Many of us say to ourselves these days, there's no use.
Many of us say to others there's no need.
I say this day as you walk into the light of Christ there are many uses and a great need to stand in His love, His arms, His care. We are so heavy and bogged down that just to get up in the mornings takes so much strength, so much energy that's best catered to in just staying in my bed. I say this day, cast off... cast off this garment that is heavy on you. Cast it off, as if your enter life depended on it, for it does. Cast and Someone greater than you will take it, pulling it off of you, throwing it far from you. He knows this burden you carry that in effect is not yours to carry. He knows the threads of it are woven deeply into your soul, your fibers of who you are. But He says look up.... look up to Him in your heart. Close your eyes, looking up within. He says I am taking this cloak, this heavy coat, this coat that has weighed you down. Release it, give Him permission to take it off you. He says He's right there beside you. He wants to show you how light you can truly feel. He says this day.... says yes to Him. Deep down in the darkness of your heart, the hidden places, say yes. He has a light breaking day planned, by saying yes will erupt into dawn. He says this moment if you will but look up, saying yes, it will burst forth. I say this day, says Jesus, I am the One that knows your name. I know your fibers how they are woven, i have your answer. In saying yes to me this day, I will remove this heaviness and give you much much much needed rest you yearn for. Take My hand and let me guide you out of the place you've found yourself in. I take your hand as you extend it.... for I am your Savior.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
A Surprise on Easter Morning
Out of all the events that have happened on the earth, out of all occurrences that have proceeded thru time that humans have been on this earth, no ONE event has been as powerful and continued to be as powerful as Christ Jesus dying on the Cross, then being buried in a stone tomb and rising again on the 3rd day. This one huge occurrence rocked life as we know it, therefore marking mankind forever. It had such an impact on us, we changed how time was recorded on our calendar, BC (before Christ) and AD (after Christ). Though there have been monumental happenings on earth, none have changed how we view our lives as Christ’s life on earth.
Wrapping our entire lives up in one package, stapling the most life changing pieces to the outside, and though these were extremely important pieces, they do not impact others as the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Himself.
When we talk about His life; Him growing up, His ministry and the loss of His life, what causes us to remember Him so? What makes us sit up and take notice so much about Him and the indelible mark He’s left? Why will mankind never be the same?
This answer, to the unsaved person is found not in the dying, and neither in the burying of Him, but in the rising again that flips humans out. Though the power of God was so so igniting, nowhere is His power more accounted for as in the tomb on that particular day.
Though Jesus is the Son of God, He is also Son of human, two intertwined in one physical body. The bible says He was not so handsome that we would particularly remember Him. Why then did this certain week of His life rock humanity? It was the rising from the dead.
God Himself came to earth, enclosed Himself within His creations form and lived a life AS a human, tested and tempted in all ways such as we are, and still did not sin. Whoa! That WOULD take the power of the Holy Spirit to live without sin, wouldn’t it? My goodness we cannot even go a week without having to repent to God the Father over something we’ve done.
Today’s lesson is enfolded within the story of Easter and the accounts of Jesus dying, though as monumental as that is, but we are taking one simple episode of this experience and magnifying it so we spot just what God the Father is showing us girls today, here and now, for us to see.
There were many many people caught up in that day Jesus was taken captive. There were the Jewish Leaders. There were the Roman Leaders. There were the Roman Guards. There were the towns’ people. There were strangers passing through. There were the people that just followed Jesus to see the miracles. And there were His 12 disciples. But there were, also, many other disciples or believers that were following Him. Then there were a few very special women that were accounted for that day, as well, that were with Him the entire way.
Once Jesus was captured by the Roman Guards by the betrayal of one of His own disciples, He was taken in to be questioned. Though there were the Roman Leaders, they granted access to Jesus’ sentencing by the Jewish Leadership that was present. They were the ones that would sentence Him, accusing Him of all kinds of lies.
The Jewish Leadership of that day despised Jesus. Many people no longer followed THEM, but Jesus. They were jealous of Him. They had nothing good to say about Jesus upon His arrest. The Roman Leaders did as the Jews wanted. They sentenced Him to death.
Because the life of Christ has such a profound effect on us today, and throughout history, as the ONLY way to reach Heaven, we celebrate this day as ‘Good Friday’. It is a scheduled day ‘off work’ for many in the work field, even those that do not believe in Him. See the enormous touch His death and burial have had on civilization?
You would think with such a GIANT event upon the earth for the saving of the human race, demonstrating the love of God, the grace of God, the deliverance of mankind, that God would want to show WHO He wanted first share in that moment of finding Jesus risen, alive, no longer in the tomb. I know He doesn’t esteem one person above another, He tells us that in the bible. He is not a respecter of persons, because His word states that very thing. But God, in all His Glory, His Majesty, His reining Importance, you would think He would select someone with authority in the earth, or power in Leadership, or someone special in some way, or an out of the ordinary kind of person to share in this ONE INCREDIBLE MOMENT IN TIME…… when He rose His Son from the grave!
So, seeing that this one incredible moment is one highly regarded by God Himself, we can assume and be assured that God selected JUST who He wanted to see Jesus first risen from the tomb. That one person God said ‘yes, I want them’ to find Him risen, no longer laying in the tomb, lifeless, but ALIVE and well!
Turn to Mark 16:9 “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils”.
Jesus FIRST appeared to Mary Magdalene. She was someone that followed Jesus because He had ministered to her and delivered her of devils. She had become a believer, had received a touch from Him in her life. She …. was a new girl. A NEW GIRL WAS THE FIRST TO SEE JESUS in His risen body. A New Girl was the FIRST to see Christ that we all talk about RISEN and not dead. It was a New Girl that God chose to witness the great miracle of the resurrection of Christ. God did not select a great King on the earth to encounter the newly risen Savior. God did not select even one of the 12 disciples to behold Him. God selected a New Girl, that had once been bound by satan, in bondage to his ways, and multiple demons living within, to become FREE by the hand of the Lord Jesus. God could have selected anyone at all, but God the Father chose….. a New Girl!
Mary Magdalene was at His tomb earlier with two other women, but here she was found alone. She was found there alone, weeping. Mary Magdalene was so overcome with grief, she wasn’t concerned about being at a cemetery by herself. She was there to take sweet smelling spices to cover Jesus’ body with.
This is as we are when we come to Christ. We are so engulfed in what He’s done for us, the love He shed abroad in our hearts, overwhelmed with love for Him, that we will step out in boldness and go somewhere we’ve never gone just to be with Him, even if we’re not certain we will find Him moving. We have to know that because of our love for Him, wanting to encounter Him, that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
Turn to Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for she that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of her that diligently seeks Him.”. Mary Magdalene diligently sought Him. She was seeking Him in a different form than what He was. That’s like us. We receive a touch from Jesus and assume the next time we meet Him He will be the same also. Not so. Each time we experience Jesus, it will be different. But as you’ve seen in the scripture in Hebrews, He is a rewarder. As we diligently seek Him, become serious to encounter Him, He will appear. He will come down. He will allow us to see Him, feel Him.
Turn to John 20:1-7 “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher [tomb], and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the tomb. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the tomb. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the tomb, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the tomb, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the tomb weeping…” The others went on home. They went away. But Mary Magdalene, the New Girl, stayed and was crying. She was so disturbed that someone had taken her Lord, that she was alarmed, uneasy and greatly disturbed.
But if we diligently seek Him, He will reward us. Look at the remainder of those scriptures in John 20:11-13 “But Mary stood without at the tomb weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the tomb, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. Because she was diligent, working hard to find Jesus, seriously seeking Him, she had a heavenly meeting with God’s angels. What an incredible experience. She was found alone and seeking, in her alone time early at dawn, searching for her Lord, she had a heavenly engagement. She had a meeting with heavenly beings simply because she was the one searching, seeking, wanting so badly to find her Lord.
As it is with us, the New Girls, searching, seeking, wanting so badly to find our Lord. THEN!
Back to John 20:14-17 “And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. She went to find Him and FOUND HIM. She was not disappointed in finding Him either. She wanted to discover Him and SHE DID. She had a longing to locate Him and that is what happened. But as she imagined in her heart, she never dreamed she would find Him in a risen body. She never even fantisised she would encounter Him ALIVE!!!!
He told her to not touch Him because He had not ascended to the Father yet for His glorified body, heavenly body. The process wasn’t even complete, but she STILL got to witness the mighty work of God by raising Him from the dead. Mary was the first one to “go tell the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. What is that good news? That CHRIST IS ALIVE and is the Savior of the those that are lost. We have a risen Savior. He is not a Savior that’s hand is too short to reach. He is not a Savior that cannot touch and save. He is a Savior that is alive and living, therefore with the power to miraculously touch and save.
Any time we seek Him in our prayer time, though our process of life is not complete, we will find Him. We will encounter Him. We will feel His arms around us, calming us, insuring us, encouraging us, healing us and delivering us from evil. This is what Mary Magdalene encountered through Jesus, this saving grace, this power of God. She knew what is was like to be tortured in her mind by satan. She knew what it was like to feel so alone in that, so helpless, so hopeless. She met HOPE, though. She met POWER. She not only met hope and power, but the One that cared enough to apply that power, and give her hope of life again.
This is like us, being tortured in our mind, feeling some days that we have no hope, are alone in our life. But Christ in His risen condition, not dead condition is the living hope, living power for our lives. It’s when we diligently, seriously, for real, seek Him that we will find Him.
Turn to Acts 17:27 “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us”.
Again to Deut 4:29 “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul”.
And now to Psalm 3:4 “I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill”.
Once more to Psalm 34:4 “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fear”.
Then to Psalm 118:21 “ I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation”.
