A Heavy Revy

Don’t you just love it when God opens up something to you from His word?  Well, that happened to me today and I just wanted to share with you.

I was reading Matthew 9:14-17, were the disciples of John the Baptist are asking Jesus why His disciples do not fast often like they and the Pharisees. Jesus replies with a parable, “Can friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

This parable is self-explanitory. Jesus’ disciples were with Him continually. He taught them, led them, gave them new commandments of how to treat each other, He demonstrated His power and authority over sickness, evil, death; He had the power to forgive sins, and over every natural element of earth for example: when He walked on water, calmed the storm, and cursed the fig tree that withered, died, and dried up by the next day. There was no need for His disciples to fast; Jesus was walking with them.

But the next parable made me pause and I couldn’t understand what it had to do with the topic of fasting or to being closer to God.“No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled and the wineskins ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.”

Most people believe that this is referring to the Holy Spirit, and I am one of them but I think there is much more to it than that. I’ll assume that all of you reading this knows that any time you patch a garment with a piece of fabric purchased from a store, you must wash it first before you sow it. Same with the wineskin. Back in the day when they made wine they had to put it in new wineskins because the wine would ferment causing gases to expand. New wineskins are easier to stretch as these gases expand. Old wineskins have expanded as far as they can so any extra stretching will cause them to break and like Jesus said, both the wine and wineskin is ruined.

The disciples were as old wineskins because they were taught by the Pharisees, who were so bound up by the traditions of Moses and were cocky because they new the law forwards and backwards. Jesus steps on the scene, doing all the things listed above and more, before the eyes of His disciples causing their  wineskins to stretch. It was a slow process at times but, you know, Jesus is a patient man. When the Pharisees heard the words of Jesus, what happened? Their old wineskins couldn’t handle it, some were angry at Him, some tore their clothing in anguish. They didn’t receive Him (the Wine) and His words fell to the ground. 

I am not saying this is the sole reason why Jesus performed miracles and healed the sick and set the sin-bound at liberty. Neither was His sole purpose to be the sacrifice for our sins. I believe it was a combination of both. I am saying that He was showing us the new covenant of Him and a new way of living while fulfilling the law of sin sacrifice as a cleansing for us. Jesus is living in us through the infilling of the Holy Spirit

God the Father purchased us with the blood of Jesus, and Jesus paid the ultimate price for us to follow His lead. His body was the temple of God and so is ours. 2Corinthians 6:16, And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”   
We should not only praise God for what the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ accomplished, but for what His life accomplished as well. I challenge you to study the life of Jesus. It is an example of how to truly walk and talk as the sons and daughters of the Most High God. I would love to hear what God shows you.

God bless.      

 

The Names of God

These are the names we may call out to God in glorious praise or when we need Him. Find a name that meets your needs and cry out to Him. He is everything we need. He is our all in all. 

 And God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.”

Adonay = Lord, (used as a proper name for God)
Yehovah = self-existent, eternal 
Yehovah Yireh = Jehovah will see to it
Yehovah Nicciy = Jehovah is my banner
Yehovah Tsidqenuw = Jehovah is our right
Yehovah Shalowm = Jehovah is peace
Yehovah Shammach = Jehovah is thither
Yehowzabad = Jehovah endowed
Yehowyada = Jehovah known
Yehowyakiyn = Jehovah will establish
Yehowyaqiym = Jehovah will raise
Yehowyariyb = Jehovah will contend
Yehow’addah = Jehovah adorned
Yehow’addan = Jehovah pleased
Yehowchanan = Jehovah favored
‘Elohiym = The One True God, Supreme
‘Elda’ah = God of Knowledge
‘El Shadday = God Almighty
‘Elchanan = God is gracious
‘Elyada = God is knowing
‘Elyachba = God will hide
‘Eliy’ezer = God of help
‘Eliyphal = God of judgement
‘Elpelet = God of deliverance
‘Elyaqiym = God of raising
‘Elyashiyb = God will restore
‘Eliyshama = God of hearing
‘Elnathan = God is the giver
‘El’azar = God is helper
‘Eliytsuwr = God of the rock

The Lord God… Selah!

What does your name mean? I think every parent out there has put serious thought into what to name their children.  Because every name has a meaning, you choose one according to what you hope your child will aspire to. The giving of names with meaning has been going on since Adam and Eve were created. Reading through the Bible, you can see that some lived up to their names, and some did not. Some names God changed to one that the person would live up to. I’ll post what I found out about them later on.

