Cut

 

The other day I jumped in the shower to get the grime of life scrubbed off of me and to just be physically refreshed and revived by the cleansing spray of the hot water (I never cease to give got thanks for the hot showers I am blessed to receive, there are so many in this world who never receive such a luxury) and if I shower I shave…

I needed a fresh razor so I grabbed one out of the box and stepped into the steam of the shower.

As I began to shave the razor cut me (note to the women, if the razor cuts you on its first shave, trash it immediately, it will only get worse if you don’t).

So the razor cuts through my flesh with a sting and then the blood begins to pour out of the wound and mix with the water and run down my leg. I saw the blood and water flowing and immediately my heart went to the cross…

But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, 

and immediately blood and water came out.

John 19:34

Then within that very moment my heart went to…

And according to the Law, one may almost say,

all things are cleansed with blood,

and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22

This moment happened as I was standing in the steam of the shower going over the Hell Scene in my church’s fall drama. I asked for people to send me the lies that Satan whispered in their ears to keep them bound in their sins… I took these lies and wrote them on the walls of hell. That’s where all lies belong. They belong in hell with the father of lies… they have no place in the minds of those who belong to the Father of Truth.

I shaved as I went over the lies I had used and the ones I still needed to write. As I felt the sting of the water on the open wound and watched the blood pour out and as these verses of Scripture pierced my heart, my mind went to the cutter.

My mind went to the cutter and my heart broke.

Dear precious cutter… it is a lie.

Yes, all things are cleansed with blood and there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood, but the shedding of your blood will never remove the pain you feel deep within you.  The shedding of your blood will never cleanse you of what you are trying to remove from you. This is a lie straight from the pits of hell. There is only One who was cut whose blood offers cleansing and forgiveness… only One whose cut eases the pain within you… only One whose cut will remove the shame you carry… only One.

He was cut so that you didn’t have to be.

Job sat in his pain and his confusion and he cut himself with a potsherd and he cried out…

 In truth I know that this is so;
But how can a man be in the right before God?

Job 9:2

Job knew the words the truth… but I believe in his pain he felt a disconnect between what he knew to be true in his mind and soul and the pain he was experiencing in his body and heart… God never explains all this to Job… but He does explain more of Himself to Job and in this He basically says, I AM GOD, TRUST ME!

As Job trusted in the truth of who knew God to be, and as he grew in his knowledge of his God, he found hope and healing and life.

 So precious one, trust Him, it His TRUTH that always sets you free… and His TRUTH is living and breathing and life giving because His Truth is His Son (John 14:6), His Spirit (1 John 5:6), His very self (1 John 5:20). So keep on walking in it, trusting in it, holding on to it…

And send the lie to hell with the Liar…

No Room For Doubt

 

There are times in life when there is room for doubt.

Eternity just is not one of them.

There is no room for doubt in eternity.

He has also set eternity in their heart,

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Each of us wonders about eternity. I don’t care who you are or where you live, it doesn’t matter your sex, age, race, religion, or region… at some point in time you have asked yourself what happens when this thing we call life is over…

Every human being on this planet has considered death.

Every religion or anti-religion has a plan for death… they have a plan because it has been an issue of great consideration in their minds. The sad thing is that in those plans there remains doubt. There is no certainty as to what becomes of them after this life.

There is only ONE who removes this doubt.

There is only ONE who has given us certainty… if we choose to believe Him.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

John 5:24

Jesus said to them, “ I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

John 6:35

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

John 7:38

Jesus said to her, “ I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? 

John 11:25-26

Jesus leaves us no room for doubt. He never speaks with mights, or maybes, or my opinions, or me thinks. He always speaks with authority and certainty.

He has given us no room for doubt.

Jesus + Belief = Eternal Life

Then to make sure that we would have no room for doubt in our belief upon Him… He seals us with His Spirit… and the clear evidence of that Spirit appears in our changed and changing life. He doesn’t stop there… He also gives us His Word of promise.

These things I have written

to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,

so that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:13

He has given us an entire Book of promises, in 1 John alone, we have 5 chapters of assurance… if we doubt we turn here and we discover that there is no room for doubt…

Our world is full of doubt-givers and false hope-offerers… Jesus is not one of them.

You are either for Him or against Him.

When you hear Him, read Him, learn of Him, and examine your own life in light of Him you have to make a choice. If you are not who He claims you should be if you do in fact know Him… then you know Him not… and you have a choice at that very moment.

Call on Him…

Or  walk away from Him.

