine’s Day? 14 February Every Year.”  Posted on Tuesday 13 February 2024

No.529. “The Necessity of Christ’s Sacrifice Once ForvAll. Hebrews 10.” Posted on Saturday 17 February 2024

No.530. HEBREWS 11:1-3. WHAT IS FAITH?  Posted on Wednesday 21 February2024

No.531. Hebrews11:4-40. The Examples of the Faith Of The Heroes of Faith. Posted on Friday 23 February2024

No.532. Hebrews 12. “Jesus The Founder and Perfector of our Faith.” Posted on Friday 01 March 2024

No.533. Hebrews 13. “Living A Positive Christian Life.” Posted on Wednesday 06 March 2024.

No.534. Summary of all blogs on the book of Hebrews. posted on Wednesday 06 March 2024.

No.535. Sermon Notes On John 3:14-21. “God’s Love For Us.” [Gospel for Sunday 10 March 2024.] Posted on Thursday 07 March 2024.

No.536. Links To Teaching On Aspects Of  Healing By Jim Holbeck On Blogs And You Tube Videos and Kindle books.  Posted on Sunday 10 March 2024

No.537. Sermon on Mark14:1-9. True Love Achieves Great Things. [A Gospel reading for Sunday 24 March 2024.] Posted on Tuesday 12 March 2024

No.538. JESUS IS ALIVE! Mark 16:1-19. Gospel for Easter Sunday. 31 March 2024. Posted on Friday 15 March 2024.

No.539.  Jesus Rose From The Dead And Is Alive. John 20:19-31. [Notes on the Gospel Reading for Sunday 07 April 2024.] Posted on Tuesday 19 March 2024.

No.540. Luke 24:36-49. “Resurrection Joy!” Notes On The Gospel for Sunday 14 April 2024. Posted on Thursday 21 March 2024

No.541. Some Articles On The Meaning Of Good Friday. Posted on Wednesday 27 March 2024. Posted on Wednesday 27 March 2024.

No.542. Sermon Outline on John 10:11-18 “Jesus The True Good Shepherd” A reading for Sunday 21 April 2024. Posted on Thursday 04 April 2024

No.543.  On John 15:1-8. The Necessity Of Abiding In Jesus. A Reading for Sunday 28 April 2024.Posted on Thursday 11 April 2024.

No.544. John15:9-17. Loving One Another. A Reading for Sunday 05 May 2024. Posted on Friday 12 April 2024.

No.545. “Experiencing Christian Joy.” Sermon Notes On John 17:6-19 For Sun 12 May 2024. Posted on Sunday 14 April 2024.

No.546. Sermon Notes On John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15 for Sunday 19 May 2024. [“The Advantage Of The Coming Of The Holy Spirit.”] Posted on Friday 19 April 2024.

No.547. The Blessing Of True Sincerity In Our Lives. Posted on Monday 22 April 2024.

No.548. Sermon Notes on John 3:1-17. “To Perish Or To Have Eternal Life?” [Gospel for Sun 26 May 2024] Posted on Tuesday 23 April 2023.

No.549. ANZAC DAY. 25th April. Some Thoughts On The Significance Of That Day. Posted on Wednesday 24 April 2024.

No.550. On Mark 2:23-3:6. “Using the Law Instead Of Loving.” Gospel For Sunday 02 June 2024. Posted on Tuesday 30 April 2024

No. 551. Sermon Notes on Mark 3:20 – 35. “The Unforgiveable Sin.” Gospel for Sunday 09June2024. Posted on Wednesday 08 May2024

No.552. JESUS HAS ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN. BELIEVERS HAVE TOO! EPHESIANS 1 AND 2. Posted on Sunday 12 May 2024

No.553.  Sermon Notes on “KINGDOM GROWTH” Mark 4:26-34 For Sun 16 June 2024. Posted on Sunday 26 May 2024

No.554. “Stilling the Storms of Life.” Sermon Notes on Mark 4:35-4. Posted on Friday 07 June 2024

No.555. Mark 5:21-43. JESUS HEALS A WOMAN AND JAIRUS’S DAUGHTER. [Notes on Gospel for Sunday 30 June 2024.] Posted on Monday 10 June 2024

No.556 on Carole Holbeck [nee Tapsell] posted on Tuesday 20 August 2024.

