In reading this I couldn't help but notice Joseph's perspective of his motive in contrast to the angel's perspective.
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:" - Matthew 1:18-22 ESV
The angel communicated that fear was at the root of Joseph's thoughts of purposeful abandonment. Joseph was about to make a fear based decision. The child clearly wasn't 'his' child but the child would save 'his people.'
Joseph was just and his fear was hidden behind good intentions. That is a danger associated with being a moral good person. Decisions can get a layer of justification.
The angel dared Joseph to switch to a redemptive mindset.
I think God wants us to make that shift in areas today. We must move from what is good in our own eyes to what is redemptive in God's eyes in order to see 'prophetic' fulfilment on a personal level.
--
Showing posts with label Redemption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Redemption. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Is Cain Fully Human?
Today I briefly explore the question:
Is Cain fully human?
Some of you may be saying 'What?!?" and it is understandable. It sounds like an idea out of a science fiction novel.
This concept is actually at the root of a great deal of hatred and dehumanizing of people groups. One of the pieces of 'secret knowledge' that closed groups reveal to their initiated. They then claim that 'not all people are people' and 'we are better'.
They use the King James language of this next passage and the fact that Cain was omitted from the Genesis 5 genealogy of Adam (with other conceptual leaps based on Hebrew word meanings) as proof.
"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." - 1 John 3:8-12 KJV
A more modern translation of this passage reads like this:
"Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous." - 1 John 3:8-12 ESV
A little clearer. Right.
It is a dangerous idea because it brings people down a path that dehumanizes others. If Cain isn't human then he is 'unsavable', lacking a soul, then it follows that there are other people who are also. Those people are less than human. History shows us where this thinking leads.
Fortunately, the scripture is very clear on what Cain is and who salvation is for.
"Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD." - Genesis 4:1 ESV
Simple. Literal. Clear. Adam's son who is omitted from the family line because of his departure from God to do his own thing. A 'way' many others have followed also.
"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time." - 1 Timothy 2:1-6 ESV
The Gospel is the higher knowledge and God doesn't want it to be a secret.
All people are people. All people need a saviour. Some won't choose Jesus but it isn't because they can't it is because they won't.
I truly feel sad for those who work their way up a ladder in a false system and have nonsense like this given to them after years of life are wasted. Salvation is so simple yet impossible for the one who desires to retain an air of superiority. It is only for the humbled who are finally ready for the simple truth.
--
Is Cain fully human?
Some of you may be saying 'What?!?" and it is understandable. It sounds like an idea out of a science fiction novel.
This concept is actually at the root of a great deal of hatred and dehumanizing of people groups. One of the pieces of 'secret knowledge' that closed groups reveal to their initiated. They then claim that 'not all people are people' and 'we are better'.
They use the King James language of this next passage and the fact that Cain was omitted from the Genesis 5 genealogy of Adam (with other conceptual leaps based on Hebrew word meanings) as proof.
"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." - 1 John 3:8-12 KJV
A more modern translation of this passage reads like this:
"Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous." - 1 John 3:8-12 ESV
A little clearer. Right.
It is a dangerous idea because it brings people down a path that dehumanizes others. If Cain isn't human then he is 'unsavable', lacking a soul, then it follows that there are other people who are also. Those people are less than human. History shows us where this thinking leads.
Fortunately, the scripture is very clear on what Cain is and who salvation is for.
"Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD." - Genesis 4:1 ESV
Simple. Literal. Clear. Adam's son who is omitted from the family line because of his departure from God to do his own thing. A 'way' many others have followed also.
"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time." - 1 Timothy 2:1-6 ESV
The Gospel is the higher knowledge and God doesn't want it to be a secret.
All people are people. All people need a saviour. Some won't choose Jesus but it isn't because they can't it is because they won't.
I truly feel sad for those who work their way up a ladder in a false system and have nonsense like this given to them after years of life are wasted. Salvation is so simple yet impossible for the one who desires to retain an air of superiority. It is only for the humbled who are finally ready for the simple truth.
--
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Remembering Today
Histories are written and edited. I often think that way about our personal histories also.
"For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes... He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." - Revelation 7:17; 21:4 ESV
What if our memories will only consist of what we did by faith and everything else just falls away on the cutting room floor to be swept away.
What will be remembered from today? Will it be remembered at all? Perhaps some days will be very short or even missing from our memories. We get up go to the bathroom and realize that there is no toothpaste and 'poof' everything else is gone from that day. We are just waking up again the next day.
The Gospel is such good news. We are forgiven.
"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." - Hebrews 11:6 ESV
"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." - Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV
Most of all can't recall large portions of our lives. There will come a day when everything will come back into focus like we can only dream of it now. Our mind will be fully reclaimed. Our soul already is. God has purchased us and will one day restore us to a glory we can only imagine. We will see things that are invisible to us now.
"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:11-12 ESV
If we redeem the time we will have the clarity of participation. We can stake a 'grace claim' on time and space. This day can either blow away like chaff in the wind or it can be a day of gold, silver and precious stones. Will adversity steal our memory? Will disappointment? No. We can live by faith in what Jesus has done and get all of today into the final cut of the redemption story.
Thank You God.
--
"For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes... He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." - Revelation 7:17; 21:4 ESV
What if our memories will only consist of what we did by faith and everything else just falls away on the cutting room floor to be swept away.
What will be remembered from today? Will it be remembered at all? Perhaps some days will be very short or even missing from our memories. We get up go to the bathroom and realize that there is no toothpaste and 'poof' everything else is gone from that day. We are just waking up again the next day.
The Gospel is such good news. We are forgiven.
"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." - Hebrews 11:6 ESV
"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." - Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV
Most of all can't recall large portions of our lives. There will come a day when everything will come back into focus like we can only dream of it now. Our mind will be fully reclaimed. Our soul already is. God has purchased us and will one day restore us to a glory we can only imagine. We will see things that are invisible to us now.
"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:11-12 ESV
If we redeem the time we will have the clarity of participation. We can stake a 'grace claim' on time and space. This day can either blow away like chaff in the wind or it can be a day of gold, silver and precious stones. Will adversity steal our memory? Will disappointment? No. We can live by faith in what Jesus has done and get all of today into the final cut of the redemption story.
Thank You God.
--
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
The Final Cut
Last night I spent over an hour watching color film footage shot by Rosie Newman in the 1930s. She is most famous for capturing footage of the Queen as a little girl but she also shot extensive footage of India, Scotland and Eygpt just before World War II and then footage of the horrors of war in England during that bloody conflict.
I take video and film for granted. I have had access to it all my life but there was a time when film, especially color film, was only for the rich. Most of human history was not recorded in this way. It is a peculiar breakthrough if you think about it but the Bible speaks of this technology in an indirect way.
"And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth... And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here!' And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them." - Revelation 11:3, 7-12 ESV
People from all over the world will see them in the span of a few day? What?! That is preposterous!... two hundred years ago it was unfathomable...
"And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven." - Revelation 11:13 ESV
I hope someone hits the record button because that world will never be the same...
These events haven't happened yet but they will. The text is given in the past tense because that is how God sees it.
Last night I got a rare glimpse of the past because a rich connected woman used some methods new to her time to capture history but this morning I get a rare glimpse into the future because I opened a book the King of the universe inspired human authors to write because He loved a tiny dust mite like me.
If your name is written in Heaven (because you have believed in Jesus) then your history is also recorded there... past, present and future... there is still time but time is slowly running out. Don't wait. Pray today. Ask today. Believe today. Jesus is real and alive and history is already recorded somewhere. Don't end up as a piece of film on the cutting room floor. Trust in Him and you will be in the final cut of the epic of redemption.
--
I take video and film for granted. I have had access to it all my life but there was a time when film, especially color film, was only for the rich. Most of human history was not recorded in this way. It is a peculiar breakthrough if you think about it but the Bible speaks of this technology in an indirect way.