Next week my church will be presenting our annual fall drama, The Judgment Seat. In this drama we present the truth that Hell is a reality. Our desire is that no one walks out the doors with doubt as to whether or not they know where they will spend eternity.  And it is our desire that no true Believer will walk out our doors with a flippant attitude about the eternal lives of the people in their areas of influence.

When was the last time you were truly concerned if the person you just said “Hi” to knew Jesus Christ?

Our desire is not to offer the false hope of the world, “well maybe if I am good enough I will make it“, “well maybe at the very end we all get another chance to accept Christ if He’s really the way“, “well maybe their heart is okay even if their actions don’t look like it“, “well who am I to judge their heart or question their actions“, “well I don’t want to offend them“, “it’s really not my place to push my religion on them

We intentionally write characters who display the spectrum of believer and non-believer according to the descriptions given us in Scripture. We intentionally want to lead people to realize that they must get off the fence… the fence is imaginary anyway… there is no fence in reality. If you are not all in Christ, then you are indeed all out. 

If you have no assurance that you are IN HIM, then you are left with assurance that you are out of Him.

Jesus leaves us no room for doubt.

And I don’t know about you… but when it comes to eternity, when it comes to breathing my last breath on this earth… I don’t want to have any doubts.

If you have doubts then open up the Book. Find your knees. Seek Him. He will let you know one way or the other…

Even If

 

I sit here this morning with tears rolling down my face as I think on the “even if’s” of life… I have so many things rambling on in my brain this morning and bouncing around in my heart and weighing on my soul… how thankful I am for my God who does not leave us to carry all our burdens alone.

This life is so very hard sometimes.

We make mistakes that we can’t take back no matter how hard we try… and even though forgiveness comes and God redeems those mistakes and uses them to bring glory to the kingdom of God and testify to His amazing grace… the memories remain and we have to choose, sometimes daily, to forsake those and move forward in faith.

We have things that are out of our control that come and t-bone us out of no where and almost destroy us and break all our bones and leave us gasping for every breathe and hanging on a thread of hope… and even though our life is spared our life is changed forever. We may have to live with physical pain, sometimes daily, for the rest of our life and we have to choose to give thanks for the pain because the pain testifies to the truth that we are indeed still alive.

We live under the turmoil of hurt and walk in the shadow of condemnation that may even come from places that are are supposed to be love and comfort. We feel the burden of oppression and look for the light and find it… and then its darkness again… and we wonder why we can’t find a safe place… and even if that safe place is found we discover that the hurt and turmoil show back up, almost playing hide and seek with us, and even if we choose to jump out and scream “I am not hiding anymore“, the hurt sometimes remains… and we have to choose to trust that God is sovereign and somehow He has a work to do in us and He is using this and in His hands all works for glory and good.

We receive news that a battle we have been fighting for years just has made a surge on us like the USA military on the beaches of Normandy and all we know to do is just grab our weapons of warfare and run head on and strong into the fight knowing that our life, this mission, this fight, this battle will be remembered by those who come behind us for generations to come… and it will be honored.

We live this life and the mistakes, pains, sufferings, and battles of life can seem relentless… and they are… and if we try to think of them as “this is how it is going to be forever, for the rest of my life” we will crumble under the weight of them.

I have learned in my almost 36 years of life, and I praise God that those last 10 have been in Him, I have learned that we can’t live in the unknown future of tomorrow.

WE CAN ONLY LIVE IN TODAY.

Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.” It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.” 

Judges 16:15-17

Issues of life come upon us daily… they come and they press on us… and they annoy our soul to death… and they come and finally we tell, we express, we shout out what is in our hearts…

What will come out of our hearts?

Will we speak as Job’s wife spoke “Curse God and die…

Will we speak as Job did “Though He slay me yet will I praise Him...”

Will we run from Christ?

As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore

John 6:66 

Or will we run to Him because we realize we have no where else to go to find help, hope, life?

Jesus never asked us to live in tomorrow. He actually commanded us not to.

So do not worry about tomorrow; 

for tomorrow will care for itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34

At least eight times in the Scriptures we are commanded “do not worry

We are commanded to not worry about tomorrow, to not worry about our life, to not worry about our future, to not worry… we are commanded to remember.

Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden,

The God who is our salvation.

Psalm 68:19

We are to remember that we are His workmanship, created in Christ, prepared beforehand (Ephesians 2:10). He has a plan, a purpose, and He has the power to carry it out… we may not understand today… but one day we will see and we will know and we will praise Him and thank Him for our sufferings… we will cry out in overwhelming joy that the “even ifs” did not deter us, destroy us, derail us, or lead us to demean, defy, or denounce Him our Savior, our Lord, our King.