No.557. FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST. TO DIE IS GAIN. Philippians 1:19-26. posted on Tuesday 01 October 2024

No.558. A sermon on Mark10:46-52. The Healing Of Bartimaeus. [Gospel reading for Sunday 27 October 2024] posted on Tuesday 08 October 2024

No.559. God Motivates And Empowers His People To Live For Him. [Philippians 2:12-13.] Posted on Sunday 27 October 2024

No.560. A Reminder Of Previous Articles on Philippians Chapter 4. Posted on Thursday 05 December 2024

No.561. A Memory During A Bicentennial Church Service Today. Posted on Sunday 08 December 2024

No.562. The Story Of The Christ Child. Philippians 2:3-11. Posted on Thursday 26 December [Boxing Day] 2024.

No.563. The Significance Of New Year’s Eve. A Personal New Beginning. Posted on Tuesday 31 December 2024

No.564. Is God Calling You To Himself? [A look at 1 Corinthians]. Posted on Monday January 20, 2025

No.565. The Danger Of Putting People Into “Categories.” Posted on Tuesday January 28, 2025.

No.566. FACING ANXIETY. Steps To Freedom. Posted on Friday 31 January 2025

No.567. A Reflection on February 7th. 1943. The Birth Of My Late Wife. Posted on Wednesday 05 February 2025.

No.568. Valentines Day. A day to honour the female race. Posted on Friday 14 March 2025

No.569. OUR GOD IS THE SOURCE, INSTRUMENT AND DESTINATION OF ALL THINGS.  Romans 11:36 and 1 Corinthians 8:6. Posted on Tuesday 25 March 2025

No.570. Overcoming Temptation. 1 Corinthians 10:13-14. Posted on Friday 28 March 2025

No.571. Some Articles On “Becoming the Person God Wants You to Be.” [From latest to earliest]. Posted on 04 April 2025

No.572. Why is Good Friday called “good.” Posted onTuesday 15 April 2025

No.573. The Challenge of the Easter Message. Some thoughts! Posted on Easter Sunday 20 April 2025.

No.574. THE GOOD AND THE BAD NEWS IN JESUS’ WORDS IN JOHN chapter 3 verse 16. Posted on Thursday 01 May2025.

No.575. Holbeck WordPress Article Posts On The Epistle To The Galatians. Posted on Monday 19 May 2025

No.576. GALATIANS Chapter 1  Verse 4. Huge Salvation Truths In A Few Words.  Posted on Tuesday 27 May 2025

No.577. Running The Race Of Life. Ellen Ann Routley [nee Holbeck]. 1932-2025. Posted on Saturday 12 July 2025.

No.578. Some Articles On Dealing With Personal Grief. Posted on Sunday 20 July 2025

No.579. A half century since the death of a legend. Carlyle Carroll Tapsell a hockey legend. Posted on Friday 05 Sept 2025

No.580. 90 Years Of Living In This World. What a privilege! Posted on Tuesday 14 October 2025

No. 581.  Memories That Bring Strength And Peace. {Posted on Friday 31 October 025

No.582. SUMMARY OF ARTICLES ON “PRAYING THROUGH EPHESIANS. ” Posted on Thursday 27 November 2025

No.583.  GOD PREPARES HIS PEOPLE FOR GLORY AND UNBELIEVERS FOR DESTRUCTION. Posted on Tuesday 09 December 2025.

No.584. Prayers based on Ephesians 1. Posted on Saturday 13 December 2025.

No.585 Jim Holbeck’s Christmas 2025 New Year 2026 Greetings posted on Wednesday 24 December 2025

No.586. A New Beginning In A New Year. New Year’s Eve 1958. My Personal Story. Posted on New Year’s Eve, 31st December 2025.

No. 587 The Privilege of Marriage To The Partner of God’s Choice. Posted on Thursday 22 January 2026

No.588. Summary of Reflections On My Beloved Wife And Very Best Friend. Carole Ann Holbeck [nee Tapsell.] 07 February 1943 to 31st October 2019. Posted on Friday 06 February 2026

No.589. Anyone Can Be Transformed If They Desire To Be Changed! Transfiguration Sunday.  Posted on Sunday 15 February 2026. Transfiguration Sunday.

No.590.   “ARE BELIEVERS IN CHRIST FORGIVEN OF ALL THEIR SINS?” Posted on Saturday 21 March 2026.

