I John 2: 1-2
My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He, Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only but also for those of the whole world.
Jesus is my Lawyer, defending me before God when Satan accuses me of what I have thought, said, or done contrary to the right; He does not deny my guilt, but points out that the penalty has already been paid--by Himself. So I can now be forgiven and set free.
The precious Blood Jesus shed on the Cross was powerful enough to puchase the whole Universe, making Him our Owner and Master. That's how He took care of the sins of everyone in the whole World.
But only those who recognize Who Jesus is and have realized that He is their personal Sacrifice have been redeemed. He has saved us from the power sin had over us today, and He will transform our bodies into spiritual bodies of light when our Redemption is complete, at His Return.
O Father, thank You so much for choosing me for Salvation. Thank You for knowing me and loving me. Thank You for giving me a part in Your great Plan of the Ages to bring all Creation to its culmination and finish, and You use me and others as Your hands and feet to accomplish Your will.
We do every day those things that further Your Plan, day by day and step by step. Help me, Father, strengthen me; let the fears and worries that assail me be turned into excitement over what You are doing, how You are moving in my own life and in the World.
And may You receive all the credit, all the honor and glory for all You are doing. All Your will is good, and beautiful, and brings prosperity to us and glory to You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Passionate Love
Hosea 2: 16, 19-20
And it will come about in that Day, declares the Lord, that you will call Me Ishi (Husband) and will no longer call me Baali (Master, Owner). And I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness ('hesed') and in compassion. And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord.
'Hesed' means loyal and steadfast and faithful love and belonging together in the love relationship. Communion, deliverance, enablement, enlightenment, guidance, forgiveness, hope, praise, and preservation are all based on God's 'hesed.'
He is passionately in love with us as the newlywed groom is enamored with his lovely bride.
We are the bride of Christ!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
And it will come about in that Day, declares the Lord, that you will call Me Ishi (Husband) and will no longer call me Baali (Master, Owner). And I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness ('hesed') and in compassion. And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord.
'Hesed' means loyal and steadfast and faithful love and belonging together in the love relationship. Communion, deliverance, enablement, enlightenment, guidance, forgiveness, hope, praise, and preservation are all based on God's 'hesed.'
He is passionately in love with us as the newlywed groom is enamored with his lovely bride.
We are the bride of Christ!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, May 21, 2018
Reaching Forward
Philippians 3: 12-14
I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul is deciding not to live in the past, but to switch his focus onto what is before him on the road God has set his feet on. He refuses to be hampered by all the pulls of the past, and look only toward where he is going now.
I also will be putting my past behind me, looking forward to this new segment of my life that I am moving into during this time. Moving out and moving in. Turning the corner that has so often eluded me.
This can be very scary, but I refuse to fear. I know that my Father has planned this all out for me already, and I am excited about all the new things I'm learning and doing that are preparing me for the road God is placing my feet upon.
O my Father, Thank You for laying hold of me in Christ Jesus. Strengthen me to grasp it firmly. Help me to let go of the past, letting it fade into the background; and stretch me to lean forward, reaching toward what lies ahead, focusing on all that You have (will have) given me to do to build Your Kingdom here now.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul is deciding not to live in the past, but to switch his focus onto what is before him on the road God has set his feet on. He refuses to be hampered by all the pulls of the past, and look only toward where he is going now.
I also will be putting my past behind me, looking forward to this new segment of my life that I am moving into during this time. Moving out and moving in. Turning the corner that has so often eluded me.
This can be very scary, but I refuse to fear. I know that my Father has planned this all out for me already, and I am excited about all the new things I'm learning and doing that are preparing me for the road God is placing my feet upon.
O my Father, Thank You for laying hold of me in Christ Jesus. Strengthen me to grasp it firmly. Help me to let go of the past, letting it fade into the background; and stretch me to lean forward, reaching toward what lies ahead, focusing on all that You have (will have) given me to do to build Your Kingdom here now.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, May 20, 2018
By His Wounds
I Peter 2: 23-24
And while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him Who judges righteously;
And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Peter is telling us here what Isaiah had said in his chapter 53, how Jesus fulfilled this prophecy.
