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Have you ever said to yourself, “There is not enough time to do all this.”?  I have and it's normally followed up with a huge sigh of exasperation! Then the Holy Spirit reminds me of something I heard a few years ago, “God will always give you enough time for what He wants you to do.”   Press pause! Does that mean I am doing things that God doesn't want me to do? Does that mean I am doing things differently from how He wants me to do them? Sounds like it is time to check in with God and find out.   Getting direction from God   Let's look at those questions again, firstly "Am I doing things that God doesn't want me to do?" Or it could be asked this way, "Am I going in the direction God has for me?" In Psalms, we read,   “The steps of the God-pursuing ones follow firmly in the footsteps of the Lord, and God delights in every step they take to follow him.” (Psalm 37:23 TPT).   So when we have those thoughts of "There is not enough time" perhaps it is a good idea to pause and check in with God on the direction we are taking. Oh! there is again, that "Be Still and know that I am God" attitude. Maybe a prayer like, "God, am I doing what you want me to do? Am I following the path you have for me? Please show me if I have gone off track and am doing things that are outside your will for my life."   Jesus is a wonderful example of only doing what His Father, God, our Heavenly Father, told him to do. In the Gospel of John we read that Jesus said,   "I do what my father tells me to do. I do that so that the people of this world can know that I love my father.” (John 14:31 PEV) An aside: Jesus had complete clarity about why He was being obedient to His Father, "so that people of this world can know that I love my father."  The Passion Translation says it this way, "I am doing exactly what the Father destined for me to accomplish, so that the world will discover how much I love my Father." (John 14:31 TPT) So a question for us - "Do we have that level of clarity about the motives of our actions?"   Right direction, but not sure on the "how"   Perhaps the answer is "Yes," we have clarity on our motives. We are confident we're being obedient to God and going in the direction He is leading us. However, we are still feeling overwhelmed with all that has to be done, "There is not enough time to do all this!" So then we need to look at the "how" and ask the question, "Am I doing things God's way?"   We have the direction, but we need more of God's wisdom on how to take each step. In the book of Proverbs we read,    "A man's mind plans his way [as he journeys through life]. But the LORD directs his steps and establishes them." (Proverbs 16:9 AMP).   We know there are often many ways to get to the end goal, but not all are efficient, and not all are the ways God wants it done.  We need to remind ourselves that God's ways are higher,   “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV)   God's ways are higher - always - not just sometimes. God knows the bigger picture.   God has the bigger picture   We don't even know what will happen later today, or tomorrow, or next year. Receiving a ‘surprise' medical report or receiving an unexpected promotion at work, reminds us of that.   James 4:13-15 tells us,   “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15 NIV)   And so it is with the plans we make, we might have some ideas on the outcomes, but we don't know for sure. But God knows.   Ask God for wisdom So getting back to the question, "Am I doing things God's way?" James also tells us we can ask for God's wisdom and He will give it to us,    "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault; and it will be given to you." (James 1:5 NIV)   We need to ask God for His wisdom on the "how."   Recently my days have been very full, and I have been asking God each morning to order the tasks I have on the list. I knew my plan wouldn't be the best for me or my family, but I had confidence in God, that He has the bigger picture and He would fit it all together perfectly. And He has - leaving me very surprised at the end of the day with what had been achieved. Thank you God - your ways are astronomically higher than mine!   God's plan vs AI   Interestingly, last week I was talking to someone about the busy-ness of the week. During the conversation I asked her if the Holy Spirit brought me to her mind, could she please pray for me, that I would clearly hear from God on what tasks to do each day. She agreed and then told me about electronic calendars now using AI to order people's schedules.    I don't know about you, but I would much prefer to trust God, the creator of Heaven and Earth, to order my day, rather than a man-made algorithm. As we read in James 4, God alone knows what the day will bring, and what tomorrow will bring, and how we need to prepare for it.    Pride and casting our cares on Jesus   So why is it sometimes that we don't go to God to get His wisdom, but rather we press on, doing things our own way and often ending up in a pickle?   For me the answer is simple, Pride! I take pride in being independent, knowing the best course of action, not having to ask anyone for help. Yes, I know - plenty to repent of in that list! God has been helping me in these areas for the past 30 years, gently, and sometimes not so gently, showing me that I need to be totally dependent on Him.   When are feeling overwhelmed we always have the option of pausing, acknowledging God, yes, there it is again, "Be still and know that I am God." and asking for His help. We can give all of our cares to Him as it says in 1 Peter 4,   “Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you, casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” (1 Peter 4:6-7 AMPC)   Humility is key   Humility is a key here, because it is us saying that we can't do this alone. We don't have what it takes. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Humility as, "freedom from pride or arrogance: the quality or state of being humble." (Merriam-Webster) I recently read this about humility in one of John Maxwell's books, "What is humility? My friend Rick Warren says, "Humility is not denying your strengths. Humility is being honest about your weaknesses. All of us are a bundle of both great strengths and great weaknesses and humility is being able to be honest about both." My belief is that humility is a choice every day to give credit to God for our blessings and to other people for our successes." (Good Leaders ask Great Questions, John Maxwell, page 33).   Humility gives us freedom. As we acknowledge that we need God's help, we take the pressure off ourselves.    A matter of trust We don't need to have all the answers anymore, rather we trust God and His wisdom.   Proverbs 3:5-7 says,   "Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions, with all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go. Don't think for a moment that you know it all, for wisdom comes when you adore him with undivided devotion. and avoid everything that's wrong." (Proverbs 3:5-7 TPT).   So today, let's choose to trust that God has the perfect plan for our lives. Let's choose to trust that when we ask Him, He will give us the steps to follow His path.  And trust that He will always give us enough time to do what He wants us to do.   Looking for more encouragement? Are you looking for more resources to help you draw closer to God, please check out my other blog posts and podcasts.

Alles, was ihr tut, das geschehe in Liebe. So lautet die Jahreslosung für 2024. Gottes Liebe begegnet uns zum Beispiel im Abendmahl. In Gleichnissen wie vom verlorenen Sohn oder vom Barmherzigen Samariter sagt Jesus: So ist Gott, so ist die Liebe. Das Schöne ist: Alles, was Gott von uns Menschen fordert, schenkt er uns selbst durch Jesus, hat er uns gezeigt durch Jesus. Der Abendmahlstisch erinnert uns an ganz bestimmte Umstände. An eine Zeit, aus der das kommt: Spannungsfelder, in denen Jesus sich bewähren musste. Bei genauerem Hinsehen stellen wir fest, dass es diese Spannungsfelder auch in unserem eigenen Leben gibt. Wo wir keine einfachen Lösungen finden. Im zweiten Teil werden Ideen und Impulse gesammelt: wie kann das ganz praktisch in unserem eigenen Alltag aussehen, wenn wir versuchen, unseren Mitmenschen jeden Tag in Liebe zu begegnen? [Bibelstelle zur Predigt: 1. Korinther 16,14. Predigt: André Krause]

Paul uses Abraham to illustrate how the Gentiles have been included in on the blessings of God and how righteousness comes through faith, not the law. Part 5 - Bewitched & Blessed (Galatians 3:1-14)1) The Blessing of the Spirit  (Galatians 3:1-5)Gifts have to be givenIf any part of your faith requires you to do something in order to receive grace from God you have stopped believing in the gospel and started living a works-based religion.Truth: We don't do things to obtain our faith… We do things because of our faith!2) The Blessing of Abraham (Galatians 3:6-10)3. The Blessing of God (Galatians 3:11-14)The Blessing of God came to us through Jesus… So that the Blessing of Abraham could come to the Gentiles… us! And when we place our faith in Jesus… the Blessing of the Spirit will also be ours.Need Prayer?