"And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth... And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here!' And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them." - Revelation 11:3, 7-12 ESV
People from all over the world will see them in the span of a few day? What?! That is preposterous!... two hundred years ago it was unfathomable...
"And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven." - Revelation 11:13 ESV
I hope someone hits the record button because that world will never be the same...
These events haven't happened yet but they will. The text is given in the past tense because that is how God sees it.
Last night I got a rare glimpse of the past because a rich connected woman used some methods new to her time to capture history but this morning I get a rare glimpse into the future because I opened a book the King of the universe inspired human authors to write because He loved a tiny dust mite like me.
If your name is written in Heaven (because you have believed in Jesus) then your history is also recorded there... past, present and future... there is still time but time is slowly running out. Don't wait. Pray today. Ask today. Believe today. Jesus is real and alive and history is already recorded somewhere. Don't end up as a piece of film on the cutting room floor. Trust in Him and you will be in the final cut of the epic of redemption.
--
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
White As Snow
The conscience is a funny thing.
"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
-
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" - Hebrews 9:13-14 KJV
Unlike material objects the conscience isn't cleaned by soap or detergent.
Did blood purify? Why? An eye for an eye works on the conscience. You hurt me so I hurt you and balance is preserved. Even children get this. No one needs to teach it. Children need to unlearn it.
Adam's wounds are incurable. He wounds others to balance things out. Terrible... but true.
'I'm sorry.' is a substitute but often a poor one for aching Adam.
God gave an animal sacrifice to Adam. Blood was spilled. It is terrible really it is. An innocent thing dying because of his mistake or just outright transgression... but it is that way. Innocents suffer because of mistakes and that old conscience gets stains no on can seem to reach.
If blood for blood worked, and it did to a degree, then how much more does what Jesus did work?
Like I said the conscience isn't like an object. We can clean something even if it doesn't want to be clean with soap but the conscience must believe that the substitute is good enough.
"For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,' " - 2 Peter 1:16-17 ESV
God the Father thinks His Son is good enough. He raised him from the dead because He found Him more than acceptable.
Do we?
I think we lapse in this and start to 'do things.' What things? The bible calls them 'dead works' and they are all the things that a person who has a dirty conscience does.
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:2 KJV
Jesus isn't just the beginning of our faith. He Is the finisher also. We can live with a clean conscience and have it cleansed again and again.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" - Hebrews 9:14 KJV
An eye for an eye just made everyone hurt. Jesus gives all the parties who believe peace without retaliation. No one else can reach that far into a man or woman.
No one else can clean the soul.
--
"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
-
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" - Hebrews 9:13-14 KJV
Unlike material objects the conscience isn't cleaned by soap or detergent.
Did blood purify? Why? An eye for an eye works on the conscience. You hurt me so I hurt you and balance is preserved. Even children get this. No one needs to teach it. Children need to unlearn it.
Adam's wounds are incurable. He wounds others to balance things out. Terrible... but true.
'I'm sorry.' is a substitute but often a poor one for aching Adam.
God gave an animal sacrifice to Adam. Blood was spilled. It is terrible really it is. An innocent thing dying because of his mistake or just outright transgression... but it is that way. Innocents suffer because of mistakes and that old conscience gets stains no on can seem to reach.
If blood for blood worked, and it did to a degree, then how much more does what Jesus did work?
Like I said the conscience isn't like an object. We can clean something even if it doesn't want to be clean with soap but the conscience must believe that the substitute is good enough.
"For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,' " - 2 Peter 1:16-17 ESV
God the Father thinks His Son is good enough. He raised him from the dead because He found Him more than acceptable.
Do we?
I think we lapse in this and start to 'do things.' What things? The bible calls them 'dead works' and they are all the things that a person who has a dirty conscience does.
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:2 KJV
Jesus isn't just the beginning of our faith. He Is the finisher also. We can live with a clean conscience and have it cleansed again and again.
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" - Hebrews 9:14 KJV
An eye for an eye just made everyone hurt. Jesus gives all the parties who believe peace without retaliation. No one else can reach that far into a man or woman.
No one else can clean the soul.
--
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
The Stabilizing Vision
"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. A servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understand he will not answer. Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him." - Proverbs 29:18-20 KJV
I also liked the way the ESV translates this passage (mostly verse 19) so I will include that also.
"Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. By mere words a servant is not disciplined, for though he understands, he will not respond. Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him." - Proverbs 29:18-20 ESV
Proverbs is indeed a book of wisdom. I look at this passage and see a blueprint for pre-planned action. Words and actions that mesh together.
A vision is no pie in the sky kind of thing. There are steps taken one after each other to get to a goal. A prophetic vision describes the plans God has made and often includes a promise of a certain result.
We talk about 'the finished work' of the cross and rejoice that God sent His Son to die for our sins. Sin has been paid for and God's vision is still unfolding for us. God has plans and because of that humanity will not perish.
God didn't just tell me to do something. Words would never had corrected me. He did something. The cross has corrected me and will correct me. God's act of mercy wasn't just mere instruction. I had to make a decision about what to do with this spectacle of love.
God has plans and so do we. Planning is a fundamental part of life.
If you want to get into a good school there might be a waiting list or certain deadlines. Submitting the papers before the deadlines action long before the first day of school. It requires things to happen in advance.
If we are wise we plan in accordance with God's plans.
What will it be like when we stand before God? The thief on the cross next to Jesus had little time to make any plans. His strategy was simple. He asked Jesus to remember Him.
"And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.' " - Luke 23:42-43 ESV
It was this thief's last heist and he stole Heaven. This man asked Jesus to include him is His 'vision' and Jesus reassured the man that because of His faith recognition he was going to be included.
Without a vision I will perish. Without a plan my Bema seat (the time when we stand before God and He hands out rewards) will not be what it could be. I'm not going to strive but I am also not going to be passive and let life take me where ever it wants to all the time.
God is God and He can change my plans. I understand that dynamic. I don't want to be so attached that I can't let go and adjust.
Let's walk in a redemptive vision that has 'the finished work' of the cross as the cornerstone of the structure of our actions. That means we don't just talk about things. We submit the paperwork and start putting the resources aside. We pray that God would move but we act by faith as though He is going to move.
The faith vision will have sustaining and stabilizing power. Moving in it will provide momentum.
God... We get glimpses of Your vision in the scriptures and we are in awe. You set the sun, moon and stars in the sky and they move with clockwork precision. You sent your Son and He did a marvelous work in paying for our sins. We want to plan according to your plan. Give us a vision that 'glorifies Your Name' if we don't have one. Keep us functioning in plans that line up with Your plans. We want to keep taking steps for the rest of our lives so that those around us will have a stabilizing vision to step into. We are little and often shortsighted. Help us God. Guide us. We trust that you will. Thank You Lord.
--
I also liked the way the ESV translates this passage (mostly verse 19) so I will include that also.
"Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. By mere words a servant is not disciplined, for though he understands, he will not respond. Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him." - Proverbs 29:18-20 ESV
Proverbs is indeed a book of wisdom. I look at this passage and see a blueprint for pre-planned action. Words and actions that mesh together.
A vision is no pie in the sky kind of thing. There are steps taken one after each other to get to a goal. A prophetic vision describes the plans God has made and often includes a promise of a certain result.
We talk about 'the finished work' of the cross and rejoice that God sent His Son to die for our sins. Sin has been paid for and God's vision is still unfolding for us. God has plans and because of that humanity will not perish.
God didn't just tell me to do something. Words would never had corrected me. He did something. The cross has corrected me and will correct me. God's act of mercy wasn't just mere instruction. I had to make a decision about what to do with this spectacle of love.
God has plans and so do we. Planning is a fundamental part of life.
If you want to get into a good school there might be a waiting list or certain deadlines. Submitting the papers before the deadlines action long before the first day of school. It requires things to happen in advance.
If we are wise we plan in accordance with God's plans.
What will it be like when we stand before God? The thief on the cross next to Jesus had little time to make any plans. His strategy was simple. He asked Jesus to remember Him.
