Day of the New Covenant

    Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father, I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!

Day of the New Covenant

    Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!

Day of the New Covenant

    Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!

Live long and proser.

Leonard Simon Nimoy

March 26, 1931 ~ February 27, 2015

   I just read that Leonard Nimoy just died. He was a multi talented and well liked man. Of all the creative expressions he was accomplished in, acting, teaching acting, film directing, singing photography, writing poetry, speaking fluent Yiddish, I think he was best known, and will be remembered for his role in “Star Trek”, as Spock. In that role I think he will be remembered as the stoic, mono~tone, extraterrestrial humanoid Vulcan with the Vulcan nerve pinch, his telepathic mind meld, and that infamous Vulcan salute. Did you know Leonard Nimoy created that split finger salute, and it was an extension of his Jewish roots. The inspiration for that salute was due to the Jewish priests in the Old Testament; they gave a similar sign when giving, speaking blessings. 

   So, we have extraterrestrial, telepathy, blessing~ and not just any old blessing given in “Star Trek”, but “Live long and prosper”. Mr. Nimoy directly took this out of the universally known blessing in the Bible, from Numbers 6:24-26.

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.”’

   I speak no ill~will whatsoever where Mr. Nimoy is concerned, quite the contrary~ I applaud where and how he pulled from scripture to design such a blessing for “Star Trek”. He truly was a multi talented man. My question though is, why is it that such a quasi paranormal, extraterrestrial and telepathic television show would receive so much accolade from its viewers and critics, yet when a Christian that believes God is good, and that His promises of long life and prosperity are available in every area of the Christian’s life are true and real, then comes out and speaks a blessing of living long and prospering this side of Heaven gets called essentially an heretic, and a blab and grab it, or name it and claim it Christian? Just thinking out loud here.

We are blessed this 4th of July!

   Happy 4th of July!! There is plenty of "God Bless America" being said today. I would like to offer a thought here. God has blessed America from her very beginning. We were founded by godly men on godly principles. Because of that God has continued to bless this country in spite of the ungodly legislation that is not just introduced but passed, in spite of ungodly material that blasts the television, movies and internet American's call entertainment, and the watering down of the Word of God in churches to attract attendance. My thought is, how about this, "Thank You Father for blessing our nation, thank You for Your faithfulness, and 'America Bless God!'"?

Photo was taken from the facebook page of Mary Lauber, the worlds best Scottie photographer, ever!

Day of The New Covenant

   Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!

Friends can be such a blessing!

   I received an email from a dear friend this morning that was encouraging, inspiring and for me ~ timely. This was one of those emails that implore you to send it on. I rarely do that, but this is most deserving of being shared. I believe this will truly lift you up.

       THIS WILL TRULY LIFT YOU UP SPIRITUALLY. 

 ENJOY & BELIEVE. 

“It shall come to pass

That before they call, I will answer;

And while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Isaiah 65:24

This is a story written by a doctor who worked in Africa .  

   One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do, she died, leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive; as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator).

   We also had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in.  

   Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst (rubber perishes easily in tropical climates). 'And it is our last hot water bottle!' she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in  Central Africa  it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.

   'All right,' I said, 'put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts Your job is to keep the baby warm.'

   The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.

   During prayer time, one ten -year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. 'Please, God,' she prayed, 'send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.'
While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, 'And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?'

   As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say 'Amen?' I just did not believe that God could do this.

   Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything; the Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in   Africa   for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

   Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there on the verandah was a large 22-pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly-colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas - that would make a batch of buns for the weekend.

   Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the.....could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out. Yes, a brand new, rubber hot water bottle. I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.

   Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, 'If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!' Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully-dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted! Looking up at me, she asked, 'Can I go over with you and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?' 'Of course,' I replied!

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator.
And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child - five months before, in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it 'that afternoon.'

'Before they call, I will answer.' Isaiah 65:24 

   Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost, but a lot of rewards. Let's continue praying for one another.

Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless my friends reading this. I ask You to minister to them. Where there is pain, help them to receive and walk in Your peace and mercy. Where there is self doubting, help them to walk in renewed confidence so You can work through them; where there is tiredness or exhaustion, I ask they seek and receive Your understanding, guidance, and strength. Where there is fear, reveal Your love in a way they can receive the vastness of it, and be of good courage. Thank you for blessing their finances, give them greater vision, and raise up leaders and friends to support and encourage them.  I ask You to do these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

P. S. Passing this on to anyone you consider a friend will bless you both. 

Passing this on to one not considered a friend is something Christ would do.

