Belief in Christ

Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Last week's column was on the critical issue of belief, however belief in and of itself means nothing unless you understand what it is that we are believing in. You can believe in George Washington, you can believe in a light switch to bring you light, we can even believe in our belief, but none of those things will save us. What is really critical is what we are believing in, if you have true belief, but it is in works to save you, then your belief means nothing, our belief must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, very few people who think they know who Jesus is, actually know the Jesus of the scriptures, they want to take Jesus on their own terms instead of going to the Bible to find out who it says He is. It is my desire to show you the Jesus of the Bible, (if such a thing is possible in such few words as I have at my disposal here.)
The first thing we need to address is just which Jesus we are talking about, Jesus was and still is a very common name among Jews. In Hebrew it is the same name as Joshua, and it is not enough for us to believe in just any of the many Jesus' of today or history. Peter specifies it when he says "that same Jesus", the Jesus that Peter is talking about is the one that was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died as an innocent man, and raised himself the third day. If you disagree with any of those facts, you are not believing in "that same Jesus" that I am believing in, and that Peter was preaching, if you deny any of that about Jesus you are putting your trust in a Jesus that is never mentioned in scripture.
The second thing that Peter preached about this Jesus is that He was the Christ. It is not enough for you to believe in Jesus the good man, or in Jesus the prophet, or Jesus the miracle worker. Believing in the Jesus of the Bible means that you believe He was the Christ, the Messiah, the chosen one of God, and in fact God Himself. The scriptures use the phrase "Jesus Christ" standing alone, without any other words describing Him, 93 times. How can anyone claim to believe in the Jesus of the Bible and yet deny the fact that He was the Christ? You can't, saving belief includes believing that He was and is the Christ.
The third and final description that Peter said was so intrinsically intertwined into who Jesus is that there is no salvation outside of it, is that this same Jesus is also Lord. This is a doctrine that is bucked by many and yet there can be no more escaping this fact then the truth that he is Christ, because the name Jesus is proceeded by the title "Lord" 115 times in the New Testament. To say that you believe in Jesus and yet refuse to submit to his authority as Lord, you would have to tear 115 verses out of the Bible. To believe in the Jesus of the Bible it is expedient that you believe that He is Lord, and if He is Lord then we need to be obeying His commandments, and that is where so many people get hung up. They want to believe that they have been saved from hell, but when the rubber meets the road they don't want it bad enough to except it on God's terms, they want to get it on their own terms. They want to be saved from hell but not from their sins, until God has brought you to a point where you are willing to believe on the Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus of Peter, Paul, and Silas, then there can be no salvation.
Belief is the critical doctrine of Christendom, but it is all a bunch of rot if you are not believing in the right person, I would challenge you to examine your own life and see just who you have believed in. Was it the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever believed at all? Believe in the Jesus of the scriptures and be saved.

Biblical Authority

Rom. 13:1,2 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God:" Aug 29, 2007
I was speaking with someone the other day, and we got to talking about the fact that in the south, people don't like to be told what to do. There are many people who might never go to Wal-mart, but if you told them they couldn't got to Wal-mart, they would go just to prove to you that they would do what they wanted to do. Unfortunately this is not just a southern thing, this is built in to every human being. When God created this world he created in a perfect state, he created man with only one rule, that they couldn't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan, (who had already rebelled against God himself) convinced Eve to rebel and eat of the forbidden fruit, ever since man has had an intuitive desire to rebel against authority. There are those who say, "I will submit to God, but not a man, no man has the right to tell me what to do." The bible says otherwise, the bible says all the men that are in authority here on earth are put there by God and to rebel against their authority is to rebel against God.
When Adam and Eve were first created they were perfect, but when sin and rebellion entered there was the need for a new system to restore order and decency, God chose to use authority to do this. He placed the husband as the authority over the wife, he placed parent as authorities over the children, he put pastors over congregations, and civil authorities over governments, in order to restore a system of decency. We all know that a battle can not be won without an officer giving the commands, a football game cannot be won without a coach calling the plays, and families, churches and governments operate under this same principle. The devil also knows this and is working hard to destroy the biblical call for authority, he tells parents not to restrict their children, but instead to be their buddies, parents are not supposed to be their child's buddy but their authority! Satan tells us churches are made to be run as a democracy where everyone has equal say, pastors aren't supposed to be just another member with equal say, but an authority that will give an account to God for what the church did. Satan tells us that policemen, congressmen, the president, etc. are a bunch of clowns messing up our country, the bible says they were put in authority by God, and we as the general public are to submit ourselves to them.
Unless an authority commands you to directly violate scripture, you are to obey them. rebellion is not a joke, it is not something to be proud of, it is a sin that the bible likens to witchcraft (I Sam. 15:23). If I claimed to be a christian and a member of Wicca, any biblical church would kick me out, yet we have churches whose pews are filled with men and women that refuse to submit themselves to authority, and we think little of it. I would call on every man , woman, boy and girl, to examine their lives and make sure they are in biblical submission to authority. I would also ask every husband, parent, pastor, and civil authority, to stop tiptoeing around everyone's feelings and start asserting your God given authority. Because one day you will give God an account for how those under your authority acted, and you will have to explain to God why you chose to throw off your responsibility.