No.591 Who are the “chosen” in the New Testament? Posted on Monday 23 March 2026.

Last Updated on Monday 23 March 2026.

Posted in BIBLE PASSAGE OUTLINES, Bible verses. Comments, Forgiveness, Healing, HEBREWS. A study of the Epistle, INDEX OF BLOGS, Prayer, Questions and Answers, Salvation, Sexuality, Studies in Psalm 139, TOPICS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

076. “To Perish or Not to Perish? That is the Question.” John 3:16

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

No, this title is not an Australian translation of  words in William Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet”! Rather it is a question raised by the  words of Jesus in perhaps the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16. This verse has been described as “The Gospel in a nut-shell”.  Others have called it, “The gospel in miniature”.  In one short sentence it tells us what love is all about. What’s so powerful about its message? It’s powerful because it’s a short love letter. It’s a short love letter from God to the human race of all ages and through all ages. It tells us about:-

 1)           THE LOVER.  (FOR GOD so loved).   We live in a big world, in a massive universe made by a majestic God. He has the power to say, “That’s enough!” and the whole world would cease to exist. He made it all and He could destroy it all. But God loves the world He has made. He looked at the world in all its sin and rejection of Him and He so loved the people that He decided to do something to help them. He took the initiative in making it possible for sinful people to be forgiven. He had a scheme by which they could become His friends. The Almighty God of this entire universe cares for you and me as individuals. It is simply mind-blowing, but true. For GOD so loved…the world, you and me, that He did something amazing for us.

 2)        THE LOVE.  “So loved”.  He so loved people of all backgrounds, from all races,  colour, religions, ages, that He did something for them. St Paul expressed it in Romans 5:8  But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  God told us in His word, the Bible, that He loves us. He also showed His love in giving us His Son. He SO LOVED.

3).            THE PEOPLE HE LOVED. God so loved THE WORLD. The “world” in John’s writings is used to describe all of humankind in its sin and rebellion against Him. Yet we know that God hates, loathes, detests, and abominates the sin of the world which causes such hurt, pain, destruction to fellow humans. God hates sin but loves people. He acted in love. He sent His Son. To come and live as one of us. To live as a human so that He might die as a human. To bear the penalty for the sins of the whole world.  You and I are part of the world for whom God sent His Son to come and die for us. God so loved THE WORLD that He gave His Son to die for you and me.

4)       THE GIFT OF HIS LOVE. That He Gave HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.   He gave His Son Jesus to die for us. John wrote of Jesus as the Creator of the universe. John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. And later in verse 14, he explained that this eternal word, the creator, was in fact Jesus, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus left His place in glory in the bliss of the presence of His Father.  He left the worship and adoration of angels that He might humble Himself to come into this sinful world in utter weakness. When later He walked the roads of the Holy Land many people mocked Him, rejected Him and eventually crucified Him. He was the creator but His creatures had no time for Him.

Have you ever thought about the rejection Jesus suffered as He came into the world as the Father’s gift of love? Jn 1:9-11,  9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. He came to His world, His creation, His people, but they rejected Him. The creator, the One who had come to be their Redeemer, their Saviour, was rejected by those He had created.

5)          THE PURPOSE OF HIS LOVE. so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Jesus came to make salvation available to those who would receive it in His Son Jesus.  Did Jesus and John get it wrong? Surely Jesus didn’t mean that this world and all sorts of nice people in it could perish.  He didn’t get it wrong. He meant that all the world is in fact perishing already. It needed to be saved from that fate. That’s why Jesus came to “rescue the perishing” as one older hymn put it. Sometimes people find the thought repulsive that people could perish, miss out on heaven. They don’t understand the goodness and the grace of God. He doesn’t want anyone to perish.

We may sometimes cry out Why doesn’t God destroy all the evil of the world? For a very simple reason. If He destroyed all the evil in the world, none of us would be left. St Peter wrote of God in 2 Peter 3:9 as he explained why Jesus hadn’t yet come a second time to judge the world.  The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. He wants everyone to turn away from evil and to put their trust in His Son for salvation. As John wrote in the next verse (John 3:17) “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Jesus bore our sins on the cross as He died for you and me to bring us to God. As that wonderful hymn puts it,

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son,
To make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory.

