Hidden (Krypto) Treasures

To get pearls, one must dive deep!

Category: The Name

I AM the Door

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On July 10, 2009

In Christian, I AM, The Name

Imagine that you are commissioned to sketch an architectural plan for a structure that will house every kind of living creature. Would you not plan for how you would take the living things in and out of the structure. There is a high degree of possibility that you will not only decide on the number of doors you would need to build, but also decide on where you are going to place them. Yet, when Noah built the ark, he was instructed to build ONE door on the side. ONE Door! (Genesis 6:16)

John 10 records one of Jesus’ ‘I AM’ statements and interestingly, Jesus states ‘I am the door’, not once but twice (John 10:7, John 10:9). In the first instance, Jesus potrays Himself as the PROTECTING door (of the sheep) that besets all perils that surround the flock in the fold. In the second instance, Jesus is very clear and explicit that He is indeed God’s PROVISIONARY door to save anyone who enter by Him. For those who believe in polytheistic (many gods) or pantheistic (all are gods) opinions, promoting that there are different means (doors) to be saved, I have some news for you – note Jesus did not say, I am a door, but he said, I am THE door. There is only one door by which man can be saved. Only those who entered through THE (one) door in the ark were saved from the flood.

As I pondered on this topic, I was reminded of another place where a door is mentioned in the Bible. This is the door to our Life or some may say the door to our heart for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). Outside this door you will find two seekers, wanting to get in. Genesis 4:7 states that sin lieth at this door with a desire to rule over you. Revelation 3:20 states that the savior Jesus Christ is standing at the door and knocking and if anyone hears His voice, let him open his door so that Jesus may come in and reign in you. These two seekers are SIN and the SAVIOR. You can only allow only one in, for what communion does the Light of the world (savior) have with darkness (sin). None!

Point(s) to ponder:

  • While sin wants to rule over you, the savior wants to reign in you.
  • We all must walk through THE Door (Jesus) to be saved, but that begins with us opening our Door (the door of our Life) for Jesus to walk into our lives. He is standing at the door of our life and knocking. The choice is yours, as to whether you want to open it for him or not.
  • Jesus wants all to enter by him (THE Door) but what a pity it would be for those who find themselves standing outside with a SHUT door when the bridegroom (Jesus) comes for his bride (you and me, the ekklesia) as warned in Matthew 25:10. Who will shut THE Door to salvation? It will be none other than the LORD. Note, how the scriptures says that once Noah, his family and the living things entered the ark, the LORD shut him in. (Genesis 7:16).  A time will come when THE Door (of your salvation) will be shut and no one can open. Inside THE Door is the breath of life (Genesis 7:15) and outside it is destruction, doom, death and decay as it was in the waters of the flood. If you have not let Jesus to walk into the door of your life, tarry no longer, I beseech you!

John 10:7,9 (KJV)
7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 
9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Rev 3:20 (KJV)
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Genesis 4:7 (KJV)
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Genesis 7:15-16 (KJV)
15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. 
16And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

I am Christ

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On July 9, 2009

In Christian, I AM, The Name

There are accounts of Jesus using indirect references to Himself as being the Messiah, a.k.a. the Anointed one a.k.a. the Christ, but isn’t is interesting to note that there is no direct record of Jesus saying ‘I am Christ’. In fact, when the disciples recognize Him to be the Christ (Mark 8:28-31), he cautions them they are not to tell that to anyone and when He uses the phrase ‘I AM Christ’, He is warning those who are listening that this claim will be made by many who are indeed not the Christ.

History records of cult (Heaven’s Gate, the Jonestown People’s Temple, Branch Davidians) leaders who have made this claim, only to deceive their followers, in the end. Even today this happens but in more subtle forms. Claims such as ‘I am a little messiah walking on the earth’ and ‘be gone critics, I am a little god’ by famous televangelists are prevalent even today. I say this with no bias toward televangelists, but only wish to say that we must check the validity of statements and claims without blindly accepting them. We must be like the Bereans (Acts 17:3, 10-11) who searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul and Silas were saying was true or not.

Point(s) to ponder:

Jesus, the only person who has the right to claim that He is the Christ, did not do so, but warned us, so that we wont be deceived by those who claim to be. When Jesus returns, every knee will bow and every tongue confess what He never directly claimed Himself  – ‘I AM Christ’. You can accept him as the Christ and Savior of your soul now or you wait for his return, but be aware and beware, because by then it will be too late as He will return as a Judge and we will all be judged. Jesus indeed is THE only CHRIST (Acts 17:3). Pay no attention whatsoever to anyone else who claims to be.  There is no other!

Additional reading – In the wake of Waco

Matthew 24:4-5, 23-24 (KJV)
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

I AM the Bread of life

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On July 8, 2009

In Christian, I AM, The Name

‘I AM the bread of life’ is the first of the seven ‘I AM’ statements in the gospel according to John, that is claimed by Jesus.  Jesus does not mention this once but three times does He explicitly call out that He was the bread of life (John 6:35), that bread of life (John 6:48) and living bread (John 6:51).

Exodus 16 records the incident of the daily provision of the LORD wherein He rained down bread from heaven that the Israelites called ‘manna’ for they knew not what it was (Manna means ‘what is it?’). (Exodus 16:15). It was a  mystery, just as Jesus is a mystery to some. Jesus refers to this manna in John 6 and calls to our attention that while the manna sustained the Israelites in their jouney to the promised land, it did not save them, for those who ate of it eventually died. Drawing that parallel, Jesus makes his first ‘I AM’ claim in which He talks about himself not just as a sustaining bread for our lives, but as a saving bread for our lives.