   As most of you know Jon and I are earnestly seeking God for a decision about our future. In the natural several really good opportunities have presented themselves. We stopped putting square pegs in round holes years ago. We learned that one the hard way, more than once. We had been praying for Him to lead us and show us where He wants us, and what He wants us to be doing.We have been pressing in, taking time in His Word and listening. We are now asking God to show us the desire He has placed in our heart. Recently we have been seeing things in His Word as we have never seen them before; things helpful for seeking God for His plan for your life. We have begun to have some break through there. Reading this email this morning reminded me of three things. 1. God heard our prayer in the beginning, remembers it, and hears our prayer now. 2. We do not need to pray for direction over and over. The answer was on the way when first we prayed Now we need to stay fine tuned to Him and walk closely with Him, simply thanking Him for His plan and that He is showing us. 3. We need to have the expectant faith this young girl had. Walking closely with Him and keeping our eyes and heart fixed on Him will empower us to effortlessly do just that.    

    This was the most timely email I have ever received.

I will close this with my response to the dear friend that sent this on to me.

Oh my darling, Gilly!!! if only you knew how timely this was, this very morning. I don't usually pass on email; this one I will. Thank you for sending this to me. I too want the intimate relationship with God this young girl had. I want to be as keen a vessel as that Sunday School teacher, hearing and obeying my Father. I desperately desire the innocence of trust in Him that pleases Him, unadulterated faith.

Much love,
Teresa

Faithfulness

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.”  Matthew 12:33

   God wants us to have our Light, Jesus, shine before men. Why? Because that is God’s calling card to the unsaved world. It is very important that through time with God and time in His Word we get to know Him so we can develop His character in ourselves. There are plenty of Christians that talk and act one way for people to see, but are not the same on the inside. Jesus addressed this issue in Matthew.

  The true gospel that Paul talks about in Romans 1:16, the gospel that has the power of God to save people is about peace, goodness, love, kindness and mercy, grace and the forgiveness of God.  It is about all of the good news, blessing, that came to mankind through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. It is important that once someone gets past the “good fruit” they see on the outside is the same fruit they will taste when they get to know us.

   The King James Version is the only version or translation of the Bible that I am aware of that uses the word “faith” in Galatians 5:22. I am going to stop here and do a little nuts and bolts work.  While the King James Version does use the word “faithfulness” in the Old Testament, they did not use it at all in the New Testament. The Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew, the New Testament from the Greek. Since the fruit of the Spirit is a part of our life in Christ and the verse and word we are talking about is in Galatians, I will stick to the New Testament and the Greek here. The olde English that was used to translate the word to ”faith” in Galatians 5:22 is by Vines¹ dictionary actually the word “faithfulness”. You will find this again in Romans 3:3.

New King James Version

Romans 3:3  For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?

Original King James Version

Romans 3:3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

Amplified Version

Romans 3:3 What if some did not believe and were without faith? Does their lack of faith and their faithlessness nullify and make ineffective and void the faithfulness of God and His fidelity [to His Word]?

Romans 3:3 Is not talking about God’s faith (though there is a lot to be studied and learned on that subject), it is talking about the faithfulness of God. That verse is saying that just because we are tempted and can fall into unbelief (which is a different than lack of faith), God and His Word will remain faithful.  This verse is often cross referenced to 2 Timothy 2:13; 

Original King James Version

2 Timothy 2:1If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

New King James Version

2 Timothy 2:1 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

Romans 3:3 is talking about God not denying Himself, not being untrue, but being faithful.

   Love is listed as a fruit of the Spirit, the first one in fact. Love is the force behind everyone of the fruit of the Spirit. They are the characteristics of God, and God is love. So lets look at that “love” chapter.

1 Corinthians 13:7 ...bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love endures all things. Yes, that refers to patience but endurance is faithful. As we read above in 2 Timothy 2:1, God is faithful.

We will leave it there. The fruit of the Spirit is;

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Faith comes out of your Spirit. Faithfulness (though a part of the reborn nature in your Spirit) is in you behavior.

God gives every man a measure of faith.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Romans 12:3

Faith is a gift of the Spirit, not a fruit of the Spirit.

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

Faith is developed by hearing, reading the Word of God.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17

Our faith unifies the body of Christ.

...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; Ephesians 4:13

Our faithfulness draws the world to Jesus.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:6

God is pleased with our faith in Him.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

God uses the faithful to serve Him.