Change of Fortunes for the Man-child and Bride (Audio) David Eells - 12/18/22 The DS Plan to Rob the People Winnie Osegueda - 12/4/2002 (David's notes in red)   I dreamt that my husband, Chuc, and I were driving through the city streets. (Representing world Babylon.) There were a few large, black SUV's that were in front of us which suddenly turned sideways in order to block the road so that we, and others, would not be able to drive through. I knew, in the dream, what they were about to do. (As we will see, the black SUVs represent DS government forces who are trying to hyjack the people and the banking system. Cyrus, who we know Trump is a type of, was shown the stolen hidden riches of Babylon mentioned in Isaiah 45. Trump discovered these riches and repatriated them. Which, in effect, he will use to re-build the Kingdom of God like Cyrus did.) Masked men wearing black from head to toe came out of the SUVs with large guns in order to rob people; particularly, the large armored truck to our left which was transporting money for the banks. (Robbing the truck translates into robbing the people who have money in the banks. Also, blocking the road from people passing through could represent preventing people from accessing their money in the banks.)  They made all the cars stop whether they were going to rob that specific car or not. However, Chuc and I decided to not be afraid and kept driving. Chuc drove through a gap on the right and we made it through the roadblock. The masked men began to shoot at the back of our car, and although our car was hit, the bullets did not penetrate, and we were unharmed. I remember calling on the name of Jesus while we were driving away. (Staying on the right represents access to God's protection.) Then I woke up. Verses I received by faith at random: Deuteronomy 10:17 For Jehovah your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of Lords, the great God, the mighty, and the terrible, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way; But Jehovah directeth his steps. (The DS thinks “might is right” but when it comes to God's people who trust in Him, His might comes into play.) A verse Chuc received by faith at random: John 3:19 And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.    The DS Serpent Coming to Constrict Babylon Marie Kelton - 12/9/22 (David's notes in red)  During our meeting, as we were praying, I closed my eyes and saw a vision of a huge brown and black boa constrictor. It was slithering down a rocky cliff going towards a city that was below the cliff. (We recently had a factious man rail at us that we weren't going to “constrict” him. He became a Judas. Judas also went over a cliff when he hung himself and fell into Akeldama “the field of blood.” Because he was guilty of innocent blood. This also seems to fit the factious in the Church and state.) The city buildings looked light brown, like they were made out of clay or sand. (Light brown was the color of Hitler's Nazi uniforms. Also, Jesus said in, Mat. 7:26-27 And every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand: 27 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.) The city looked like it was in a desert. There was little water and not many trees. (The old serpent, the dragon, and his factious minions, are being cast down through our prayers. He will not be able to save his Nazi (Brown) city of Babylon. They are falling together..)   The Old Serpent Seeks to Devour the Bride and Man-child  Tiannah Fire - 12/13/22 (David's notes in red) I dreamt Samuel and I were visiting a town called Dysart. (Meaning isolated, desert, waste)  We walked around to the back of a shop to find a trash bin. (God's true disciples seek to rid themselves of all worldly Babylonish garbage.) We found an enclosed area… that led us through this big corridor to a covered area. The roof was plastic and partially transparent, and there were heaps of leaves on top of it. (Preventing the light of the sun/Son from getting through.) …   Towards the left … was a dirty, red car parked, that looked like it hadn't been used in an extremely long time. … (Representing [the apostates that have fallen away from the crucified life.] Their lives are stagnant in this town and almost completely buried under the carnality and death of the world;) (The dead leaves represent wintertime which the Bible says is tribulation. Dead leaves can no longer take in the light of the sun/Son representing the Word.)  Samuel was holding our baby, David, and he went to walk over to another section that had green, wheeled, trash bins. …Samuel went over there to put the trash in a bin, as I watched from over near the car. (Representing sanctification and getting rid of the Babylonish waste from our lives.)  Then, I saw two brown snakes slither out, but Samuel didn't see them. They slipped straight past him and came towards me. I then saw a yellow snake and a black snake come out from under the dirty, red car towards my left, and they went in front of me. (The snakes represent the enemies that surround us.) (The left is where Jesus placed all the apostate, rebellious goats. Both Jesus and John the Baptist referred to the factious leadership “vipers.”) I shouted to Samuel about the snakes, and he turned and looked at them. Then our son David jumped from his arms onto the ground, and the snakes slid around him but they couldn't bite him. (Little David represents the Man-child whom the enemy will try to destroy but will not be able to. The Pharisees were afraid to publicly against Jesus because His wisdom was beyond them.) Then many more snakes appeared and came over towards us.   David crawled to me, and I picked him up and Samuel came over to us. Although the snakes were slithering all over the ground and around him, he never once stepped on one of them. (The demons in these serpents cause them to come against satan's enemies.)   The snakes tried to intimidate us by looking like they were going to bite us; opening their mouths wide and moving their tongues and showing off their fangs, but they never bit us. (This represents the enemy spreading their fear, lies and intimidation. We must put on our spiritual armor and guard ourselves from the wickedness and venomous poison of the enemy.)  Psa 140:3 They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent; Adders' venom is under their lips. Selah.   Mar 16:18 and in their hands they shall take up serpents, and if they drink aught deadly, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.   I was getting attacked with fear, but I was trying to reject it and stay calm. …Samuel said we needed to leave, and told me to just walk slowly and calmly out, the same way that we came in. (They came in seeking sanctification which is the only escape from the torments and tactics of the enemy.)   The snakes followed us and kept moving around our feet. Even though they looked so close to us, they couldn't touch or bite us, but they were trying to intimidate us.   When we were going through the …corridor to get out, we stopped for a moment, and Samuel turned around and stepped on the head of one of the brown snakes and it died straight away. (We must “bruise its head” with our heel representing our walk of faith and spiritual warfare or we won't win the battle.)  Luk 10:19 Lo, I have given you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall in any wise hurt you.   He then stamped his foot on another, and it wriggled around for a bit, but then died. (Gen. 3:15 and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.) Then a giant snake slithered over to us; it was 10 times bigger than all the other ones. Its head was a bright yellow and green and its body a bright purple. (This represents satan himself who has appeared to men as a beautiful angel of light. He is the old serpent who will try to devour the woman and her Man-child in Rev. 12.) I was holding little David when this snake came to us and we were supernaturally lifted up off the ground, but still inside this covered area. (The Bride and Man-child are kept safe and are hidden.) (The wicked dwell on the earth and are at the mercy of the Beast. Rev. 13:7-8 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. 8 And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, everyone whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain. But the Bride abides in heavenly places in safety. Eph. 2:6 and raised us up with him and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.) Rev 12:5-6 And she was delivered of a son, a male, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath there a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred threescore days.   The snake kept moving its head around, and on the top of its head it had a big hole. This snake didn't show off its fangs like the other smaller ones. But instead, it kept aiming the hole on the top of its head at Samuel and each time it would spew out venom at him. (Satan uses those who have the mind of the flesh because it is at enmity with God.)  