Point(s) to ponder:

  • Without food (bread), we will die physically, but without Jesus (the bread of life), we will die physically and spiritually. Double whammy!
  • Note the Israelites did not know what it was (manna), nonetheless they took and ate it. Food is absolutely useless to the one who does not eat of it. You may have the fanciest of food choices presented to you, but unless you take the first step of taking (accepting) it and eating (partaking) it, it’s nutitritive and life giving abilities remain merely in itself. Similarly, the bread of life (Jesus) is always available for our taking, even if we dont really know who He is, but unless we take the first step of accepting Him and partaking of Him, we  will continue in our road to physical and spiritual death.
  • The manna in the wilderness was found on the ground (Exodus 16:14) and in order for one to take it, they must have had to bend to the ground to pick it. Asking Jesus to be your bread of life is also a similar experience – we must first humble (bend our mind and heart) ourselves and take him into our hearts, accepting his sovereignity and Lordship.

Jesus said, I AM the bread of life and he that eateth of me (takes me into their heart) will never die, but live, and not just live, but live abundantly and eternally. The choice is yours now – whether you want to humble yourself and accept Him to be your living bread or the only other option is double whammy! It is time now, for you to decide.

John 6: 35,48-51 (KJV)
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
48 I am that bread of life.
49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: …

I AM Alpha and Omega

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On July 7, 2009

In Christian, I AM, The Name

In the revelation of Jesus Christ, the first I AM reference is to the reference of Jesus saying that “I AM Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending” (Revelation 1:8).  I have heard many call on Jesus and claim him to be the Alpha and the Omega and in the past, I have succumbed to calling on Jesus as the Alpha and Omega, without really understanding what this meant. As I pondered on this, I realized that at cursory review, a claim by someone that they are the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last is infact incongrous.  How can someone be the first and the last at the same time or in space? But as I delved deeper and sought the scriptures, it dawned on me that the incongruity lay in the fact that our limited human minds attempt to treat this statement from a temporal (time-bound) and spatial (space-bound) perspective. I came to realize there is more to this claim than our human minds can really comprehend.

For starters, the claim by Jesus that “I AM Alpha and Omega” speaks not only about the UNIQUENESS of Jesus (no one else can really make this claim), but also of His COMPLETENESS (akin to saying that I am the A-to-Z). Scholars have also attributed this saying to the ETERNAL attribute of God, from everlasting (beginning) to everlasting (ending), Jesus was, is and is to come and this is very valid.

But what really impressed me (upon deeper exploration) was the facts that I learned:

  • Jesus is the Alpha –  the firstborn (alpha) of all creation (Colossians 1:15), who was with God the Father in the Genesis (John 1:1), image of the invisible God, and everything was created by Him, of Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16-17).
  • Jesus is the Omega – the final (omega) sacrifice and there is no more a need for any more sacrifice for the atonement of the sinner to God (Hebrews 10:1-18). Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins, once and for all.  God does not seek anymore sacrifice because Jesus paid in full and finished the work (Tetelastai) of God’s redemptive plan to restore man/woman to God.

And even more impressive was that this claim in Revelation is also recorded in the book by the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 41:4 reads, “I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.”. Note, that the word LORD is a reference to Yahweh/Jehovah, meaning that the claim that God the Father is making is the same that Jesus claims. Remember, Jesus’ words, “I and the Father are one, and whoever has seen me has seen the Father”. Also note, how when God the Father is making this claim, he does not say that he is the last (because it was the Son of God who was the last (final) sacrifice), but instead He says that he is WITH the last”. If today, you and I find that we amount to nothing, that we are not winners, but instead the last, take solace in the promise that God is with the last, because of the redemptive act of his Son, Jesus Christ, who truly is the Firstborn and Final sacrifice, the Alpha and Omega.

Rev 1:8 (KJV)
8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

What’s in The Name?

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On July 6, 2009

In Christian, I AM, The Name

In the book, ‘The Name’ , Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham writes
“The Name stands before, beyond, and after all others. In the beginning was the Name. At the end will be the Name. In the present time, all things depend upon the Name. The Name is above all names. The Name will cause all knees to bow … yours, mine … for all time” and yet it is The Name that many so vehemently despise and demean while other revere it to the point of laying down their very lives, bearing it.
So what is it with The Name – The Name, Jesus? What’s in The Name?

A name is often given to reflect a quality or a character.  For God, who is supreme and indescribable, even the very expression of his character and quality by any name is in essence, limiting the infinite.  This I believe is the reason as to  why the response that Moses received when he asked the LORD for His Name was profoundly yet merely,  ‘I AM’ (Exodus 3:13). But the Bible also records various names and titles that are used to describe God, his Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In this series, ‘The names and titles of  The Name’, the ‘I AM’, we will attempt to get a glimpse of the infinite God, His character and qualities as expressed by names and titles, that we can understand.

The Apostle Paul writes that his commission on earth was to “Know the Name and to make The Name known” (Philippians 3:10, 1 Corinthians1:17,23).For now, let us journey together to search the hidden treasures in God’s word, apropos his names and conferred titles, so that we may be able to join with Paul and say that we may know Him, because only then, will we be able to make Him known.

Philippians 2:5-11 (KJV)
5 … Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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