We will see the mighty result of our sufferings and how we were perfected in them and how many came to know Christ as they watched us walk in and through them. I have learned that facing suffering head on. Walking by faith. Walking in the knowledge that God is sovereign. Walking in the sheer truth that my life is hidden with Christ in God and Christ is in me (Colossians 1:27, 3:3). And if I am hidden with Christ in God then nothing can get to me unless it has first passed through Him and if He has allowed it through it has a purpose in Christ and for Christ for the glory of Christ.

 

 

Step of Faith

There are moments when my heart is so full of God and His grace that I feel like I am going to pop with Jesus awesomeness. Tonight is one of those moments… and well I am just full… full of Him… and so very thankful for all He is.

When I felt the call to Children’s Ministry and told God yes, I would go…

I first went with one foot in… I suppose…

I kept my ties in the youth and held fast to my precept ministry. As a matter of fact, I just taught all three. College on Sunday mornings, Children during worship, and adult Precept on Sunday nights…

However God would continue to grow in my heart a desire for children’s ministry that I could not deny…

It’s funny.

Most see the children’s ministry as the starting point for a new believer to get their feet wet in and then progress  to teaching the “harder stuff” to the adults… but God did the opposite in me.

He trained me up in precept and in teaching college and adults so that I could come back and be a better teacher of Biblical truth to these children.

In the children’s ministry is where we lay the foundation of all Biblical truth… therefore it is very important that this is a foundation of Rock and not slippery silly sand. It may seem strange to some, but I study just as hard to teach the two year olds as I did the 22 year olds. I have even had people comment on how I must be enjoying the lighter study load… ummm nope. I dig just as deep… and I don’t teach less depth just because they are two or ten.

Tomorrow I will be taking close to 40 precious souls into the day that Abraham walked with Isaac up the Mount to offer him as a sacrifice unto God. Yes, Father Abraham had many sons… but he also was asked to sacrifice one of those. He was asked, Abraham how much do you trust Me?

Then their small group leaders will be taking them even deeper. Last week the kids left the large group class saying, “Mrs Nicole I got my shovel! We’re going to go dig a little deeper!” And they walked out the room making shovel motions and chanting “dig a little deeper, dig a little deeper

LOVE IT!

Then in Children’s Church I will take almost 30 kids 4yrs old to 12 yrs old into the depths of Revelation as we look at the great harlot riding on a beast drinking a cup full of immorality and abominations…

This is serious study. I take it seriously. I want to send these kids up and out into the world fully equipped with sword bearing truth. These kids today are facing hard things. Lies are every where they look. They need truth. They need people who will speak truth over them and to them.

When I became Children’s Ministry Director, my heart was very pulled toward a bold recommended decision that I would make concerning this ministry. It would be something that would be different… but I felt very strongly about it… even though it was scary.

The decision would be a No Volunteer Policy for the new children’s ministry department.

There would be no announcements begging for help. No sign up sheets begging for teachers or helpers. I had seen this too many times… Too many times I had seen kids walk by an empty sign up sheet and heard them say… “no one wants us”

Nope, not under me. Because I wanted them. I wanted every last one of them. And I would trust God to provide me with teachers and leaders that wanted them too. If God could use Moses to lead over 2 million Israelites then surely He could use me to lead 1 children’s ministry.

So I took this leap of faith.

Sign up sheets would be for one time activities only.

Then I personally invited those that God had put on my heart to join me in this mission… I didn’t want anyone serving out of guilt or out of a martyrs complex… I wanted full hearted service. Service out of obedience to the call of God and the desire to plant seeds of truth and water them and cultivate them and love them.

And then a need would arise and time would be running out and my heart would catch in my throat as I thought I am going to have to stand and ask… and then God would remind me that He was in control

In one of these moments I was reading a book by Francis Chan and he asked something like “what are you doing in your life that if God doesn’t pull through for you, you’re in trouble” and so I said, Okay God, I got it… I will wait. Guess what, He never failed to bring someone to my mind… or to someone else’s mind who would come and share that name with me. And every time when that person was asked they would say that God had already began the process of moving them into this ministry

Every time He has provided the worker.

Yes the fields are white for harvest, and yes the workers are few, but when we beseech the Lord of the harvest… He provides.