Jesus came the first time as Messiah to be the example of how we need to be with one another, as well as to be our personal Sacrifice as the Lamb of God.
He was humble and mild, even though He was our Almighty Lord God and Sovereign King.
He is our Great Physician to heal our every malady with the balm of His own precious Blood poured out for our benefit.
And His desire is to enable us to overcome all of our bad habits and poor choices, to not be affected by whatever misses the bulls-eye of perfection (sin). He has given us His own Holy Spirit, the power that raised Jesus from the dead.
So we have no excuse. God has done everything possible and impossible to make us into perfect, righteous examples of His creative power. We can do righteousness, we can die to sin, we can live our lives loving one another as He has loved us, we can be honest and ethical in our business dealings and we can be generous with others with the abundance He has given us.
By His wounds we are healed.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
And while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him Who judges righteously;
And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Peter is telling us here what Isaiah had said in his chapter 53, how Jesus fulfilled this prophecy.
Jesus came the first time as Messiah to be the example of how we need to be with one another, as well as to be our personal Sacrifice as the Lamb of God.
He was humble and mild, even though He was our Almighty Lord God and Sovereign King.
He is our Great Physician to heal our every malady with the balm of His own precious Blood poured out for our benefit.
And His desire is to enable us to overcome all of our bad habits and poor choices, to not be affected by whatever misses the bulls-eye of perfection (sin). He has given us His own Holy Spirit, the power that raised Jesus from the dead.
So we have no excuse. God has done everything possible and impossible to make us into perfect, righteous examples of His creative power. We can do righteousness, we can die to sin, we can live our lives loving one another as He has loved us, we can be honest and ethical in our business dealings and we can be generous with others with the abundance He has given us.
By His wounds we are healed.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, May 19, 2018
The First Sacrifice
Isaiah 53: 6 & 5
All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
Every one of us has chosen to go our own way, instead of His way. We all have earned the paycheck of death, separation from God. But God loves us, and wants us to be with Him. This is a sticky dilemma. God cannot abide in the presence of anything that misses the mark (sin).
So He has solved the riddle by agreeing to Himself pay the debt we all owe, so we can be cleansed and healed. Made fit to dwell with Him.
When Jesus came the first time, it was to be our "suffering Servant," to divest Himself of all His glory and majesty to submit to the treatment we deserve. He came to be the sacrificial Lamb of God.
And His suffering and death also was the healing balm to restore our well-being in every area; physical, mental, psychological, spiritual, financial, environmental, every area.
He came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. His life fulfilled the letter of all the laws God gave Moses, and His death fulfilled all the sacrificial laws, beginning with the first one listed in Leviticus chapter 1, the personal sacrifice.
He also fulfilled the corporate sacrifice given for the Nation, and His precious Blood was so powerful it covered the purchase of the whole Universe, all of us included. That means He is our Owner and rightful Judge.
So if you consider that Jesus took your place in death, as though you were the only one, letting Him be your personal Sacrifice; then God accepted that offering on your behalf and granted you all the riches in Glory He has reserved for His own family.
But if you consider yourself one of many He died for, dividing up His sufferings and death, then you are still in the crowd of possessions, and still under judgment.
God puts everything in order, and He gave the personal sacrifice first because that's the one each person was to offer first, to begin that walk with Him.
O my Father, thank You so much for sending Your own Son, our Lord, to be our personal Sacrifice to offer Himself on our behalf, paying our eternal debt, and cleansing and healing us perfectly, to fit us suitably to dwell with You. You are perfect, You are our standard for right and just and beautiful. Whatever is lovely and fair and wise and fun is from You. Whatever is evil or ugly or foolish or harmful in any way is the absence of Your presence in it.
Thank You, Father, for Your own Holy Spirit to dwell in me to teach me, to lead me and guide me into Your Truth, along Your pathway for me; to strengthen me to do those things You have designed me to do, to be Your hands and Your feet in this World, doing Your work for Your glory and our benefit.