Any time we seek God, ask of Him, wonder, think on, go after Him, He brings us to Himself. We find Him. No matter what state of mind we are, even grief as Mary Magdalene was, we will have this encounter. He assures us of this. When we want Him, and seek Him with our whole heart, He rewards us. It’s not the same reward each time. Each time is just what we need. It’s just what we are yearning for, longing for, sometimes when we’re not even sure of what we desire, He knows. Mary wanted to see Him so she got to see Him. It was unlike what she thought she’d find, but how she found Him was even better. HE WAS ALIVE!!!
So, as we walk this week and beyond, let us KNOW that He wants us to find Him. He wants us to know the New Girl, His new creation can find Him. We are the New Girl because He’s made us new. Remember 2Corinthians 5:17? “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. We are the New Girl because He has made all things pass away, die, pass on, stop working, crash. And behold all things, US, OUR LIFE, OUR THINKING, OUR LOVE, OUR HEARTS, OUR BODIES, OUR MINDS, have become new, original, never being this way before, fresh, a clean slate!!!!! We are no longer the Old Girl, we are the New Girl, seeking and find Jesus in a whole new way.
ALIVE
He is alive….His tomb is empty. Today when you open a plastic Easter
Egg that’s empty, remember His tomb. The treasure is not in the empty tomb anymore,
He is alive and well….
Wrapping our entire lives up in one package, stapling the most life changing pieces to the outside, and though these were extremely important pieces, they do not impact others as the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Himself.
When we talk about His life; Him growing up, His ministry and the loss of His life, what causes us to remember Him so? What makes us sit up and take notice so much about Him and the indelible mark He’s left? Why will mankind never be the same?
This answer, to the unsaved person is found not in the dying, and neither in the burying of Him, but in the rising again that flips humans out. Though the power of God was so so igniting, nowhere is His power more accounted for as in the tomb on that particular day.
Though Jesus is the Son of God, He is also Son of human, two intertwined in one physical body. The bible says He was not so handsome that we would particularly remember Him. Why then did this certain week of His life rock humanity? It was the rising from the dead.
God Himself came to earth, enclosed Himself within His creations form and lived a life AS a human, tested and tempted in all ways such as we are, and still did not sin. Whoa! That WOULD take the power of the Holy Spirit to live without sin, wouldn’t it? My goodness we cannot even go a week without having to repent to God the Father over something we’ve done.
Today’s lesson is enfolded within the story of Easter and the accounts of Jesus dying, though as monumental as that is, but we are taking one simple episode of this experience and magnifying it so we spot just what God the Father is showing us girls today, here and now, for us to see.
There were many many people caught up in that day Jesus was taken captive. There were the Jewish Leaders. There were the Roman Leaders. There were the Roman Guards. There were the towns’ people. There were strangers passing through. There were the people that just followed Jesus to see the miracles. And there were His 12 disciples. But there were, also, many other disciples or believers that were following Him. Then there were a few very special women that were accounted for that day, as well, that were with Him the entire way.
Once Jesus was captured by the Roman Guards by the betrayal of one of His own disciples, He was taken in to be questioned. Though there were the Roman Leaders, they granted access to Jesus’ sentencing by the Jewish Leadership that was present. They were the ones that would sentence Him, accusing Him of all kinds of lies.
The Jewish Leadership of that day despised Jesus. Many people no longer followed THEM, but Jesus. They were jealous of Him. They had nothing good to say about Jesus upon His arrest. The Roman Leaders did as the Jews wanted. They sentenced Him to death.
Because the life of Christ has such a profound effect on us today, and throughout history, as the ONLY way to reach Heaven, we celebrate this day as ‘Good Friday’. It is a scheduled day ‘off work’ for many in the work field, even those that do not believe in Him. See the enormous touch His death and burial have had on civilization?
You would think with such a GIANT event upon the earth for the saving of the human race, demonstrating the love of God, the grace of God, the deliverance of mankind, that God would want to show WHO He wanted first share in that moment of finding Jesus risen, alive, no longer in the tomb. I know He doesn’t esteem one person above another, He tells us that in the bible. He is not a respecter of persons, because His word states that very thing. But God, in all His Glory, His Majesty, His reining Importance, you would think He would select someone with authority in the earth, or power in Leadership, or someone special in some way, or an out of the ordinary kind of person to share in this ONE INCREDIBLE MOMENT IN TIME…… when He rose His Son from the grave!
So, seeing that this one incredible moment is one highly regarded by God Himself, we can assume and be assured that God selected JUST who He wanted to see Jesus first risen from the tomb. That one person God said ‘yes, I want them’ to find Him risen, no longer laying in the tomb, lifeless, but ALIVE and well!
Turn to Mark 16:9 “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils”.
Jesus FIRST appeared to Mary Magdalene. She was someone that followed Jesus because He had ministered to her and delivered her of devils. She had become a believer, had received a touch from Him in her life. She …. was a new girl. A NEW GIRL WAS THE FIRST TO SEE JESUS in His risen body. A New Girl was the FIRST to see Christ that we all talk about RISEN and not dead. It was a New Girl that God chose to witness the great miracle of the resurrection of Christ. God did not select a great King on the earth to encounter the newly risen Savior. God did not select even one of the 12 disciples to behold Him. God selected a New Girl, that had once been bound by satan, in bondage to his ways, and multiple demons living within, to become FREE by the hand of the Lord Jesus. God could have selected anyone at all, but God the Father chose….. a New Girl!
Mary Magdalene was at His tomb earlier with two other women, but here she was found alone. She was found there alone, weeping. Mary Magdalene was so overcome with grief, she wasn’t concerned about being at a cemetery by herself. She was there to take sweet smelling spices to cover Jesus’ body with.
This is as we are when we come to Christ. We are so engulfed in what He’s done for us, the love He shed abroad in our hearts, overwhelmed with love for Him, that we will step out in boldness and go somewhere we’ve never gone just to be with Him, even if we’re not certain we will find Him moving. We have to know that because of our love for Him, wanting to encounter Him, that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.
Turn to Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for she that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of her that diligently seeks Him.”. Mary Magdalene diligently sought Him. She was seeking Him in a different form than what He was. That’s like us. We receive a touch from Jesus and assume the next time we meet Him He will be the same also. Not so. Each time we experience Jesus, it will be different. But as you’ve seen in the scripture in Hebrews, He is a rewarder. As we diligently seek Him, become serious to encounter Him, He will appear. He will come down. He will allow us to see Him, feel Him.
Turn to John 20:1-7 “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher [tomb], and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the tomb. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the tomb. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the tomb, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the tomb, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the tomb weeping…” The others went on home. They went away. But Mary Magdalene, the New Girl, stayed and was crying. She was so disturbed that someone had taken her Lord, that she was alarmed, uneasy and greatly disturbed.
But if we diligently seek Him, He will reward us. Look at the remainder of those scriptures in John 20:11-13 “But Mary stood without at the tomb weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the tomb, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. Because she was diligent, working hard to find Jesus, seriously seeking Him, she had a heavenly meeting with God’s angels. What an incredible experience. She was found alone and seeking, in her alone time early at dawn, searching for her Lord, she had a heavenly engagement. She had a meeting with heavenly beings simply because she was the one searching, seeking, wanting so badly to find her Lord.
As it is with us, the New Girls, searching, seeking, wanting so badly to find our Lord. THEN!
Back to John 20:14-17 “And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. She went to find Him and FOUND HIM. She was not disappointed in finding Him either. She wanted to discover Him and SHE DID. She had a longing to locate Him and that is what happened. But as she imagined in her heart, she never dreamed she would find Him in a risen body. She never even fantisised she would encounter Him ALIVE!!!!
He told her to not touch Him because He had not ascended to the Father yet for His glorified body, heavenly body. The process wasn’t even complete, but she STILL got to witness the mighty work of God by raising Him from the dead. Mary was the first one to “go tell the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. What is that good news? That CHRIST IS ALIVE and is the Savior of the those that are lost. We have a risen Savior. He is not a Savior that’s hand is too short to reach. He is not a Savior that cannot touch and save. He is a Savior that is alive and living, therefore with the power to miraculously touch and save.
Any time we seek Him in our prayer time, though our process of life is not complete, we will find Him. We will encounter Him. We will feel His arms around us, calming us, insuring us, encouraging us, healing us and delivering us from evil. This is what Mary Magdalene encountered through Jesus, this saving grace, this power of God. She knew what is was like to be tortured in her mind by satan. She knew what it was like to feel so alone in that, so helpless, so hopeless. She met HOPE, though. She met POWER. She not only met hope and power, but the One that cared enough to apply that power, and give her hope of life again.
This is like us, being tortured in our mind, feeling some days that we have no hope, are alone in our life. But Christ in His risen condition, not dead condition is the living hope, living power for our lives. It’s when we diligently, seriously, for real, seek Him that we will find Him.
Turn to Acts 17:27 “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us”.
Again to Deut 4:29 “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul”.
And now to Psalm 3:4 “I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill”.
Once more to Psalm 34:4 “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fear”.
Then to Psalm 118:21 “ I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation”.
Any time we seek God, ask of Him, wonder, think on, go after Him, He brings us to Himself. We find Him. No matter what state of mind we are, even grief as Mary Magdalene was, we will have this encounter. He assures us of this. When we want Him, and seek Him with our whole heart, He rewards us. It’s not the same reward each time. Each time is just what we need. It’s just what we are yearning for, longing for, sometimes when we’re not even sure of what we desire, He knows. Mary wanted to see Him so she got to see Him. It was unlike what she thought she’d find, but how she found Him was even better. HE WAS ALIVE!!!