He has been faithful to provide people who love these kids and see this ministry as a priority. I walk down the halls and have conversations with my workers and I hear their passion for the kids… as a whole and as individuals. I hear their desire to teach the kids the Truth of the Word of God. I see the excitement in their eyes when they share something that happened in class or they share an idea they had to help illustrate the lesson. I don’t know if they know that I am listening or catching these moments, but I am, and I thank God for them.

Every act of obedience is a step of faith.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel,

for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed 

from faith to faith;

as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Romans 1:16-18

Faith to faith, step of faith to step of faith, Jesus awesomeness just pops out all over us when we choose to just believe.

Names of God: Aletheia

Last week we looked at the name Phos. This name of Christ taught us that Jesus is the Light and in this name of Christ we learned how very infinite He is…

This past Monday in Co-op chapel we looked at Aletheia.

This is another favorite name of my Jesus…

Aletheia is Greek for Truth. Jesus is the Son, He is the Last Adam, He is the Tree of Life, He is the Light, and He is the Truth.

 

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,

and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father,

full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

For the Law was given through Moses;

grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
John 1:17

Now let me take a little side trip here as we look at this verse… the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Christ… grace and truth does not mean that Jesus came to give us permission to ignore and break the Law with a grace override… Titus 2:11-12 makes it pretty clear, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,” You see the grace and truth realized in Christ is the power to walk in the Law not the permission to break it.

Jesus came to show us that truth is not an opinion… it is not a law… it is indeed a person… He is the Truth in the flesh. When He stood before Pilate after He had been accused and abused… Pilate questioned Him and Jesus answered him and told him that He came into the world to testify to the truth and everyone who is of the truth hears His voice… Pilate looked at Him and asked “What is truth?”

We have no record of Jesus’ reply… Jesus remained silent…  the Truth was looking Pilate in the face… Truth was standing right in front of him…

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life ;

no one comes to the Father but through Me.
John 14:6

Jesus is Aletheia. 

The definition of Aletheia is this:

objectively
what is true in any matter under consideration
truly, in truth, according to truth
of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainly

what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth
in the greatest latitude
the true notions of God which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention

the truth as taught in the Christian religion, respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ, and respecting the duties of man, opposing alike to the superstitions of the Gentiles and the inventions of the Jews, and the corrupt opinions and precepts of false teachers even among Christians

and here’s my favorite…

subjectively
truth as a personal excellence
that candour of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation, falsehood, deceit

We live in a day that sings to us from childhood to let our “heart” be our guide… to let our “feelings” make our decisions for us… Truth is not dictated by our hearts or feelings… our hearts and feelings are usually way off from truth… they are the very last things on this earth that we should be letting guide us.

He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,

But he who walks wisely will be delivered.

Proverbs 28:26

The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9

 

We have to let the Truth come in and renew our mind and then let this renewed mind direct our hearts… if the Truth is not driving our hearts we are in trouble.

It is the Truth that sets us free…

and you will know the truth,
and the truth will make you free
John 8:32

It is the truth that sets us free because it was believing the lie that first put us in bondage.

Indeed, has God said…
Genesis 3:1

Indeed has God said…

God had said and a sneaky serpent snuck up and said has God said? He offered up a lie. He gave Eve an ultimatum… believe God or believe him. She believed the lie. She shared the lie… and Adam believed the lie instead of God… and in bondage to sin the world became. Chains.

It all goes back to the same lie… I love how Voddie Bauchman put it…

That’s what it goes back to. God is just not enough. “I need ???, regardless of whether ??? meets these requirements that God has set, because God is just not enough. God just doesn’t understand, and I need something other than God. There is something out there that is more powerful than God, and I’m answering to that and not to God.
~ Voddie Bauchman

Satan offered up the lie that God was holding out on Eve… that God was not enough… what He had supplied them was not enough… they needed more. They needed something outside of God to be satisfied. He offered up that God was the one who was lying… that His Word was not enough.

Eve bought it. Adam bought it… I bought it… Maybe you have bought it.

 

He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside.

And he cannot deliver himself, nor say,

“Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

Isaiah 44:20

This passage in Isaiah is from a chapter that breaks down the worship of idols. Anything we hold in our hands and depend on beside God is a lie.

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie,

and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…
Romans 1:25

Anything that controls us that is not God is a lie. Anything that we obey that is not God is a lie… and we are enslaved to it and we cannot deliver ourselves.

We are captivated, caught, and controlled by the liar.