Samuel casually moved out of the way each time and the venom couldn't get onto him. … (When the enemy cannot directly attack or intimidate, he will desperately try anything to spread his lies.)  We ended up just opening the gate we came in through and walking out. The snakes couldn't follow us out of the gate. We were all safe praise God! (Satan cannot deceive those that come out from among them.)   Man-child at Death's Door Missy Pollock 12/3/22 (David's notes in red) I was in David's house observing; I knew it was Davids' house, but it didn't look like it was his house. (It is the house of David as a type of the larger Man-child reformers.) David was in a bed covered up and frail looking like he was at deaths door; it hardly looked like him. (Representing the death of the Man-child David's old man in preparation for the catching up to the throne of resurrection life. This will be a great change of fortunes for the Man-child and Bride initially and then for the Church.) There were a lot of brothers and sisters around him and he was talking to them about something, but I didn't hear what he said. After a bit, everyone left. (John 6:66-71 (Notice 666 represents a departure of the factious among the disciples.) Upon this many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. 67 Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also go away? 68 Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 69 And we have believed and know that thou art the Holy One of God. 70 Jesus answered them, Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil? 71 Now he spake of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.) I went over to Michael who was laying on his back on the kitchen counter with his head at the corner. (Jesus was the Head of the corner) and his legs stretched out across the countertop, and he had on blue jeans. (Michael means, "who is like God". A corner is also a turning point like the death of self brings resurrection. Also resting on his back puts his eyes toward heaven, meaning his expectation and faith is in God. And the kitchen is the place to prepare spiritual food, which the Man-child body will bring to the Church.)  There were items scattered around him, but it wasn't clear what they were. They didn't look like the shape of pots and pans. (Pots and pans are a natural way to prepare food. Spiritual food is prepared by God's methods which don't look anything like the ways of man.) I said to him, "You're in one corner and David is in the other.” (The corners are turning places where walks and provisions will be changed for the better.) (I believe I was just an observer in this dream because I didn't interact with anyone, and Michael didn't respond when I spoke to him.) Then David had gotten out of bed, and I saw that he was wearing a white t-shirt and white and red print pajama bottoms. (Representing being dressed in righteous works and red on the pajama bottoms represents a blood washed and rested walk.) He was nothing but skin and bones. (When the flesh life is dead and gone then the resurrection comes.)  David went to the other end of the countertop from Michael and there was a wooden safe under the countertop. I knew he wanted to check and see if he could open it. It didn't look like a normal safe because it had a latch on it that he pulled straight out and it opened. He didn't open the door wide but just enough to know that he could get into it when he needed to. (Access to funds for the ministry will be available to the resurrected Man-child David's.)  Then someone was at the door, and he went and opened it and it was Merlene. She had a smile on her face as she walked in. David asked her something like, "Did you bring $180?" She said, "Yes." (180 is a play on words; like making a 180 degree turn about. (Two 90 degree corners that Michael and David were in equals the 180 degree turn about. Everything will change for the Man-child reformers and those who follow them. The 180 degree turn about at the death of the Man-child and the corners represents a total turn about of situations, authority, power, fortunes, etc. The verses at random below, also imply this total turn around regarding enemies and fortunes.) I asked the Lord for verses by faith at random for the dream and received. Isa 14:28, (in context 28-32) 28 In the year that king Ahaz (Father of Hezekiah) died was this burden. 29 Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of thee, because the rod that smote thee is broken; for out of the  serpent's root shall come forth an adder, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. (Enemies of God's people, and especially Zion, will be judged)   30 And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill thy root with famine, and thy remnant shall be slain. 31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou art melted away, O Philistia, all of thee; for there cometh a smoke out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks. 32 What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of his people take refuge. (Zion, the Bride city, shall have a rebirth and great change of fortunes. They will once again be a leader of God's people for the David Man-child will be crowned.) Zec 8:10, (in context 9-13) 9 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets that were in the day that the foundation of the house of Jehovah of hosts was laid (Where we are again now), even the temple, that it might be built. 10 For before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in, because of the adversary: for I set all men every one against his neighbor. (Again, where we are now) (The fortunes will change for the better.) 11 But now I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days, saith Jehovah of hosts. 12 For there shall be the seed of peace; the vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. 13 And it shall come to pass that, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong. (Michael and I asked if the coming of the Man-child would be soon and got heads for yes 3 times. I asked on Dec. 8th., “Is the Man-child coming now?” And received, Psa. 11:7b the upright shall behold his face.) I also had asked the angel Baruch, “Is the Man-child coming and he answered, “Surely.”) Missy said, “The bank situation may be a sign of Man child coming and related to the safe dream above. …I put my phone on shuffle and the first song was EVEN SO COME! (This is a confirmation of the dream) Last night I was looking at my dream about the embers of judgement falling out of the sky while I was holding my grandson, Maverick, all swaddled up, who wasn't born yet at the time. I know that from the time of that dream I felt things would happen soon; especially hoping the Man child would be anointed. As we know, when that happens, there are blessings and judgement.”   When the Davids Die, the Man-child Ministry is Born Vanessa Weeks - 12/1/22 (David's notes in red) I dreamed that I and some UBM women were standing outside on a white patio (Representing being founded on holiness.) We were standing in a circle, talking with each other on a sunny day. (Representing taking in the sun/Son.) Winnie was there in this circle and was pregnant. (“Winnie” as opposed to “losie” represents those in the Bride body who are winners or overcomers in order to give birth to the Man-child, Jesus.) She was dressed in a white, sleeveless sundress. (Representing righteous acts and works exposed to the sun/Son. Rev 3:5 He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.  Also Rev 19:7 Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and we will give him the glory: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And it was given her that she array herself in fine linen bright, pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.)  Winnie said something regarding how amazing it was that she was pregnant at her age, but I was thinking she was not too old. Then Merlene said that she was pregnant too. (The Bride body, who are the first fruits to bring forth the Man-child, is made up of many people young and old.) I remember thinking that was amazing because I have not known anyone pregnant at Merlene's age. (Representing Sarah who bore the impossible fruit of the promised seed, Isaac, at the age of 90 through the faith of Abraham.) Then I saw that a baby boy was born, and it seemed that he came from both Merlene and Winnie. (Representing the birth of the Man-child out of the Bride Body.) I no longer saw Winnie or Merlene, but only the baby. (We are no longer seen when our fruit of Christ is manifested.) There was a very small nurse, standing to my left. (Where Jesus placed the rebellious goats.) Immediately after the birth, she looked at the baby and said it was still born. (Representing the bad report; doubt and unbelief. Even though the apostates look on the fruit, it is not to their liking.) Then I saw the baby move and said, "No, he's alive." 2Co. 2:14-16 But thanks to God, who always leadeth us in triumph in the Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place. 15 For we are a sweet savor of Christ to God, in those being saved, and in those perishing; 16 to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these?  