Keep me humbly in Your hand, Father, making the most of the time You have granted me, to accomplish everything You have assigned me; sharing all You have given me with others who need You but don't yet know how desperate they are for You.
And You will have all the credit, all the honor, all the glory for all You have done, are doing, and will complete.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
Every one of us has chosen to go our own way, instead of His way. We all have earned the paycheck of death, separation from God. But God loves us, and wants us to be with Him. This is a sticky dilemma. God cannot abide in the presence of anything that misses the mark (sin).
So He has solved the riddle by agreeing to Himself pay the debt we all owe, so we can be cleansed and healed. Made fit to dwell with Him.
When Jesus came the first time, it was to be our "suffering Servant," to divest Himself of all His glory and majesty to submit to the treatment we deserve. He came to be the sacrificial Lamb of God.
And His suffering and death also was the healing balm to restore our well-being in every area; physical, mental, psychological, spiritual, financial, environmental, every area.
He came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. His life fulfilled the letter of all the laws God gave Moses, and His death fulfilled all the sacrificial laws, beginning with the first one listed in Leviticus chapter 1, the personal sacrifice.
He also fulfilled the corporate sacrifice given for the Nation, and His precious Blood was so powerful it covered the purchase of the whole Universe, all of us included. That means He is our Owner and rightful Judge.
So if you consider that Jesus took your place in death, as though you were the only one, letting Him be your personal Sacrifice; then God accepted that offering on your behalf and granted you all the riches in Glory He has reserved for His own family.
But if you consider yourself one of many He died for, dividing up His sufferings and death, then you are still in the crowd of possessions, and still under judgment.
God puts everything in order, and He gave the personal sacrifice first because that's the one each person was to offer first, to begin that walk with Him.
O my Father, thank You so much for sending Your own Son, our Lord, to be our personal Sacrifice to offer Himself on our behalf, paying our eternal debt, and cleansing and healing us perfectly, to fit us suitably to dwell with You. You are perfect, You are our standard for right and just and beautiful. Whatever is lovely and fair and wise and fun is from You. Whatever is evil or ugly or foolish or harmful in any way is the absence of Your presence in it.
Thank You, Father, for Your own Holy Spirit to dwell in me to teach me, to lead me and guide me into Your Truth, along Your pathway for me; to strengthen me to do those things You have designed me to do, to be Your hands and Your feet in this World, doing Your work for Your glory and our benefit.
Keep me humbly in Your hand, Father, making the most of the time You have granted me, to accomplish everything You have assigned me; sharing all You have given me with others who need You but don't yet know how desperate they are for You.
And You will have all the credit, all the honor, all the glory for all You have done, are doing, and will complete.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, May 18, 2018
The Second Coming In Micah
Micah
This book tells us of Messiah's first and second comings and how the times will be when He returns.
Let's focus on The Second Coming.
(5:10-15) He will destroy and break down all the cities of the World, and Israel will be counted among all the Nations of the World.
(2:2-13) He will call all His people into one fold of sheep and rebuild the cities of the Earth in righteousness and peace (4:3-5).
(4:2) Then all the Nations will stream into Jerusalem to learn of the Lord and His ways--this is what God planned from the beginning; to give Israel His Law and everyone else seeing how good it is to follow and come to learn for themselves.
This book contains one of Christendom's favorite verses: (6:8) "You mortals, the Lord has told you what is good. This is what the Lord requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to live humbly with your God."
When we live our lives in alignment with His Law and His ways, then we reap the natural consequences of all the bounty of the Earth. This is what He's always wanted us to have--what is for our good is what brings glory to Him, for that is His design.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
This book tells us of Messiah's first and second comings and how the times will be when He returns.
Let's focus on The Second Coming.
(5:10-15) He will destroy and break down all the cities of the World, and Israel will be counted among all the Nations of the World.
(2:2-13) He will call all His people into one fold of sheep and rebuild the cities of the Earth in righteousness and peace (4:3-5).
(4:2) Then all the Nations will stream into Jerusalem to learn of the Lord and His ways--this is what God planned from the beginning; to give Israel His Law and everyone else seeing how good it is to follow and come to learn for themselves.