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

He was a murderer from the beginning,

and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

Whenever he speaks a lie,

he speaks from his own nature,

for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44

So we are here today… we have a lie in our right hand… and Jesus, the Truth, Aletheia, stands right in front of us. He has came to testify to the truth. He has came to set you free. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Believing the truth breaks the chains.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him,

“If you continue in My word,

then you are truly disciples of Mine;

and you will know the truth,

and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:31-32

When we believe Aletheia, then we are set free. When we choose to believe the Word of God rather than the lie of satan we find freedom. We are redeemed out of slavery… but in our redemption lies still are thrown at us from our previous owner. Jesus tells us that if we will continue to believe in Him, in His Word, then we will continue to be set free from every lie that binds us.

He prays over us…

Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
John 17:17

He equips us…

in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith

with which you will be able to extinguish

all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation,

and the sword of the Spirit,

which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:16-17

He empowers us…

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,

and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit,

of both joints and marrow,

and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And there is no creature hidden from His sight,

but all things are open and laid bare

to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Hebrews 4:12-13

Did you catch that?

No creature is hidden from His sight!

When we believe the lie… we find ourselves worshiping the creature

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie,

and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…
Romans 1:25

But here’s the thing… no matter how deep, no matter how dark, no matter how hidden, no matter how tightly the grip of the creature, no matter how powerful and mighty it might be, no matter the depth of the lie we have believed and been bound… the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, the Truth, the Aletheia, Jesus our God will lay it bare.

Yield that sword precious one!

Stop bowing down to that lie, whatever it might be, speak the TRUTH, believe the TRUTH, and be set free!

This I Know

 

I teach the Word of God… I have the opportunity to teach the Book and its beauty here on this blog and through my book Devotions From Genesis.  I have the opportunity to teach at least 40 children every Sunday and probably close to 75 children and adults every Monday in Co-op Chapel… and have had the opportunity to speak and teach before others many other times in schools and other churches and even in hotel floors in Poland and standing among the graves of the slain in concentration camps… It never ceases to stop my heart in almost pure confusion and befuddlement that God manages to use this woman with such a tainted past to teach such holy things…

But in all these public teaching opportunities none of those moments compare to when I jump in the bed in the morning with my 11 year old and have my one-on-one devo time with her and then go and pull my 8 yr old up in my lap, simply because I still can, and have my one-on-one time with her…

Nothing compares to being able to look them in the eyes and read to them and teach them who their God is and how very much He loves them and desires to guide them every day of their life.

Nothing compares to being curled up in our pj’s together with our bedheads and morning breathe and reading aloud:

 

You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?
Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;
This I know, that God is for me.
In God, whose word I praise,
In the Lord, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?

Psalm 56:8-11

To be able to show them that every tear that they have ever cried or will ever cry their God has caught… He has stored them in a bottle and recorded the reason for them in His book… and then to be able to remind them that not only does He catch and record every tear He also keeps every prayer we have ever prayed before His throne…

Another angel came and stood at the altar,

holding a golden censer;

and much incense was given to him,

so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints

on the golden altar which was before the throne. 

And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints,

went up before God out of the angel’s hand.

Revelation 8:3-4

To be able to look in their eyes, the two souls formed in my womb, the two souls God entrusted to me to lead them as they lay down and as they rise, the two souls who watch me daily to see if I actually live what I claim to believe…

To be able to first thing in the morning, before the sleepy is even out of their eyes, to be able to open this Book of books and turn to its truth and speak over my children….

This I know, that God is for me.

Psalm 56:9

To be able to remind them that even if the whole world is against them God is for them. If they they will always put their trust in Him and praise His word… they never have any reason to be afraid… because if God is for them… what can man do to them?

My goal as their mother is for them to know, that they know that they know, that God is for them.

Even if they are going through something hard that they don’t understand, or even if they have been taken to the Holy Ghost woodshed because they have chosen disobedience and it may seem to them that God is against them… they must remember that God is always for them.

Now I must confess that there are mornings when the devo time is missed… but that doesn’t mean we quit… we just shoot for tomorrow. But I say that as a mom who teaches her children at home and is able to tie Biblical truth into every subject… even using the covenant of marriage to explain fractions… I have this privileged and open door daily with my girls.

If your child attends public school you don’t have that opportunity… so precious one, does your child know that God is for them? Can he face the lies of the world head on because he is armed with his freshly sharpened sword of truth?

I would be so bold as to say that you can’t afford to miss these morning opportunities to speak truth over your child. Not only will it arm your child… it will arm you.