My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land,

That they may dwell with me;

He who walks in a perfect way,

He shall serve me. Psalm 101:6

   After having broken all of that down to what faith is and what faithfulness is, I will now make the statement I did not want to make before I laid all of that out. In its essence, faith does mean faithfulness. When we choose to stand in and walk in faith, we are being faithful. Certainly we need to trust (faith) to be diligent (faithful). When our faith begins to waiver it is patience (endurance) that undergirds our faith to get us through until we receive the answer we are believing for. Remember the verse above, Hebrews 11:6?  Faith pleases God and those walking in faith will diligently seek Him. This does please God and here is one of promises that comes through faith and being faithful (diligent) because of that faith.

A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich [at any cost] shall not go unpunished.  Proverbs 28:20

   I realize there are those that have a problem with other brothers and sisters in the body of Christ that talk about God’s blessings and promises and the abundance of the good life we should have. I am not talking about the worldly wealth. I am not talking about scheming or trying to do some “good works” or anything else other than just receiving what God has given His children. I am not talking about greed, or what some seem to like calling the “blab it and grab it”, or “name it claim it” behavior. I am talking about what Jesus said about “believe and receive”  in Mark 11:24 "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." We accepted Jesus by faith and through grace, and we don’t look back or question that miraculous gift. That is how we receive every blessing He promised us ~ finances, health, peace, simply prosperity in every area of our lives. God from the beginning has been trying to bless us. When God was ready to create man He declared that we would have dominion over everything. Two verses later when man drew His first breath, God blessed him and told him to be fruitful and multiply. That phrase includes having children, but it refers to being fruitful altogether. God gaves us everything and it was all good, very good. We own this place if we will just have faith in God for it that shows up in our faithfulness.

God is faithful and his promises and covenant to us were unconditional. God just wants children to have a relationship with and children He can bless. If we are faithful in that relationship we will do as Proverbs 28:20 says and abound with blessing.

   When we have developed the fruit of faithfulness in our life we will be ever aware of God’s constance presence, which will be the fellowship we enjoy that gives us His joy and our strength. We can then be good stewards over our time, our bodies, our families, our finances, our belongings, over all He has given us. And let’s not forget what we read in Psalm101:6. God gave us dominion over this earth and He needs us to take care of it and serve Him in it. We need to be faithful to do that. On top of which, in these last days God needs us to be faithful so that He can shine out, so He can be manifested and be seen by those that need Him.

   I love watching and experiencing the Holy Spirit take me from one level of faith to the next, one victory to the next as I spend time with God. I can see areas of growth in my life and areas where I need to be more faithful. Are there area’s you see in your life that you are strong in your faith and walk in faithfulness? Are there areas that more time with God developing your faith as you are in the Word, and being faithful in your relationship with Him could help you overcome something you have been struggling with? God is faithful and will do whatever it is in your life you need. I would love hear about either, or both.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17

 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 by the Spirit of the Lord. 

2 Corinthians 3:18

¹W.E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of the New Testament Words (Old Tappan; Revell, 1940), p. 71.

Be Blessed This Year!

   For those of us that have made Jesus the Lord of our life; we stand to inherit all of the promises of the Word if we will just receive them. For those that do not have Jesus in their life, there is absolutely no reason for you to remain poor in your spirit because if you will receive Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven is also yours. Having said that I want to wish everyone, everywhere a Blessed 2013 that is full of peace and prosperity in every area of your life!

    Christmas is such a time of excitement and wonder. That night when the angels praised God saying “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”, they were announcing the greatest gift ever given. We like to give gifts at Christmas to celebrate that amazing gift. But, soon after the gifts are opened, the food is eaten and eventually the trees and decorations come down and are all properly tucked away for next year we get geared up for the new year and the resolutions made, Valentine’s Day is all over the retail world even before New Year’s Day, vacation plans for the year are discussed, our Life Plan’s are revisited for tweaking and we transfer events to our Day Planner’s and off we go into another year. The wonder of that day is exchanged for the rote of another year. I would like to suggest here that we take the message of that day and make it our priority for the year. Write that into your Life Plan and daily into your Day Planner. Spend time with the Lord and walk in a really close and intimate relationship with Him everyday. Christmas should not be a holiday, everyday should be Christmas. Talk about Jesus like you do your children, or your dog, or your next vacation. Share Him as easily as you do those things. Give the gift that keeps on giving, Jesus.

   There is a quote of questionable origin, but I really like it. I am a “Word” girl and believe in the power of the tongue but this quote has its merit. The quote is, “Preach the Gospel, use words if necessary.” I do think words are always a powerful tool to be used, but people tend to watch what you do more than they listen to what you say. That being the case I think the best way to start to give Jesus to the world is to show love to others. In the last recorded thing we have that Jesus prayed before He was betrayed He asked God that not only His disciples walk in love and unity, but that all future believers would do the same. Can I just say Jesus was not talking about denominational quasi tolerance for each other or some of the fake fellowship that can be seen in a church? No, He was talking about the kind of oneness in the body of Christ that would be passed down through all generations, the kind of oneness that would manifest God on earth, bringing glory to God in that others through the visible love of God would believe on Jesus and make Him Lord and Savior. Here is what Jesus prayed.

