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Jesus on the shore
of the Sea of Galilee, eating
fish
John 21:4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore,
but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus...12 Jesus said to them,
"Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are
you?" They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it
to them, and did the same with the fish. 14
This was now the third
time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
NIV
"Fishers
of men"
Matt 4:19 "Come, follow
me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." NIV
The disciples soon found out that being fishermen was what "discipleship"
on Jesus' team was all about. Jesus' final command to his disciples summarizes
what he offered and how to qualify to receive it:
Mark 16:15 He said to
them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe
will be condemned. NIV
Contrary to what many
presume, Jesus didn't decend to human level to serve as an "equalizer"
between people. In fact, he said himself:
"Do not suppose that
I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace,
but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter
against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's
enemies will be the members of his own household." Matthew
10:34-36.- |
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| John 4:9-10 The Samaritan
woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you
ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus
answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for
a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living
water." NIV
What makes the
God of the Bible a "Living God?"
He characterizes himself as "living" as against
"dead
idols" in Jeremia 4:1,
"O Israel, if you will truly return to me and absolutely discard your idols,
2 and if you will swear by me alone, the living God, and begin to live good,
honest, clean lives, then you will be a testimony to the nations of the world,
and they will come to me and glorify my name." TLB
He calls Himself a "living
God" 33 times in the Living Bible (28 times in the NIV). What makes Him
a living God is such a tricky question that few believers attempt
to explain it. It can be explained, though, from
the angle of Him, the God of Israel, Jehovah, being able to appear on earth
in a living body as,
a
Man***, the
Angel of the
Lord***, God's Son*^*, the
Messiah***,
the
WORD***, vs.
other spirits having dead
objects to represent
them; viz. rocks, statues, symbols like towers, needles, pillars, domes
(fertility signs),
etc. Lifeless
Idols
 Proof
that He is a Living God
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The THREE MEN
who visited Abraham: one was definitely God or Messiah:
Genesis 18:2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.
When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and
bowed low to the ground. 3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes,
my
lord, do not pass your servant
by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet
and rest under this tree...9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him.
"There, in the tent," he said. 10 Then
the
LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year,
and Sarah your wife will have a son." Now Sarah was listening at the entrance
to the tent, which was behind him. |
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Judges 6:12 When
the Angel of
the Lord appeared
to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." ... 14 The
LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel
out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" NIV |
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Psalms 2:7 I will
proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today
I have become your Father
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will
be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel
(God with us)
Isaiah 53:2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a
root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him
Luke 1:31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to
give him the name Jesus (Yeshua). 32 He will be great and will
be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the
throne of his father David 33 And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;
his kingdom will never end. 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel,
"since I am a virgin? 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one
to be born will be called the Son of God |
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Matt 16:15 Then he asked them, "Who do you
think I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "The Christ, the
Messiah, the Son of the living God."
17 "God has blessed you, Simon, son of Jonah," Jesus said, "for my Father
in heaven has personally revealed this to you-this is not from any human
source. TLB
Matt 26:63 Then the High Priest said to him, "I demand in the name of the
living God that you tell us whether you claim to be the
Messiah, the Son of God." 64 "Yes,"
Jesus said, "I am. And in the future you will see me, the Messiah, sitting
at the right hand of God and returning on the clouds of heaven." TLB
Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will
be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him
Immanuel. NIV
Isa 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government
will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace. NIV |
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John 1:1 In the beginning
was the
WORD, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... 14
The Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among
us.
We have seen
his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full
of grace and truth.
Prov 8:22 "The LORD brought me
(Wisdom) forth as the first of his
works, before his deeds of old; 23 I was appointed from eternity, from the
beginning, before the world began. NIV |
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Idols
of Dead gods have filth (demons) attached to them |
2 Cor 6:16 And what union
can there be between
God's
temple and idols?
For you are God's temple,
the home of the
living
God, and God
has said of you, "I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be
their God and they shall be my people." 17 That is why the Lord has said,
"Leave
them;
separate yourselves
from them; don't
touch their filthy things,
and I will welcome you
18 and be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters." TLB
Jer 10:1 Hear the word of the Lord, O Israel: 2 "Don't act like the
people who make horoscopes and try to read their fate and future in the stars!
Don't be frightened by predictions such as theirs, for it is all a pack of
lies. Their ways are futile and foolish. They cut down a tree and carve an
idol; 4 they decorate it with gold and silver and fasten it securely in place
with hammer and nails so that it won't fall over. 5 And there stands their
god like a helpless scarecrow in a garden! It cannot speak, and it must be
carried, for it cannot walk. Don't be afraid of such a god, for it can neither
harm nor help nor do you any good."