Do you know, that you know that you know, that God is for you? Do you know that he has caught every tear you have ever cried and recorded them in His book? Do you know that He gathers every prayer that you have ever cried out to Him and they are stored at the altar before His throne? Do you know that He is for you?

Can you say with David, “This I know, that God is for me.

Review for “Becoming the Bride of Christ”

 

I was contacted by Marilynn and asked if I would be interested in doing a book review for her… and well I love reading and research into the Word of God and so of course I said yes.

So I began flipping through the pdf format of Becoming the Bride of Christ.

I have to admit at first it seemed like it would be slow read… but I read on and received a blessing for doing so as I read,

The Psalmist chooses the path that pleases God by choosing to be humble
before Him. The Psalmist goes so far as to say that the circumstances God
has allowed in his life, have humbled him. How many of us would say the
same thing if we were honest with ourselves? That the circumstances God
has allowed have humbled us? I know I have to say that. I can point to time
after time when God has had to humble me for various reasons, to remind
me that I am completely and totally dependent upon Him and not anything I
can say or do of myself. 

~ Marilynn Dawson

As I read further I found myself in tears… and then in praise… and then in tears… and then in praise again.

Marilynn intertwines this book with her own personal story, a fairy tale type story that is used to illustrate our relationship with Christ, music lyrics of praise and worship, and Scriptural references meant to lead from her book into the Book of all books…

This book is one that I would recommend sitting down with pen or pencil. It could even be used as a group study. I could easily see taking the songs she shares and playing them within the study time as you poured into the Scriptures.

I love the heart that is behind this book, Marilynn’s desire is that you would be able to love Christ deeply and obey Him out of that great love for Him.

If you struggle with God’s love for you… then this book is the book for you.

If you fear that God could not deeply love because of your past, because of your choices, because of your current circumstances… then I recommend this book to you.

If you doubt that God wants you to experience His love in a real and tangible way and have been taught that He is a far off, distant, cold and legalistic God… then please open the pages of this book… and learn to see your God through the pages of His book as you discover more of who He is and how He feels about those who are His.

 The LORD your God is in your midst,

A victorious warrior.

He will exult over you with joy,

He will be quiet in His love,

He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy  

Zephaniah 3:17 

Names of God: Phos

 

Last week we looked at the name, Xulon Zoe, in it we saw that Jesus is the Tree of Life and we saw this Tree of Life is the Cross of Christ.

Today we are looking at one of my very favorite names of Christ… and the more I study it… the deeper I dig into it… the more I expound upon it… the greater I come to love it and the One of whom it speaks of, my Jesus.

Today we will see that the Huios, that the Eschatos Adam, that the Xulon Zoe, is also the Phos.

 

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:4-5

 

This is the message we have heard from Him

and announce to you,

that God is Light,

and in Him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5

Phos is the Greek word for Light and it means light, anything emitting light, brightness. Metaphorically it is the extremely delicate, subtle, pure, brilliant quality of truth and its knowledge, together with the spiritual purity associated with it. It is that which is exposed to the view of all, openly, publicly. According to reason and the mind it the power of understanding especially moral and spiritual truth.

What we have learned about the light through science is that it travels in a straight line, dark rough surfaces absorb it, and bright smooth surfaces reflect it. What we have also learned is that the best reflector of light is a mirror…

As I thought of Jesus, our Phos, our Light… I thought of  how we can either absorb His light or we can reflect it. My mind then went to what I believe is an example of us absorbing His light… and remember that is dark and rough things that absorb light.

Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today; otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery
Deuteronomy 8:11-14

Know therefore today that it is the Lord your God who is crossing over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord has spoken to you.
“Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you. It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 9:3-6

You see Jesus lets us know in Matthew 5: 45 that God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. His light shines on all of us. And the more we know of His Light the more we are expected to reflect it…

God had given great Light to Israel. He had revealed much to them and He did so, that they might reflect Him to the other nations, to the world… but instead of reflecting Him, the nation absorbed Him, and then they began to actually think they didn’t need Him… and they did exactly what God warned them not to do in Deuteronomy. And the great city on the hill, the great light to the nations, became darker and darker and rougher and rougher.

When the Light, Jesus, stood before the nation of Israel in the flesh He said to them in Matthew 5:14-16You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

They were supposed to be shining their light, reflecting the light of God to the world, so that God would be glorified by all. When we choose to take the Light that we have had clearly revealed to us and absorb it and cover it we ourselves become dark and darker and so does the world around us.