So, as we walk this week and beyond, let us KNOW that He wants us to find Him. He wants us to know the New Girl, His new creation can find Him. We are the New Girl because He’s made us new. Remember 2Corinthians 5:17? “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. We are the New Girl because He has made all things pass away, die, pass on, stop working, crash. And behold all things, US, OUR LIFE, OUR THINKING, OUR LOVE, OUR HEARTS, OUR BODIES, OUR MINDS, have become new, original, never being this way before, fresh, a clean slate!!!!! We are no longer the Old Girl, we are the New Girl, seeking and find Jesus in a whole new way.
ALIVE
He is alive….His tomb is empty. Today when you open a plastic Easter
Egg that’s empty, remember His tomb. The treasure is not in the empty tomb anymore,
He is alive and well….
Friday, April 22, 2011
Promise of Help
Over the course of the last 11 weeks, God has taught us many things about His kingdom and kingdom ways. We will never understand them all, but the one’s God wants us to learn, He is spelling out in these lessons. I’m glad, aren’t you?
Today He wants us to learn a very valuable lesson in how He helps us. This is valuable because He says these things we cannot do by ourselves. So of course we’d want to listen up, because if he says we can’t do them by ourselves, when we begin doing them in our Christian walk, we’ll lean on Him to do them, and not even try by ourselves, therefore not getting it right.
Not getting something right can affect others. It can cause ripples in our lives like skipping a rock across the pond and causing small waves of hurt along the way. I want to learn how to do this right, don’t you?
In Galatians 5:19-21 God lists “works” of our self, our flesh. These are works of trying to do ‘life’ on our own. But in verse 22 the bible lists what is called fruit of the Spirit. This is the result of us trusting and leaning on God and He does these things through us.
The difference of works verses fruit is works we do, fruit God does. Any time we see works listed, it’s ourselves trying to get a God result, only without Him. Anytime we see fruit listed, it’s a result of God getting the result through our hands, our heart, our mind, as we yield to Him. This is the same as we studied from Romans where ‘whoever you yield to, you will be the servant of’. Yielding to satan will get the works of the flesh. Yielding to God will get the fruit of the Spirit. Do you understand?
Today God wants to focus on fruit. In particular, the vine and the fruit that comes from it. I’ve brought a piece of my decoration from my home to illustrate this lesson God is trying to teach us, my grapevine.
We are going to use this grapevine as we turn to John 15:1-5 “I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman {another word for that is gardener}. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide {or stay} in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide {or stay} in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: the girl that abideth {or stays} in me {Jesus}, and I in her, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me {or apart from me} ye can do nothing”.
First God wants us to reread the last part of that last verse; for without Jesus we can do nothing. God wants us to know, we cannot, in no way, no matter how much we try on our own, and even try harder, cannot produce fruit on our own. Do you see it? He’s saying we cannot produce this fruit He’s talking about on our own, apart from Him. In these scriptures He tells us ‘as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it stays in the vine, no more can you, except you stay in Me’.
God wants us to understand the fruit He is talking about cannot be produced in us unless we stay in Jesus. This ‘staying’ in Jesus means we lean on Him, we ask for His help, we trust Him with everything we are. We open our hearts to Him and let Him do this fruit THROUGH US.
You see on this grapevine how the branches come off the vine? These branches are Christians, Christ followers. The vine is Jesus. All of us Christ followers, disciples of Jesus are hooked to Him for our sap, our life. We hang on Him. We don’t hang on the world. The world has no life giving force for a Christ follower. Jesus said hang on Him as the vine. But He also says as a branch cannot produce fruit by itself apart from the vine, neither can we as disciples. We have to be hooked to Him and fruit will come. Our position is to hang on the vine not to produce fruit. Do you think a branch on a grapevine hangs there every day and says to it's self ‘oh, I have to try hard today to make these grapes. I have to strain, bear down, and make these grapes today or the vine is going to be mad. Oh my goodness, I really have to make 3 clumps of grapes or the gardener is going to hate me’? No, it doesn’t. It just hangs on the vine, pulling life giving sap, sucking it up and enjoying the life it gives, and suddenly when it’s time, fruit begins to be produced. It shows up without effort, without the branch even trying. It gets to wake up one morning to wonderful little grapes beginning to show. How awesome it that? Little bitty grapes begin to show for all the world to see and it didn’t do anything but just hang out and draw life from the vine. This…. Is what Jesus is telling us girls. Just hang out with me, draw life from me, listen to Miss Cindy’s lesson I give her, listen to Bro Goode’s sermon I give him and respond to my call to the alter when I speak to you, read My Word in the mornings, get with me each day and tiny little fruit will begin to show up on you. Fun isn’t it? It’s not about our trying and grunting and then trying harder to be a good Christ follower, it’s about spending time with Christ and we suddenly have fruit of being a Christ follower.
Now….. what do you suppose He means by this fruit He’s talking about here in Galatians? Let’s go back to those scriptures and find out what the list of the fruits of the Spirit {done through us} are:
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance {self control}”. These are fruit of the Spirit working through us. These are the fruit God talks about in John 15 that we cannot produce without Jesus. We are the branches hanging on Jesus. The more life giving sap we draw from Him, the more He {through His Spirit in us} produces the fruit of love, the fruit of joy, the fruit of peace, the fruit of longsuffering, the fruit of gentleness and so on. If you need more of the fruit of joy in your life, you don’t just go try to be happier. You spend time with Jesus, talking to Him, asking Him for the answers you have about your life. You release your cares to Him, letting go of anxiety and worry to Him, spending time with Him. This will produce that joy in your life.
If you need more peace in your life, you don’t just shut out the world and try to calm down on your own. You go spend time with Jesus, telling Him all about it, letting go of your worry to Him, asking Him to fill you with Himself, His Spirit. This will produce the fruit of peace in your life. Any time we see we are not operating in these fruit, it’s a direct result from not spending time with Jesus. When we spend time with Jesus, these fruit will begin to show up, without any effort. You don’t even have to pray for love, joy, peace, faith, goodness, they just show up in your life from spending time hanging on the vine and drawing life from Jesus.
John 15:5 ‘He that abideth {stayeth} in Me, and I in her, the same bringeth forth much fruit’. See? If you and I, as girls, with girls’ ways, girls’ needs, girls’ wants will stay in Jesus, in His ways, His needs, His wants, we will bring forth much fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness and temperance {self control}. It’s a full circle. We focus on His wants and ours are fulfilled. We focus on His ways, and our ways are made whole, right, and good! Awesome way to get a lot of good in our lives isn’t it?
Let’s look one more time to the grapevine I brought today. Jesus compared our walk with Him to a vine and branches. So, let’s see one more thing that sticks out to me by this illustration. Do you see these tendrils? These are part of the branch that grows to help it secure itself, making it stronger against storms and hardships. It helps it hold on in times of roaring troubles. It grows outward looking for something to attach itself to, to anchor itself to for security. If this tendril attaches itself to a post that’s broken at the ground, that would move with the wind, and sway with any breeze, do you think it has security?
In Ephesians 4:14-15 it says ‘that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine {or teaching}’ verse 15 ‘but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him {Christ} in all things, which is the head, even Christ’.
This is why in John 15:1 Jesus says ‘I AM the true vine’. He is the truth. Jesus is the truth that we need, all Christians need, and the world needs. He says don’t be children in your following of Him, but grow up {by hanging on the True Vine} and be secure in Him. As your tendrils grow from you, you looking for security let that tendril grow around Him, the Truth, and you WILL be secure!
Let’s list those fruit and then their definitions: these are taken from Greek meaning:
1. Love – unconditional affection for someone
2. Joy – cheerfulness, calm delight
3. Peace – quietness, rest
4. Longsuffering - patience
5. Gentleness – kindness, easiness
6. Goodness - benefit
7. Faith – reliance and trust upon Christ
8. Meekness - humility
9. Temperance – self control
Now, let’s focus on the fruit for a minute. When I was studying this out in the original Hebrew and Greek text I was stumped about something. I was confused for a minute. I read what fruit meant in these scriptures and didn’t understand. Then the Holy Spirit opened it up for me.
You would think the word fruit meant food, part of a grape, part of an orange, part of some kind of food. Wouldn’t you agree with me? Doesn’t that make sense in our language? Well, it doesn’t.
The word fruit in Greek means ‘to pluck’. To pluck means to pick, like picking grapes or picking oranges. To pluck means to remove from the vine. Then God opened this meaning up to me. The fruit is not for the vines sake. The fruit is not for the fruits sake. The fruit is for others to pluck and taste. Do you see this? The fruit on the vine is for someone’s life that is in the world. This fruit is not necessarily for another Christ follower, a Christian, because we KNOW how they get fruit, right? Yes, they spend time with Jesus themselves. This fruit is for a hurting, damaged, lonely world. This is how they see a picture of Christ for themselves; they see the fruit of Christ in our lives.
We as Christ followers are to produce fruit for others to taste and use for life in their every day struggles. They are to taste the life of Christ in our daily actions and know that God is working in our lives. When someone messed up comes into our lives, don’t think ‘how can I get away from this person’ but think ‘what fruit of the Spirit do they need right now though me’ and give out that fruit. Do they need love? Let love of the fruit of the Spirit flow through you. Do they need peace? Let peace of the fruit of the Spirit flow through you. Do they need gentleness? Then let God’s gentleness flow through you.
We have all those things first. By time spent with Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, our God Almighty, we will first receive love, and joy and peace and gentleness and faith and longsuffering and self control. But then as we go throughout our day, we will have that love and joy and gentleness to give to those that will ‘pluck our fruit’.
Name as many fruit of the Spirit as you can remember:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Today He wants us to learn a very valuable lesson in how He helps us. This is valuable because He says these things we cannot do by ourselves. So of course we’d want to listen up, because if he says we can’t do them by ourselves, when we begin doing them in our Christian walk, we’ll lean on Him to do them, and not even try by ourselves, therefore not getting it right.