What amazing love for you and me! Jesus on the cross was rejected by the Father as He bore the sin of the world. Jesus willingly suffered rejection. So that we might find acceptance. Acceptance with the Father. As we put our trust in His Son.

6)          RECEIVING THE GIFT OF HIS LOVE.  so that everyone who BELIEVES IN HIM may not perish but may have eternal life.  We humans have a choice. We can choose not to perish but to have eternal life. How? By believing in Jesus. To believe is not just to believe about but to believe into, to entrust oneself to, to commit oneself to. To act on His invitation to come to Him for refuge. Just imagine a scenario that I hope never happens but knowing human nature, could happen. A man is driving along and he sees a Twister, a tornado coming towards him. Someone stops him and tells him to get out of the car and get into a nearby shelter. But he’s seen tornados before in the distance. They have always missed him. He refuses to get out of the car. The man begs him to get out because the tornado is going to go right through the area where they are. But again he refuses. Minutes later the tornado hits, picks up the man’s car like a matchbox, throws it around in the air for several seconds and then it smashes into the ground. The man is killed instantly. He knew the danger. He was faced with the choice to live or to die. But he chose to ignore the warning. He refused to accept the invitation to find refuge. He perished.

God loves us enough to warn us of danger He knows the danger that awaits every one of us. What love to give us the freedom to choose to respond to His love, or to reject Him!  For those who commit themselves to Him there is the promise of being saved from perishing and the promise of having a brand new life, eternal life, God’s own life in us. As John wrote earlier in his gospel, many rejected Jesus as their Messiah and as their Saviour.  BUT some made a different choice. A wise choice. A choice with wonderful eternal consequences.  John 1:12  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13  who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 

We can be born into God’s family. We can have eternal life in Christ. And in having Him, God tells us we have all we need in Him. Rom 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  I believe the “all things” includes the healing and blessing we need to be able to live for Him for the rest of our lives.  Why not take hold of the blessings you need by receiving them in Him as you receive Him into your life?

Blog No.076.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 04 June 2012

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075. The Relevance Of Pentecost For Today. The Gift of the Holy Spirit

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

What turned the disciples of Jesus from being those who denied Him and forsook Him at Calvary to those who were willing to preach Him before hostile peoples? Pentecost! Something quite amazing happened on the day of Pentecost that utterly transformed the disciples. It was on the day of Pentecost that the promised Holy Spirit was poured out on the church. For that reason Pentecost has often been called the “Birthday of the Christian church.” What made it such a special day for those early believers? What does it mean for us today?

1). The Promise Of The Holy Spirit In The Old Testament. It had been prophesied that God would do something new for His people. He would do it by His Spirit. These verses express that thought. God would, by His Spirit, make His people sensitive to Him. Eze_11:19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, Also Eze_36:26. His cure for His hard-hearted people would be to give them a heart more sensitive to Him by putting a new spirit in them.

God would give His people His own Spirit to indwell them. Ezek 36:27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Also Ezek 37:14). This adds to the previous verses the truth that His Spirit would motivate and empower them to do His will.

God would pour out His Spirit on all peoples. The promise of the Spirit is now extended to be poured out on “all flesh”. Joel 2:28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. There would be no age, gender or class distinctions when the Spirit was poured out.

2). The Promise Of The Holy Spirit through John the Baptist. He prophesied that believers would be baptised by, or receive, the Holy Spirit. Mat 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. AND Mark 1:8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

3). The Promise of the Spirit by Jesus. He promised His followers that they would receive the Spirit of God after His resurrection. John 7:39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. After His resurrection and before His ascension to heaven He promised His followers, Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

4). The promise of the gift of the Spirit was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit came upon the disciples. Act_2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Peter’s explanation of the incident. The exalted Jesus received the gift of the Spirit and poured out the gift of the Spirit upon the church. Acts 2:33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he (Jesus) has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

5). How to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. By Asking God the Father for the gift. Luk_11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Through repentance and trust in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For whom is it available? Acts 2:39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

6). How does the Holy Spirit express His presence in the believer? The Fruit of the Spirit is the outward expression of the presence of the Holy Spirit in God’s people. Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The on-going Christian walk. Living by the Spirit. Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. AND Rom_8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

7). Will believers ever “lose” the Holy Spirit? No, believers are sealed with the Spirit. 2Co_1:22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Eph_1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, and Eph_4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Wrong behaviour by a believer might cause grief to the Holy Spirit but He will never be grieved into departing.