Darkness absorbs light, but bright smooth surfaces reflect it.

The way of the righteous is smooth;

O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.

Isaiah 26:7

 

A voice is calling, “ Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness;

 Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

Isaiah 40:3

 

A mirror is the absolute best reflector of light… a mirror displays the image that it is reflecting… now think a moment… how did God create us?

God created man in His own image,

in the image of God He created him;

male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:27

God created this huge universe in all its splendor yet when He wanted something, that would best reflect Him… He created us.

Crazy! Right?

He created us that we might reflect His image to all creation… but man fell, sin came, and the image was distorted… the mirror was smeared and broken. There would never be another son of Adam who could rightly reflect the image of God, not another child of Adam on the earth that could light the way out of the darkness of sin…

Not until God would send Huios, the Eschatos Adam, our Xulon Zoe.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,

and we saw His glory,

glory as of the only begotten from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

God sent the Phos into the world and this Phos was the life for us all… Jesus walked this earth as the example of the mirror image that you and I were created to display. He came as the exact representation of the very nature of God the very radiance of the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3).

And every one who see His Light and comes to His Light the veil of darkness is removed… when we look at ourselves in the mirror of the Word, in the very face of Christ, in the Light of the glory of God and we see how very marred we are and we cry out for more Light and we are received by the Light and this life enters us and that marred image… the Light begins to burn away and He begins to transform us into the image of the One we behold… Jesus.

But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:15-18

And as we take this revealed Light and choose not to absorb it, but reflect it… we bring glory not to ourselves but to our God, our Creator, the One whose image we were created to reflect. And we preach not ourselves as the answer but as we are being transformed into the image of Christ, from glory to glory, then when others see our face and the works of our hands, it will not be us that they see but it will be the Light of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:5-6

Here’s another thing about light… it doesn’t matter how bright the light… light breaks the darkness.

I shared this over a year ago in this post: The Light.

Here’s the bottom line… it doesn’t matter how dark your darkness… the very moment you turn to the Light you can see… the question is not whether or not you can find the Light… but will you indeed come to the Light.

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. 

John 3:19-21

Here’s a video from NASA about the speed of light… watch the first 3 minutes.

 

 

Light is the fastest thing in the universe… It reaches us across vast distances. It reveals the history of the cosmos. Nothing can go faster than the speed of light.

Light speed is the fundamental linchpin of the universe, the very cornerstone on which the universe is built, it is king in the cosmos. It is instantaneous to us. It is infinite to us.

So let’s look at this in light of the Phos…

Jesus is the fastest thing in the universe. He reaches us across vast distances. He reveals to us the history of the cosmos. Nothing is faster than Him, He speaks and it happens, He wills and it is.

Jesus is the fundamental linchpin of the universe. He is in fact the very cornerstone on which it was built, for from Him and through Him, and to Him are all things. He is the King in the cosmos, for He is the Kings of all kings. He is instantaneous to us, the moment we call, the moment we turn, He is there. Jesus is infinite to us. We can study Him for all eternity and still never grasp all of who He is…

Wow…

October Truth

 

I don’t usually blog on Sundays… so today we will close out our study/focus on Psalm 101 and our October Song with Psalm 101:7-8

 

He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me.
Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
So as to cut off from the city of the Lord all those who do iniquity.

Psalm 101:7-8

Let’s first look at Psalm 101:7, 

He who practices deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who speaks falsehood shall not maintain his position before me.

Now compare this with Revelation 21: 23-27 

And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it…

There will be no liars, no one who practices falsehood, in the house of God… so we should not tolerate it in ourselves. We live in a day where liars are brushed off or laughed off, but to God lying and falsehood is no laughing matter. He expects our yes to be a yes and our no to be a no. We are not to make stuff up to get our way…  and we are not to speak falsehood… We need to be very careful to make sure that the words that come out of our mouths are truth and that they are reliable. When we catch a lie or falsehood coming out of our mouths, we need to go boldly before the throne of grace and seek the mercy of our God. We are to be people of truth if we represent the Truth.

We should not tolerate lies in ourselves and we should not tolerate it in our homes by others…  Are there things that you lie about? To others? To yourself? To God?

Take it to Him now… don’t wait. You will not maintain your position before Him if you choose to remain in the practice of deceit and the speaking of falsehood. Precious one, He will deal with you… be sure your sins will find you out and your lies will entangle and trap you and trip you and the consequences of them will bring you to your knees. It is so much better if you justt choose to go there now on your own.

