Messiah 2016!! - July 2016


MJAA Promo 2016 from The Joseph Project on Vimeo.

Located in Grantham, PA at Messiah College (Where else??? :)

Israel- Small but Outstanding!




If you have never gone to Israel, you really do not know what you are missing! My wife and I have gone twice. We learned so much by seeing, by listening to our guide, Arie Ben David!!!

We recommend going with Christian or Jewish experts who understand the Bible and KNOW that you want to see where Biblical events happened!

Our favorite tours have always been with First Century Foundations.

It's Over! Get Over It!

I am sure we have all heard these expressions; "It's over!" "Get over it!"

They are usually spoken when someone wants to continue something that cannot nor should not be continued. A fight, a quarrel, a rule, a year, a birthday. They all come and go and very often we cannot change what happened. The past is the past and is not repeated. The same is true of God's times or "ages".


The Age of the Law began when the law was given to Moses and ended with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through the law God revealed his standard for righteousness and holiness, through his Word and the Law. He revealed His plan of salvation and redemption, so that we may become righteous.


Jesus fulfilled the Law (means "completed") and taught over and over again that He had brought a New Covenant. It is everywhere in the New Testament or "New Covenant" of the Bible. 


Not only did he fulfill the Law but he fulfilled the requirement of salvation for us through His death and resurrection..


"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Romans 10:4


The word "end" means "the termination, the aim, the purpose, finish, close, or fulfillment." Jesus brought fulfillment to the Age of the Law as it says in Mathew 5:17. He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.


He brought the Age of the Law to a close by fulfilling it. His resurrection brought that age to an end because he fulfilled the Law.


The Law helped us to understand the God's holiness, His plan of redemption, His purposes, and the standard required to be saved. We see that God provided the way (the sacrifice) of salvation, the Messiah.


The resurrection of Jesus brought in the Age of Grace which continues until the Great Tribulation.


God's Covenants with Israel


A covenant is a pledge or promise or contract between parties to carry out certain agreed upon terms.


The terms of the covenant are permanent and unalterable and cannot be broken or terminated by either party. Depending on its terms, it may be either conditional or unconditional. 


The covenant of our salvation is NOT between us and God, but between the Father and the Son. Christ was willing to be our sacrificial lamb which fulfilled God's righteous requirement for the redemption of mankind. We did nothing to fulfill anything.


When we placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we became beneficiaries of the New Covenant.


We mentioned previously that there are many covenants in the Bible between God and a man, or men, or a nation. 


The Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional. God did not ask Abraham to do anything to fulfill it. He made a promise to him and continued that promise to Isaac and Jacob. We are also included in that covenant if we have put our faith and life in the hands of Jesus.


Genesis 17:5-8

"No longer will your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
"I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.
"And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations. for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you."
"Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." 
The Mosaic Covenant was made between God and the nation of Israel at Mt. Sinai. This covenant was conditional and based on Israel's obedience to the Law and could be broken. "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you will be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine" Exodus 19:5

The Mosaic Covenant was conditional depending on whether Israel would be blessed by keeping the Laws of God. Deuteronomy 28 describes this and the consequences of breaking this Mosaic Covenant.


The New Covenant


The prophet Jeremiah first spoke of the New Covenant which God had already prepared when Israel repeatedly broke the Mosaic Covenant.


But the New Covenant only came into effect when Jesus Christ came and sealed the New Covenant with His own blood. The blessings of the New Covenant are similar to the Abrahamic Covenant because they are based on a heart of faith.



"Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah ---- not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people." Jeremiah 31:31-33 
Through the blood sacrificed by Jesus, He has made a new covenant for those that put their faith in Him. "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Mathew 26:28

The new covenant was sealed and ratified by Jesus willingness to take our place on the cross, who even to this day mediates our covenant.


Romans 11:27-29


"For this is My covenant with them, 

When I take away their sins
Concerning the gospel they (the Jews) are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."


(more later)


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