"And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.' " - Luke 23:42-43 ESV
It was this thief's last heist and he stole Heaven. This man asked Jesus to include him is His 'vision' and Jesus reassured the man that because of His faith recognition he was going to be included.
Without a vision I will perish. Without a plan my Bema seat (the time when we stand before God and He hands out rewards) will not be what it could be. I'm not going to strive but I am also not going to be passive and let life take me where ever it wants to all the time.
God is God and He can change my plans. I understand that dynamic. I don't want to be so attached that I can't let go and adjust.
Let's walk in a redemptive vision that has 'the finished work' of the cross as the cornerstone of the structure of our actions. That means we don't just talk about things. We submit the paperwork and start putting the resources aside. We pray that God would move but we act by faith as though He is going to move.
The faith vision will have sustaining and stabilizing power. Moving in it will provide momentum.
God... We get glimpses of Your vision in the scriptures and we are in awe. You set the sun, moon and stars in the sky and they move with clockwork precision. You sent your Son and He did a marvelous work in paying for our sins. We want to plan according to your plan. Give us a vision that 'glorifies Your Name' if we don't have one. Keep us functioning in plans that line up with Your plans. We want to keep taking steps for the rest of our lives so that those around us will have a stabilizing vision to step into. We are little and often shortsighted. Help us God. Guide us. We trust that you will. Thank You Lord.
--
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
The Wrath Of God Is Revealed
I learned something special this morning. It is one of those 'right in front of your face' kind of things that when you see it you realize it was there all along but somehow in my familiarity I was blind to it.
I warn you beforehand. It isn't a pleasant truth but it is an important one.
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." - Romans 1:18 ESV
This wrath is being revealed right now. It will be revealed later in the time of Jacob's wrath. That will be dramatic and fiery but it is being revealed now.
"But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." - Romans 2:5 ESV
There is a time in the future when God's wrath will be revealed but right now in the age of grace we see the wrath of God revealed. It is the banishment of man and the resulting chaos that comes from banishment. It isn't God's anger expressed in a storm or tragedy. No. Because of the cross God has forgiven sin and put it far away from Him.
The wrath we see is the banishment of Adam leaving the Garden. It is King David banishing his son Absalom from his presence. Absalom turned from a man who wanted justice into a man willing to use others to get back at his father in that banishment.
"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools," - Romans 1:19-22 ESV
Perhaps we think that the trouble we see in the world makes God angry. Actually it is the opposite. The trouble we see is evidence that God was angry enough in His holiness to send Adam and Eve out of the garden and into a cold harsh world.
God is still angry at evil. All evil systems will fall. God is not angry at people anymore. Jesus fixed that problem. Jesus mended that fence. God wants to bring every wandering soul home again because His Son has made away for that to happen.
This racial hatred we see welling up in the world is evidence of the wrath of God. Delight in violence and vengeance all point to the fact that people have been orphaned.
God's anger is a holy anger. He had every right to cast Adam out. Anything less would have been sentimentality and compromise. But His mercy rejoiced against judgement and God made a way for there to be reconciliation.
"For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him." - 1 Thessalonians 5:5-10 ESV
God wants every individual to return to His house and once reconciled they will never be banished again.
This is why I believe that the Gospel is the solution for the ills of this world.
The natural man will always have hate simmering under the surface. You can't educate it out of him or her. If you push it down here it will pop up somewhere else. Adam transgressed and was changed by that transgression into someone who can never forgive God for his banishment. He is a spoiled child who hates his loving parents and it can't be cured.
The Gospel is the only message that results in a new nature if we embrace it. God makes us into grateful children who say things like 'if He slays me I will trust Him' because the new birth has a rainbow promise attached to it. No wrath. No banishment. No disconnect.
We have a message like no other. The cross is the only cure for bitterness. It won't be received everywhere but in the places it is received an oasis will form.
"...then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;" - Isaiah 35:6 ESV
--
I warn you beforehand. It isn't a pleasant truth but it is an important one.
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." - Romans 1:18 ESV
This wrath is being revealed right now. It will be revealed later in the time of Jacob's wrath. That will be dramatic and fiery but it is being revealed now.
"But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." - Romans 2:5 ESV
There is a time in the future when God's wrath will be revealed but right now in the age of grace we see the wrath of God revealed. It is the banishment of man and the resulting chaos that comes from banishment. It isn't God's anger expressed in a storm or tragedy. No. Because of the cross God has forgiven sin and put it far away from Him.
The wrath we see is the banishment of Adam leaving the Garden. It is King David banishing his son Absalom from his presence. Absalom turned from a man who wanted justice into a man willing to use others to get back at his father in that banishment.
"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools," - Romans 1:19-22 ESV
Perhaps we think that the trouble we see in the world makes God angry. Actually it is the opposite. The trouble we see is evidence that God was angry enough in His holiness to send Adam and Eve out of the garden and into a cold harsh world.
God is still angry at evil. All evil systems will fall. God is not angry at people anymore. Jesus fixed that problem. Jesus mended that fence. God wants to bring every wandering soul home again because His Son has made away for that to happen.
This racial hatred we see welling up in the world is evidence of the wrath of God. Delight in violence and vengeance all point to the fact that people have been orphaned.
God's anger is a holy anger. He had every right to cast Adam out. Anything less would have been sentimentality and compromise. But His mercy rejoiced against judgement and God made a way for there to be reconciliation.
"For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him." - 1 Thessalonians 5:5-10 ESV
God wants every individual to return to His house and once reconciled they will never be banished again.
This is why I believe that the Gospel is the solution for the ills of this world.
The natural man will always have hate simmering under the surface. You can't educate it out of him or her. If you push it down here it will pop up somewhere else. Adam transgressed and was changed by that transgression into someone who can never forgive God for his banishment. He is a spoiled child who hates his loving parents and it can't be cured.
The Gospel is the only message that results in a new nature if we embrace it. God makes us into grateful children who say things like 'if He slays me I will trust Him' because the new birth has a rainbow promise attached to it. No wrath. No banishment. No disconnect.
We have a message like no other. The cross is the only cure for bitterness. It won't be received everywhere but in the places it is received an oasis will form.
"...then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;" - Isaiah 35:6 ESV
--
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Spiritual Gravity
This morning My thoughts drift to the gravity of Heaven. Jesus was drawn into Heaven. His nature had a buoyancy.
"He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight." - Acts 1:7-9 ESV
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]." 2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP
This new creation has a buoyant nature. It is a new identity with new characteristics.
"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." - Romans 8:29 ESV
"And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." - Colossians 1:18 ESV
The old nature had a different pull.
"O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit." - Psalm 30:3 KJV
Even though we are new we can still live in the old. The new must be lived out by faith. The new finds it's identity in the one who came first. Grace is for the new. The old has no use for it really.
I feel the draw this morning. I don't want to die. I want to live and be among the living. What a privilege it is to be a Heavenly citizen!
God keeps us alive in spite of ourselves doesn't he? There will be a day when the time is just right and the frail sting that holds us to the Earth will be severed. Angels will guide us, help us, then the cloud will receive us just like it received Him. We will be drawn to the One who loves us... the One who wants us... the One who is complete in Himself but desires our companionship.
Thank You God. Help us through our days on Earth. Some days the cords that hold us feel like anchors. Be our buoyancy today. Thank You for loving us and all those who have gone before us. We long for You and know by faith You are always with us.
--
"He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight." - Acts 1:7-9 ESV
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]." 2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP
This new creation has a buoyant nature. It is a new identity with new characteristics.
"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." - Romans 8:29 ESV
"And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." - Colossians 1:18 ESV
The old nature had a different pull.
"O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit." - Psalm 30:3 KJV
Even though we are new we can still live in the old. The new must be lived out by faith. The new finds it's identity in the one who came first. Grace is for the new. The old has no use for it really.
I feel the draw this morning. I don't want to die. I want to live and be among the living. What a privilege it is to be a Heavenly citizen!