Not getting something right can affect others. It can cause ripples in our lives like skipping a rock across the pond and causing small waves of hurt along the way. I want to learn how to do this right, don’t you?
In Galatians 5:19-21 God lists “works” of our self, our flesh. These are works of trying to do ‘life’ on our own. But in verse 22 the bible lists what is called fruit of the Spirit. This is the result of us trusting and leaning on God and He does these things through us.
The difference of works verses fruit is works we do, fruit God does. Any time we see works listed, it’s ourselves trying to get a God result, only without Him. Anytime we see fruit listed, it’s a result of God getting the result through our hands, our heart, our mind, as we yield to Him. This is the same as we studied from Romans where ‘whoever you yield to, you will be the servant of’. Yielding to satan will get the works of the flesh. Yielding to God will get the fruit of the Spirit. Do you understand?
Today God wants to focus on fruit. In particular, the vine and the fruit that comes from it. I’ve brought a piece of my decoration from my home to illustrate this lesson God is trying to teach us, my grapevine.
We are going to use this grapevine as we turn to John 15:1-5 “I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman {another word for that is gardener}. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide {or stay} in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide {or stay} in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: the girl that abideth {or stays} in me {Jesus}, and I in her, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me {or apart from me} ye can do nothing”.
First God wants us to reread the last part of that last verse; for without Jesus we can do nothing. God wants us to know, we cannot, in no way, no matter how much we try on our own, and even try harder, cannot produce fruit on our own. Do you see it? He’s saying we cannot produce this fruit He’s talking about on our own, apart from Him. In these scriptures He tells us ‘as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it stays in the vine, no more can you, except you stay in Me’.
God wants us to understand the fruit He is talking about cannot be produced in us unless we stay in Jesus. This ‘staying’ in Jesus means we lean on Him, we ask for His help, we trust Him with everything we are. We open our hearts to Him and let Him do this fruit THROUGH US.
You see on this grapevine how the branches come off the vine? These branches are Christians, Christ followers. The vine is Jesus. All of us Christ followers, disciples of Jesus are hooked to Him for our sap, our life. We hang on Him. We don’t hang on the world. The world has no life giving force for a Christ follower. Jesus said hang on Him as the vine. But He also says as a branch cannot produce fruit by itself apart from the vine, neither can we as disciples. We have to be hooked to Him and fruit will come. Our position is to hang on the vine not to produce fruit. Do you think a branch on a grapevine hangs there every day and says to it's self ‘oh, I have to try hard today to make these grapes. I have to strain, bear down, and make these grapes today or the vine is going to be mad. Oh my goodness, I really have to make 3 clumps of grapes or the gardener is going to hate me’? No, it doesn’t. It just hangs on the vine, pulling life giving sap, sucking it up and enjoying the life it gives, and suddenly when it’s time, fruit begins to be produced. It shows up without effort, without the branch even trying. It gets to wake up one morning to wonderful little grapes beginning to show. How awesome it that? Little bitty grapes begin to show for all the world to see and it didn’t do anything but just hang out and draw life from the vine. This…. Is what Jesus is telling us girls. Just hang out with me, draw life from me, listen to Miss Cindy’s lesson I give her, listen to Bro Goode’s sermon I give him and respond to my call to the alter when I speak to you, read My Word in the mornings, get with me each day and tiny little fruit will begin to show up on you. Fun isn’t it? It’s not about our trying and grunting and then trying harder to be a good Christ follower, it’s about spending time with Christ and we suddenly have fruit of being a Christ follower.
Now….. what do you suppose He means by this fruit He’s talking about here in Galatians? Let’s go back to those scriptures and find out what the list of the fruits of the Spirit {done through us} are:
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance {self control}”. These are fruit of the Spirit working through us. These are the fruit God talks about in John 15 that we cannot produce without Jesus. We are the branches hanging on Jesus. The more life giving sap we draw from Him, the more He {through His Spirit in us} produces the fruit of love, the fruit of joy, the fruit of peace, the fruit of longsuffering, the fruit of gentleness and so on. If you need more of the fruit of joy in your life, you don’t just go try to be happier. You spend time with Jesus, talking to Him, asking Him for the answers you have about your life. You release your cares to Him, letting go of anxiety and worry to Him, spending time with Him. This will produce that joy in your life.
If you need more peace in your life, you don’t just shut out the world and try to calm down on your own. You go spend time with Jesus, telling Him all about it, letting go of your worry to Him, asking Him to fill you with Himself, His Spirit. This will produce the fruit of peace in your life. Any time we see we are not operating in these fruit, it’s a direct result from not spending time with Jesus. When we spend time with Jesus, these fruit will begin to show up, without any effort. You don’t even have to pray for love, joy, peace, faith, goodness, they just show up in your life from spending time hanging on the vine and drawing life from Jesus.
John 15:5 ‘He that abideth {stayeth} in Me, and I in her, the same bringeth forth much fruit’. See? If you and I, as girls, with girls’ ways, girls’ needs, girls’ wants will stay in Jesus, in His ways, His needs, His wants, we will bring forth much fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness and temperance {self control}. It’s a full circle. We focus on His wants and ours are fulfilled. We focus on His ways, and our ways are made whole, right, and good! Awesome way to get a lot of good in our lives isn’t it?
Let’s look one more time to the grapevine I brought today. Jesus compared our walk with Him to a vine and branches. So, let’s see one more thing that sticks out to me by this illustration. Do you see these tendrils? These are part of the branch that grows to help it secure itself, making it stronger against storms and hardships. It helps it hold on in times of roaring troubles. It grows outward looking for something to attach itself to, to anchor itself to for security. If this tendril attaches itself to a post that’s broken at the ground, that would move with the wind, and sway with any breeze, do you think it has security?
In Ephesians 4:14-15 it says ‘that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine {or teaching}’ verse 15 ‘but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him {Christ} in all things, which is the head, even Christ’.
This is why in John 15:1 Jesus says ‘I AM the true vine’. He is the truth. Jesus is the truth that we need, all Christians need, and the world needs. He says don’t be children in your following of Him, but grow up {by hanging on the True Vine} and be secure in Him. As your tendrils grow from you, you looking for security let that tendril grow around Him, the Truth, and you WILL be secure!
Let’s list those fruit and then their definitions: these are taken from Greek meaning:
1. Love – unconditional affection for someone
2. Joy – cheerfulness, calm delight
3. Peace – quietness, rest
4. Longsuffering - patience
5. Gentleness – kindness, easiness
6. Goodness - benefit
7. Faith – reliance and trust upon Christ
8. Meekness - humility
9. Temperance – self control
Now, let’s focus on the fruit for a minute. When I was studying this out in the original Hebrew and Greek text I was stumped about something. I was confused for a minute. I read what fruit meant in these scriptures and didn’t understand. Then the Holy Spirit opened it up for me.
You would think the word fruit meant food, part of a grape, part of an orange, part of some kind of food. Wouldn’t you agree with me? Doesn’t that make sense in our language? Well, it doesn’t.
The word fruit in Greek means ‘to pluck’. To pluck means to pick, like picking grapes or picking oranges. To pluck means to remove from the vine. Then God opened this meaning up to me. The fruit is not for the vines sake. The fruit is not for the fruits sake. The fruit is for others to pluck and taste. Do you see this? The fruit on the vine is for someone’s life that is in the world. This fruit is not necessarily for another Christ follower, a Christian, because we KNOW how they get fruit, right? Yes, they spend time with Jesus themselves. This fruit is for a hurting, damaged, lonely world. This is how they see a picture of Christ for themselves; they see the fruit of Christ in our lives.
We as Christ followers are to produce fruit for others to taste and use for life in their every day struggles. They are to taste the life of Christ in our daily actions and know that God is working in our lives. When someone messed up comes into our lives, don’t think ‘how can I get away from this person’ but think ‘what fruit of the Spirit do they need right now though me’ and give out that fruit. Do they need love? Let love of the fruit of the Spirit flow through you. Do they need peace? Let peace of the fruit of the Spirit flow through you. Do they need gentleness? Then let God’s gentleness flow through you.
We have all those things first. By time spent with Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, our God Almighty, we will first receive love, and joy and peace and gentleness and faith and longsuffering and self control. But then as we go throughout our day, we will have that love and joy and gentleness to give to those that will ‘pluck our fruit’.
Name as many fruit of the Spirit as you can remember:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Monday, April 18, 2011
A Valentine Gift for Her
When we know we are going to get a Valentine’s gift, we get a little excited. Just to know we have a present makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside, like someone on this earth loves us. We have a special feeling, knowing someone out there cares about us, and wants to show it…….
Someone cares. Someone loves us. Ahhhhhhh….Someone wants to take the time. Someone wants to make an effort. Someone wants to make us feel special.
Today we are going to study and learn that God gives a Valentine’s gift to special girls. He spends special time to prepare this gift especially for us, as if we are the only girl on the earth. How incredibly rich I am that the God of this Universe would prepare a gift …. just for me.
John 4:10 “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God,”.
God has many wonderful things in store for your life. He has great plans for you. To prove it He wrote it in Jeremiah 29:11-13 GNB Version “I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you peace and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for”.
Let’s examine that verse very closely. ‘I alone’ means no one else knows the plans for your life. Your Parents don’t, Pastor and his Wife don’t, you yourself do not know the plans God has for your life. Then why in the world would we ask so many people what we should do, when GOD is the one that has THE plan for your life. Huh? We need to be taught what the bible says about this or we won’t know and we’ll ask hundreds of people over the course of our life what we should do about the questions we have. This is why our prayer life is so important.