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me."  John 17:20-23 (NLT) 

   The song “Go Tell it on the Mountain” has been on my heart this Christmas season. It has never been on of my favorites and I honestly do not even think of it even at Christmas. Be that as it may, God has put that tune and that song in my heart for weeks now. “Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain, our Jesus Christ is born!”

    Let’s start to be a blessing by walking in the love and perfect unity Jesus asked the Father for us to walk in so that we can give the gift of Jesus to others ~ everyday.

 Where is your mountain? Where can you tell others about Jesus?

Yes! I am blessed!

A few of my dearest blessings!!!

     Some time ago, I mention I wanted to write a post about what being blessed meant someday. I will do that at some point but for now I am under some time constraints because I am still working full time and taking three college classes. This of course is why my blogging fell off these last three months. I have so much I want to blog about, just not enough time. I must say though; being in school this last year I have learned so much about time management and how to really prioritize.  I miss blogging so I thought maybe I could combine school and blogging. I write quite a bit for my classes, some for homework and some for me personally. This morning as I was work on some homework I thought I might pull out an old discussion question, tweak it for the blog and post it. This is from one of the classes I am taking now called Receiving from God. The discussion question was:

Do you believe you’re blessed? What is your belief based upon – the things you have or the Word of God? Please justify/explain your answer.

     I grew up in a denomination that certainly knew the overall account of the Bible and had knowledge of certain key and foundational truths in the Bible. Though it breaks my heart to see the bondage some of those in that denomination live in because they will not free themselves from legalistic doctrine and enjoy their walk with the Holy Spirit in them, I am quite thankful that at least I did grow up in a denomination that taught salvation, Christ crucified and resurrected and did focus on memorizing scripture. I was saved in that church and just as God promised, the Word put in me back then is still in my remembrance and  since it does not come back void it is producing fruit in my life. Having said that I will say God is good and His Word reiterates that over and over and over. Throughout scripture we see a loving God reaching out to a rebellious people all the while just trying to bless them. Nothing has changed, man still rebels against God, but God does not change, He is still trying to get the blessings He promised us actualized in our lives. 

     I think for us to know we are blessed, we must know God because to know Him is to know His mercy, grace and goodness. When I say “know” I mean the kind of knowing that really perceives, understands and realizes in a revelation sort of way, the kind of knowing you get by personally encountering God’s goodness. If we do not know God’s mercy, grace and goodness, we can not truly trust Him. If you don’t trust someone you are not likely to receive from them, especially those unseen things you must receive by faith. If you do not trust your friend, child or spouse to tell you the truth, when they tell you they have done or not done something you will doubt them and not receive what they are saying ~ even if it is the truth. I love football. I am so ready to see those Packers on the field again. Every time I see Greg Jennings or Donald Driver put everything they have into putting themselves into a position to receive that ball on a pass so they can take it to the goal for a touch down, I think how I want to be that kind of aggressive receiver of all God’s blessing, all He has for me.

     Yes!! I am blessed because I am a descendent spiritually of Abraham and God says all of the blessings for Abraham were for me as His child. I am blessed because I have given my life to Jesus and by the Holy Spirit He lives in me. That is such an amazing blessing, to have the Holy Spirit of God living in me!  And, I have welcomed the Holy Spirit to freely and at His pleasure operate in me and through me. What do I base I my belief on? Well, I have seen it first hand over and over in my life, God’s blessing that is. I am speaking of blessings that could not be manufactured at the hands of man. Historically we have seen God’s faithfulness to His covenant in scripture, Genesis through Revelation. But most of all, because God said so in the Word He left me, the Word He sealed with His own Son’s blood. And that is plenty good enough for me.

Psalm 119:50  “...For Your Word has given me life."

I am done doing it "my way".

This is what greeted me this lovely Sunday morning when I opened my front door to walk, Baxter.