Now as we look at Psalm 101:8

Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
So as to cut off from the city of the Lord all those who do iniquity.

I am in the middle of a study in Ezekiel so as I read this verse I immediately went to Ezekiel 9

The Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.” But to the others He said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary.” So they started with the elders who were before the temple. 

God was not playing with Israel and He is not playing with us…

So every morning when you awake you are to be ready to destroy every wicked way in you… Every morning be aware that you could fail today if you are not ready, prepared, blameless, living in integrity, walking in truth…

Every morning let your feet hit the floor and place on them the gospel of peace. Stand up out of the bed and gird your loins with truth, and slip into your breastplate of righteousness, cover your bed head with the helmet of salvation, slide on that shield of faith,  and take hold of the sword of the Spirit…

Every morning get ready to stand. Stand firm. Get ready to stand and get ready to slay…

Walk through the land of your daily life and destroy the wicked that is among you and cut off all that does iniquity…

What is in your daily life that God would never allow to take place under His roof?

October is the eighth month and Octo means eight. It was on the eighth day that God said be circumcised. Circumcision is the removal of the flesh…

Let us spend the remainder of this month focused on the removing of the flesh from our lives.

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers,

beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision,

who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus

and put no confidence in the flesh, 

although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.

If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 

circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel,

of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews;

as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church;

as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

But whatever things were gain to me,

those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 

More than that, I count all things to be loss 

in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, 

for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,

and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,…

Philippians 3:2-8

October Wisdom

As we move past Psalm 101:5 and our October Accusers we begin today with Psalm 101:6

My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me;
He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me.

Psalm 101:6

Who do you choose to “dwell” with? Who do you choose to abide with you? What type of person do you choose to associate with in your spare time?

Are they the faithful in the land?

Do you have faithful people in your life?

The word faithful in this verse in the Hebrew is ‘aman and it means to support, confirm, be faithful, uphold, nourish, foster-father or foster-mother, nurse, pillars, supporters of the door, to be established, make firm, sure, lasting, verified, reliable, etc… 

Do you purposely choose to surround yourself with well established, reliable, and sure people who will love you as they would love their own children?

Or is your crowd full of wishy-washy personalities who are fickle and unreliable? Do they change their minds and friends and plans with the wind and whatever is the latest and appearing the greatest new idea? Do they float in and out of church and lives? Do their standards change according to who they are with and where they are at. Do they stand on sand?

We must be purposeful about who we choose to dwell with. We must be purposeful in choosing our friends and most definitely in choosing our spouses.

Are your eyes on the faithful of the land?

Putting yourself in good company is one of the wisest moves any believer can make.

 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

1 Corinthians 15:33

Bad company corrupts good morals and bad counseling ruins lives.

So the next question is, who do you take advise from? Who ministers to you? Are they blameless? Do they live a life of integrity? Sadly just because someone professes to be a christian or even leads a church as pastor… if they do not live blameless lives and walk in the integrity of their heart in their own house they need not be one who ministers to you.

Do you allow those to minister to you, to help you with problems, to offer you advise who never open the Word of God or even reference the Word in any way?

Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things;

they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane,

and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean;

and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths,

and I am profaned among them.

Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey,

by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain. 

Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, 

seeing false visions and divining lies for them,

saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

Ezekiel 22:26-28

 

I can’t tell you the sad stories I have read and heard from those who received advice from a “pastor” or a “christian” that was completely out of line of Scripture and now the ones paying the price are the ones who listened to them. I sit and shake my head in utter frustration at those who have chosen to listen to the words of those in ungodly lifestyles while ignoring the advise of those who are seeking God daily.

We must be so very careful about who we receive instruction from…

I was speaking with an older gentlemen one day several years ago. His wife had bought some Mary Kay from me and he had came to pick it up. During our conversation we of course got on church… and he said to mewell, I think our pastor’s a crook but boy he sure can preach!”

I can’t think of many statements that make me cringe more than that… and it makes me cringe because this man had no shame, and didn’t check up, and didn’t see anything at all wrong with what he said… he thought it was quite funny. And what’s worse this type of thing is said all the time…

“Oh yeh he can’t keep his hands off the perty one’s but he sure can preach!” 

Yeh, I heard he used to beat his wife up pretty regular, but he should could preach!

Yeh, he’ll cuss you like a dog on the softball field, but he sure can preach!” 

Who dwells with you?

Who ministers to you?

Are there things and people in your life that you need to be walking away from?