8). What does it mean to be “filled with the Holy Spirit?” That was God’s command through St Paul for His people to “be filled with the Spirit”, Eph 5:18. The verb for “be filled” is present continuous and means “keep on being filled” with the Holy Spirit. Some have suggested that “we leak” and so we need to be filled again and again (presumably with more of the Spirit). However the Holy Spirit is a person and so it is not always helpful to use that term. Rather it could mean that instead of relinquishing all of our lives to the control of the Lord, all the time, we take back control so that there are areas of our lives that are no longer under His control. To ask God to fill us with His Spirit means that we are placing everything in our lives under His control again. It’s a prayer we need to pray all the time.

9). What sort of prayer does one need to pray to be filled with the Spirit? God knows our hearts and desires, so our prayer can be as simple as this. “Heavenly Father, I thank You that Jesus Your Son died for me on the cross so that I could be forgiven. I thank You that when I asked Him into my life, You sealed me with Your Holy Spirit so that I belong to You forever. Fill every part of my life with Your Holy Spirit so that I can become more and more the person You want me to be, and do the things You want me to do. I ask this in Jesus’ name. AMEN”

Blog No.075. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Tuesday 22nd May 2012

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074. The Assurance Of Salvation. A Reflection on 1John 5:9-13.

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

Have you heard things that seemed too good to be true?  Someone special who said to us for the first time, “Hey, I love you.”  Or someone said to us, “We want you on our team.” It could have been an invitation to join a sporting team. Or it could have been a work situation. We were thrilled to be recognised in this way. Life became different from that moment.
John in 1 Jn 5:9-13, tells us about a truth that is almost too good to believe. It is the truth that God has given to us “eternal life.” It sounds an interesting term because it is used more than 40 times in the New Testament, but what does it mean?

1).    “ETERNAL LIFE” . WHAT IS IT?
What does the word “eternal” mean? Does it mean living for ever and ever, so that we never die? In one of the Greek myths, the Goddess of the dawn, Eos (Aurora), fell in love with Tithonus a mortal youth.  She was given a wish. Her wish was that Tithonus would never ever die. But she forgot to ask that he not get any older. As time went on, he aged and became more and more decrepit. Life turned sour for their relationship. Eventually she locked him up before turning him into a grasshopper. The word “eternal” in the Bible doesn’t mean going on living for ever and ever like Tithonus in Greek mythology. Rather in the Bible it refers to a new quality of life, a whole new dimension of life which God gives us in Christ. We get some glimpses of this new quality of life in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 36:25 and following, God promised His people that in the new covenant He would establish with them in the Age to come, He would give His people a new heart, and a new spirit. He would take away the hearts of stone among the people, and give them sensitive hearts of flesh, able to love Him and serve Him. He would put His Spirit in them to motivate and empower them to obey His laws and to do His will. They would be changed by the presence and power of God’s Spirit within them.
Jesus in John 14:23, spoke of what would happen after He had risen from the dead. He promised that He and the Father would take up their abode with the believers,  “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” That is, He and the Father would come and live with those who put their trust in Him, or in the words of The Lexham Bible, “will take up residence with him”.  A.T.Robertson’s ‘Word Pictures in the New Testament’ puts it thus,  “If the Holy Spirit ‘abides’ (menei, Joh_14:17) in you, that heart becomes a temple (naos) of the Holy Spirit (1Co_3:16.), and so a fit dwelling place for the Father and the Son, a glorious and uplifting reality.” 

Paul wrote of this new life in 2 Cor 5:17) “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” A new creation is that which only God can do, for He alone can create. The special Greek word used for “new” is “kainos” (which can mean brand-new) and not “neos” which means just a recent brushed-up version of the old. Paul is stating that when someone becomes a Christian, they are being made radically new, even though they may not know the full implications of the change God has begun in their lives.

When the Bible is talking about “eternal life”, it means the life of God within those who are open to receive it.  They are seen as being sharers of God’s own nature. Peter wrote in 2Peter 1:3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
We as humans can live lives that are full of meaning and purpose, lives that are victorious over sin and evil, as we are filled with the life of God Himself as a present reality.

