More “In Christ” Quotes

"There is only one place where we are right with God and that is in Christ Jesus"

"Pray with the realization that you are perfect only in Christ Jesus."

-Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest, June 21)

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This site is a labor of love for Christ as I am led by the Spirit. If you have an interest in this concept of evangelism tool-making and encouragement and have creative skills with images, graphical powerpoints, infographics, mobile apps and want to join me in building this site, feel free to contact me at fpnole@evangelinformatics.com .

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29 05, 2015

Prophesied….Fulfilled….”Who Would Believe?”

There is so much interesting material to discuss as relates to prophecy and evangelism that I am now certain that even two prophecy-related evangelism tools will not be enough—but I will try and keep a little focus. My last post, Prophesy! Who Will Save You?, gave a big picture look at the biblical prophecies fulfilled through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Now it has been previously studied and published by Peter Stoner in Science Speaks using sound mathematic probability technique that even a small subset of fulfilled biblical prophecy is highly unlikely to have occurred in any one person by chance. So let me list this subset:

Prophecy Fulfillment
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Micah 5:2Born at BethlehemNow after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. Matthew 2:1
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3Preceded by MessengerIn those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 3:1,2
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9He was to enter Jerusalem on a donkey And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near---already on the way down the Mount of Olives---the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God.. Luke 19:35-37a
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. Psalm 41:9Betrayed by a friendNow the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son pf Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Matthew 10:2-4
And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. Zechariah 11:12Sold for 30 pieces of silverAnd said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. Matthew 26:15
And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. Zechariah 11:13bMoney to be thrown in God’s house/Price given for Potter’s fieldAnd he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed… Matthew 27:5a
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 53:7Dumb before accusers 12  But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 13  Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” 14  But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. Matthew 27:12-14
For dogs encompass me;a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet. Psalm 22:16Hands and Feet pierced  And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him,.. Luke 23:33
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12Crucified with thievesThen two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. Matthew 27:38

There was only 1 chance in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (1 in 1017) that fulfillment of these biblical prophecies happened by random chance. So the odds are highly in favor of these fulfilled prophecies not being by chance and thus leaving little other explanation than being the orchestrated and deliberate plan of an omnipotent being to save sinners. Just how important is the fact of fulfilled prophecies to the Christian faith? Consider that Jesus and the disciples spoke of fulfilled prophecies. Fulfilled prophecy was one of the main ways the disciples appealed to Christ as Messiah. The continued proclamation of prophetic fulfillment by the apostles and New Testament writers is made all the more credible through the examples of martyrdom, the gospel spread from one man to all nations, and the witness of transformed lives. There are several hundred references to the coming Messiah in the Old Testament which was completed in 450 B.C. As if appealing to the sheer unlikelihood of a person of history fulfilling so much prophecy, Isaiah prophesies well in advance of the vicarious work of the Suffering Servant, “Who hath believed our report?” which could also be stated “Who could believe what I am about to tell you?” Here is an excerpt from Christianity is Jewish by Edith Schaeffer that illustrates how I believe all mankind should respond when their minds have been opened to the truths of the gospel as spoken through prophecy. As Edith Schaeffer dialogs with a Jewish family in New York in 1947 she states

“I had been invited for a second evening of conversation with the Austrian Jewish dentist and his daughter, this time with my Bible, to answer some questions. With a Bible open on my lap, engrossed in answering questions, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a stream of university-age fellows passing the arched doorway. ‘My son’s fraternity meeting is here tonight,’ explained the man’s daughter. Soon the son came to the arched opening into the hall, and leaned against a post. He was trying to ask some catch questions concerning the Bible, which I carefully answered, and two other fellows were there to see the results. After a time I said, ‘Now I’ve been answering questions, I’d like to ask you one, if you don’t mind.’”

“‘Sure, go ahead.’”

“’’I’m going to read you a passage from one of your Jewish prophets, Isaiah, who lived seven hundred years before Jesus was born. Remember now, this was written seven hundred years before the birth of Christ.’”

“’Then I read:’ ‘He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:…He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:3-12)

“’Who was Isaiah referring to?’ The student gave a little snort, an impatient scornful kind of laugh, “Huh, that’s easy; that is a description of Jesus Christ.”