6 O Lord, there is no
other god like you. For you are great, and your name is full of power.
7 Who
would not fear you, O King of nations? (And that title belongs to you alone!)
Among all the wise men of the earth and in all the kingdoms of the world
there isn't anyone like you. 8 The wisest of men who worship idols are altogether
stupid and foolish. 9 They bring beaten sheets of silver from Tarshish and
gold from Uphaz and give them to skillful goldsmiths who make their idols;
then they clothe these gods in royal purple robes that expert tailors
make. 10 But
the Lord is the only true God, the living God, the everlasting King.
The whole earth shall tremble at his anger; the world shall hide before his
displeasure. TLB |
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(Fertility signs: Phalluses (reminiscent
of obelisks), breast, pregnant belly) |
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Proof that He is a Living God is evident from
the following:
Josh 3:9 Then Joshua summoned all the people and told them, "Come and
listen to what the Lord your God has said. 10 Today you are going to know
for sure that the living God is among you and that he will, without fail,
drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites,
and Jebusites-all the people who now live in the land you will soon occupy.
TLB
Ps 135:10 He struck down many nations and killed mighty kings-- 11 Sihon
king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan and all the kings of Canaan-- 12
and he gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to his people Israel.
NIV
Acts 14:15 "Men! What are you doing? We are merely human beings like yourselves!
We have come to bring you the Good News that you are invited to turn from
the worship of these foolish things and to pray instead to the living
God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. 16 In
bygone days he permitted the nations to go their own ways, 17 but he never
left himself without a witness; there were always his reminders-the
kind things he did such as sending you rain and good crops and giving you
food and gladness." TLB
Jer 10:14 But foolish men without knowledge of God bow before their idols.
It is a shameful business that these men are in, for what they make are
frauds, gods without
life or power in
them. 15 All are
worthless, silly; they will be crushed when their makers perish. 16 But the
God of Jacob is not like these foolish idols.
He is the Creator
of all, and Israel is his chosen nation. The Lord Almighty is his
name. TLB |
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Being a
"living God," He has following
characteristics:
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Can eventually rule
the nations in person (from his city, Jerusalem - Zion)
Gen 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from
between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of
the nations is his.
Ps 2:2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together
against the LORD and against his Anointed One... 6 "I have installed my King
on Zion, my holy hill." ...8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your
inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You will rule them
with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
Psalm 89:29 I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as the
heavens endure...
Isa 24:23 "…the LORD of hosts shall reign in Mt. Zion, and in
Jerusalem…"
Zech 14:4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of
Jerusalem, ... 9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day
there will be one LORD, and his name the only name...16 Then the survivors
from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year
to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of
Tabernacles. |
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The "complete" number,
SEVEN, is associated with the true God, the God of Israel.
For this reason he chose the Seventh day as his day of REST:
Gen 2:2 By the seventh
day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he
rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
NIV
As against this, Allah
of Islam chose the SIXTH day. Consequently, we can say he didn't create man
because he was resting that day - fact is, that he didn't create anything
and he doesn't need to rest -- something we see in the way the Muslims keep
their Holy Day: they just stop work to go and pray. Six, however, is an
incomplete number, the number of man:
"Here is wisdom. Let
him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the
number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." Revelation
13:18 KJV
The word seven
occurs 379 times in the NIV; seven hundred 8 times; seventh
116 times. Total 503
The word Six occurs 97 times in the NIV; six hundred 26
times; sixth 44 times. Total 167
Based purely on numerology, we can therefore say that the Bible is a book
of sevens.
How can Allah, a spirit, have the number of
man?
It is probably due to him not having a human body (a Son, like Messiah Yeshua)
who could have been given for the sins of men -- instead men have to give
their sons as human sacrifices --- worthless redemption that cannot
pave a way to heaven (even for suicide bombers) because it is limited to
human level. (The promise of 72 virgins for shahids, is of course false,
since spirits cannot experience physical pleasures that are limited to the
human, physical, level.)