2).     HOW DO WE GET ETERNAL LIFE?
The Bible says we can’t earn it or do anything to deserve it. Paul wrote in Eph 2:8,9, “For it is by grace that you are saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” We’re not born into it, nor can we work for it. It is a gift of God’s grace and mercy.
How do we obtain this gift? By receiving it where God has placed it. And it is to be found only in one place, and that is in the person of Jesus Christ Himself. That’s the message from our reading in 1 Jn 5:11, “For God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”  No wonder He could promise in His teaching that if people put their trust in Him, and came into a living relationship with Him, they would have eternal life. It’s theirs in Him.
There are many ways of describing what happens when people come to God. Some people express it in the way they have experienced it, often in terms they later found were in the Bible. For example some say that they came from darkness into the light of God. Others that they came from death into life. Others that they came from bondage to freedom. Yet others say that they once were lost but now are found. Perhaps the simplest way of expressing commitment, is in the picture given in 1 Jn 5:11-12. God offers us eternal life in Christ, and we have the choice whether to receive the gift in Him, or to reject the gift. That’s how many of us can describe our conversion, by saying that once we didn’t “have” Christ in our lives. But there came a time when we asked Him in, and we were changed by His presence in us.

3).  WHAT PREVENTS US FROM HAVING ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST?
i).   There are those who say it’s all too simplistic and simple. They may think that surely there must be a lot of things they can do and should do, to receive the gift of eternal life. It was hard for the people of Jesus’ day to understand that the way of acceptance with God, is through receiving a gift, rather than struggling to earn the privilege. Paul warns his readers not to get away from the simplicity that is in Christ.  He said that a veil lies over the minds of those who haven’t come to Christ, so that they don’t see. But when a person turns to the Lord in faith, it’s as though the veil is taken away and they can see the truth that Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah and that He is life.
Paul wrote that the message of the cross about a crucified Messiah, Jesus’ death, was a stumbling block to the Jews, and absolute nonsense to the non-Jews, the Gentiles. It’s only when Christ is received into a person’s life that spiritual understanding comes. ( The story is told of a minister with a doctorate in theology, suddenly stopping in the middle of the sermon he was preaching, as he suddenly understood the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection. Someone yelled out in the congregation, “Halleluiah, the preacher’s been converted.” He was, as he understood the gospel for the first time and was born again in the middle of his own sermon as he stood in the pulpit.

ii.   There may be others who feel unworthy. None of us will ever be worthy enough to receive eternal life. But the important thing is not what we feel about ourselves, but what Christ thinks about us. He chose willingly to come to this earth and to die for us to take away our sins and to enable us to be forgiven and receive new life. As Paul wrote, it was “while we were yet sinners that Christ came and died for us.” Rom 5:8.

iii.  There are those who don’t expect to meet with a living Jesus. Jesus once rebuked the Jews of his day who knew the word of God in the Scriptures, but didn’t receive Him. He said, (Jn 5:39,40), “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and they do bear witness to Me … But you refuse to come to me that you might have life.”  The Scriptures pointed away from themselves to Christ as the One in Whom people should trust for forgiveness and salvation, but they rejected Him.

Well how can one get in contact with Jesus to be able to receive Him into one’s life, and thus receive forgiveness, eternal life and all the blessings which are ours in Him? God has given us many word pictures in the Bible. The one that helped me when I chose to stop running away from God at the age of 23 is a word picture God gave to individuals in the church in Loadicea in Revelation 3. The picture God gave was of the risen Christ standing at the door of human lives and asking to be admitted, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” As we open the door of our lives to Jesus, He enters in. We now “have” the Son. As He enters our lives He brings with Him all the benefits of His life, death and resurrection.

I remember being excited by reading a comment by the theologian Jim Packer many years ago. It went something like this, “It is the living Christ Himself, the perfect Saviour for sinners, Who carries in Himself, all the virtue of His finished work on the cross.” It means that when we receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord, we receive in Him, all the benefits of His work on the cross. He receive in Him forgiveness for our sins, eternal life and all the blessings He wants to pour out on us as we become willing to receive them.  That’s why I preach Jesus as a person to be received rather than just forgiveness and healing, for all the promises of God to us, find their “Amen” in Him as a person. In receiving Him, we become open to receive what God has given us in Him.