“In the moment of electric silence which followed this outburst I said with amazement, ‘Do you realize what you have just said? Don’t forget I was fair to you in prefacing what I read with telling you it was written seven hundred years before Christ was born.’”

“All three boys sat down as if someone had hit them with a violent blow, this son of the household with his head buried in his hands. Suddenly he looked up at me and said accusingly, ’Tell me then why the Jews don’t accept this Jesus Christ as the Messiah?’”

“My reply came as gently as I could make it. ‘You see, the early Christians all were Jews, because that is exactly what did happen: some Jews who read their Torah carefully and believed and waited for the Messiah, did recognize and accept him as the one who fulfilled the prophecies. You see Christianity is Jewish.’”

If you invest time, effort, and prayer to God in making a decision about the reliability and authenticity of the Old Testament translations and the historical reality of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, then you also should suffer a ‘violent blow’ as you realize that all which was prophesied concerning this Suffering Servant Christ in the Old Testament has indeed been fulfilled in this same Jesus. Oswald Chambers states that “The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ.” May the “violent blow” of fulfilled prophecy be used by the Holy Spirit to help us fully surrender to Christ as Almighty Lord and Savior and abandon our lives to the gospel. In addition to the “improbable” prophecies tool, I have also included a listing of instances where Jesus and the disciples make specific reference to Old Testament writings and prophecies noted as fulfilled in Christ.

Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith--to the only wise God be glory forever though Jesus Christ! Amen. Romans 16: 25-27


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24 05, 2013

Oh, The Places You’ll Go(with God)!

Developing relevant information “tools” for any endeavor such as evangelism takes time. It usually involves gathering information from varied resources, or collecting information from a very large and detailed resource and formatting it in a way that will be understandable and useful for those who will use the tool. This first “tool” I will post goes back many years and it provides a way to challenge “graduates” of various kinds to not leave God out of their lives. In fact, they should bow before Him in humble gratitude in all situations because He did not even spare His own Son, but “gave him up for us all.” (Romans 8:32)

I would venture that many thousands of graduates each year receive the book  Oh, The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss. I received a copy myself from my oldest sister when I graduated from Florida State University back in 1992. Interestingly, I had started preparing for this tool entry on the site recently and I happened to see a college-aged patient in the hospital. As I was talking with this patient about her illness, I looked towards the window and noticed a brand new copy of Oh, The Places You’ll Go! sitting on the air conditioner. 21 years have passed since I received my copy and yet, sure enough, the patient told me she received it at a graduation event that had taken place recently.

The problem here is that this beloved book goes entirely counter to a God-centered (Theistic) view of the world. It is entirely atheistic in its dialogue and ultimately appears to portray a secular humanistic view of a person’s life events. I know that it is only a storybook, but this is not the kind of information that true Christian parents, family, or friends should pass on as some legitimate form of “truth” about their life journey. The Bible is an inspired collection of 66 books encompassing history, wisdom, prophecy, poetry and other forms of prose. There is much to be gained from applying relevant verses to life’s journeys including both the ups and the downs.

The Oh, the Places You’ll Go (with God)! tool is a spreadsheet of bible verses with the relevant corresponding page numbers from the Dr. Seuss book. This allows the “graduate” to receive their “traditional” storybook gift while at the same time balancing the story’s philosophy with sound biblical truth, pointing the graduate to God during this important transition in their life. Click the button links below to be taken to the tool. The PDF can be color printed and placed inside the book, or even better, the verses can be manually written into the book (a labor of love with an example seen above) so that the reader  immediately sees the comparative biblical view.

Parents typically invest all kinds of effort into the safe and loving care of their children to get them to milestones like graduation. An important analogy, described by theologian J.I. Packer, regarding our own relationship with God, emerges. A young child will hear “baby talk” from a parent. That “baby talk” does not really represent who that parent is, but that child will grow in their trust and love of their parent if that “baby talk” conveys truth (e.g. “No, No, No. Hot!”, “Eat. Yummy.”). We need to realize that God communicates with us through His Word like “baby talk”. Much of God will remain mystery to us, but if what we do know  is truthful and life-giving, then “the truest expression of trust in a great God will always be worship, and it will always be proper worship to praise God for being far greater than we can know.” (Packer (1993), p.53)

Oh, the places we’ll go with God! Amen.

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