The baby was very big, like the size of a three-year-old child. He was also maturing quickly and starting to talk, even though he was just born. (When the Man-child is born, He will mature very quickly, for He is born in the image of His Father. 2Co. 3:18) After I woke up from this dream, I opened my Bible and saw this verse, which I think is the meaning of this dream. Rom. 6:22 But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. Note: Since the David's are close to death, Judas must come along to help Him to His cross. This Judas process has been going on for some time and is near its end.   Dream About Judas Bill Steenland - 12/5/22 (David's notes in red) I dreamed I was telling a group of people “One of you is a devil!” (This is what Jesus said referring to Judas in John 6:70-71 Jesus answered them, Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil? 71 Now he spake of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.)  In the dream I said it multiple times and emphasized the word “is”.  I didn't know who the group of people were in the dream. (The factious Judas' become strangers and enemies to us when they are taken over by those spirits, as Judas was. Php. 3:18-19 For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)   One of You Shall Betray Me Matthew Stewart - 12-11-22 (David's notes in red) In the dream, I was in a room and David was sitting in the doorway. (Jesus in the Man-child David reformers is the Door of the sheep.) Behind him were standing two or three people (Representing those who are mature in Christ [and standing with David in ministry.]), one of whom was Michael Hare, but I can't recall who the others were. In the room were lots of kids of various ages. (Indicating all of UBM local and larger.) (Representing different maturity levels in Christ). I was among the children, but I was a little older. I was sitting along the wall, along with some of the older kids, across from David. (The older ”kids” stay near the wall of sanctification, which represents a separation from the world.) Then David said to us all, “Do you know that part in the Bible where Jesus says, ‘One of you shall betray me?' ” All the kids answered, “Yeah”. Then David said, “One of you shall betray me.” (Mat. 26:20-25 Now when even was come, he was sitting at meat with the twelve disciples; 21 and as they were eating, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. 22 And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began to say unto him every one, Is it I, Lord?  23 And he answered and said, He that dipped his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. 24 The Son of man goeth, even as it is written of him: but woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had not been born. 25 And Judas, who betrayed him, answered and said, Is it I, Rabbi? He saith unto him, Thou hast said.) I discerned that this event has not happened yet but is for a future time. Of course, I immediately thought, "is it me?” Then I saw a vision, where it was just David. (When Judas betrayed Jesus, Jesus was then all alone. This is the way it has been for me with my past Judas'. To involve others with these vicious people causes them to turn on the innocent.) He said, “I didn't see that one coming. I guess my discernment for that is gone.” (The last Judas that left made threats, but we haven't seen them come to pass. Backstabbers never warn you, they shoot from darkness. But the Lord is coming like a Lion as we shall see to judge these wicked Edomites.) Then I woke up.   The Backstabber's Feigned Repentance Winnie Osegueda - 11/21/22 (David's notes in red) I dreamt that some of local UBM was helping a factious man move into an apartment on the 1st floor. (The ground floor represents dwelling on the earth and not desiring to go higher with Christ. The last Judas was being helped into an apartment by us, but it didn't work out for him because he had not repented.) In this dream he had a bald head. (Representing no submission to the Lord since hair is a sign of submission in 1Co. 11.) It seemed that this factious man had repented, and David was being kind in helping him out, giving him another chance, and allowing him back into the fellowship. (True repentance and confession of sin is still the condition for governmental forgiveness in the Church. This is a warning to hold fast to the conditions that none return to defile the body.)  I remember that others were kindly helping to move the man's stuff in. However, I kept feeling that something was not right and that this man's repentance was not sincere. I had a knowing that he would destroy the place when he left. (He left before he got moved in because of backstabbing.  The factious demons in them always leave death and destruction in the lives of others in their wake, as it was with the disciples when Jesus was crucified through Judas.)  I noticed that he had a couple of black duffle bags full of knives. The knives had white handles, but on them were etched something like "love and light" which might sound good to the undiscerning, but it's something that new agers say, and it's a false love and a false light. (They always say they love you while they stab you in the back, and they don't seem to realize how hypocritical this is. This was exactly fulfilled with the last Judas and he left. Rom. 16:17-18 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which ye learned: and turn away from them. 18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent.) I remember saying "This person is not truly repentant," and then I woke up.    Hidden Sins of the Judas' Exposed Tiannah Fire - 12/12/22 (David's notes in red) I dreamt that I was a part of a group of brethren in the United States. (Representing UBM which is based in the U.S.) We all went to another country to set up a school, to tell everyone the real good news and to have a safe place for brethren to live. (This represents our missions outreach and the missionaries that supply our books and materials to the people in their respective countries.) The group bought a giant set of buildings which looked like a boarding school, it was giant and spread out and the buildings were yellow. (Representing the UBM Headquarters that the Lord has promised us for the great revival of the end times. It is yellow because we will spread the light of the Son/sun everywhere.) The buildings were located close to a beach on a small island, but you could still access the mainland by boat. (We were told by the Lord through dreams that this is how it's going to be. The beach represents Abraham's seed whom God promised would be as the sands of the sea.) The main people we were trying to minister to were like Islanders, people that didn't live in normal civilization but lived off the land. (This also describes what the Lord has told us. That we will be separated from the rest of civilization where many judgments will fall. We are living on a big boat in the land that will be separated by earthquakes. Those who are here with us in the boat and are the elect of God will come into the kingdom.). We would go to little islands all around the place and there would be many that came to Jesus. (Jesus went to every city and preached.) There was one woman that came to our Lord, and she was so on fire for our God that she was constantly out preaching and looking for lost brethren, day and night, not worrying about basic needs. (A Body of Saul's will turn into Paul's and will seek diligently to prove themselves worthy of the kingdom.) Samuel and I went for a walk around some of the beaches on this island that the school was located on. It was nighttime and the moon was very bright (The darkness can't stop the light and everything in darkness gets brought into the light, as we will see.). …We walked to this area on the beach which was more secret because there were large sand dunes.  As we walked close to the water, from a distance, we saw a man lying down on his back in the water, …but we couldn't quite recognize him. (Representing having his back to the word and in a backslidden state.) We then saw another man walk towards him as if he had been waiting for him. It was made obvious they were in a same sex relationship. We saw the face of the man walking and he was a man that was a part of the Christian group from the USA, (UBM) and he had blonde hair. (Many of the factious traitors have fallen into both bi-sexuality and homosexuality and other perversions because they judged as sinners and they were judged by God.) It was just found out now that he had this hidden sin. (This is why God turns them over to a reprobate mind. We can't hide our sins from God, he will expose them so we can be cleansed or purged out of His Body. Psa. 90:8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.) We would never have guessed that he was doing this evil behind our back. He seemed to love our Lord. This was very unexpected. These two men didn't see us until we started to walk around them. The man we recognized yelled out to us in anger and frustration for being caught. (This is a good example of exactly how they act. They are mad at you because you caught them.) (Their attacks are based in pride and self-justification.) We didn't want to argue with him, so we just ran back to the school building. (Tit. 3:9-11 but shun foolish questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about law; for they are unprofitable and vain. 10 A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse; 11 knowing that such a one is perverted, and sinneth, being self-condemned.) The man started chasing after us yelling that if we tell anyone he will kill us and he kept threatening and trying to put fear on us. (They love to threaten and intimidate, and they are stalkers too. They send curses against all who are witnesses against them.) We ran straight to the buildings where some of the elder brethren were and we told them what we saw and how the man was threatening us. (Mat.18:15-17 And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. 