My question to you now is, have you ever thought about what God’s name means?  God has several names all of which have specific meanings some are based on what the person needed at the time of prayer or praise. Amazing!
For example,  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew Him as Lord God. (in this verse “Lord”  is translated in Hebrew: Adonay= which is a proper name for God) and (in this verse “God” is translated in Hebrew: Elohiym = God Almighty, the supreme God)       

In Exodus 3:15, God introduced Himself to Moses as, “The Lord God of your fathers”  (“Lord” here is translated in Hebrew: Ye hovah YHWH = Self existent, eternal) Notice it is differnt from the “Lord” above. (“God” here is translated in Hebrew = God Almighty, Supreme)

Exist means to continue to live. If you do not have air, water, and food you will cease to exist.  This is called a dependent existence.  Self-existence means inherent, underived, independent existence. Which means that God’s existence is permanent and is not derived from anything outside of Himself.  

God goes on to say in verse 15, “This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.”  Wow! Isn’t that great?  His name,  Self-existent, Eternal, Almighty God is a testimony to all the earth of who He is and His name will never change!

In Exodus 6:2,3 God said to Moses, “I am the Lord. (Yehovah=Self-existent, eternal)  “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty (Elohiym), but by My name Lord (Yehovah=self-existent, eternal) I was not known to them.”

An interesting tid-bit that I have never caught before.  It made me wonder why God introduced Himself as Almighty, Supreme God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but to Moses He introduced Himself as the Self-existent, eternal God?

I believe it was based on God’s will for their lives and how He wanted them to rely on Him.  God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would make them a great nation and give them land for their inheritance; the fortified land that was in the hands of ruthless and aggressive inhabitants.  The children of Isreal would not be able to withstand an army such as these without the aid and power of an Almighty God.  
The same is true for Moses.  God introduced Himself as the Self-existent and Eternal God to establish His holiness and sacredness. In order for Moses to instruct the children of Israel how to approach and regard the God of their fathers, he had to see and know the Supreme Deity himself.  

That is my view, but I would like to hear what you think.  Don’t be shy, post a comment.

Doubting is easy…

This post inspired by the song, “These Things Take Time” by Sactus Real. Check it out on youtube when you get a chance.

I believe it is easier to doubt.  Think about it.  You don’t have to put much effort in doubting something.  For example- Greg: “We are going to win the lottery this week.”  Me: “I doubt it.” 

Believing in something means to accept it as real or truth.  Having faith in something means believing without needing proof. You just know.

God gave each one of us a measure of faith (Romans 12:3).  And it’s up to us to grow that faith.  Remember, faith is like a muscle, in order for it to grow and get stronger it must be used.  How do you grow faith?  Read the Word of God.

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.   John 1:1 
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory  John 1:14
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith... Hebrews 12:2
so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  Romans 10:17
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith… the just shall live by faith.  Romans 1:17

To rephrase this from the Lawanda’s Amplified Maximized Exhausted version (LAME); 

The very Word of God is Jesus Christ.  Everything He is and ever was and ever will be, became flesh and lived on earth with us, and we know and have heard of His great power.  The Supernatural became natural to hang with His creation, to provide for them the only way back to the Supreme Divinity.  His life and teachings were put into writing and has been passed down from generation to generation so that we may understand the nature of the God we serve and know that we aren no longer removed but are reborn as His children.  And as children we are to act like His children and live righteously as He is righteous. 

God bless you all!

Daddy…Daddy, where are you?

Last week I was remembering the things my children did when they were quite small.  I’ll share one with you that I think God spoke to me through.

My son, Anthony, has always been a quiet one and able to entertain himself with whatever toys are available.  He would often sit, and quietly play for longer that I thought was normal at the time.  I would go in and check on him, tousle his hair, or bring him a snack.  One of those days I decided to see what he would do if I just left him alone.  I busied myself in the kitchen but I stayed out of sight and made as little noise as I could.  He was content for the longest time, then I heard from down the hall, “Mommy…”  I didn’t answer right away to see how he would react.  You may be thinking, “How cruel is that?” but I wanted to see how bad he needed me.  How far would he go to find me?  Did he realize my absence?  “I’m here.”  I said.  Then I heard his voice again, “Mommy, where are you?”  he asked looking for me, room by room.  As he walked into the kitchen where I was, I saw his little anxious face.  “Here I am, son.”  He rushed to me and I picked him up and held him tight.  “I thought you left me, mommy,”  he said.  I looked into his little face, “I will never leave you all alone and I will never be so far away that I won’t hear you when you call out my name.”  I held him for awhile, which was rare at that stage, enjoying every minute of his loving me.  I found out by this experiment that my son did miss my attention when I was not around him, though it was not apparent by him at the time.  Being so young, he still knew that he needed a parent to be there for him, because he became fearful when he could not easily find me.

You know, I believe we feel this way about God.  When we don’t see or feel Him hanging around us, waiting for us to notice or acknowledge Him, we assume that He has left the house altogether, when in fact, He was just in another room wondering how much we love and miss His presence in our lives, all the while willing us to seek Him out.  Then once again we are wrapped in His loving arms and He desperately wants to keep us there. 

