The Passion (mutilating and beating before the Crucifixing death of Christ) came before the Resurrection to set what was taking place:
The sinless became sin,
The One who in no guile was found, became cursed. Cursed is every man who dies on the cross.
The only one truly obedient to the Fathers will, was forsaken.
The spotless Lamb, became the ever cleansing blood.
That unrecognizable corps was laid to rest in a tomb of stone and sealed, then guarded by soldiers.
Death could not hold Him.
Hell could not overtake Him. "He descended below to lead captive captivity."
He rose again to the Glory of the Father and for the eternal life of all men.
He ascended on high and gave gift to men.
All that can be said is:
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah..............
And so we rejoice in Christ our savior.
Love
J&E in Tn
"Be ye doers of the word and not just hearers." We need to do more than read the Scriptures, we need to live them. That's God's design for His word. You cannot live them without faith. "Without faith you cannot please God." Read, believe, live and Glorify your Father in Heaven. This blog will contain both the Scriptural insight and application in both teaching and example of "living the Word of God". May it challenge you as it does me in our daily journey.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Resurrection Day.............One day or for life?
Well
Easter/Resurrection Day has past, but is it really?
To me it was
like a seed planted afresh, which will sprout up, and the beauty of its blooms
will continually bless thru out the year.
This is a
reminder that we belong to someone greater than our earthly forms, that both
the physical and spiritual has hope "because He lives".
We are the
"sheep of His pasture, He is the "Good Sheppard", we know His
voice and we are known by Him".
He cares
enough about us to "know the very hairs of our head" yet He
"stands at the right hand of His Father in Heaven" and "makes
intersession for us".
We are
eternally blessed to be "His people and called by His name."
Every day
that we live we can rejoice in "Christ our Savior" because "each
day is a new day, a new day in the Lord."
I lay hold
to the "mercy's that are new every morning", and "grace
convenient for today" for "He is faithful to deliver, and will."
Life without
Him is hopeless regardless of success or failures, but life "in Him"
is full of hope that gives purpose and direction as "He leadeth me"
and "directs my paths."
With every
"Resurrection Day" that I experience in my life I know that I am
drawing neigh to the "Eternal Resurrection" that awaits for all who
are "called by His name."
For those
who "look for His coming" the promise is secure, as are all the
promises that are in Him. Promises that "follow" those who believe as
signs and wonders, and those promises that "will be made manifest" on
the other side when we arrive.
He fills the
long life with blessing, and He redeems the short life with the sweetness of
His presence early on.
"In
Him" life is best, without Him life is difficult at best.
His presence
in our lives brings with it bountiful riches regardless of our
"state." Blessings and Love is our surety, and "newness of
life" is what we experience daily as we "abide" in Him.
His
Resurrection is proven in us every day that we "arise" with praise,
and our hearts full of thanksgiving. As our feet hit the floor we "will go
out with joy and are lead forth with peace."
When we
enter into His rest at night our "sleep will be sweet", and "He
will keep us".
I count that
there is no greater joy in life than being "found in Him", and
"growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."
The
Resurrection has not "just passed" but lives on in us daily as we
abide in Him.
Love
In Christ
J&E in
Tn
Monday, April 14, 2014
Short thoughts
The "expectations" of Christianity is no longer based on Scripture as a general rule, it's based on whats practiced by it's participants.
If your life (consisting of all your thoughts, words, and deeds) was the only witness of the Gospel someone was to receive, would they find it "necessary" or "inspiring", and want to believe?
Do you have "Divine" expectations from "your Father in Heaven" or are you "satisfied" with your own applications of faith, however powerless?
John 20:29
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
This is the proper "expectation", Scripture is True in every aspect whether or not you have seen or experienced it in your "faith" walk. You are not the standard of Scripture, Christ is!
If your life (consisting of all your thoughts, words, and deeds) was the only witness of the Gospel someone was to receive, would they find it "necessary" or "inspiring", and want to believe?
Do you have "Divine" expectations from "your Father in Heaven" or are you "satisfied" with your own applications of faith, however powerless?
John 20:29
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
This is the proper "expectation", Scripture is True in every aspect whether or not you have seen or experienced it in your "faith" walk. You are not the standard of Scripture, Christ is!
Blind Bartimaeus never experienced a miracle but that didn't stop him from crying out.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
We are made in His image and likeness.......Not the other way around
But because of the flesh we all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. Note to those who believe otherwise, sin is not an occurrence in God but us. We are in His image and likeness.....not the other way around. It is our nature to sin and fall short not His. I can't emphasis this truth enough, God is Divine, never changing, ever. He cannot change. We can and will. He cannot be tempted, we can. He cannot sin, we will.