17 And if he refuses to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.) …They said that they would confront the man about his hidden sin. So, we stayed in a different room on the top of a two story building for our safety. (We must take the “high road” and obey the Word represented by relocating to a higher level in the building. This is where safety from temptation and our enemies is provided.) The next day an elder's wife came to us and told us that they searched everywhere for the man, and no one could find him. She also told us to stay hidden in groups of people for our safety. (Pro. 11:14 Where no wise guidance is, the people falleth; But in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.) There was a group meeting with everyone in the hall, so we joined them.  When we got down the stairs there was a man waiting there with a cart that had our items in it and it had my phone that I had dropped when were we escaping the factious Judas. He told us he was delivering our stuff to us. I picked up my phone and saw that I had a text from the man we had caught in sin, and the text was a threat to kill me for telling people about what we saw him doing. (They send factious witchcraft spirits to spiritually kill those who are witnesses or dreamers who reveal their secret sins.) …I then looked at the man holding the cart and, when seeing his face, I realized that he was the man we saw lying down in the water. This was my first time seeing him face to face. I ran over to the elder's wife and said this is the man that we saw. She refused to believe it because she loved this man very much and he helped out so much and had been with them for a long time. (Most of these people have rejection and fear of rejection and, like Judas, they hide their sins, but God reveals them every time.) We told her it was true, but she didn't want to hear it or believe it. (Believers don't want to accept the evil that is in these people, but sooner or later it will be revealed to them.) I felt that there is nothing else I can do except speak the truth. Then I woke up.    A Duty to Expose Judas Gabby Dibble - Sept. 2022 (David's notes in red)   I dreamed that I had to go undercover to hide my identity. I was posing as a man to sneak into a government building. I didn't change up my look that much; it must've been the Lord hiding me because I still looked female. (We are to put on Christ and abide in Him in the secret place. Gal. 3:28 There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.) I was inside the building heading for a specific room. I had a duty to expose something. (Luke 17:3 … if thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.) I also had a child with me, and I was carrying them as I was walking calmly. (This represents our fruit of Christ in us.) I could hear a woman over the speaker announce that I wasn't who I said I was, but a poser undercover. (A slanderous, false accusation and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. These people always accuse you of what they themselves are guilty of.) I knew now I didn't have much time and … I continued to press on to the room I intended to go to [for the exposure].  Then the scene changed, and I was in the spirit. I saw this man who would travel everyday on a school bus to a home nearby for some type of secret work. He and another man would have some kind of work exchange. For example, one provided the physical laboring, and the other paid for it. I'm not sure if this was the exact scenario or if it was a trading & bartering situation. (The laborer is the Son of man, and His life is being exchanged for the life of the Son of God. This man represents Jesus in the Man-child body who traded or exchanged His life for ours. The secret work represents the Mystery of Christ in us our hope of glory. The man rides a school bus because He teaches the children the good news of the reconciliation which means exchange.) This man that traveled on the bus got caught going to the other man's house. Many other men came into the school bus and began beating this man. (The factious Pharisees captured Jesus, beat him, and crucified Him. Luke 20:9-16 …A man planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into another country for a long time. 10 And at the season he sent unto the husbandmen a servant, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him and sent him away empty. 11 And he sent yet another servant: and him also they beat, and handled him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 12 And he sent yet a third: and him also they wounded and cast him forth. 13 And the lord of the vineyard said, what shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will reverence him. 14 But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned one with another, saying, this is the heir; let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. 15 And they cast him forth out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do unto them? 16 He will come and destroy these husbandmen and will give the vineyard unto others.) A friend of his was a part of this group and betrayed him by joining in the beating. Another man that hit him didn't want to as they were also friends. I believe this friend was actually genuine as he didn't hit the man to kill him. (This represents Judas and Peter. Both betrayed the Lord but Peter was able to be redeemed while Judas was reprobated. Some of the faction will return to us while the majority won't receive grace to be reconciled.) The man ended up surviving the attacks. (This represents spiritual death and resurrection.) Then I woke up.   A Shift Taking Place  Gabby Dibble - Sept. 2022 (David's notes in red) I had a dream that things were taking a shift. I was standing outside with a group of people. They had an action plan and I felt I had no idea what any of them were talking about. I had no memory of what happened before this moment in the dream. I also didn't know who they were. (These are the factious Judas' who have many plans of action but the Lord will continue to foil, derail, and expose their plans. By the grace of God were able to record their leader and his corruption and plans.) All of them were talking in a circle and a man harshly rebuked me but it didn't seem to be accurate. I don't remember what he rebuked me for, but it caused me to cry. (This represents persecution and slander that are based on false charges.)  They were about to leave this location to pursue their action plan. I was still confused on what they were doing and where there were going. (We have the renewed mind of Christ and not unregenerate evil minds, so it's hard for us to relate to evil people with evil intentions.)  All I knew was that their plan seemed urgent to them. (They were in a hurry to earn their thirty pieces of silver.) They were going to take three trucks. I asked the first two drivers of the trucks if I could ride with them and there wasn't space. The last vehicle was driven by the man who rebuked me harshly. I had such an off feeling about it alI. I ended up not going with them. (Pro. 1:10-19 My son, if sinners entice thee, Consent thou not. 11 If they say, come with us, Let us lay wait for blood; Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause; 12 Let us swallow them up alive as Sheol, And whole, as those that go down into the pit; 13 We shall find all precious substance; We shall fill our houses with spoil;  14 Thou shalt cast thy lot among us; We will all have one purse: 15 My son, walk not thou in the way with them; Refrain thy foot from their path: 16 For their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17 For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird: 18 And these lay wait for their own blood; They lurk privily for their own lives. 19 So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; It taketh away the life of the owners thereof.)   