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace…”. We can boldly come and ask Him for direction to see His plan for our lives. We can boldly come to His throne in heaven as we learned last week and ask Him to reveal His plan for us, giving us hope that the trouble we feel in our hearts will soon be over. That the questions we have about what job I should work, what friends I should have, what mate I should marry will all be answered. This is why our prayer life is so vital, talking to God boldly, no shyly. He has your best interest at heart. Let’s go back to the scripture in Jeremiah: ‘plans to bring you peace and not disaster’. This means though we will go through trials, God’s plan for us is for us to have safety. Sometimes we become afraid and we lose our peace. We have a turbulent relationship and we feel we’ll lose them. God says I know the plans of peace I have for you. Come to Me, ask of Me and I will show you this peace and not disaster.
‘plans to bring about the future you hope for’. We all have hopes and dreams, dreams of being a pretty good college basketball player, receiving a scholarship perhaps. Or marrying a man that loves us and wants to make us happy, having children and living in a Godly home. We all have hopes of being a godly woman, loving others, giving of our hearts, and being accepting by others. We have hopes of having a better life, having what we need, and not doing without. God has these hopes and dreams written down in His mind.
Turn to Psalm 37:3-4 “Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”. God wouldn’t be able to bring about the desires of your heart, if He didn’t know them. He knows your heart. He knows your secrets, your secret wants and desires and hopes and dreams. He knows you.
The next two verses in Jeremiah 29 are just as important; 12-13 “Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you. You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart”.
With all my heart means sincerely, meaning business, wanting to know what GOD has to say about my life. My life! Not my friend’s life, MY LIFE. I’m important to God. He cares enough, loves enough, spends enough effort….. on plans for my life.
Ephesians 2:4 ”But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us…”. God loves me. He cares so much about me. He plans, He moves circumstances in my behalf. He loves me.
Romans 5:8 ”But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. He took great effort toward me. He had me on His mind as He planned out my day today. He made a lot of effort toward me.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. He works in my behalf. Even when things go wrong, He makes it worth it. He makes it turn out for my good!
Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword”? He never stops loving me. This is in spite of me sometimes because I don’t always act loveable, or agreeable, or cooperative. He still loves me no matter what. He still has a good plan for my life. Trusting in Him, doing good, and delighting myself in Him moves His heart, and He gives me the desires of me hearts. Not His heart, my hearts. He cares so deeply, though no one else may. He loves so tenderly, though no one else might. He does!
Ephesians 3:17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love”. He wants me grounded in His love too. He wants me to be so deep in His love that I know it without a shadow of doubt that He loves little ‘ole me. He wants it driven so deeply into my heart that He loves me, that a root grows deep down into my very soul that He loves me, cares for me.
Ephesians 3:19 “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God”. He wants me to know His love, be acquainted with His love, that I would know His love when I see someone else that loves Him and know it because I recognize it. Why? So I might be filled with all the fullness of God. God wants me full of Him, not full of myself. He wants to be so big in me that I think His thoughts, know His voice, hear His heart, that I KNOW Him!
1Peter 4:10 “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God”. He wants me so full of Him, this gift of love, that I will share it with others. Giving love, sharing love, is sharing God. Sharing God, sharing Christ, is an honor.
John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. Sharing the love of God, is putting others first. Sharing the love of God means letting them have their way, above your way. Putting them first, is laying down your life for your friends. Besides, that’s what Jesus did. He laid down His life for His friends, us.
John 10:15 “…and I lay down my life for the sheep”. Laying His life down for me, loving me this much, should make me feel so special, so loved, so cared for. He wanted to have a loving relationship with me so badly, He died to have it. God sent Jesus to take my place to die, because He loves me this much. I believe this kind of love, this depth of love, deserves to be honored, returned, regarded highly.
John 13:35 ”By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”. This kind of love God has for me, He wants me to share. He doesn’t want me to just be loved by Him but He wants me to go out and love others. This is a mark of a true friend, follower, disciple of Jesus, if we love others.
John 13:34 ”A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”.
1 Peter 1:22 “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:”.
1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God”.
The love of God is the gift of God. This gift is free. I never have to work for it, beg for it, wish for it, it’s mine. I have it already. Nothing can separate me from it, take it from me, and no one can mess it up. It’s pure. It’s honest. It won’t lie to me. It won’t flatter me just to get something. The love of God is ….. a Valentine gift!
Happy Valentine’s Day
God’s daughter
Someone cares. Someone loves us. Ahhhhhhh….Someone wants to take the time. Someone wants to make an effort. Someone wants to make us feel special.
Today we are going to study and learn that God gives a Valentine’s gift to special girls. He spends special time to prepare this gift especially for us, as if we are the only girl on the earth. How incredibly rich I am that the God of this Universe would prepare a gift …. just for me.
John 4:10 “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God,”.
God has many wonderful things in store for your life. He has great plans for you. To prove it He wrote it in Jeremiah 29:11-13 GNB Version “I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you peace and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for”.
Let’s examine that verse very closely. ‘I alone’ means no one else knows the plans for your life. Your Parents don’t, Pastor and his Wife don’t, you yourself do not know the plans God has for your life. Then why in the world would we ask so many people what we should do, when GOD is the one that has THE plan for your life. Huh? We need to be taught what the bible says about this or we won’t know and we’ll ask hundreds of people over the course of our life what we should do about the questions we have. This is why our prayer life is so important.
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace…”. We can boldly come and ask Him for direction to see His plan for our lives. We can boldly come to His throne in heaven as we learned last week and ask Him to reveal His plan for us, giving us hope that the trouble we feel in our hearts will soon be over. That the questions we have about what job I should work, what friends I should have, what mate I should marry will all be answered. This is why our prayer life is so vital, talking to God boldly, no shyly. He has your best interest at heart. Let’s go back to the scripture in Jeremiah: ‘plans to bring you peace and not disaster’. This means though we will go through trials, God’s plan for us is for us to have safety. Sometimes we become afraid and we lose our peace. We have a turbulent relationship and we feel we’ll lose them. God says I know the plans of peace I have for you. Come to Me, ask of Me and I will show you this peace and not disaster.
‘plans to bring about the future you hope for’. We all have hopes and dreams, dreams of being a pretty good college basketball player, receiving a scholarship perhaps. Or marrying a man that loves us and wants to make us happy, having children and living in a Godly home. We all have hopes of being a godly woman, loving others, giving of our hearts, and being accepting by others. We have hopes of having a better life, having what we need, and not doing without. God has these hopes and dreams written down in His mind.
Turn to Psalm 37:3-4 “Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”. God wouldn’t be able to bring about the desires of your heart, if He didn’t know them. He knows your heart. He knows your secrets, your secret wants and desires and hopes and dreams. He knows you.
The next two verses in Jeremiah 29 are just as important; 12-13 “Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you. You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart”.
With all my heart means sincerely, meaning business, wanting to know what GOD has to say about my life. My life! Not my friend’s life, MY LIFE. I’m important to God. He cares enough, loves enough, spends enough effort….. on plans for my life.
Ephesians 2:4 ”But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us…”. God loves me. He cares so much about me. He plans, He moves circumstances in my behalf. He loves me.
Romans 5:8 ”But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. He took great effort toward me. He had me on His mind as He planned out my day today. He made a lot of effort toward me.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. He works in my behalf. Even when things go wrong, He makes it worth it. He makes it turn out for my good!
Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword”? He never stops loving me. This is in spite of me sometimes because I don’t always act loveable, or agreeable, or cooperative. He still loves me no matter what. He still has a good plan for my life. Trusting in Him, doing good, and delighting myself in Him moves His heart, and He gives me the desires of me hearts. Not His heart, my hearts. He cares so deeply, though no one else may. He loves so tenderly, though no one else might. He does!
Ephesians 3:17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love”. He wants me grounded in His love too. He wants me to be so deep in His love that I know it without a shadow of doubt that He loves little ‘ole me. He wants it driven so deeply into my heart that He loves me, that a root grows deep down into my very soul that He loves me, cares for me.
Ephesians 3:19 “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God”. He wants me to know His love, be acquainted with His love, that I would know His love when I see someone else that loves Him and know it because I recognize it. Why? So I might be filled with all the fullness of God. God wants me full of Him, not full of myself. He wants to be so big in me that I think His thoughts, know His voice, hear His heart, that I KNOW Him!
1Peter 4:10 “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God”. He wants me so full of Him, this gift of love, that I will share it with others. Giving love, sharing love, is sharing God. Sharing God, sharing Christ, is an honor.
John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. Sharing the love of God, is putting others first. Sharing the love of God means letting them have their way, above your way. Putting them first, is laying down your life for your friends. Besides, that’s what Jesus did. He laid down His life for His friends, us.
John 10:15 “…and I lay down my life for the sheep”. Laying His life down for me, loving me this much, should make me feel so special, so loved, so cared for. He wanted to have a loving relationship with me so badly, He died to have it. God sent Jesus to take my place to die, because He loves me this much. I believe this kind of love, this depth of love, deserves to be honored, returned, regarded highly.
John 13:35 ”By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”. This kind of love God has for me, He wants me to share. He doesn’t want me to just be loved by Him but He wants me to go out and love others. This is a mark of a true friend, follower, disciple of Jesus, if we love others.
John 13:34 ”A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”.
1 Peter 1:22 “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:”.
1 John 4:7 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God”.
The love of God is the gift of God. This gift is free. I never have to work for it, beg for it, wish for it, it’s mine. I have it already. Nothing can separate me from it, take it from me, and no one can mess it up. It’s pure. It’s honest. It won’t lie to me. It won’t flatter me just to get something. The love of God is ….. a Valentine gift!