( Back to
Altar#Messiah) |
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He is awesome and
it is dangerous to
blaspheme
him or to harm
his Son
Deut 5:26 What man can hear, as we have, the voice of the living God speaking
from the heart of the fire, and live? You go and listen to all that God says,
then come and tell us, and we will listen and obey.' TLB
Ps 18:46 God is alive! Praise him who is the great rock of protection. 47
He is the God who pays back those who harm me and subdues the nations before
me [David/Jesus]. (God is not a peace seeking humanist) TLB
Jer 10:10 But the Lord is the only true God, the living God, the everlasting
King. The whole earth shall tremble at his anger; the world shall hide before
his displeasure. TLB
Isa 37:4 But perhaps the Lord your God heard the blasphemy of the king of
Assyria's representative as he scoffed at the living God. Surely God won't
let him get away with this. TLB (He doesn't need human actions like fatwas
to protect His honor) |
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Sovereign to do as
He pleases
Job 27:2 "I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights, even the
Almighty God who has embittered my soul, TLB
Isaiah 44:27 Who says to the watery deep, 'Be dry, and I will dry up your
streams,
Isaiah 44:28 Who says of Cyrus (a heathen), 'He is my shepherd and will
accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt,"
and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid." |
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Others
(unbelievers) also recognized His reputation as the Living God
Dan 6:19 Very early the next morning he hurried out to the lions' den 20
and called out in anguish, "O Daniel, servant of the Living God, was your
God, whom you worship continually, able to deliver you from the lions?" TLB
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Being able to become
"human" in every way, he could die for our sins and identify with our
problems
Isa 52:14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him--his appearance
was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human
likeness-- 53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to
his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse
for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." 14
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to
the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the
promise of the Spirit. NIV |
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Have
prerogatives like special people: |
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Jews are sons, children
of the Living God - his inheritance
Num 6:27 "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."
NIV
Deut 14:1 You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves
or shave the front of your heads for the dead, 2 for you are a people holy
to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the
LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession. NIV
1 Kings 8:53 For you singled them out from all the nations of the world to
be your own inheritance, ... NIV
Isa 63:8 He said, "Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false
to me"; and so he became their Savior. NIV
Jer 10:16 ...He
is the Creator of all, and Israel is his chosen nation. The Lord Almighty
is his name. TLB
Jer 31:9 because I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son. NIV
Hosea 1:10 "Yet the time will come when Israel shall prosper and become a
great nation; in that day her people will be too numerous to count-like sand
along a seashore! Then, instead of saying to them, 'You are not my people,'
I will tell them, 'You are my sons, children of the Living God.' TLB |
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the nations are
your inheritance
Ps 82:8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are your
inheritance. NIV |
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Heathen
(goyim) can also become sons of the Living God
Isa 19:23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria.
The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians
and Assyrians will worship together. 24 In that day Israel will be the third,
along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25 The LORD Almighty
will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork,
and Israel my inheritance." NIV
Isa 49:5 "And
now," said the Lord-the Lord who formed me from my mother's womb to serve
him who commissioned me to restore to him his people Israel, who has given
me the strength to perform this task and honored me for doing it!- 6 "you
shall do more than restore Israel to me.
I will make you
a Light to the nations of the world to bring my salvation to them
too."
TLB
Rom 9:25 Remember what the prophecy of Hosea says? There God says that he
will find other children for himself (who are not from his Jewish family)
and will love them, though no one had ever loved them before. 26 And the
heathen, of whom it once was said, "You are not my people," shall be called
"sons of the Living God." TLB
In other words, those who have met and accepted Him personally:
Ps 42:1 As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. 2 I thirst
for God, the living God. Where can I find him to come and stand before him?
TLB
1 Tim 4:9 This is the truth and everyone should accept it. We work hard and
suffer much in order that people will believe it, for our hope is in the
living God who died for all, and particularly for those who have accepted
his salvation. TLB
Heb 9:14 just think how much more surely the blood of Christ will transform
our lives and hearts. His sacrifice frees us from the worry of having to
obey the old rules and makes us want to serve the living God. For by the
help of the eternal Holy Spirit, Christ willingly gave himself to God to
die for our sins-he being perfect, without a single sin or fault. TLB |
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His own Inheritance
(Homeland - occupied by his chosen people, Israel)
Ex 15:16 Your people whom you purchased Will pass by them (Edomites)
in safety. 17 You will bring them in and plant them on your mountain, Your
own homeland (inheritance - NIV), Lord- The sanctuary you made for them to
live in... 32:13 ... and I will give them all of this land I have promised
to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" TLB |
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The
Word is alive because it's from the Spirit of the living
God.
2 Cor 3:3 They can see that you are a letter from Christ, written by us.
It is not a letter written with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of the living
God; not one carved on stone, but in human hearts. TLB |
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