One man slept in his reclining chair. An elderly gentleman, he woke to our singing with annoyance written all over his face. He was a captive participant forced to surrender or walk out of the room. He chose staying. With no expression showing, I sensed he was slowly tuning in to our reading — the foot washing of Jesus disciples. I emphasized the personal invasiveness of this activity and how it aggravated the disciples, especially Peter. However, the deep reaching effect of Jesus loving actions penetrated them all, and also my elderly friend. He shook my hand and smiled brightly. Our little team left the assisted-living home. It was raining so we ate at the restaurant. One of our fellowship group shared the good news of Christ’ redemption with our waitress. She started into tears. It touched her deeply. I’m reading “The Baseball Brain” by Aaron Weinstein, M.A. Learning some…
Healing at the Cross Posts
Lines are drawn and I have made my choice. Jesus will be my King, Guide; and my God. The man blind from birth in John chapter nine said it well: “Once I was blind but now I see.” Undeniable to me, my eyes have been opened. I see hell and the god of this world cast into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:22. “Do you see what I see?” said the night- wind pointing to the star in that Christmas song. Then the shepherd boy, viewing the child shivering in the cold, said. “do you know what I know?” “Let us bring Him silver and gold.” Folks, to see Jesus is to hear His voice, know His suffering, discover His peace. “In the world we shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, spoke Jesus in John 16:33. Came with Jesus, hope, grace and…
“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts:” 2 Corinthians 4:5 lets see verse 1-5 in its many points: Paul proclaims: “Nothing” — to distinguish, decide (mentally or judicially); try, condemn, punish, avenge, conclude, damn, decree, determine, esteem, judge, go to law, ordain, call in question, sentence. “Before the time.” Do not therefore anticipate the great judgment (krisis) by any preliminary investigation (anakrisis) which must be futile and incomplete” (Lightfoot). We are not to “look forward to as certain.” John Piper explains: Uncertainty is a difficult thing to bear. We want to know where the provision is going to come from or if we’re going to die of this disease or how this child is going to turn out or if our job will still be there next…
“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. ” Galatians 3:24-25 Preparatory to our faith was Law, it came by Moses. Then, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. With capacity lacking, Law showed us a need, created a hunger, brought to light an unresolved state of guilt. Necessary since evil may have taught us to cover or hide guilt; we learned to imagine it gone by denial. Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover their nakedness, others used a “lie in their right hand.” Some developed a seared or “branded” conscience, destroying their hunger for God, and particularly His redemption with all of it’s many parts. Iniquity, a rebellion against God’s authority, manifested in emotional usurping, develops in some as a defense mechanism for the removal…
“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. ” Philippians 3:21 “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace;” Ephesians_2:15 ” …in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:’ Ephesians 1:10 “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:” Ephesians 4:13 We shall…
“Mine heart is turned within me.” Hosea 11:8 Conquerors, that plunder a conquered city, carry away the wealth of it, and, after some time, often return to burn it. God will not thus utterly destroy Israel. “For I am God, and not man.” “I will not carry it so far as to make a second destruction of Ephraim; so as to cut off those who escaped the first infliction of my punishments, and thereby wholly destroy them.” God’s heart here, expressed, an anthropomorphism, gives Him human traits for our understanding. In Hosea 11, God yearns for His people’s return and recoils at their reluctance. God’s chosen, unlike Admah and Zeboim, will not be utterly vanquished from the earth. Instead, God tells us, “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but…
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. Revelation 14:14 “Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time is come, for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. “ JFB commentary remarks, “By the harvest-reaping the elect righteous are gathered out; by the vintage the Antichristian offenders are removed out of the earth, the scene of Christ’s coming kingdom. The Son of man Himself, with a golden crown, is introduced in the harvest-gathering of the elect, a mere angel in the vintage.” Two separate “gatherings” begin at the time of Revelation 14. Earth-harvest is ripe. “The allegory of God as farmer/husbandman goes this way: “As his fields are to the farmer, so, we are permitted to think, the whole earth is…
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. Genesis 17:1 A walk before God? How? I believe we must cast all of our cares on Him! How else could we walk before Him? His eye, His Word. His glory; we lean on His all-sufficiency. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. ” Psalm 23 I shall not lack, fail, be without, decrease, be lacking, or have a need. Does it mean that we always know where we are going? Well… Hebrews11:8 teaches us, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” It means he went “without knowing where he was going.” Next verses tell us, “By faith…
The way of peace comes as we get Dead in Christ. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3 ” …reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:11 Paul the Apostle repeats the essential death often in his letters. Another instance comes in Galatians 2. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;” Galatians 2:20a The fact of my crucifixion demands an explanation as to why I still live. Answer: It is Christ living in me and I live by His faith. Yes, Him in me, “I live” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Jesus in John 5:24 So, a short summary goes,…
“For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Hebrews 4:10 As we, through the cross of Christ and our co-crucifixion, cease the competition of the flesh, we discover God’s seasons spoken of by Solomon, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to count as lost,…