God is a father, a parent. On the cross, Jesus called Him Abba Father which means in our equivalent, “daddy.”  Our Daddy says to us, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” ~ your Father God  Deut. 31:6

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed (downhearted) for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you, I will uphold (raise up, support) you with my righteous right hand.”
~ your Father God  Isaiah 41:10

When we get to a point that we don’t believe He is near to us, our Daddy tells us in Deut. 4:29, But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart, and with all your soul.”

We run to our Daddy when we are in trouble.  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1.  He takes delight in us and has chosen us for Himself.  1 Samuel 12:22, “For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you HIs people.”

Now I’m going to leave you with one of my favorite scriptures but I’ll have to skip around for lack of room.
Romans 8:35, 38,39  35  who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or destress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…  38  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Whoever you are, you are not so far away from God that He won’t hear you when you call out His name.

the nocturnal age

Nocturnal means, to be active at night.  Night means, the period of evening and darkness.  Dark(ness) means, having little or no light, confusion, evil, sinister, wicked.  Light means, illumination, the state of being unhidden and observable, understanding and truth.

The people who sat in darkness saw a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.
Matthew 4:16

Jesus puts His foot on the earth; understanding and truth has come at last.

John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”  If we don’t walk in darkness that means we are not confused and everything evil, sinister and wicked must flee.  Amen! 

You can’t follow something and be stationary.  1 John 1:7 says, But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His son, cleanses us from all sin.  Therefore, you are taking the light of Jesus Christ with you wherever you go and communicate what the blood of Jesus did for us to everyone you may fellowship with. John 12:46, “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness.” Your light will expose sin so that repentance and salvation may come.

Just like you may use a candle to light another candle, Jesus said in Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”   A well lit city is welcoming, one does not fear when approaching it.  Jesus also admonishes us in Matthew 5:16 to, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”  For a candle’s one and only purpose is to illuminate but it cannot do so unless it is light by another source.  The same is true for us, we are not and cannot do good on our own, if there is any good in our lives it is all God’s work, not ours.  

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (fully understand) it.  John 1:4,5  Not everyone is going to be thrilled with you when your light shines into their world.  There are those who love living in darkness, they enjoy doing what they are doing.  The darkness hides their sin from others and they avoid people of light because the light will expose it.  God hates anything false or a lie; He cannot look upon it.  This is the message which we have heard from Him (Jesus) and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:5

So I say to you, “Let there be light…” Genesis  1:3 and  Arise, shine, for your light has come!  Glory to God!  And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Isaiah 60:1

Out, old man!

Our small group is studying Ephesians, and as I read today this grabbed me and I wanted to share it.

Putting off the old man and putting on the new. Ephesians 4:17-29

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility (done in vain, useless) of their mind,   Ephesians 4:17

Sorry, I don’t have room for it all here but this lesson is about putting off the old man and putting on the new.  This, I’m sure, makes perfect sense to some of you.  Somehow, I thought my old ways of thinking would just stop as I read the Bible and prayed, but that is not the case.  It is our responsibility to “put off” or ignore those thoughts, reactions, and tendancies that are opposite of those that Jesus taught us to have.  I don’t believe we can conquer this overnight, but if we Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, (2Corinthians 10:5) as soon as it enters our thoughts, we will gain power over it every day until it is conquered.

As we put off a wrong thought, we need to counter-act it with the word of God.

23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

24 and that you put onthe new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.
Ephesians 4:23-24

We have been redeemed from the bondage of sin. Jesus paid the price so that we do not have to fall prey to it. He gave us power over it in His name and He wants us to live in that knowledge and walk in the authority of it. It is a lie to say, “The devil made me do it or think it.” Satan can’t make us do anything, but he can and will try to influence us. We have the option to yield to it or resist it.

Just like Satan can’t make us sin, God won’t force us to make righteous choices. He created us with a will of our own – to make the choices we want to make. He has done it all for us, paid the ramsom and set us free. He desires us to choose the right path but He will not force us to take it.

Therefore, be followers of God as dear children. Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.

 

whatever you say…

 Do you ever really listen to what you say sometimes?  When you are anxious about something in the future or things are not going the way you wanted or expected, what is your verbal response?  I know sometimes I respond negatively.  Which makes me wonder…

What if we could actually have whatever we said.  Right now I would say, “I want a vanilla coffee with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles in front of me.”  Then, suddenly before my eyes, my request materialized. Later when my children are adoring me from the front porch that recently manifested. I notice the Brinks truck filled with millions of dollars parked next to my vintage Shelby Cobra GT.  The very next thing out of my mouth is, “This can’t be real.”  And it’s all gone!