Happy Valentine’s Day
God’s daughter
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Her Homeland
In the last two lessons we’ve learned about the place called hell where satan and the angels that rebelled against God will one day be placed forever, eternally. Hell is a very real place, no matter what we have been told, or anyone thinks about it being a myth. The bible is the truth, and it says hell is real, so it’s real. This place, however, will also accept those that have wrong standards they live by while here on earth. We as Christians can also fall backwards to the point of losing our place with Christ and be placed there as well.
However, there is another place, a very real place, where God lives Himself, that we can one day go to live with Him and be there forever, eternally. This place is called heaven!
Heaven is where the throne of God sits. Turn to these scriptures and fill in the blanks:
Deuteronomy 26:15 “Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel……”.
Deuteronomy 4:39 “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above….”.
Joshua 2:11 “……..for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above…”.
1 Samuel 2:10 “The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them:”.
1 Kings 8:30 “when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place:”
1 Kings 22:19 “I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.”.
2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”.
2 Chronicles 30:27 “Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven”.
Nehemiah 1:5 “And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:”.
Nehemiah 9:13 This was spoken about God when He met with Moses to write the 10 Commandments: “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:”.
Psalm 11:4 “The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men”.
Psalm 20:6 “Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand”.
Psalm 53:2 “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God”.
Psalm 57:3 “He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth”.
Psalm 102:19 “For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;”
2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect (sincere) toward him.
We have established in the bible that heaven is a real place. No matter what man may think, people may say, society believe, heaven is real. It’s the place where God lives. He has a throne that He sits on, judging all things He sees, good and evil. But God also is looking for those that love Him to help them in time of trouble. Now let’s continue:
Psalm 139:8 “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there”. We see that God is everywhere, according to this scripture. He is omnipresent. God can see all things and is everywhere at all times. Interesting isn’t it? Wouldn’t that be cool to be like that? God is so amazing!
Now turn to John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God. Then down to verse 14 “and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”. This is speaking of Jesus coming from heaven and being born as a human. Jesus was part of God, was God. This is a difficult concept to understand, but let’s think of it like this; we were made in His image and we have a body, a soul, and a spirit. We all reside together, but we’re separate. Your mind can go, and yet your spirit and your body continue to function. May be a poor example, but nonetheless we are 3 parts in 1.
Turn to Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. So we see Jesus made of Himself no reputation, not making a big deal, or fanfare to come to earth. He came as a child and rested in a manger. But He took on Himself the sins of the world to save us.
Then at age 33, Jesus began to minister and heal and teach. He taught many things about the Kingdom.
Matthew 3:2 Jesus began to teach that now the Kingdom was no longer just in heaven. “And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. No longer was God’s Kingdom just in heaven, it was close to them, and how to become part of that Kingdom, repent. A Kingdom is a place of territory, a domain. A King can take dominion over another country and it becomes part of His Kingdom. That was through battles won, a victory. Jesus was about to go take dominion of death and the grave, giving man a choice as where he would spend eternity.
Matthew 6:10 was Jesus’ prayer to God for Him advance His Kingdom down here on earth. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”.
Through Jesus’ death on the cross, God’s Kingdom was then able to advance to earth, Jesus taking back dominion satan had obtained through Adam and Eve’s wrong choices, their sin. Jesus opened the way for the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Jesus was praying to God, the Father, to bring that Kingdom down, to advance it for His glory.
All through the books of the bible of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of God and it’s laws. These laws teach us how we are to live in the Kingdom. These laws teach us God’s ways.
Jesus taught that when He died, He would be taken to heaven, but would not leave us comfortless. John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever”. Verse 26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you”. John 16:7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”. This was one way they would know that Jesus was at the right hand of the Father, that they had received the Comforter, the Holy Ghost (Spirit).
After Jesus’ death, He appeared to many. He walked on the earth visiting the disciples and others for 40 days. Upon His leaving earth, He spoke some last few words to those standing around Him, and ascended into heaven. Right there in front of them all, He began to rise into the sky. Mark 16:19 “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God”.
On the day of Pentecost, they were all waiting in the upper room as Jesus had instructed them. Acts 2:1-4 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”.
The Holy Spirit had made it to earth. He had come to guide, teach, and lead us into all truth. He is our Comforter, our Helper in time of need, in our daily walk just to live a victorious life.
Luke 17:21 “…. For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you”.
God’s Kingdom has come down to earth to live in each one of us through His Spirit. We are citizens of this Kingdom, Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has called us each into this Kingdom, to live unto Him, and to serve one another in the love of Christ, our King. We have His help to do all we are commanded to do, yet have His love to fill us to overflowing.
The Kingdom of God is within you!
However, there is another place, a very real place, where God lives Himself, that we can one day go to live with Him and be there forever, eternally. This place is called heaven!
Heaven is where the throne of God sits. Turn to these scriptures and fill in the blanks:
Deuteronomy 26:15 “Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel……”.
Deuteronomy 4:39 “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above….”.
Joshua 2:11 “……..for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above…”.
1 Samuel 2:10 “The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them:”.
1 Kings 8:30 “when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place:”
1 Kings 22:19 “I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.”.
2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”.
2 Chronicles 30:27 “Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, even unto heaven”.
Nehemiah 1:5 “And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:”.
Nehemiah 9:13 This was spoken about God when He met with Moses to write the 10 Commandments: “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:”.
Psalm 11:4 “The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men”.
Psalm 20:6 “Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand”.
Psalm 53:2 “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God”.
Psalm 57:3 “He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth”.
Psalm 102:19 “For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;”
2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect (sincere) toward him.
We have established in the bible that heaven is a real place. No matter what man may think, people may say, society believe, heaven is real. It’s the place where God lives. He has a throne that He sits on, judging all things He sees, good and evil. But God also is looking for those that love Him to help them in time of trouble. Now let’s continue:
Psalm 139:8 “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there”. We see that God is everywhere, according to this scripture. He is omnipresent. God can see all things and is everywhere at all times. Interesting isn’t it? Wouldn’t that be cool to be like that? God is so amazing!
Now turn to John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God. Then down to verse 14 “and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”. This is speaking of Jesus coming from heaven and being born as a human. Jesus was part of God, was God. This is a difficult concept to understand, but let’s think of it like this; we were made in His image and we have a body, a soul, and a spirit. We all reside together, but we’re separate. Your mind can go, and yet your spirit and your body continue to function. May be a poor example, but nonetheless we are 3 parts in 1.
Turn to Philippians 2:6-8 “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. So we see Jesus made of Himself no reputation, not making a big deal, or fanfare to come to earth. He came as a child and rested in a manger. But He took on Himself the sins of the world to save us.
Then at age 33, Jesus began to minister and heal and teach. He taught many things about the Kingdom.
Matthew 3:2 Jesus began to teach that now the Kingdom was no longer just in heaven. “And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. No longer was God’s Kingdom just in heaven, it was close to them, and how to become part of that Kingdom, repent. A Kingdom is a place of territory, a domain. A King can take dominion over another country and it becomes part of His Kingdom. That was through battles won, a victory. Jesus was about to go take dominion of death and the grave, giving man a choice as where he would spend eternity.
Matthew 6:10 was Jesus’ prayer to God for Him advance His Kingdom down here on earth. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”.
Through Jesus’ death on the cross, God’s Kingdom was then able to advance to earth, Jesus taking back dominion satan had obtained through Adam and Eve’s wrong choices, their sin. Jesus opened the way for the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Jesus was praying to God, the Father, to bring that Kingdom down, to advance it for His glory.
All through the books of the bible of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of God and it’s laws. These laws teach us how we are to live in the Kingdom. These laws teach us God’s ways.
Jesus taught that when He died, He would be taken to heaven, but would not leave us comfortless. John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever”. Verse 26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you”. John 16:7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”. This was one way they would know that Jesus was at the right hand of the Father, that they had received the Comforter, the Holy Ghost (Spirit).
After Jesus’ death, He appeared to many. He walked on the earth visiting the disciples and others for 40 days. Upon His leaving earth, He spoke some last few words to those standing around Him, and ascended into heaven. Right there in front of them all, He began to rise into the sky. Mark 16:19 “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God”.
On the day of Pentecost, they were all waiting in the upper room as Jesus had instructed them. Acts 2:1-4 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”.
The Holy Spirit had made it to earth. He had come to guide, teach, and lead us into all truth. He is our Comforter, our Helper in time of need, in our daily walk just to live a victorious life.
Luke 17:21 “…. For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you”.
God’s Kingdom has come down to earth to live in each one of us through His Spirit. We are citizens of this Kingdom, Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has called us each into this Kingdom, to live unto Him, and to serve one another in the love of Christ, our King. We have His help to do all we are commanded to do, yet have His love to fill us to overflowing.
The Kingdom of God is within you!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
What It's Really Called If She Disobeys
Last week we learned that there was a place created by God for Lucifer, also known as satan, the devil, the evil one and those angels that decided to go with him. This place was not only going to accept satan at the end of ‘time’, but also those that lived with wrong standards. Even as Christians, we can lower our standards, our ethics, our morals and slide backwards in our actions to the point of being cast into this place when we die or when Jesus returns to earth to take His brothers and sisters that are living in His righteousness. This place we are talking about is called hell.
We also learned in Isaiah 14 how Lucifer rose up saying that he would exalt or set up his throne above the angels and be like the Most High, God. This was the highest degree of rebellion against God’s authority as Creator.
Romans 13:1-7 {parenthesis are my thoughts}”Let every soul be subject unto the
higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers
that be {Police Officers, City Officials, The President, Pastor, our Parents} are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the
power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall
receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to
good works {those that abide by the law}, but to the evil {those that break the law}. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good {that’s why the Police cars usually have written on them ‘to serve and protect’}. But if thou do that which is evil {break the law}, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must be subject {obedient}, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute {taxes} also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear {respect} to whom fear; honour to whom honour”.
