First, let’s give Scripture for God’s eternality.

“From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Psalm 90:2

And we Christians would add … “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8

Other Verses could be cited. But I am writing for Believers anyway. Not necessarily to skeptics.

Yet, I wonder, is there an earthly example of God’s Permanence? Of His absolute unchangeableness?

I think so.

God created a witness, an example of His everlastingness!

How so?

Who?

What?

Not the sun, moon or stars! Not earth or even heaven!

It’s a Nation!

In a word, Israel!

Personalized, the Jew!

God promised Abraham long ago … “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:7-8, note the word “everlasting” twice here! And who are Abraham’s “seed?” The Jews!

Maybe a better “Proof Text” yet is Jeremiah 31:35-37. Enjoy it with me … “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.”

Sounds eternal to me!

Other nations by the dozens have come and gone!

Israel, against seemingly unsurmountable circumstances (the Egyptian servitude, the Babylonian Captivity, the Holocaust, etc.) has continued to exist!

Yes, she is God’s eternal witness to His faithfulness and unchangeableness and eternality!

I will not say … “Long live the Jew!”

Because I know he will!

Oh, what a God we serve!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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On the fourth day of creation God made the sun, moon and stars. See Genesis 1:14-16 … “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”

Notice that they (with the moon specifically in mind in our lesson here) were to be for “signs.” For “tokens,” as symbols.

We already know that Scripture often lets the sun typify our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Malachi 4:2 presents a good example … “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings …”

But what (or who) does the moon represent?

I think the “Church,” the very “Bride of Christ.”

Of course, one might surmise that the moon with all its craters (blemishes, scars, imperfections) would be a poor picture of the Church. Not so! We do have scars and spots and irregularities, many of them. Not a pretty sight, not on its own!

Yet in the Song of Solomon (a love story relating the developing relationship between a groom and his bride) the “moon” is feminized (“she”) and called “fair,” meaning “lovely” by definition! Even “pleasant!”

Song of Solomon 6:10 …“Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon?” Nothing here negates the moon as possibly being a symbol of the Bride!

But how so?

Craters and all, remember?

By reflecting the Light of the Sun! That radiant, brilliant Light, picturing Jesus as the “Light of the world!” Read with me John 8:12 … “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

The moon, which never shows its dark side (another picture of what the Church should be) … now focuses solely on the Sun. As the Bride should focus on the Son, the Bridegroom!

In so doing … she radiates the Sunlight!

Beautiful … because of Another!

Beautiful … because of Jesus!

True science (not science falsely so-called) always magnifies the Godhead!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Let’s focus on Jesus more tomorrow!

And less on ourselves.

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Most of my time lately has been consumed (joyfully) in preparing Revival Sermons (night after night) and studying for the Evening Meditations. (Our video Bible Studies.)

In fact, our next Class leads us into the 21st chapter of Revelation! Where we study the “new Heaven, new earth and new Jerusalem.”

I realize that some of you cannot watch videos due to poor Internet service, so I will try to keep you updated the old-fashioned way, here on the Website. After all, it is dedicated to the study of the Word of Giod as well!

Revelation 20 ended with this old world suffering a baptism of fire! “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” Revelation 20:9, the final defeat of Satan and his followers, even Millennial followers, rebels!

This prepared God’s Schedule for the “Great White Throne” Judgment! After which we see the new heaven and new earth and new Jerusalem!

Oh, how I wish you could watch the most recent Class …

Let’s keep studying the Word!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Or, as one Preacher worded it, “Where the Slip Begins!”

What drift, what slip?

The sometimes (at first) nearly imperceptible “drift” from the anchorage of the Chrisitan Faith, for the Things we believe!

All such apostasy (a Greek word meaning a “standing apart, a “stepping away”) begins with a questioning (then soon a denial) of some Portion of Holy Scripture!

DO NOT LET THE ASSAULTS OF THE WORLD “CRACK” YOUR CONFIDENCE IN THE WORD OF GOD!

RATHER, LET YOUR BIBLE “BLAST” THE LIES OF SATAN INTO OBLIVION, AS FAR AS YOUR LIFE IS CONCERNED ANYWAY!

Do not let Satan shake your confidence in Holy Writ.

Let your Bible be a “sledge-hammer” to crush the deceptive philosophies of the world. (The devil is a liar, remember! John 8:44 … “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”)

Instead, let Jeremiah 23:29 prevail in your thoughts, in your heart … “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a HAMMER that breaketh the rock in pieces?”

Way back in the Garden of Eden, the devil placed a question mark where God had demanded a period! And the Issue? God’s Word!

Genesis 3:1 … “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, YEA, HATH GOD SAID …?”

See the question mark?

Paul in Romans 3:4 addresses this issue: “Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar.”

NEVER ALLOW ANYTHING TO CAST EVEN A SHADOW OF A DOUBT ACROSS THE PAGES OF THE WORD OF GOD, THE SCRIPTURE OF TRUTH!

Read this verse in conclusion … “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Thus saith the Lord! (Isaiah 66:2)

Big difference between trembling at (honoring, respecting, reverencing) the Bible and questioning the Bible!

Be careful!

Don’t slip!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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In their fullest expression, nine Beatitudes of our Lord are recorded in Matthew chapter five.

This is my “favorite,” if I can use that terminology.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

The adjective “blessed” is plural in the Greek Textus Receptus, the Manuscript that gave us our King James New Testament.

Many blessings!

Multiple blessings!

Another adjective, “pure,” is suggestive as well. It presents the word picture of a man (or woman) scrubbing a tainted or tarnished vessel until it is shiny, sparkling clean!

Clean as in the “washing of water” by the Word of God! Ephesians 5:26, where we need tons of the water of God’s Word to keep us unsoiled, “pure in heart!”

Clean as if having bathed in Jesus’ Words! As in John 15:3 where He announced … “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”

This is progressive, ongoing, durative, habitual cleansing, sanctification really.

And the result?

“Blessed are the pure in heart: FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD.”

I am assuming this means … the cleaner we are (in heart), the more we will see (comprehend, understand, adore) our Heavenly Father! And His Son, our Saviour, the dear Lord Jesus Christ!

What a challenge!

Someone ponder this verse today, tonight.

Practice it!

Reap its benefits!

In this spiritual sense … purity leads to perception!

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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