God keeps us alive in spite of ourselves doesn't he? There will be a day when the time is just right and the frail sting that holds us to the Earth will be severed. Angels will guide us, help us, then the cloud will receive us just like it received Him. We will be drawn to the One who loves us... the One who wants us... the One who is complete in Himself but desires our companionship.
Thank You God. Help us through our days on Earth. Some days the cords that hold us feel like anchors. Be our buoyancy today. Thank You for loving us and all those who have gone before us. We long for You and know by faith You are always with us.
--
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Two Angry Men
The area where I work is surrounded by a poor section. If I go to the market I often pass people asking for money. I budget what I have so I rarely give money away on the way to the market but I often give it on the way back. I plan it out that way.
I ran into two men this week that I hadn't seen before who asked me for change on the way to the market and cursed at me when I shook my head 'no' as I went. It was unusual... it was very unusual for it to happen twice in one week from two different people.
They were both gone when I came back. After breaking a big bill I had money in my hand for one of them and on the other day I bought an egg roll for the other man because he looked so strung out. After asking at the bus stop and circling the block I had to give up my search because I needed to get back to work. I ended up eating the egg roll myself because I couldn't find that angry young man and I didn't want it to go to waste.
I don't know what made each of them that angry or how many people cursed back at them or gave them a lecture because of their 'bad attitude'. I can only imagine the pain. Maybe when I shook my head they thought I didn't care about them like a long line of others that have not cared. But the truth is I had love in my heart.
I think many times God wants to give us something on the way back. He doesn't owe us help. We deserve Hell... all of us. God wants to bless us and his means is grace. 'No' today may turn into a greater blessing tomorrow. If He is shaking His head He is always doing it with love in his heart. He isn't one to ignore a request, forget a need or have a cold uncaring gaze.
I hope I see those men again. I understand that anger. It is gone from my heart but I really do understand. That anger might just get them killed. I pray it doesn't. I pray they meet the One who won't lecture them... the Savior who loves them just as they are with no excuses or regrets.
Next week I plan to buy an extra egg roll by faith just in case. A gospel tract will go in the bag and if a conversation is possible I pray it will happen and result in seed that grows into a glorious conversion.
If only they could have waited a few more minutes they would have gotten something they didn't deserve. I was prepared to give a little. I only have a little. God is prepared to give us so much more.
--
I ran into two men this week that I hadn't seen before who asked me for change on the way to the market and cursed at me when I shook my head 'no' as I went. It was unusual... it was very unusual for it to happen twice in one week from two different people.
They were both gone when I came back. After breaking a big bill I had money in my hand for one of them and on the other day I bought an egg roll for the other man because he looked so strung out. After asking at the bus stop and circling the block I had to give up my search because I needed to get back to work. I ended up eating the egg roll myself because I couldn't find that angry young man and I didn't want it to go to waste.
I don't know what made each of them that angry or how many people cursed back at them or gave them a lecture because of their 'bad attitude'. I can only imagine the pain. Maybe when I shook my head they thought I didn't care about them like a long line of others that have not cared. But the truth is I had love in my heart.
I think many times God wants to give us something on the way back. He doesn't owe us help. We deserve Hell... all of us. God wants to bless us and his means is grace. 'No' today may turn into a greater blessing tomorrow. If He is shaking His head He is always doing it with love in his heart. He isn't one to ignore a request, forget a need or have a cold uncaring gaze.
I hope I see those men again. I understand that anger. It is gone from my heart but I really do understand. That anger might just get them killed. I pray it doesn't. I pray they meet the One who won't lecture them... the Savior who loves them just as they are with no excuses or regrets.
Next week I plan to buy an extra egg roll by faith just in case. A gospel tract will go in the bag and if a conversation is possible I pray it will happen and result in seed that grows into a glorious conversion.
If only they could have waited a few more minutes they would have gotten something they didn't deserve. I was prepared to give a little. I only have a little. God is prepared to give us so much more.
--
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Bought With A Price
"For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God." - 1 Corinthians 7:22-24 ESV
Wow. What an interesting passage this is. Looking at the Greek adds dimensions I've never seen before.
The Greek word for 'price' is time (Strong's G5092) it is the set value given to an item or the deference given to an office or position. Sometimes it is translated honor.
God has paid this honor debt for every person already. The ones who don't know Him just don't know or recognize that all important detail.
Some job promotions come with perks like a better office but a calling puts us on assignment right where we are. It changes our sense of privilege and debt.
" 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.' For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends." - 2 Corinthians 10:17-18 ESV
The 'bondservant' role has a price attached to it. Our price has been paid by the Lord. No fallen person owns us. We belong to God as people on assignment in whatever situation we find ourselves in.
We live in the realm of honor. God has a grace honor system. It is the culture of His household. We are free men and women there. We are also constrained by love in ways that didn't matter to us before.
We are ambassadors of God and His grace where ever we go today. We are living representations that a price has been paid and God's kingdom culture is divine and different.
Amazing.
--
Wow. What an interesting passage this is. Looking at the Greek adds dimensions I've never seen before.
The Greek word for 'price' is time (Strong's G5092) it is the set value given to an item or the deference given to an office or position. Sometimes it is translated honor.
God has paid this honor debt for every person already. The ones who don't know Him just don't know or recognize that all important detail.
Some job promotions come with perks like a better office but a calling puts us on assignment right where we are. It changes our sense of privilege and debt.
" 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.' For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends." - 2 Corinthians 10:17-18 ESV
The 'bondservant' role has a price attached to it. Our price has been paid by the Lord. No fallen person owns us. We belong to God as people on assignment in whatever situation we find ourselves in.
We live in the realm of honor. God has a grace honor system. It is the culture of His household. We are free men and women there. We are also constrained by love in ways that didn't matter to us before.
We are ambassadors of God and His grace where ever we go today. We are living representations that a price has been paid and God's kingdom culture is divine and different.
Amazing.
--
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Rising In The Ranks
"Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king's place. There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind." - Ecclesiastes 4:13-16 ESV
Hidden in the book of Ecclesiastes is a passage where Solomon honors the memory of his father David. David was the wise Shepard boy who rose from humble beginnings to be king. Solomon could see the memory of his Father's reign fading from public consciousness and it troubled him.
Ecclesiastes is written from a backslidden man's perspective. Solomon was wise and he saw his father as wise. But we know David didn't get to be king because of his wisdom. Samuel anointed David to be king.
"Then Samuel said to Jesse, 'Are all your sons here?' And he said, 'There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.' And Samuel said to Jesse, 'Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.' And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, 'Arise, anoint him, for this is he.' Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward." - 1 Samuel 16:11-13a ESV
Solomon is a man who has lost something. He is wise but not discerning. He has a redemptive history but he misses the redeemer that is in his history. He is right about the fickle public and their short memory but he is wrong also.
David's time isn't over.
"I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken." - Ezekiel 34:22-24 ESV
Ezekiel is written long after the reigns of David and Solomon. David has a future that is still in humanities future. The word prince there is the Hebrew word Nasiy (Strong's H5387) and it means a leader who is rising in the ranks.
If we look at ministry through tired eyes we see the short memory of people but if God gives us eagle eyes we see the rising in the ranks of grace. Burial always comes before resurrection.
When I think of those who have come before me I honor their memory knowing that not many others will but their ministry isn't over nor was it executed by some natural power or quality that they possessed themselves alone. They did what they did because of God's grace. Let's do what we do by God's grace also.
"The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself." - 2 Timothy 2:11-13 ESV
I don't want to be wise like Solomon was in the book of Ecclesiastes. I see that book as one that points out the traps of intellect divorced momentarily from divine perspective. I want to have the mind of Christ. He is the Alpha and Omega. He sees every moment based of the beginning and the end of time.
God give us your mind today. Let us not judge by what we see and hear only. Give us righteous gracious judgement that sees redemption as finished on the cross and sees our fellows based on what You have done and not what they have accomplished or where they have failed. Thank You God. Thank You for not leaving us stranded in time. Thank You for saving us from the trap of natural thinking. Thank You God.