This book contains one of Christendom's favorite verses: (6:8) "You mortals, the Lord has told you what is good. This is what the Lord requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to live humbly with your God."
When we live our lives in alignment with His Law and His ways, then we reap the natural consequences of all the bounty of the Earth. This is what He's always wanted us to have--what is for our good is what brings glory to Him, for that is His design.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, May 17, 2018
New Heaven And Earth
Isaiah 65: 17-25
These verses describe what the New Heavetn and New Earth will be like:
Rejoicing and gladness, extremely long lives, being able to enjoy your own accomplishments for an extended length of time and never having to give them up for someone else to benefit from; no more sin, no evil or harm in God's whole government.
66: 4
I will bring on them what they dread; because I called but they didn't answer, I spoke but they refused to listen. They did what I consider evil. They chose to do their own thing.
66: 22-24
The New Heaven and New Earth I am about to make will continue in My presence, declares the Lord. So your decendants and your name will also continue in My presence. From one month to the next and from one week to the next all people will come to worship Me, declares the Lord.
Then they will go out and look at the corpses of those who have rebelled against Me. The worms that eat them will not die. The fire that consumes them will not go out. All humanity will be disgusted by them.
These last two chapters in the book of Isaiah describe the final state of all Creation, the New Heaven and the New Earth. This is as far into the future the Bible goes.
And it is a veritable Heaven On Earth! No one will die, whatever someone does or achieves, they will be able to enjoy it for a very long extended time, and there will be no crime, no sickness, no mishaps to mar the perfect existance God has planned for us.
But those who refuse to accept what God offers or admit their need of Him will suffer intermidably just as the righteous ones who have accepted His righteousness will have pleasure intermidably.
Our Eternities will then be set, for good or bad, with no possible changes. Today is when we have the choices, to be able to choose God and His ways or to choose our own way in life. Now is the time we can turn to God from whatever has had first place in our lives. Today is the day of Salvation.
Jesus is God the Father's Lamb of God, the sacrificial Lamb that God allowed to be sacrificed for human sins. My sins. Your sins. Individually.
He is our Personal Savior, taking our death upon Himself for each of us.
So ask yourself: "Did Jesus take My Place in death?"
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
These verses describe what the New Heavetn and New Earth will be like:
Rejoicing and gladness, extremely long lives, being able to enjoy your own accomplishments for an extended length of time and never having to give them up for someone else to benefit from; no more sin, no evil or harm in God's whole government.
66: 4
I will bring on them what they dread; because I called but they didn't answer, I spoke but they refused to listen. They did what I consider evil. They chose to do their own thing.
66: 22-24
The New Heaven and New Earth I am about to make will continue in My presence, declares the Lord. So your decendants and your name will also continue in My presence. From one month to the next and from one week to the next all people will come to worship Me, declares the Lord.
Then they will go out and look at the corpses of those who have rebelled against Me. The worms that eat them will not die. The fire that consumes them will not go out. All humanity will be disgusted by them.
These last two chapters in the book of Isaiah describe the final state of all Creation, the New Heaven and the New Earth. This is as far into the future the Bible goes.
And it is a veritable Heaven On Earth! No one will die, whatever someone does or achieves, they will be able to enjoy it for a very long extended time, and there will be no crime, no sickness, no mishaps to mar the perfect existance God has planned for us.
But those who refuse to accept what God offers or admit their need of Him will suffer intermidably just as the righteous ones who have accepted His righteousness will have pleasure intermidably.
Our Eternities will then be set, for good or bad, with no possible changes. Today is when we have the choices, to be able to choose God and His ways or to choose our own way in life. Now is the time we can turn to God from whatever has had first place in our lives. Today is the day of Salvation.
Jesus is God the Father's Lamb of God, the sacrificial Lamb that God allowed to be sacrificed for human sins. My sins. Your sins. Individually.
He is our Personal Savior, taking our death upon Himself for each of us.
So ask yourself: "Did Jesus take My Place in death?"
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)