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have Faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. 
Mark 11:22-23 (nkjv)

It is a wonderful thing to believe in the promises of God and speak the good things over our lives, but just as this works for the good things we speak, it also works for the negative things we speak over our lives and the lives of our friends and family.

The Bible shows God refused to complete a sentence because the outcome would have changed the eternal security of mankind.  He spoke the world into existance and when Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and therefore seperated himself from God, He got to thinking. 

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” —
Genesis 3:22

He didn’t complete His thought.  Had man, in the state of disobedience and seperated from God, had reached out and eaten of the tree of (eternal) life, all of mankind would have lived forever in complete seperation from God with no chance of redemption or relationship with God. 

As children of this God who knows the importance of speaking positively, we should not let anything out of our mouths that goes against what we hope to see happen.  

I would like to put forth a challenge to everyone who reads this.  Pretend that everything you say will happen today.  
I’m going to do this and I hope you will join me.  I would also love to hear how easy or difficult you find it.  All comments welcome.

Who is God?

A brown spider and her offspring lived in the lower chambers of a cathedral clock tower.  The chimes filled the dreary, dusty chamber with a majestic melody every quarter hour and rang the hours. The spiders went about their everyday lives in awe of the Clockmaker who lived upstairs and whose handiwork filled their lives with beauty. Inevitably, the adventurous spiders penetrated the ceiling of the cathedral chamber and explored the machinery of the clock and the chimes. A sense of doubt spread among the spiders. There was not Clockmaker up above, only cogs, gears and chains that moved and made he hammers strike the chimes. “Still”, the spiders reasoned, “the Clockmaker must live elsewhere.  Wasn’t it amazing that the Clockmaker could make a clock that could run by itself?”  ~ Story taken from Prophecy Study Bible by John Hagee

So many people look for God with their own idea of who He should be and what He should do. When they discover that He is who He is, and He doesn’t change, some reject Him. They want to find God as someone who meets their needs and who will agree to whatever they think is right. They do not want to be shown or told that they are wrong or that they need to change. This causes me to wonder if they are truly looking for God Himself or justification to continue with their actions and beliefs? 

I’m not trying to bring condemnation, but a challenge to those who seek God to put away all pre-conceived notions and simply desire to know Him as who He really is, not an image that we or other people have painted of Him.

God has put forth His commandments for us to follow, His word is specific on what He detests. There is no small print disclaimer, He makes Himself perfectly clear. He even shares how we can be closer to Him. All we need to do is hear, believe, love, trust & obey.

God is a just God, who loves us as His children. He desires that you find Him and have a loving relationship with Him. After all, He paid a high price for us all to come and get to know Him. But He does not force Himself on anyone, if we truly seek Him, we will find Him. 

“For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” ~ Jesus ~ Luke 11:10.

True Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship.
It’s focus is not to rule the world, but to reconcile the world to God.
The gospel is not meant to be forced on anyone, but will compel the believer to share with anyone who will listen.

Remember, He loves you. Even those who may not know Him, He still loves you and desires and longs for you to come to Him. Read His word and ask Him to reveal Himself to you, then wait and be overwhelmed at His great love when He does.

 

Flying in the Fog

So I’ve been around a lot of airplanes lately and it’s got me thinking on one thing in particular. Faith. How an airplane pilot can land or take off in severe weather or heavy fog is fascinating to me. The pilots obviously have a windshield but let’s face it, it doesn’t help if you can’t see through it clearly. So how do they take off and land in these conditions? Ok, I know you already know, they have an instrument panel that they rely on to take off and land even when they can’t see where they are on the runway or in the air with their own eyes. These panels tell them which direction they are headed, how high up they are and also how to line up to the runway. I imagine that these pilots must put a lot of faith in these instruments to be exact.

You know, that is how we should have faith in God. To trust Him when we can’t see something with our own eyes. We must put our faith and trust in God to direct us when we have no idea where to go or what to do. I am reminded when my daughter was four years old and we went to a fall festival. There was a gigantic bounce house obstacle course and she begged me to let her go in. So I checked it out and gave the o.k. She went in and began to climb the huge ladder but before she reached the top, she got a little scared. I began to encourage her. “You can do it.” I said. She stayed there a little too long, begging me to come and get her out. But I knew what the course was in front of her, and I knew that if she would just climb a few more steps the hard part would be over and the rest of the time in there would be fun for her. I would never have let her go in if I didn’t think she make it through.

God is our Father and He will never lead us down a path that He knows we can’t walk. It is His desire that we are led by faith but the important thing is, we have to have it in us first. Romans 10:17 says, So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The more we read or hear the Word of God the stronger our faith will become. Our faith will get us through when we are surrounded by the stormy weather and fog that comes to blind us from trusting in God. Let’s live by the truths in the Bible rather than living by the truths of this world.