The Lion is Released Taryn Ezell - 12/12/22 (David's notes in red) I had a vision while listening to the song “Let it Rain” in our praise and worship meeting. (A symbol of God pouring out His Holy Spirit with power and signs as we are seeing.) In the vision, the throne of God was there and there was light everywhere. There was a huge Lion next to the Lord on his right side as I was looking straight at them. (Representing Jesus, the Lion of Judah. He is not coming as a lamb but a Lion.) The floor was a blackish gray color with a shiny resin or epoxy on it, where I could see a reflection of all the light surrounding the Lord. (Rev. 4:6 and before the throne, as it were a sea of glass like unto crystal…) The Lord gave the Lion a nod. (The angels told us that “the Son is waiting for the Father's command”; referring to Jesus' return in the Man-child. Meaning it's time for the Lion to go forth and conquer His enemies.) Then I saw satan standing behind me and a huge pit behind him. The Lion was calm but then became enraged when it saw satan who appeared as a dark figure in this vision. (Zec. 3:1 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary [or accuser]. 2 And Jehovah said unto Satan, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, Jehovah that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?) The Lord spoke into my mind and said, “The Lion is angry that the dark figure [satan] is [the one] who made Him how He is.” (An angry Lion) The Lion was thrashing around on the chain, like an angry dog on a leash, ready to kill. (Isa. 31:4 For thus saith Jehovah unto me, As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, … so will Jehovah of hosts come down to fight upon mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof.) As the Lion was showing his teeth and growling, the Lord unhooked the leash from His collar and loosed the Lion. (The Father is sending the Son as a Lion. The stone that the builders rejected had become the head of the corner.) The Lion gained traction quickly and ran past me, jumped up, and tackled satan with his claws around his neck and with all his might and they both end up in the pit. (The Lord will do a quick work upon His enemies; taking them to the pit. Its important to note that the last Judas who tried to usurp the Kingdom from the aged David was killed by Solomon who was given the Kingdom before David died.) I asked the Lord to confirm if this was from Him or not to make sure it was not just my imagination. I asked Him for a reference to the word “lion” in the next song at the praise meeting.  We sang Psalm 34 by the Brooklyn Tabernacle. In the lyrics of the song there was no mention of a lion, so I thought, “Maybe it was just my imagination.”  But, when I got home, the Lord led me to look up Psalm 34 and, low and behold, there was the mention of a Lion. It hadn't been in the song lyrics, but I had only asked the Lord for the word Lion in the next song! Here is the context of the scripture: Psalms 34:8-10 Taste and see how good the LORD is! The one who takes refuge in him is truly happy! You who are the LORD's holy ones, honor him, because those who honor him don't lack a thing. Even strong young lions go without and get hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. I also used an image generator to generate an image from words, and it gave me a few images based on this vision. I'll add those as well. I just thought it was a really awesome to be shown that vision!          Note: The dragon in Revelation 12 is the body of satan. The dragon was also the symbol of Babylon. The DS are satanists and Judas' to their brethren. The Lion is coming to do what the Alliance, alone, is not capable of, which is destroy satan's kingdom in Babylon. So, from here we will see this scenario worked out.     The Lord Will Come as a Mighty Man David Eells - 12-10-22 The Alliance will not be able to finish off the DS.  Their successes so far have been because the Bride like Esther was given authority over Haman and his army. But the Lord is coming as a "mighty man" in the Man-child to bring them down. Like Mordecai, meaning little man or man-child, was given the ring of authority by the King of Kings to lead the Bride to victory. Psa 78:65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. 66 And he smote his adversaries backward: He put them to a perpetual reproach. (We have received this many times by faith at random.  The Lord is coming in His David mighty man to finish off Babylon DS.) Psa 89:19-23 Then thou spakest in vision to thy saints, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; (A mighty one, mighty man, the David Man-child reformers) I have exalted one chosen out of the people. 20 I have found David my servant; With my holy oil have I anointed him: 21 With whom my hand shall be established; Mine arm also shall strengthen him. (In Isa 53, the arm of the Lord is Jesus, who we see here strengthening the David's)  22 The enemy shall not exact from him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. 23 And I will beat down his adversaries before him and smite them that hate him. When David was anointed, he beat down the factious Edomites, which we have in Church and State. Isa 52:11-53:1 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, ye that bear the vessels of Jehovah. 12 For ye shall not go out in haste, neither shall ye go by flight: for Jehovah will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward. 13 Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. 14 Like as many were astonished at thee (Who is just like thee? The Man-child David's just like Jesus were character assassinated, lied about, slanderered, and spiritually murdered, as Hisstory repeats. Both are defaced as the rest of this verse says.) (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand. 53:1 Who hath believed our message? and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed? (Jesus) So, we see there were two manifestations of Jesus. First, we see that history or His Story has to repeat according to the Word. Ecc 1:9-12 That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there a thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been long ago, in the ages which were before us. 11 There is no remembrance of the former generations; neither shall there be any remembrance of the latter generations that are to come, among those that shall come after. 12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. (Now we can see that Jesus, the former generation, will be repeated by Jesus in the Man-child Body of the latter generation at the Latter Rain.) Notice once again there are two, Jesus, and as history repeats on the larger scale, Jesus in the Man-child body, which will cover the earth and be over mulitudes of the living.  Ecc 4:14 For out of prison he came forth to be king; yea, even in his kingdom he was born poor. (This was Jesus)15 I saw all the living that walk under the sun, that they were with the youth, the second, that stood up in his stead. (This is the Man-child body of reformers who will be over all the Living on the earth. They are the son of man in whom the Son of God lives by His Word and Spirit.) 16 There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was: yet they that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind. The Mighty One will come to judge His enemies in Church and state and as a refiner or reformer to the Church all over the earth. Isa 1:24-26 Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies; 25 and I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross, and will take away all thy tin; 26 and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, a faithful town. Mal 3:1 Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple (At this time the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem is the Man-child Body of reformers.); and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. 2 But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: 3  and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness. 4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years. 5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts. Isa 40:10-11 Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him (Jesus in the Man-child body): Behold, his reward is with him (They will choose the Bride as Jesus did.), and his recompense before him. (He will judge the factions in Church and State)11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd (He will shepherd His Sheep, and all of this will be worldwide), he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young. Isa 42:13-18 Jehovah will go forth as a mighty man (Jesus is coming as a Lion in the Man-child body to destroy the factious enemies in Church and state); he will stir up his zeal like a man of war: he will cry, yea, he will shout aloud; he will do mightily against his enemies. 14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still and refrained myself: now will I cry out like a travailing woman (The Lord will come as the Man-child ministry is birthed from the travailing Woman in Rev.12); I will gasp and pant together. 15 I will lay waste mountains and hills and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands and will dry up the pools. 