Clear enough?
Then let me query this......why do we believe that He somehow has our personality traits and falls under the same comparisons?
The point:
God is love, right? But God is also holiness, righteousness, judgement, and truth. Right? So which is He more? Is His Love greater than His judgement? Holiness greater than His righteousness? Again the answer is He is not in our image and likeness we are in His. And we are to be conformed to His image and likeness as we follow Jesus, decreasing so He may increase, and dying to self so He can live through us. We are being conformed to His image and likeness. So we are lower (baser) than He but He is working a work in us to change us to His image and likeness to Glorify Himself in all the work.
So what character is greater? Love, Holiness, righteousness, or judgement? None of the above is greater. In His divinity they all have the same level of importance. His Love will never override His judgement, nothing will ever change with God, only our thinking sets up a "priority scale". The Love of God was shown through the coming of Christ (His promise), to show His absolute Holiness (sin can't stand before Him), to set the bar of His righteousness (we couldn't approach His throne), and to eliminate His judgement by the blood of Christ. God is Divine without fault and with no level of participation more important than the rest of the levels.
So what is the problem?
Us + sin!
We (man) has the odd ability to take perfect Divinity and drag it down to the level we ourselves are on. We are a needy people and our greatest need is not judgement, holiness, or righteousness, it's Love. All of the woes of man can be laid to rest by Love......especially Divine love. So Love becomes the blanket to cover all our blinding to the whole message of the Gospel. Now don't get me wrong, the Gospel is God's greatest show of Love to all mankind over all time but it is not the only thing that God has revealed of His character. We focus on this because it gives us leave to ignore the rest of His Word and the warnings therein. Jesus is Love incarnate, but even He talked and warned more about Hell than He did heaven. He preached the message of Gods Love and redemption but He also warned about damnation and eternal torment, "where their worms never die and their flames never go out." So here we have Love and Damnation with damnation on a greater scale coming from He who is Love.
What does Gods Love save us from and put us in relationship with? Judgement, righteousness, and Holiness. All at once just as He has all these applications at the same time. But because His judgement, righteousness, and Holiness scares us (though it is slow (on our part) to keep us from sinning, we have to focus on the only thing that we want God to hold us accountable to and that's His Love. Many use Love (Christ) to leverage God when we continue to sin. Is there forgiveness for continued sin? Yes. But sin is easier to continue in when we say Love is greater than judgement, righteousness and Holiness. Even though Christ has settled all these issues with His blood we focus on God's Love as the only proprietary condition. We can better understand God's Love toward us if we better understood what real judgement, righteousness, and Holiness is. What we really deserve and what Jesus's blood saved us from. How He leveled the playing field between Divinity for Humanity and gave us the right to stand before and supplicate a Divine God.
So then seeing this we can "as through a glass darkly" begin to see "face to face" and gain a full appreciation of who our Father in Heaven is and why His love is so unconditional and incomprehensible. We were created in His image and likeness but now we are being conformed to His image and likeness now.
He is in the heavens and we are on the earth. He is Divine and we are carnal. He is the Redeemer of all things and we are what needs to be redeemed. Christ brings us into His presence and the Holy Spirit works in our lives to conform us to His image and likeness the way we were before sin entered in so we can walk and talk with Him as in the beginning. He is the Master Potter we are the clay of His making. We have confidence in judgement because we have Christ and His sacrifice as our mediator. Christ is both our righteousness and Holiness.
This should change our thinking on how we perceive our God and give Him His rightful place in our hearts and minds.
He doesn't have our weaknesses, He doesn't have our failures, He doesn't have our needs, He is the answer to all these human afflictions.
Maybe this will help with our present dilemma of who God is and who we are so we can worship the King in love and truth.
Love
J&E in Tn
Clear enough?
Then let me query this......why do we believe that He somehow has our personality traits and falls under the same comparisons?
The point:
God is love, right? But God is also holiness, righteousness, judgement, and truth. Right? So which is He more? Is His Love greater than His judgement? Holiness greater than His righteousness? Again the answer is He is not in our image and likeness we are in His. And we are to be conformed to His image and likeness as we follow Jesus, decreasing so He may increase, and dying to self so He can live through us. We are being conformed to His image and likeness. So we are lower (baser) than He but He is working a work in us to change us to His image and likeness to Glorify Himself in all the work.