     Last August I spiraled down to the most frustrated I have ever been. You can get more about that here if you like. The frustration I battled was invading every area of my life. Once I came to grips with the reason behind the resistance to follow God, and decided to follow the leading He put in my heart, I had peace and felt for the first time in such a long time like life had come back to me. I had been familiar with Proverbs 13:12, well at least the first half of it. This pivotal point in my life brought the second half of this wonderful verse to life (no pun intended) to me.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.  Proverbs 13:12

A little side note here. I do want to stop for a brief moment and say I know some look at the word “desire” as our own personal aspirations and dreams. Most of us are familiar with Psalm 37:4;

Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 

Delight means to have a great degree of pleasure of enjoyment. It involves happiness, gladness, to relish something and contentment. We must be in that state in our relationship with the Lord for the desire of our heart to see fruition. Why? Because when we walk that close to the Lord, He puts His calling, His desire in us. 

...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power... Ephesians 1:17-19

And when we are that close to Him that we will obey, He makes that desire a reality.

That is one of those bless me verses we like to grab and hold onto. We love the part  where God will give us the desires of our heart. I spent many years in a singles group and along with the verse that says it is not good for man to live alone, 

And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”  Genesis 2:18,

this one about getting your desires ranked number one.  I personally liked and still like the one that says:

...that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3b  

     I am rambling. My point here is that the first part of Psalm 37:4 is crucial to see the second part manifested. We must “Delight ourselves in the LORD, first. 

So, I began Bible college. I was at a place where stepping out in faith and obeying became the only desire of my heart. Peace and life were a result. Remember how the Jewish nation would be blessed and then would start trying to figure things out on their own?  Well, that day I stepped out truly was pivotal and I have not recessed back to that frustration but have moved forward. God began putting on my heart the next level of my pursuing His calling and so I started reasoning, researching and slightly recessing my way back to frustration. Last Thursday I put a principle of God's kingdom into my life.

   Prayer. I am not going to go into a lot of detail here but just let me say I have always been intrigued by the what Paul said in 1Thessalonians 5:16-18;

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

I now have a better understanding on that verse. For some time I have understood we don't thank God for everything, we thank Him in everything. But after some amazing lectures this term, I have received a much clearer, well I have received revelation on what the "without ceasing" and "in everything give thanks" and "rejoice always" is about.  Praying is not about begging and pleading. It really is not even about the way I was "taught" to pray,  P.U.S. H  AND  A.C.T.S.

Pray Until Something Happens  and Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.  While there is a small and limited amount of actual scriptural truth in those acronyms, they basically promote a regimented and self based style of prayer, at best. Our prayer life should be no less than a "life of prayer". Therein lies the secret to praying without ceasing. If we drop the begging and pleading and telling God about everything that is wrong, everything that we need or want to see happe and that He needs to be attending to in the next increment of time before we "get before Him" again and give Him our list of supplications, only of course after a few minutes of a little praise, a quick "oh forgive me for the wretch I am" and then a little thank you for all you do and start just praising Him in all we do and all the time, we would have less needs, more clarity and less frustration. There is a time for asking, but that needs to be with thanksgiving.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;  Philippians 4:6

That was quite the run~on sentence I know, but there it is.

     I will wrap this up by saying I finally decided to just put all of what I knew about prayer and my relationship with God into my life and I started with the decisions about the next step in front of me regarding school. And, I knew there would be a last year of school to consider at some point, but I laid it ALL down. I then proceeded to walk out and make a permanent part of my life the way I now knew to pray and just live. I then sent an email that I knew could yield an answer that would put a dream I have had in my heart since third grade to its final resting place. I knew the possibility of not seeing that dream come true in my life could quite possibly be in the response I would get. But, I was willing to accept that if it were not in God's desire for me.

     The answer came! Not only did the answer take the confusion and stress out of the next step, not only did the answer make clear what the next step was, the step after that, the final decision about school was offered in that response. I am going to see the desire, the desire God put in my heart come to life in my life. I won't go into detail here but these things that must happen for all of this to take place are HUGE, and in the natural without exaggeration, not possible. One answer, one email and God had it all sorted out and gave it to me. Pushing and pleading I am done with. I never did feel it was right. Thank you Father for loving me and showing me how to live to please YOU!

These beautiful flowers this morning made me think of how thankful I am and I just thought I would share this story with you.

     Just like any other government or kingdom, the Kingdom of God is established on principles.  Whether you believe in God and have accepted His Son as your Savior or not, the world is governed by the principles God established for this world. If you have made Jesus the Lord of you life and are going along with what your personal ideas are on things, functioning in the traditions of man that nullify the Word of God, or follow religious doctrine that is not scriptural; you can go along as long as you like frustrated and bewildered about why things are the way they are for you. The good news is, when you get your Bible out and see what it says, really says, and apply those principles to your life, really do it God’s way and not your own, He doesn’t hold back. His principles work, they work every time and they always are for your good. Thank you, Father for Your patience with me and for Your faithfulness!