--
Hidden in the book of Ecclesiastes is a passage where Solomon honors the memory of his father David. David was the wise Shepard boy who rose from humble beginnings to be king. Solomon could see the memory of his Father's reign fading from public consciousness and it troubled him.
Ecclesiastes is written from a backslidden man's perspective. Solomon was wise and he saw his father as wise. But we know David didn't get to be king because of his wisdom. Samuel anointed David to be king.
"Then Samuel said to Jesse, 'Are all your sons here?' And he said, 'There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.' And Samuel said to Jesse, 'Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.' And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, 'Arise, anoint him, for this is he.' Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward." - 1 Samuel 16:11-13a ESV
Solomon is a man who has lost something. He is wise but not discerning. He has a redemptive history but he misses the redeemer that is in his history. He is right about the fickle public and their short memory but he is wrong also.
David's time isn't over.
"I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken." - Ezekiel 34:22-24 ESV
Ezekiel is written long after the reigns of David and Solomon. David has a future that is still in humanities future. The word prince there is the Hebrew word Nasiy (Strong's H5387) and it means a leader who is rising in the ranks.
If we look at ministry through tired eyes we see the short memory of people but if God gives us eagle eyes we see the rising in the ranks of grace. Burial always comes before resurrection.
When I think of those who have come before me I honor their memory knowing that not many others will but their ministry isn't over nor was it executed by some natural power or quality that they possessed themselves alone. They did what they did because of God's grace. Let's do what we do by God's grace also.
"The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful - for he cannot deny himself." - 2 Timothy 2:11-13 ESV
I don't want to be wise like Solomon was in the book of Ecclesiastes. I see that book as one that points out the traps of intellect divorced momentarily from divine perspective. I want to have the mind of Christ. He is the Alpha and Omega. He sees every moment based of the beginning and the end of time.
God give us your mind today. Let us not judge by what we see and hear only. Give us righteous gracious judgement that sees redemption as finished on the cross and sees our fellows based on what You have done and not what they have accomplished or where they have failed. Thank You God. Thank You for not leaving us stranded in time. Thank You for saving us from the trap of natural thinking. Thank You God.
--
Thursday, March 17, 2016
When The Veils Are Lifted
It seems that human beings have perfect memories. Recall is faulty but memory is perfect. Imagine with me if all that is invisible to us now is still being recorded but is as yet undeveloped like film in a camera. Angels are seen by us and God is speaking to us now. Darkness is seducing and angels preserving and protecting. It is invisible to us like ultraviolet is invisible. Recorded by our eyes, ears and other senses but not registering in our conscious mind.
The believer's life ends and angels carry him or her to God. Unbelievers die and their heavy unwashed soul descends into the depths. Thick darkness covers the mind of one and light begins to develops the film of the other. Angels become present in our memory because they were there all along. We see God's work and hear what He was whispering to us pre-salvation and post-salvation. Our memory will be redeemed. Amazing.
"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV
When we are finally face to face He will suddenly become an old friend. To the person in Hell He will be an ancient enemy who chased them their whole life but to those who believed He will be a precious friend who loved them even when they themselves were an enemy of God.
Angels will not be strange. They will be wonderfully familiar beings we remember from childhood who lingered with us faithfully for decades.
One day every veil will either be lifted or our eyes will be permanently darkened.
I choose light. I opted to let the blood of Christ wash me in 1992. I accepted Jesus and my eternal destiny was changed. Jesus is redemption personified. Anyone can choose to believe. Anyone who does believe is guaranteed future clarity beyond what we can imagine now... clarity beyond what any of us can ask for or think of. Hope for the future and illumination of the past.
Wow.
--
The believer's life ends and angels carry him or her to God. Unbelievers die and their heavy unwashed soul descends into the depths. Thick darkness covers the mind of one and light begins to develops the film of the other. Angels become present in our memory because they were there all along. We see God's work and hear what He was whispering to us pre-salvation and post-salvation. Our memory will be redeemed. Amazing.
"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV
When we are finally face to face He will suddenly become an old friend. To the person in Hell He will be an ancient enemy who chased them their whole life but to those who believed He will be a precious friend who loved them even when they themselves were an enemy of God.
Angels will not be strange. They will be wonderfully familiar beings we remember from childhood who lingered with us faithfully for decades.
One day every veil will either be lifted or our eyes will be permanently darkened.
I choose light. I opted to let the blood of Christ wash me in 1992. I accepted Jesus and my eternal destiny was changed. Jesus is redemption personified. Anyone can choose to believe. Anyone who does believe is guaranteed future clarity beyond what we can imagine now... clarity beyond what any of us can ask for or think of. Hope for the future and illumination of the past.
Wow.
--
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Loving Potentially Dangerous People - Part 4
Ruth's account is such great example of God dealing with the outsider.
"In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food." - Ruth 1:1-6 ESV
Ten years is a long time. Ruth was no spring chicken.
"And she said, 'See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.'
But Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.' " - Ruth 1:15-17 ESV
Ruth loved Naomi. She wanted to go with her but that alone would not have changed Ruth's 'stranger' status in Israel. As the account progresses we Boaz enter the picture.
"Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz." - Ruth 2:1 ESV
Boaz is a type of Christ. Boaz identifies Ruth and asks his men about her. Then he initiates to her and says...
"...'Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.'
Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, 'Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?' " - Ruth 2:8b-10 ESV
Why? Why is God different with strangers. Why is he kind?
"Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands - remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace," - Ephesians 2:11-15 ESV
We were all strangers. Even children brought up in the Church. Our natural self is a stranger to God but He sees us and inquires after us. He lets us glean in His fields.
"So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law." - Ruth 2:23 ESV
Notice how Boaz makes no demands of Naomi. His kindness has no strings attached.
Because Boaz was related to Naomi he could function as a redeemer. Naomi had an inheritance in Israel. Every native did. The rights couldn't ever be taken from them but because Naomi left this inheritance it needed to be bought back.
The account goes on. Ruth lays down at Boaz's feet and Boaz makes a commitment to redeem Naomi. I love this next statement made by Naomi when she finds out.
"She replied, 'Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.' " - Ruth 3:18 ESV
As I said before Boaz is a type of Christ and Jesus takes redemption very seriously. He wants the matter settled.
"Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, 'You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.'
Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, 'We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman.' " - Ruth 4:9-12 ESV
The stranger is no longer a stranger. We are no longer strangers. A pre-established identity has been given to us with all of the right and privileges that the new identity affords.
--
"In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food." - Ruth 1:1-6 ESV
Ten years is a long time. Ruth was no spring chicken.
"And she said, 'See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.'
But Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.' " - Ruth 1:15-17 ESV
Ruth loved Naomi. She wanted to go with her but that alone would not have changed Ruth's 'stranger' status in Israel. As the account progresses we Boaz enter the picture.
"Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz." - Ruth 2:1 ESV
Boaz is a type of Christ. Boaz identifies Ruth and asks his men about her. Then he initiates to her and says...
"...'Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.'
Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, 'Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?' " - Ruth 2:8b-10 ESV
Why? Why is God different with strangers. Why is he kind?
"Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands - remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace," - Ephesians 2:11-15 ESV
We were all strangers. Even children brought up in the Church. Our natural self is a stranger to God but He sees us and inquires after us. He lets us glean in His fields.
"So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law." - Ruth 2:23 ESV
Notice how Boaz makes no demands of Naomi. His kindness has no strings attached.
Because Boaz was related to Naomi he could function as a redeemer. Naomi had an inheritance in Israel. Every native did. The rights couldn't ever be taken from them but because Naomi left this inheritance it needed to be bought back.
The account goes on. Ruth lays down at Boaz's feet and Boaz makes a commitment to redeem Naomi. I love this next statement made by Naomi when she finds out.
"She replied, 'Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.' " - Ruth 3:18 ESV
As I said before Boaz is a type of Christ and Jesus takes redemption very seriously. He wants the matter settled.
"Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, 'You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.'
Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, 'We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman.' " - Ruth 4:9-12 ESV
The stranger is no longer a stranger. We are no longer strangers. A pre-established identity has been given to us with all of the right and privileges that the new identity affords.
--
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Logical Fallacies - Part 4
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." - James 4:3 ESV
While looking at my list of logical fallacies I'm scanning the questions it lists and marveling at how wrong we can be. We think our answers are the issue but it goes deeper. Our questions are often wrong and so there is no answer from God for what we are asking.
"Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." - Isaiah 1:5 ESV
A LOADED QUESTION as something that has an assumption already built into it. When we are BEGGING THE QUESTION we have an answer already embedded in the request.
'Why don't you love me God?' or 'Why won't you help me God?' are just such questions. They are based on a wrong premise and God must work around us because He can't work with us until we are on the same page.
"Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?" - Amos 3:3 ESV
or in the KJV
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" - Amos 3:3 KJV
No. They can't. If they do meet it will just be an encounter and there will be no lengthy discourse because those conversations take time.
"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." - Isaiah 1:18 ESV
What a great verse! Many times the red to white part is emphasized because it talks of cleansing but I also like the 'shall become like wool' part... the natural color and texture is restored.
Our questions can be caked and stained with condemnation and judgement but then we reason with God and the first thing He points us to is redemption. The cross kills my wrong questions and gives me new ones. God reveals the natural weave of our being and can impart something real to us because we walk with Him in agreement about that which is most fundamental.
Now we say things like, 'Since You love me so much will You guide me in this situation? I know You will. You didn't bring me this far to leave me now.'
"... for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' " - Hebrews 13:5b ESV
Scripture arms us with good facts to ask good questions and life is full of good questions to ask as we walk together with God.
--
While looking at my list of logical fallacies I'm scanning the questions it lists and marveling at how wrong we can be. We think our answers are the issue but it goes deeper. Our questions are often wrong and so there is no answer from God for what we are asking.
"Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." - Isaiah 1:5 ESV
A LOADED QUESTION as something that has an assumption already built into it. When we are BEGGING THE QUESTION we have an answer already embedded in the request.
'Why don't you love me God?' or 'Why won't you help me God?' are just such questions. They are based on a wrong premise and God must work around us because He can't work with us until we are on the same page.
"Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?" - Amos 3:3 ESV
or in the KJV
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" - Amos 3:3 KJV
No. They can't. If they do meet it will just be an encounter and there will be no lengthy discourse because those conversations take time.
"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." - Isaiah 1:18 ESV
What a great verse! Many times the red to white part is emphasized because it talks of cleansing but I also like the 'shall become like wool' part... the natural color and texture is restored.
Our questions can be caked and stained with condemnation and judgement but then we reason with God and the first thing He points us to is redemption. The cross kills my wrong questions and gives me new ones. God reveals the natural weave of our being and can impart something real to us because we walk with Him in agreement about that which is most fundamental.
Now we say things like, 'Since You love me so much will You guide me in this situation? I know You will. You didn't bring me this far to leave me now.'
"... for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' " - Hebrews 13:5b ESV
Scripture arms us with good facts to ask good questions and life is full of good questions to ask as we walk together with God.
--
Friday, September 4, 2015
Reassignments
Spaces have uses and the person who has power over the space determines the use of the space. When multiple parties are involved things get interesting. If the person or people with greater power or ownership determine that one occupying the space are not using it as they should or they want other people to use the space they initiate a process to make that happen. The most drastic of these processes is eviction. When eviction happens people are removed by force.
Most of us would probably like to live our life and never be evicted from anywhere or ever have to evict anyone from anywhere. It is drastic thing and if you have ever gone through it you know how hard it can be.
God is the first landlord to evict anyone. He gently evicted Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Death is an individual eviction that was caused by the fall but was initiated by God. God would rather is be a reassignment or promotion but He Is prepared to evict us eventually if necessary. The space we are presently occupying will eventually be needed for something else. That is how a fallen world works.
You might be reading this and getting evicted from your comfort zone. In one way I am sorry about that because I don't want to cause anyone discomfort but at the same time I think it is necessary for us at times. I need to leave my comfort zone or else I will not grow. I need to visit places I'd rather not go.
I was thinking this morning about grace and eviction.
Earlier I mentioned 'reassignment' and looking at the scriptures it seems clear to me that God wants to reassign us but He will evict us if necessary. He also sees the injustice and brutality of unjustified evictions.
Grace creates an eviction-free zone for us. Oh, How wonderful. But at the same time it serves an eviction notice on everything that is carnal in our lives.
We will never be kicked out of Heaven. God will never leave us. Our place will never be taken away in His kingdom. There is however a different plan for things here on Earth. Redemption often requires rearrangement.
"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." - Philippians 3:20-21 ESV
Jesus has met all the conditions for us to have an eviction free zone with God. The requirements have already been met and there is a whole provision packet involved.
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder," - 2 Peter 1:3-13 ESV
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28 ESV
Yes... even the Earthly evictions we face become reassignments because God has a plan and that plan will result in good things.
Let's love one another. Comfort zones may get violated but let's love one another through it.
--
Most of us would probably like to live our life and never be evicted from anywhere or ever have to evict anyone from anywhere. It is drastic thing and if you have ever gone through it you know how hard it can be.
God is the first landlord to evict anyone. He gently evicted Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden. Death is an individual eviction that was caused by the fall but was initiated by God. God would rather is be a reassignment or promotion but He Is prepared to evict us eventually if necessary. The space we are presently occupying will eventually be needed for something else. That is how a fallen world works.
You might be reading this and getting evicted from your comfort zone. In one way I am sorry about that because I don't want to cause anyone discomfort but at the same time I think it is necessary for us at times. I need to leave my comfort zone or else I will not grow. I need to visit places I'd rather not go.
I was thinking this morning about grace and eviction.
Earlier I mentioned 'reassignment' and looking at the scriptures it seems clear to me that God wants to reassign us but He will evict us if necessary. He also sees the injustice and brutality of unjustified evictions.
Grace creates an eviction-free zone for us. Oh, How wonderful. But at the same time it serves an eviction notice on everything that is carnal in our lives.
We will never be kicked out of Heaven. God will never leave us. Our place will never be taken away in His kingdom. There is however a different plan for things here on Earth. Redemption often requires rearrangement.
"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." - Philippians 3:20-21 ESV
Jesus has met all the conditions for us to have an eviction free zone with God. The requirements have already been met and there is a whole provision packet involved.
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder," - 2 Peter 1:3-13 ESV
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28 ESV
Yes... even the Earthly evictions we face become reassignments because God has a plan and that plan will result in good things.
Let's love one another. Comfort zones may get violated but let's love one another through it.
--
Monday, June 29, 2015
The Two Olive Trees God Uses
Zechariah is such a book of restoration and protection.
"And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand!
Then I said, 'Where are you going?'
And he said to me, 'To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.'
And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, 'Run, say to that young man, "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst." '
Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north, declares the LORD. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the LORD. Up! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon." - Zechariah 2:1-7 ESV
This book mirrors end time restoration and pits it against present day restoration. God will do things in the last days but He feels now what He will feel then. He warns us away from danger (see Zechariah 1:4f) and directs us to a city not made with hands where He is the wall of fire that protects it (see Zechariah 2:5).
Joshua the priest should be wearing spotless garments but he isn't and Satan is ripping him apart with accusations but God restores him (see Zechariah 3:3f).
"And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.' " - Zechariah 3:6-10 ESV
God gives us men, anointed men, who will ooze oil and provide light
"And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left... And a second time I answered and said to him, 'What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?'
He said to me, 'Do you not know what these are?'
I said, 'No, my lord.'
Then he said, 'These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.' " - Zechariah 4:3, 12-14 ESV
Zerubbabel and Joshua were the two men in that day. Zerubbabel was a man who measured according to God's measure (see Zechariah 4:9f) and Joshua was a priest who was dirty and plagued by accusation but restored.