So what character is greater? Love, Holiness, righteousness, or judgement? None of the above is greater. In His divinity they all have the same level of importance. His Love will never override His judgement, nothing will ever change with God, only our thinking sets up a "priority scale". The Love of God was shown through the coming of Christ (His promise), to show His absolute Holiness (sin can't stand before Him), to set the bar of His righteousness (we couldn't approach His throne), and to eliminate His judgement by the blood of Christ. God is Divine without fault and with no level of participation more important than the rest of the levels.
So what is the problem?
Us + sin!
We (man) has the odd ability to take perfect Divinity and drag it down to the level we ourselves are on. We are a needy people and our greatest need is not judgement, holiness, or righteousness, it's Love. All of the woes of man can be laid to rest by Love......especially Divine love. So Love becomes the blanket to cover all our blinding to the whole message of the Gospel. Now don't get me wrong, the Gospel is God's greatest show of Love to all mankind over all time but it is not the only thing that God has revealed of His character. We focus on this because it gives us leave to ignore the rest of His Word and the warnings therein. Jesus is Love incarnate, but even He talked and warned more about Hell than He did heaven. He preached the message of Gods Love and redemption but He also warned about damnation and eternal torment, "where their worms never die and their flames never go out." So here we have Love and Damnation with damnation on a greater scale coming from He who is Love.
What does Gods Love save us from and put us in relationship with? Judgement, righteousness, and Holiness. All at once just as He has all these applications at the same time. But because His judgement, righteousness, and Holiness scares us (though it is slow (on our part) to keep us from sinning, we have to focus on the only thing that we want God to hold us accountable to and that's His Love. Many use Love (Christ) to leverage God when we continue to sin. Is there forgiveness for continued sin? Yes. But sin is easier to continue in when we say Love is greater than judgement, righteousness and Holiness. Even though Christ has settled all these issues with His blood we focus on God's Love as the only proprietary condition. We can better understand God's Love toward us if we better understood what real judgement, righteousness, and Holiness is. What we really deserve and what Jesus's blood saved us from. How He leveled the playing field between Divinity for Humanity and gave us the right to stand before and supplicate a Divine God.
So then seeing this we can "as through a glass darkly" begin to see "face to face" and gain a full appreciation of who our Father in Heaven is and why His love is so unconditional and incomprehensible. We were created in His image and likeness but now we are being conformed to His image and likeness now.
He is in the heavens and we are on the earth. He is Divine and we are carnal. He is the Redeemer of all things and we are what needs to be redeemed. Christ brings us into His presence and the Holy Spirit works in our lives to conform us to His image and likeness the way we were before sin entered in so we can walk and talk with Him as in the beginning. He is the Master Potter we are the clay of His making. We have confidence in judgement because we have Christ and His sacrifice as our mediator. Christ is both our righteousness and Holiness.
This should change our thinking on how we perceive our God and give Him His rightful place in our hearts and minds.
He doesn't have our weaknesses, He doesn't have our failures, He doesn't have our needs, He is the answer to all these human afflictions.
Maybe this will help with our present dilemma of who God is and who we are so we can worship the King in love and truth.
Love
J&E in Tn
Monday, April 7, 2014
Today's fb post. Not the usual fare for this blog but good content as to how I live and apply faith
Welcome Monday!
The night seemed so long but you finally arrived.
I woke up to your overcast sky's and brooding coolness, but that won't keep me from gaining all I can from you.
"Weeping may last the night but joy comes in the morning."
The Master of "my day" assures me that there will be "grace sufficient" and "mercy's new every morning" to jump start my joy.
I have arisen once again to the love and voice of my wife, and a breakfast (Mediterranean style, fruit and toast), that is fit for a king.
Weather may clear enough to start cutting the lawn, and the Psalms will be entering into my heart through my ears while the chore is being put to rest.
During the last cutting/weed whipping adventure 32 Psalms were "ingested" via ipod, and if the "Lord is willing" by staying the weather, more will be covered as I partake of His written feast.
No other big plans to implement for today unless the weather doesn't clear except to "bless the Lord O' my soul with all that is within me, bless His Holy name."
One thing for sure is this: I am convinced that there is no way to separate life and worship (praise) once they are united by the finished work of Christ in our hearts. Worship is our life from henceforth and forever more.
We live as encouraged by our "eternal promise" and "each day is a new day, a new day in the Lord, each days a new day to offer up His praises, forgetting those things which are behind us, looking unto those things before us, each days a new day a new day in the Lord."
Faith has already claimed the Might Works of God for this day and gives focus to the path that forms before me, "He leadeth me in paths of righteousness," "He directs my feet."
Make your day a "singular" one today, draw strength and direction vertically first from "your Father in heaven" then manifest His Love "horizontally" toward others. A good place to start is with your own household and expand out from there.