16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not (Jesus will come in the Manchild body to set the captives free for their dead religions as Jesus did in Isa 61); in paths that they know not will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not forsake them. 17 They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, that trust in graven images, that say unto molten images, Ye are our gods. 18 Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Jer 20:10-13 For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, say all my familiar friends, they that watch for my fall; peradventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. 11 But Jehovah is with me as a mighty one and a terrible (The Mighty one in Jeremiah was a type of the Man-child): therefore, my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be utterly put to shame, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten. 12 But, O Jehovah of hosts, that triest the righteous, that seest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause. 13 Sing unto Jehovah, praise ye Jehovah; for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil doers. Act 3:20-23 and that he may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus: 21 whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, (things, here is italicized and has no numeric pattern as the Numeric NT shows. This is because the people were restored not all things.) whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old. (This restoration happened to Moses and the people who came out of Egypt for there "was not one feeble one among them”. From then until Moses was 120; he had perfect health and strength.  Deu 34:7 And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.)  So, Jesus is coming again in a body of spiritual Davids to bring this restoration and close the Red Sea on Pharaoh's army so we can go into the wilderness tribulation and see the guidance and miraculous provision for us through the Man-child body.)  22 Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me; to him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever he shall speak unto you. 23 And it shall be, that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. (Those who did not listen to Jesus in His first body were destroyed by the beast in 70 AD while the saints escaped to the mountains.  Those who do not listen to Jesus in His end time body will be destroyed also for His-Story will repeat as we have seen.) In Jesus' first body was crucified by the factious leaders and His flesh died but He was caught up to the throne. So, it will be in the second larger body. This crucifixion and death of the flesh is almost complete and then we will see Jesus' ministry again all over the world. Rev 12:1-6 And a great sign was seen in heaven: a woman  (the Church) arrayed with the sun (Clothed with the Son), and the moon under her feet (Reflecting the light of the Son), and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; (With the inheritance of the original 12 apostles. All of this is her position given to her by the sacrifice of Jesus and not what she has attained to.) 2 and she was with child; and she crieth out, travailing in birth, and in pain to be delivered. 3 And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his heads seven diadems. (The worldwide body of the Dragon) 4 And his tail draweth the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth (The great falling away): and the dragon standeth before the woman that is about to be delivered, that when she is delivered, he may devour her child. 5 And she was delivered of a son, a man-child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron (Given to the overcomers in 2:26-27): and her child was caught up unto God, and unto his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her (Jesus in the Man-child nourishes the woman in the wilderness for 3 1/2 years as Jesus did in his first body.)  a thousand two hundred and threescore days.   Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Assamese Aymara Azerbaijani Bambara Basque Belarusian Bengali Bhojpuri Bosnian Bulgarian Catalan Cebuano Chichewa Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Corsican Croatian Czech Danish Dhivehi Dogri Dutch Esperanto Estonian Ewe Filipino Finnish French Frisian Galician Georgian German Greek Guarani Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Ilocano Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Kinyarwanda Konkani Korean Krio Kurdish (Kurmanji) Kurdish (Sorani) Kyrgyz Lao Latin Latvian Lingala Lithuanian Luganda Luxembourgish Macedonian Maithili Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Maori Marathi Meiteilon (Manipuri) Mizo Mongolian Myanmar (Burmese) Nepali Norwegian Odia (Oriya) Oromo Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Quechua Romanian Russian Samoan Sanskrit Scots Gaelic Sepedi Serbian Sesotho Shona Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Tigrinya Tsonga Turkish Turkmen Twi Ukrainian Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zulu Powered by Translate Printer-friendly version     © 2017 UBM | Unleavened Bread Ministries. 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Jesus! WOW Factor Matthew 16:24-26 Right mouse click here to download as a MP3 audio file Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26) The Jesus I hear about today from some people outside the church, as well as inside the Church, bears no resemblance to the Jesus who said those words.  They are comfortable with a Jesus who is at their mercy and who doesn't ask too much of them!  They like putting Jesus in a box and only opening the box to let Him out when required!  That Jesus is an insipid, nodding head, Jesus - worthy only of being on the back shelf of a car and that's about all. But that is exactly the opposite of the Jesus who said those words from Matthew - the Jesus who commands obedience and sacrifice!  As I look through the Old Testament, I read about how the world fell out of a living, dynamic relationship with God! But I also read how a Messiah, a saviour or rescuer if you like, was to be sent by God, in order to restore the world back into an intimate, living relationship with God Himself! I read the Gospels in the New Testament and I see this Messiah as the God-man, Jesus Christ. As I read the rest of the Bible's New Testament and the history of the followers of Jesus Christ and the spread of his followers, the church, through its birth and early life, I get a WOW factor about Him.  But for a lot of people today, including those who would call themselves a Christian, their view or vision of Jesus is still too small. So I wonder as I begin, is your Jesus too small? 1. Who is my Jesus? As I regularly read the Bible, I see at least a six-sided portrait of Him!  There are many more, but we don't have time for that today, you might be thankful to hear! a. Unique The first word I would use for Jesus is Jesus is unique - totally unique! Never before and never to be repeated ever - Jesus Christ is the standout person from all of history! Indeed, history is divided into BC and AD - ‘Before Christ' and ‘After Christ'.  In all of history, Jesus Christ is incomparable and totally unique! Yet in human form, we read that during his earthly ministry he had no physical beauty that would draw people to him. We read that Jesus' body on the cross was disfigured and tortured beyond that of human likeness.  His perfect life, His salvation work on the cross and His subsequent rising from the dead, is what makes Jesus Christ unique - a once and for all lifetime Messiah or Saviour for the entire world! WOW!! b. Majestic Then the Jesus I see is full of majesty and awe! He is not simply a king with a crown on his head.  He is the King of all Kings!   This Jesus Christ did not decay in the grave - He overcame death in the grave and was raised again majestically!  Paul writes in Colossians 2v3, that in Jesus Christ, all the majestic treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.  Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who with unparalleled majesty is the head of the church. c. Tender Next I go to look into his eyes - his tender eyes!  Jesus looks upon people with love, adoration, justice, tenderness and compassion.  Eyes filled with the tears of mercy, grace, love and compassion.  Eyes that are also filled with rage at injustices! His penetrating eyes that can separate flesh and spirit!! This Jesus is kind and sympathetic - his look of love on a world that is separated from God, and a world He is calling back into an active relationship with God.  The love Jesus had when he wept in the garden as he sweated drops of blood, before he was betrayed and crucified. d. Wise Then there is Jesus the wise man! When Jesus spoke words, people were amazed!  They were astounded that He spoke with elegance and yet with authority. They had never heard anyone speak like He did - with both grace and authority.  The same is true today, if we are listening. That is why we read the Bible to find out what He would say to us.  That is why we seek to hear Him speak to us and why we speak to Him. That is why preaching is to be seen as an act of worship - by both the preacher and the listener! e. Strong Strong! Jesus is strong enough and capable enough, to carry any burden that we can lay upon Him.  