People who live in God's grace measure and are restored with God's restoration provide light for their generation.
God is building His church just as He was restoring His nation in the book of Zechariah. God restores lives one at a time also. The principles for the restoration of a life are the same as for the restoration of a nation. Things didn't happen all at once. There were seeming setbacks but God was with them.
Let's flee to the city with a wall of fire around it. That place is the place of our heritage. There are men who tell us it's measurements and show us restoration by their example. It is light that should not be ignored.
--
"And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand!
Then I said, 'Where are you going?'
And he said to me, 'To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.'
And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, 'Run, say to that young man, "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst." '
Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north, declares the LORD. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the LORD. Up! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon." - Zechariah 2:1-7 ESV
This book mirrors end time restoration and pits it against present day restoration. God will do things in the last days but He feels now what He will feel then. He warns us away from danger (see Zechariah 1:4f) and directs us to a city not made with hands where He is the wall of fire that protects it (see Zechariah 2:5).
Joshua the priest should be wearing spotless garments but he isn't and Satan is ripping him apart with accusations but God restores him (see Zechariah 3:3f).
"And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.' " - Zechariah 3:6-10 ESV
God gives us men, anointed men, who will ooze oil and provide light
"And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left... And a second time I answered and said to him, 'What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?'
He said to me, 'Do you not know what these are?'
I said, 'No, my lord.'
Then he said, 'These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.' " - Zechariah 4:3, 12-14 ESV
Zerubbabel and Joshua were the two men in that day. Zerubbabel was a man who measured according to God's measure (see Zechariah 4:9f) and Joshua was a priest who was dirty and plagued by accusation but restored.
People who live in God's grace measure and are restored with God's restoration provide light for their generation.
God is building His church just as He was restoring His nation in the book of Zechariah. God restores lives one at a time also. The principles for the restoration of a life are the same as for the restoration of a nation. Things didn't happen all at once. There were seeming setbacks but God was with them.
Let's flee to the city with a wall of fire around it. That place is the place of our heritage. There are men who tell us it's measurements and show us restoration by their example. It is light that should not be ignored.
--
Thursday, June 18, 2015
The Latter Rain - Part 2
The latter rain is given to the Church and it becomes an example to Israel of what God can do with people. It gives them hope. The Church will have a lukewarm reputation in the world but God will do wonderful things in the body of Christ before the Church is transformed into His bride.
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," - 2 Timothy 3:16 ESV
God gave promises to Israel and the Church is not Israel or an extension of Israel. The Church is a beautiful foreign bride that God has taken to Himself and called His own. God has grafted the Church into His kingdom.
"Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure' - for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." - Revelation 19:6-8 ESV
This spring rain will prepare the Church and move the corporate structure from 'the body' into 'the bride.' It will be a last pre-marriage preparation. A marriage that will be taking place in Heaven during the relatively calm first half of the time when craziness is about to break out in mass on the Earth.
When Moses took a foreign bride (See Numbers 12:1) it provoked his siblings to jealously and this latter rain revival will serve the same purpose. God does it out of love but He also will use the political backlash caused by His choice to convert Israel to Himself.
"So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous." - Romans 11:11 ESV
"The LORD answered and said to his people, 'Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations... Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.' " - Joel 2:19, 23-32 ESV
Israel will be provoked to jealousy saying, 'How come they knew God and we don't? Remember what happened with the vilified Christian's before they vanished? Maybe God will save us also?'
God will send the latter rain on us to ripen His crop and then He will send rain to them in the midst of great trouble. Young people will be converted in the midst of Israel and those young people will be witnesses during that dark time.
"After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, 'Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.' And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:" - Revelation 7:1-4 ESV
God has the angels stand waiting and holding back while those witnesses are being converted. These are the young who will 'see visions' as the old men 'dream dreams.' Israel's conversion will happen in part because of the Church's last days revival. The bright light of the grace message will shine in the memories of those surviving daily calamity surrounded by lies and propaganda.
"Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless." - Revelation 14:1-5 ESV
They will sing a new song no one else can sing because they were saved from what no one else has gone through. We sing our 'grace song' and they will have their glorious song.
God will use the Church to send grain, wine and oil to Israel and then God will redeem them in a like manner in a dramatic accelerated way similar to how He once delivered them from Egypt.
(FYI. If you want a good resource that goes into end times events in depth check out 'Things to Come' by Dwight Pentecost)
In a way our lives are a microcosm of all these things. Each of us living through different tragedies and experiencing different triumphs. Some of us live relatively controversy free lives and others seem to have trouble swirling around them all the time (or for extended seasons.) The love God has for us and our response to it has an impact on those around us. Perhaps it has a larger impact then we realize.
We can have a visible relationship with God that provokes people who don't have it to jealousy. Peace that passes understand by is available to us.
"I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day;" - Isaiah 27:3 ESV
As individuals we can live in constant hydration knowing that God will do what He does inside us and more for His Church publicly some day soon.
--
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," - 2 Timothy 3:16 ESV
God gave promises to Israel and the Church is not Israel or an extension of Israel. The Church is a beautiful foreign bride that God has taken to Himself and called His own. God has grafted the Church into His kingdom.
"Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure' - for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." - Revelation 19:6-8 ESV
This spring rain will prepare the Church and move the corporate structure from 'the body' into 'the bride.' It will be a last pre-marriage preparation. A marriage that will be taking place in Heaven during the relatively calm first half of the time when craziness is about to break out in mass on the Earth.
When Moses took a foreign bride (See Numbers 12:1) it provoked his siblings to jealously and this latter rain revival will serve the same purpose. God does it out of love but He also will use the political backlash caused by His choice to convert Israel to Himself.
"So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous." - Romans 11:11 ESV
"The LORD answered and said to his people, 'Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations... Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.' " - Joel 2:19, 23-32 ESV
Israel will be provoked to jealousy saying, 'How come they knew God and we don't? Remember what happened with the vilified Christian's before they vanished? Maybe God will save us also?'
God will send the latter rain on us to ripen His crop and then He will send rain to them in the midst of great trouble. Young people will be converted in the midst of Israel and those young people will be witnesses during that dark time.
"After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, 'Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.' And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:" - Revelation 7:1-4 ESV
God has the angels stand waiting and holding back while those witnesses are being converted. These are the young who will 'see visions' as the old men 'dream dreams.' Israel's conversion will happen in part because of the Church's last days revival. The bright light of the grace message will shine in the memories of those surviving daily calamity surrounded by lies and propaganda.
"Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless." - Revelation 14:1-5 ESV
They will sing a new song no one else can sing because they were saved from what no one else has gone through. We sing our 'grace song' and they will have their glorious song.
God will use the Church to send grain, wine and oil to Israel and then God will redeem them in a like manner in a dramatic accelerated way similar to how He once delivered them from Egypt.
(FYI. If you want a good resource that goes into end times events in depth check out 'Things to Come' by Dwight Pentecost)
In a way our lives are a microcosm of all these things. Each of us living through different tragedies and experiencing different triumphs. Some of us live relatively controversy free lives and others seem to have trouble swirling around them all the time (or for extended seasons.) The love God has for us and our response to it has an impact on those around us. Perhaps it has a larger impact then we realize.
We can have a visible relationship with God that provokes people who don't have it to jealousy. Peace that passes understand by is available to us.
"I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day;" - Isaiah 27:3 ESV
As individuals we can live in constant hydration knowing that God will do what He does inside us and more for His Church publicly some day soon.
--
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
A Happy Ending After A Dark History
If you are believer and read the Bible then you know that hard times are coming. You read of future judgement and not humanistic triumph. It will eventually get worse before it gets better. It is not all a fairy tale ending for our cultures and civilizations. People who adopt non-biblical philosophies can live believing that man might destroy himself by greed or save himself and this planet through diligence, altruism and hard work but believers know this isn't true.