Taken from the book entitled ‘Spiritual Authority’ by Watchman Nee;
“The acts of God are performed from His throne, and His throne is established on His authority. All things are created through God’s authority and all physical laws of the universe {the law of gravity, etc} are maintained by His authority. Hence the bible expresses it as “upholding all things by the word of His power” Hebrews 1:3 which means upholding all things by the word of His power of His authority. For God’s authority represents God Himself. Sin against authority is a sin against God Himself. God alone is authority in all things; all the authorities of the earth are instituted by God. Authority is a tremendous thing in the universe - nothing overshadows it. It is therefore vital for us who desire to serve God to know the authority of God.
Lucifer turned into satan when he overreached God’s authority, competed with God, and thus became an adversary of God. Rebellion was the cause of satan’s fall.”
Remember last week when I gave a bit of my history growing up, having very little guidance, my life was built on what I found out, I discovered, I achieved and became very independent {I, I, I}. So, being independent, being convinced my way was the best way, I rebelled against all authority in my life. No one could tell me any better way than the way I had found through hard knocks. I knew the best way for my life. I thought this was a good thing. However, I explained that lifestyle was rebellion. Here Watchman Nee explains the same reaction and who I was really rebelling against, God Himself.
More from the book; “Satan’s intent of setting his throne above the throne of God was the thing which violated God’s authority; it was the principle of self-exaltation {self lifting up}. That act was but the product of his rebellion against authority. It was rebellion which God condemned. In serving God we must not violate authorities, because to do so is a principle of satan. How can we preach Christ according to satan’s principle? How very wicked for us to assume that we are doing the work of the Lord. Please take note that satan is not afraid of our preaching the word of Christ, yet how very much he is in fear of our being subject {obedient} to the authority of Christ. Whenever the principle according to Christ {surrendered to Christ’s authority} is operating, that of satan fades away. If we would truly serve God we must be completely purified from the principle of satan {rebellion}.
In the prayer which our Lord teaches His church, the word ‘and bring us not into temptation” points to satan’s work, whereas the word “but deliver us from the evil one” refers directly to satan himself. Immediately after these words the Lord makes a most significant declaration:
“for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen” Matthew 6:13. All kingdom, authority, and glory belong to God and to God alone. What sets us totally free from satan is the seeing of this most precious truth - that the kingdom is God’s.
The controversy of the universe is centered on who shall have the authority”. Remember when we studied in Romans that whoever you obey you are the servant of? The one we obey then receives the authority we walk in. That’s how Adam lost his authority on the earth, giving that authority over to satan, when he obeyed him. “Our conflict with satan is the direct result of our attributing authority to God. To maintain God’s authority we must be subject to it {obey it} with all our hearts. The greatest of God’s demands on man is not for him to bear the cross, to serve, make offerings, or deny himself. The greatest demand is for him to obey. Obedience alone is absolutely honoring to God, for it alone takes God’s will as your center”.
Satan rose up in pride, thinking more highly of himself than God. This was rebellion. He would not obey God, he rebelled. Anytime we rebel against authority, we are rebelling against God Himself.
Turn to Proverbs 17:11 “An evil girl seeketh only rebellion”. Here rebellion is named among those that are evil. Remember evil or wicked are those that have wrong standards, those standards that oppose the bible. The bible lists the standards we are to have. Wrong standards to live by will get us cast into hell, remember? This is some serious stuff, isn’t it? God looks at rebellion in a serious way. It was the original sin. Satan rebelled against God and Adam rebelled against God. So to rebel is sin. Rebellion is sin!
Turn to 1 Samuel 15:23. Here King Saul had disobeyed God’s instructions and He spoke through the prophet Samuel these words “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft {fortune-telling}, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king”.
Pretty strong words, isn’t it? Well, this was God speaking. So God is saying because you put yourself and your wants and what YOU thought should be right ahead of what I THOUGHT as God, then I call this like the sin of witchcraft, or fortune telling. Witchcraft is trying to get things done, drawing on evil powers. If you’re drawing on evil powers, you are drawing on powers that are not of God and are in opposition of God. So, God is saying rebellion is to Him as drawing on the powers of evil. Now, if God thinks that rebellion is a strong sin, then we should feel rebellion is a strong sin. We should evaluate where we rebel in our lives, where we oppose someone in authority over us, and ask for Him to forgive us, not doing this evil again.
This will go against our nature. Don’t think it won’t. Remember that sin-nature we were born with we learned about? That will try it best to take over and cause us to rebel. But God says ‘NO’. We are not to let it take over. We can, however, ask for His help. He wants this for us far more than we do, so He will definitely help us through moments when rebellion wants to rise up in us.
We should, though, want to get rid of this in ourselves if to do it would be comparing our actions to satan himself. Satan rebelled against God, his Creator. Let’s give our Creator the honor and respect He deserves to be trusted and obeyed. He has our best interests at heart.
We also learned in Isaiah 14 how Lucifer rose up saying that he would exalt or set up his throne above the angels and be like the Most High, God. This was the highest degree of rebellion against God’s authority as Creator.
Romans 13:1-7 {parenthesis are my thoughts}”Let every soul be subject unto the
higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers
that be {Police Officers, City Officials, The President, Pastor, our Parents} are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the
power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall
receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to
good works {those that abide by the law}, but to the evil {those that break the law}. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good {that’s why the Police cars usually have written on them ‘to serve and protect’}. But if thou do that which is evil {break the law}, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must be subject {obedient}, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute {taxes} also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear {respect} to whom fear; honour to whom honour”.
Taken from the book entitled ‘Spiritual Authority’ by Watchman Nee;
“The acts of God are performed from His throne, and His throne is established on His authority. All things are created through God’s authority and all physical laws of the universe {the law of gravity, etc} are maintained by His authority. Hence the bible expresses it as “upholding all things by the word of His power” Hebrews 1:3 which means upholding all things by the word of His power of His authority. For God’s authority represents God Himself. Sin against authority is a sin against God Himself. God alone is authority in all things; all the authorities of the earth are instituted by God. Authority is a tremendous thing in the universe - nothing overshadows it. It is therefore vital for us who desire to serve God to know the authority of God.
Lucifer turned into satan when he overreached God’s authority, competed with God, and thus became an adversary of God. Rebellion was the cause of satan’s fall.”
Remember last week when I gave a bit of my history growing up, having very little guidance, my life was built on what I found out, I discovered, I achieved and became very independent {I, I, I}. So, being independent, being convinced my way was the best way, I rebelled against all authority in my life. No one could tell me any better way than the way I had found through hard knocks. I knew the best way for my life. I thought this was a good thing. However, I explained that lifestyle was rebellion. Here Watchman Nee explains the same reaction and who I was really rebelling against, God Himself.
More from the book; “Satan’s intent of setting his throne above the throne of God was the thing which violated God’s authority; it was the principle of self-exaltation {self lifting up}. That act was but the product of his rebellion against authority. It was rebellion which God condemned. In serving God we must not violate authorities, because to do so is a principle of satan. How can we preach Christ according to satan’s principle? How very wicked for us to assume that we are doing the work of the Lord. Please take note that satan is not afraid of our preaching the word of Christ, yet how very much he is in fear of our being subject {obedient} to the authority of Christ. Whenever the principle according to Christ {surrendered to Christ’s authority} is operating, that of satan fades away. If we would truly serve God we must be completely purified from the principle of satan {rebellion}.
In the prayer which our Lord teaches His church, the word ‘and bring us not into temptation” points to satan’s work, whereas the word “but deliver us from the evil one” refers directly to satan himself. Immediately after these words the Lord makes a most significant declaration:
“for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen” Matthew 6:13. All kingdom, authority, and glory belong to God and to God alone. What sets us totally free from satan is the seeing of this most precious truth - that the kingdom is God’s.
The controversy of the universe is centered on who shall have the authority”. Remember when we studied in Romans that whoever you obey you are the servant of? The one we obey then receives the authority we walk in. That’s how Adam lost his authority on the earth, giving that authority over to satan, when he obeyed him. “Our conflict with satan is the direct result of our attributing authority to God. To maintain God’s authority we must be subject to it {obey it} with all our hearts. The greatest of God’s demands on man is not for him to bear the cross, to serve, make offerings, or deny himself. The greatest demand is for him to obey. Obedience alone is absolutely honoring to God, for it alone takes God’s will as your center”.
Satan rose up in pride, thinking more highly of himself than God. This was rebellion. He would not obey God, he rebelled. Anytime we rebel against authority, we are rebelling against God Himself.
Turn to Proverbs 17:11 “An evil girl seeketh only rebellion”. Here rebellion is named among those that are evil. Remember evil or wicked are those that have wrong standards, those standards that oppose the bible. The bible lists the standards we are to have. Wrong standards to live by will get us cast into hell, remember? This is some serious stuff, isn’t it? God looks at rebellion in a serious way. It was the original sin. Satan rebelled against God and Adam rebelled against God. So to rebel is sin. Rebellion is sin!
Turn to 1 Samuel 15:23. Here King Saul had disobeyed God’s instructions and He spoke through the prophet Samuel these words “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft {fortune-telling}, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king”.
Pretty strong words, isn’t it? Well, this was God speaking. So God is saying because you put yourself and your wants and what YOU thought should be right ahead of what I THOUGHT as God, then I call this like the sin of witchcraft, or fortune telling. Witchcraft is trying to get things done, drawing on evil powers. If you’re drawing on evil powers, you are drawing on powers that are not of God and are in opposition of God. So, God is saying rebellion is to Him as drawing on the powers of evil. Now, if God thinks that rebellion is a strong sin, then we should feel rebellion is a strong sin. We should evaluate where we rebel in our lives, where we oppose someone in authority over us, and ask for Him to forgive us, not doing this evil again.