Have a Super Day.
Love
J&E in Tn
The night seemed so long but you finally arrived.
I woke up to your overcast sky's and brooding coolness, but that won't keep me from gaining all I can from you.
"Weeping may last the night but joy comes in the morning."
The Master of "my day" assures me that there will be "grace sufficient" and "mercy's new every morning" to jump start my joy.
I have arisen once again to the love and voice of my wife, and a breakfast (Mediterranean style, fruit and toast), that is fit for a king.
Weather may clear enough to start cutting the lawn, and the Psalms will be entering into my heart through my ears while the chore is being put to rest.
During the last cutting/weed whipping adventure 32 Psalms were "ingested" via ipod, and if the "Lord is willing" by staying the weather, more will be covered as I partake of His written feast.
No other big plans to implement for today unless the weather doesn't clear except to "bless the Lord O' my soul with all that is within me, bless His Holy name."
One thing for sure is this: I am convinced that there is no way to separate life and worship (praise) once they are united by the finished work of Christ in our hearts. Worship is our life from henceforth and forever more.
We live as encouraged by our "eternal promise" and "each day is a new day, a new day in the Lord, each days a new day to offer up His praises, forgetting those things which are behind us, looking unto those things before us, each days a new day a new day in the Lord."
Faith has already claimed the Might Works of God for this day and gives focus to the path that forms before me, "He leadeth me in paths of righteousness," "He directs my feet."
Make your day a "singular" one today, draw strength and direction vertically first from "your Father in heaven" then manifest His Love "horizontally" toward others. A good place to start is with your own household and expand out from there.
Have a Super Day.
Love
J&E in Tn
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Whats wrong with Scripture?
NOTHING..........
Psalm 19:7-10
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
There is no problem with Scripture back then or today. God has not changed and He is the same from beginning to end, (of this creation), and in heaven: from forever to forever, "He changeth not."
So it would go then that what was, is, and will be forever, Himself, His Word, Christ and the Holy Spirit all have eternal presence. They are all one with three distinct applications in God's plan so that we can "return to God through Christ led by the Holy Spirit."
As Psalm 19:7-10 proves, everything about God's communication with man through His written/spoken/manifested (in Christ) Words are for our (mans) blessing and hearty continuance. If "let God be true and every man a liar" is true (and it is), then where does the fault come in with the interpretation and manifestation of it? How come it fails to give real and assured hope for our day and needs?
The fault relies on the "ears that hear" to "hear aright the Word of the Lord." There was a period of 400 yrs back in the OT where there was no Word of the Lord being spoken by prophet or "man of God." No guidance from God to man at all. Nothing.
Why? Because man had hardened his heart to His Word and until there was a starvation in the land "for that Word" then the speaking of it was useless. No one obeyed, sought after, cared about, or remembered its value. Like the seed sown on the different soils. After a farmer sows seed on poor ground enough times, he gives up hope for a harvest there, then lets nature (the applications of life) take its course of changing it's germinating condition. Seed will once again be broadcast when the ground is ready for germinating a harvest.
So we are today. People have been so long without "manifestation" of God's promises and deliverance that the common practice is to "turn a deaf ear to them." All of this comes from man's personal/or instructed interpretation of Scripture which of course becomes weaker with time and lack of faith.
So as not to beat a dead horse, here's what I propose for a personal application:
Become familiar with God and all His glory. The way Scripture describes Him! Then whenever you read those Scriptures don't base the interpretation on "what you have seen or experienced" but what the Word says and promises. Learn to pray as with great passion, like your situation depends on Divine Intervention, "EXPECTING" great things to be done in your behalf by God. Let God be God in your life. Not questioning but "believing" that what He has done in the past He will do for you today.
Believe in who God is and since He sent His Son to redeem you by His blood, then everything else is not only true but guaranteed. "We are closer now than when we first began," is what Paul said about His coming again. Jesus said: "When I return will I find faith on the earth?"
Faith produces fruit in keeping with repentance, good fruit, God honoring fruit, sinner convincing fruit. Scripture is the Word of God to "show us the way" and quell all our fears, meeting all our needs.
Everyone who "calls on the name of the Lord" not only shall be saved but with seeking, "filled with the Holy Spirit" to "Glorify our Father in Heaven" according to their faith.
I feel it's more important to read Scripture and believe them than to read and understand them in that order. Understanding will come "in God's time and in accordance with His will." Believing will open the doors of heaven to pour out a blessing that you will hardly be able to take in and empower the believer to be effective in the kingdom of God.
Love
J&E