History has already been written and the future is available to us in broad strokes if you just know where to look in the scriptures. The scripture foretold the coming of Messiah and the time frame of the cross and the destruction of the temple in Israel in 70 AD (see Daniel 9). It foretold the triumph and apostasy of the Church (see Revelation 1:11-3:22). The world as we know it will change and it won't be for the better. It needs saving just as we needed saving and the same One who saved us will save it when He returns.
When we talk about such things it comes across as negative and pessimistic. We can even take on a pessimistic attitude to life because of this knowledge. Why save for retirement if the tribulation is right around the corner? Should we raise children if we know the world will be harder for them then it was for us? On and on it goes.
The following thought pattern is very possible for any person who knows of future judgement but has no grace balance.
"If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot'... Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, 'A son is born to you,' making him very glad. Let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?" - Jeremiah 20:9, 15-18 ESV
Grace sustains us in hard times. Grace gives us hope.
"Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." - Joel 2:23-28 ESV
God has a provision in the midst of trouble. The light that remains always appears brighter in the darkness. God will pour out His spirit on us before the end. There will be grassroots revival in the Church before we are taken away. Just as Pentecost came before Rome destroyed Jerusalem a kind of Pentecost will come in the Church before the day of Jacob's trouble. A corporate Pentecost will come that won't be reported on CNN but it will be as real as Peter preaching before the crowd and seeing multitudes turn in his day.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you..." - Jeremiah 29:11-14a ESV
This is a promise given to Israel but it is also for all who trust in the God of Israel. We are strangers and pilgrims in a strange land but we sow and reap. We have children and take wives. We do business and invest. We also have a mental bag packed and ready to go because we are all missionaries. God can send us or take us as He pleases.
Our message has good news in the midst of bad news. The world will get darker but Jesus saves all who turn to Him. Life will get harder with brief respites at times because God is merciful but we don't need to be negative or to shut our mouths about it. God is good.
"Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." - Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV
The best is yet to come. We will see broken dead people come alive. We will see God restore all that had to be destroyed because there was no fixing it.
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:" - Job 19:25-26 KJV
Rejoice. We have a real Resurrection to look forward to.
--
History has already been written and the future is available to us in broad strokes if you just know where to look in the scriptures. The scripture foretold the coming of Messiah and the time frame of the cross and the destruction of the temple in Israel in 70 AD (see Daniel 9). It foretold the triumph and apostasy of the Church (see Revelation 1:11-3:22). The world as we know it will change and it won't be for the better. It needs saving just as we needed saving and the same One who saved us will save it when He returns.
When we talk about such things it comes across as negative and pessimistic. We can even take on a pessimistic attitude to life because of this knowledge. Why save for retirement if the tribulation is right around the corner? Should we raise children if we know the world will be harder for them then it was for us? On and on it goes.
The following thought pattern is very possible for any person who knows of future judgement but has no grace balance.
"If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot'... Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, 'A son is born to you,' making him very glad. Let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?" - Jeremiah 20:9, 15-18 ESV
Grace sustains us in hard times. Grace gives us hope.
"Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." - Joel 2:23-28 ESV
God has a provision in the midst of trouble. The light that remains always appears brighter in the darkness. God will pour out His spirit on us before the end. There will be grassroots revival in the Church before we are taken away. Just as Pentecost came before Rome destroyed Jerusalem a kind of Pentecost will come in the Church before the day of Jacob's trouble. A corporate Pentecost will come that won't be reported on CNN but it will be as real as Peter preaching before the crowd and seeing multitudes turn in his day.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you..." - Jeremiah 29:11-14a ESV
This is a promise given to Israel but it is also for all who trust in the God of Israel. We are strangers and pilgrims in a strange land but we sow and reap. We have children and take wives. We do business and invest. We also have a mental bag packed and ready to go because we are all missionaries. God can send us or take us as He pleases.
Our message has good news in the midst of bad news. The world will get darker but Jesus saves all who turn to Him. Life will get harder with brief respites at times because God is merciful but we don't need to be negative or to shut our mouths about it. God is good.
"Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." - Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV
The best is yet to come. We will see broken dead people come alive. We will see God restore all that had to be destroyed because there was no fixing it.
"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:" - Job 19:25-26 KJV
Rejoice. We have a real Resurrection to look forward to.
--
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
The Great Physician
Do you need a spiritual physician?
"And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'
But when he heard it, he said, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.'
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'
And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.' " - Matthew 9:10-17 ESV
I we think we are just fine naturally then we will just live with our old wine skins. They will burst and we will think it's normal for that to happen.
Once we know that we need grace we can get grace but grace only comes from God.
"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." - 1 Peter 5:10 ESV
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." - 2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV
Jesus isn't just someone I go to see in the emergency room. He Is my family physician. There is a place for Him to recline and rest in my mind. He has a key to all the rooms of my soul... even the back rooms.
I respect His diagnosis. He loves me and cares for my soul.
--
"And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'
But when he heard it, he said, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.'
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?'
And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.' " - Matthew 9:10-17 ESV
I we think we are just fine naturally then we will just live with our old wine skins. They will burst and we will think it's normal for that to happen.
Once we know that we need grace we can get grace but grace only comes from God.
"And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." - 1 Peter 5:10 ESV
"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." - 2 Corinthians 9:8 ESV
Jesus isn't just someone I go to see in the emergency room. He Is my family physician. There is a place for Him to recline and rest in my mind. He has a key to all the rooms of my soul... even the back rooms.
I respect His diagnosis. He loves me and cares for my soul.
--
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Who Can Open The Scroll?
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.' " - Genesis 1:27-28 ESV
"Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?' And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.' " - Revelation 5:1-5 ESV
"Beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King." - Psalm 48:2 ESV
Beautiful in situation... God's throne is situated in a beautiful place.
Man was given dominion but submitted himself under the authority of the serpent. Jesus came as a man and paid for that transgression. He has the right to take back the title deed of the Earth. He has the right elevation in every situation.
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." - Philippians 2:1-4 ESV
Is there any consolation? Is there participation? In Christ there is. He has the authority in this situation and every other situation.
Many men died at the hands of Goliath... but not David. David was not a better man. David had a better God. His God held the title deed. His God had the power to break seals and loosen bondage. His God was situated in a high beautiful place. Other men shook in their boots but not David.
Adam was given dominion and lost it but Jesus took it back.
"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." - Luke 11:21-23 ESV
Jesus is the stronger man who can enter and take what no one else would have the power to take. With all this power at His disposal He will not break down our door. He loves and honors our right to choose.
Will we invite Him in and take comfort in Him? Is there participation with what is real or will we just submit our minds to more thinking that directs us to eat what we shouldn't have eaten in the first place?
God owns this day. It isn't only because He is creator. He owns it as redeemer. Jesus walked as an ambassador of that redemption in the world. Now we have that privilege.
"Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you..." - Joshua 1:3a ESV
--
"Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?' And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.' " - Revelation 5:1-5 ESV
"Beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King." - Psalm 48:2 ESV
Beautiful in situation... God's throne is situated in a beautiful place.
Man was given dominion but submitted himself under the authority of the serpent. Jesus came as a man and paid for that transgression. He has the right to take back the title deed of the Earth. He has the right elevation in every situation.
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." - Philippians 2:1-4 ESV
Is there any consolation? Is there participation? In Christ there is. He has the authority in this situation and every other situation.
Many men died at the hands of Goliath... but not David. David was not a better man. David had a better God. His God held the title deed. His God had the power to break seals and loosen bondage. His God was situated in a high beautiful place. Other men shook in their boots but not David.
Adam was given dominion and lost it but Jesus took it back.
"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." - Luke 11:21-23 ESV
Jesus is the stronger man who can enter and take what no one else would have the power to take. With all this power at His disposal He will not break down our door. He loves and honors our right to choose.
Will we invite Him in and take comfort in Him? Is there participation with what is real or will we just submit our minds to more thinking that directs us to eat what we shouldn't have eaten in the first place?
God owns this day. It isn't only because He is creator. He owns it as redeemer. Jesus walked as an ambassador of that redemption in the world. Now we have that privilege.
"Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you..." - Joshua 1:3a ESV
--
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