This will go against our nature. Don’t think it won’t. Remember that sin-nature we were born with we learned about? That will try it best to take over and cause us to rebel. But God says ‘NO’. We are not to let it take over. We can, however, ask for His help. He wants this for us far more than we do, so He will definitely help us through moments when rebellion wants to rise up in us.
We should, though, want to get rid of this in ourselves if to do it would be comparing our actions to satan himself. Satan rebelled against God, his Creator. Let’s give our Creator the honor and respect He deserves to be trusted and obeyed. He has our best interests at heart.
Friday, April 8, 2011
The Neighborhood her Brother Saved her from
Last week we learned how we are related to Jesus. We are joint-heirs with him, being children of God. We found out we are also in the promise God made to Abraham of making him a great nation. We are an Israelite spiritually! This is our family in the new neighborhood! Anytime the bible talks about Israel or the Children of Israel, we can relate that to us spiritually.
This week we are studying about the neighborhood our elder brother, Jesus, saved us from having to live in eternally, forever and ever. This is a bad neighborhood to have to live that long, or for any length of time, for that matter.
In Heaven before any of man was created, God made angels. He made them for His pleasure, doing His will, to praise Him for the majestic God He is, the Creator of Heaven and earth and all its inhabitants. The angels fly around Him continually praising Him for His works and declaring He is holy.
God created one particular angel to do a special work. Apparently he was also very beautiful, having an air about him that was just a notch above all the other angels. God created him for the same beauty as the others, for God’s pleasure. However, this angel rose up thinking more highly of himself than he should and God’s nature could not tolerate that kind of rebellion. God’s nature is love and holiness. Pride has no place around Him. So in order to remove this pride, he had to remove the creature. The scripture says God had already created the earth, but no mention of the creation, Man, as of yet. The scripture says God cast this angel to earth. This angel’s name is Lucifer. This was his heavenly name. The name Lucifer means ‘light bearer’, meaning the light of God, His glory. Lucifer was to bear the light of God, and bring honor to God Himself. Let’s read the scripture where Lucifer rises up in pride:
Isaiah 14:13-14 “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High:
Here the scripture repeats what Lucifer says out loud about himself. Let’s take the verses apart to explain further:
“I will ascend into heaven” means he is rising into the very throne room of God.
“I will exalt my throne” means he feels he has some kind of power, first, to do this. To exalt his throne means he is exclaiming he is going to rule in some manner in heaven. We all know there cannot be two Gods. So he was stating he was going to rule over God Himself. Pretty bold statement, isn’t it?
“above the stars of God” mean the angels. Angels were also symbolically called stars, heavenly bodies. Lucifer was stating here, he was going to raise his throne to rule over the angels.
“I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation” means he’s saying he’s going to have control over all that attend in heaven.
“I will be like the most High” means he thought he would be like God. He was comparing himself to God. He had a very high opinion of himself that made him declare he basically was going to take over heaven!
So we see Lucifer made a stand in heaven against God. This was not a very intelligent thing to do. God will not share His throne with anyone. Why should he? He created everyone! The Creator is not ruled by the created.
So, God was given the task of removing this pride from heaven. However, when God did so, the scriptures say that 1/3 of the angels decided to go with him. They rebelled against their Creator also. These are referred to as ‘the fallen angels’. In the book of Revelation, John saw some things and was asked to record it. In these scriptures the story of Lucifer and the Israelites [which is now us] is described in picture form. The dragon is Lucifer, the stars are angels and the Woman is the Israelites [which is now us]. Listen to this true story which is still being played out today:
Revelation chapter 12: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”.
Pretty interesting picture, isn’t it, of Lucifer falling, along with his angels, and persecuting those that are saved by the blood of Christ?
Let’s go back to our original scripture in Isaiah 14 and read about the place God prepared for the devil and the angels that rebelled.
Isaiah 14 “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming:” “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”” Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;”
Also in Jude 1:6 “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day”.
Also in 2 Peter 2:4 “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;”
Then in Matthew 25:41 Jesus was telling His disciples “everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels”.
So we see that hell was prepared for the devil and the angels that rebelled against God for an everlasting [forever and ever] place of fire.
Yet there are many, many verses in the bible that also tell mankind that God will not tolerate rebellion from them. We are not exempt from the punishment of fire if we rebel against God and do not accept Jesus Christ as Savior.
Psalm 9:17 says this “the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God”. Some say ‘well I’m not a wicked person. I’m not that bad! Well, let’s see what the original word of wicked means. In this scripture the original Hebrew word wicked is ‘rawshaw’ meaning morally wrong. Morals are your standards, your ethics. So, here the verse can read “those that have wrong standards and ethics shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God”. So, what are right standards? The bible! It is truth!
Back to other scriptures that tell us hell will take humans; Isaiah 5:14 “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and the wicked’s glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it”.
We as humans are not exempt from being cast into hell as we see in the scripture. And since being wicked, or morally wrong, our standards being against the bible, we too, as Christ followers can go backward and let down our standards of ethics and morals and decline to such a point where when either we die or Christ returns, we too can be turned toward the place prepared for the devil.
This is why our spiritual growth toward Christlikeness is important. We need to know the truth about our lives in the new neighborhood. Our elder brother, Jesus, died to keep us out of hell, and to take us to heaven one day with Him. It’s our responsibility to accept what He did, and continue in it!
This week we are studying about the neighborhood our elder brother, Jesus, saved us from having to live in eternally, forever and ever. This is a bad neighborhood to have to live that long, or for any length of time, for that matter.
In Heaven before any of man was created, God made angels. He made them for His pleasure, doing His will, to praise Him for the majestic God He is, the Creator of Heaven and earth and all its inhabitants. The angels fly around Him continually praising Him for His works and declaring He is holy.
God created one particular angel to do a special work. Apparently he was also very beautiful, having an air about him that was just a notch above all the other angels. God created him for the same beauty as the others, for God’s pleasure. However, this angel rose up thinking more highly of himself than he should and God’s nature could not tolerate that kind of rebellion. God’s nature is love and holiness. Pride has no place around Him. So in order to remove this pride, he had to remove the creature. The scripture says God had already created the earth, but no mention of the creation, Man, as of yet. The scripture says God cast this angel to earth. This angel’s name is Lucifer. This was his heavenly name. The name Lucifer means ‘light bearer’, meaning the light of God, His glory. Lucifer was to bear the light of God, and bring honor to God Himself. Let’s read the scripture where Lucifer rises up in pride:
Isaiah 14:13-14 “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High:
Here the scripture repeats what Lucifer says out loud about himself. Let’s take the verses apart to explain further:
“I will ascend into heaven” means he is rising into the very throne room of God.
“I will exalt my throne” means he feels he has some kind of power, first, to do this. To exalt his throne means he is exclaiming he is going to rule in some manner in heaven. We all know there cannot be two Gods. So he was stating he was going to rule over God Himself. Pretty bold statement, isn’t it?
“above the stars of God” mean the angels. Angels were also symbolically called stars, heavenly bodies. Lucifer was stating here, he was going to raise his throne to rule over the angels.
“I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation” means he’s saying he’s going to have control over all that attend in heaven.
“I will be like the most High” means he thought he would be like God. He was comparing himself to God. He had a very high opinion of himself that made him declare he basically was going to take over heaven!
So we see Lucifer made a stand in heaven against God. This was not a very intelligent thing to do. God will not share His throne with anyone. Why should he? He created everyone! The Creator is not ruled by the created.
So, God was given the task of removing this pride from heaven. However, when God did so, the scriptures say that 1/3 of the angels decided to go with him. They rebelled against their Creator also. These are referred to as ‘the fallen angels’. In the book of Revelation, John saw some things and was asked to record it. In these scriptures the story of Lucifer and the Israelites [which is now us] is described in picture form. The dragon is Lucifer, the stars are angels and the Woman is the Israelites [which is now us]. Listen to this true story which is still being played out today:
Revelation chapter 12: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”.
Pretty interesting picture, isn’t it, of Lucifer falling, along with his angels, and persecuting those that are saved by the blood of Christ?
Let’s go back to our original scripture in Isaiah 14 and read about the place God prepared for the devil and the angels that rebelled.
Isaiah 14 “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming:” “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”” Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;”
Also in Jude 1:6 “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day”.
Also in 2 Peter 2:4 “God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;”
Then in Matthew 25:41 Jesus was telling His disciples “everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels”.
So we see that hell was prepared for the devil and the angels that rebelled against God for an everlasting [forever and ever] place of fire.
Yet there are many, many verses in the bible that also tell mankind that God will not tolerate rebellion from them. We are not exempt from the punishment of fire if we rebel against God and do not accept Jesus Christ as Savior.
Psalm 9:17 says this “the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God”. Some say ‘well I’m not a wicked person. I’m not that bad! Well, let’s see what the original word of wicked means. In this scripture the original Hebrew word wicked is ‘rawshaw’ meaning morally wrong. Morals are your standards, your ethics. So, here the verse can read “those that have wrong standards and ethics shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God”. So, what are right standards? The bible! It is truth!
Back to other scriptures that tell us hell will take humans; Isaiah 5:14 “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and the wicked’s glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it”.
We as humans are not exempt from being cast into hell as we see in the scripture. And since being wicked, or morally wrong, our standards being against the bible, we too, as Christ followers can go backward and let down our standards of ethics and morals and decline to such a point where when either we die or Christ returns, we too can be turned toward the place prepared for the devil.
This is why our spiritual growth toward Christlikeness is important. We need to know the truth about our lives in the new neighborhood. Our elder brother, Jesus, died to keep us out of hell, and to take us to heaven one day with Him. It’s our responsibility to accept what He did, and continue in it!
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