4).   WILL HE COME INTO MY LIFE? 
Listen to what John promised to those who asked Christ into their lives in 1 Jn 5:13, “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”  It is “have”, not “might have”. It is eternal life now, and not “pie in the sky when you die by and by.” It is eternal life, God’s life in you NOW. It is a life in which Christ can fill you with His presence, and can pour His grace into every area of need that you have. Death for the believer means entering more fully into the life we possess now in Him.
What will you do with Jesus? Leave Him standing at the door knocking and asking to come in? Or will you invite Him into your life? It’s not difficult to do. It can be as simple as praying, “Dear Lord Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner, and that I need You as my Saviour. I thank You that You bore my sin on the cross. I thank You that You offer forgiveness for my sins in Yourself.  I thank You for knocking at the door of my life over these years. I now choose to ask You into my life. Come in today. Come in to stay. Lord, I believe Your promises. I believe that as I asked You in, that You did come in. Please enter into every area of my life, to bring Your cleansing and healing. Fill me with Your Spirit, and flood me with Your love and Your presence. By faith I give thanks for all that You are going to do in my life, now and in the days ahead. AMEN!

Blog No.074. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 21st May 2012

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073. Christian Ministry. “Rust out? Burn out? Opt out? Is there another way?”

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

“Rust out?” It’s sad to see rusting hulks on ocean beaches. They were ships that once served a great purpose but eventually could not withstand the storms around them and were driven ashore. Now they are sad reminders of a foregone era. No wonder Christians who want to serve God don’t want to “rust out for God” so that they are no longer useful to Him or to others. No one wants to become a beached lifeless hulk.

“Burn out?” Again it is sad to see the burnt out shells of churches or other buildings. They too served a great purpose as buildings but now have nothing to offer.  Some folk may say that they would rather “burn out for God” instead of “rusting out.”  They want to go flat out for God. And try to do so. However many have succumbed to the pressures of ministry and have become like burnt out shells of their former selves. There may be many reasons for this. Sometimes it appears that some of those folk relied too much on their human abilities and gifts. They did go flat out for God but often it was not what God really required of them. Their priorities became disordered and their “work” became more important than their relationships with their spouses or families or even with the Lord Himself. Instead of being devoted to the Lord, they become devoted to the “job” as they imagined it to be. That becomes another form of idolatry.

“Opt out?” No wonder others want to “opt out” when they see the damage that has taken place in the lives of some of their friends. Jonah was one who wanted to “opt out” of serving the Lord. But he learned that whenever you try to run away from the will of God, you can’t run away from Him. As the song says, “His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.” He watches over us as we place our lives in His hands. He watches us go as we move away from Him and from His will for us. He is there for us when we arrive at the place to which we think we have ‘escaped’ from Him. Watching. Waiting. Wooing. Welcoming, when we turn back to Him and to His will for us.

“Another way?” Is there an alternative to “rusting out”, “burning out” or “opting out”? There is a clue in the RSV translation of Rom 12:11, Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. The Message translation likewise has it as, Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fuelled and aflame. The word for “aglow” is (ζέω) zéō which can mean to bubble or boil and has the meaning to be fervent. The only other occurrence of the word in the New Testament is in Acts 18:25 where Luke describes Apollos as fervent in spirit or in the words of The Message, fiery in his enthusiasm. The Apostolic Bible Polyglot uses the word, “bubbling in the spirit” in both verses. The picture that comes to mind is that in Exodus 3:2, where it describes the burning bush, And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Many of us want to be aglow for God, fiery in our enthusiasm, God’s light shining through us brightly. But it has to be His light, not ours. The energy has to come from Him, not us. We can be the bush aglow with the light or glory of God, but we are not meant to be consumed, burnt up. If we are then there must be too much of self in what we are doing. The power has to come from His unlimited resources and not from our own limited ones.  St Paul understood this. He wrote about true Christian ministry and living as being motivated and empowered by God Himself, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Phil 2:12-15. He motivates. He empowers. We shine with His light as a result of what HE is doing in and through us.

When St Paul understood this he saw that he needed to come to the end of own resources and rely on Christ’s resources in him. As he put it (and as we long to express it ourselves), I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal 2:20.  So too do we need to die to self and live to Him, or in Paul’s words, let Him live His life in and through us!

Blog No.073.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Saturday 5th May 2012

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