Jesus Christ gives a solid and sure foundation for all aspects of life.  If something has a solid foundation, it will not fall and cannot be destroyed.  Indeed Jesus Christ will never fall or decay such is His imperishability as the everlasting God.  He is solid, dependable and strong; nobody and nothing can stand against Him.  If we are truly His, then we ought not to fear or worry about anything, for we will be under his protection,. f. Lovely Finally, my Jesus oozes loveliness! He gives out a sense of exaltation and joy.  Joy is not always externalized loudly as some people think but also internalized quietly!  So if somebody is filled with joy, don't always expect it be seen! Jesus is altogether lovely and lovely altogether!  Jesus is beyond compare for the things He has done and the things He will do.  He is altogether lovely in regard to his person, humanity, birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, exultation, glorification, grace, protection, tenderness, power, wisdom, vengeance, judgment, majesty, redemption and pardon.  I could go on and on! That is my Jesus -unique, majestic, tender, wise, strong and lovely. Is this your Jesus? 2. Jesus - So what? That is my Jesus, whom I seek to serve and obey every second of every day.  This Jesus I seek to obey in every facet of life. And it is this Jesus whom I depend upon and personally know to be totally reliable in every way.  But so what, you may say - those outside the church certainly ask it!   All through this trip of the US, He has been dependable, going ahead of me! Amazing!  This is the Jesus who commands self-sacrifice and obedience. This Jesus who commands His followers to rely solely on His sacrifice and have dependence on Him for all things.  Jesus Christ who commands all His followers to a life of total obedience to Him and Him alone.  This Jesus who died on a Roman cross two thousand years ago was the same Jesus who was raised from the dead, without decay, into newness of life and ascended to the right hand of the Father. There is only one Saviour for the world and there will never be another.  Despite the bleating of other religions and faiths! Jesus never said, "I am a true vine; a way, a truth and a life". Just as He did not say "I am a shepherd, a door, a light or a bread of life. No - Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life. Jesus is the only great shepherd and the only door to life with God. Jesus is the only light of the world and the only bread of life. Jesus calls everyone to partake of the nourishment and shelter only He can provide.  Sadly only a few respond: "Yes!" Are you one of those? 3. Jesus! WOW! Jesus WOW!  What does WOW stand for, I hear you asking yourself?  It means "Worthy Of Worship!" Jesus Christ most certainly is that!   The Jesus WOW factor involves Jesus being radical and relevant! Even a brief look of the Gospels will reveal that about Jesus!  Some people even back then didn't get Jesus, and people still don't get Him two thousand years later!  And whose fault is that? Its not Jesus' fault that people today still don't respond to Him!  It's a result of the church and christians down through the ages, including today, not following Jesus and obeying His commands as closely as they could or should! People out there are looking at the Church and Christians - looking at how we behave, how we speak, how we drive our cars and looking to see if we are any different to them and looking to see what difference Jesus Christ has made in our lives! That's why my parents thought churches were dangerous places and Christians brainwashed and deluded people.  They did not hesitate to tell me that that is what they thought about Christianity!  But I responded to the call of Jesus, rebelled against my parents and became a follower of him 30 years ago next year.  You could say I am the white sheep of my family - so far anyway! 4. We are to be little Jesus' The word Christian, means little Jesus.  When living in London, after church each Sunday, we would go to this one particular Chinese restaurant for lunch each time. Often as a group of us entered and walked up the stairs to take our seats, they would say: "There go the little Jesuses!"  They would mean it mockingly but we took it as a compliment! That's what being a Christian is to be - a little Jesus! In our local community, wherever we happen to live, work or be!  We are to live lives worthy of Jesus Christ, being transformed by the Holy Spirit who lives inside each one of us if we are His, and being totally and willingly obedient to Him!  Loving God and loving others - by, showing compassion, helping others and being the voice of Jesus Christ to a community out there, which is rapidly decaying. The world out there and this community will know you and I are Jesus' followers, if we are obedient to Him, practically showing love to all! Oh that we as the church would love each other instead of fighting with each other! Imagine this community transformed for Jesus Christ, having got the WOW factor!  Imagine this community filled with people seeking to know about our Jesus, because the Christians were sacrificing their time and possessions, wanting in every aspect of life to give Jesus the glory and honour that is worthy of His name alone - just as they did in Acts 2! Loving God and loving each other as He commanded would spread the WOW factor through our local communities, both large and small!  Transformed communities of people devoted to Jesus and experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in bringing people back to God the Father!  The WOW factor is not always an exuberant experience but also covers the silent, contemplative and gob-smacking experiences! Jesus Christ doesn't just live in the loud, as some would proclaim, but also in the quiet where the small, still voice of God is whispered. Don't be like the only man who left Jesus' presence in sorrow. Let me read about him to you. Matthew 19v16-30 from The Message "Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus said, "Why do you question me about what's good? God is the One who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you." The man asked, "What in particular?" Jesus said, "Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as you do yourself." The young man said, "I've done all that. What's left?" "If you want to give it all you've got," Jesus replied, "go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me." That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crest-fallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn't bear to let go. As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God's kingdom? Let me tell you, it's easier to gallop a camel through a needle's eye than for the rich to enter God's kingdom." The disciples were staggered. "Then who has any chance at all?" Jesus looked hard at them and said, "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it." Then Peter chimed in, "We left everything and followed you. What do we get out of it?" Jesus replied, "Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields-whatever-because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first." " Now riches aren't necessarily a problem but they were for that man because nothing could take precedence over them - they were his ‘god' as it were, and he was placing all his trust in them, even if he didn't realise it at the time!  What are you placing your trust in, over and above, Jesus Christ? Conclusion! If you are already in a relationship with Him, He wants to give you freedom, true independence on this Independence Day, to live a life worthy of Him.  Is Jesus your whole life and your whole life Jesus?  That means does He have total authority over every aspect of your life.  All aspects of life such as relationships, family, work, bank accounts, possessions, worries and troubles?  By authority, I mean power! Following Him and carrying your own cross means that - a life sacrificed for Him and obedience to Him alone! Jesus wants to influence every area of your life - not just certain parts you are willing to give up but all aspects of life!  Jesus came to earth to give comfort to the uncomfortable and we are to do the same - give comfort to those in need. Maybe you are feeling the desolation and loneliness because of decisions made in the past.  Give it up willingly to Jesus and don't keep trying to take it back like a security blanket!  If you have something even partially blocking your relationship with Jesus, get rid of it - ask Him to take it away! Finally, you may not yet be a follower of Jesus Christ.  I don't know. If that is you, then accept His call upon you.  For He is calling you, urging you to return to a relationship with God through Him and Him alone.  You may not get another chance.  Usually, with a small still beckoning voice, Jesus whispers: "Come! Come and follow me alone!"   This Jesus wants to connect with you in an intimate, dynamic, active and spiritual relationship - remember His eyes wander the earth looking for those wanting to submit themselves willingly to Him.  If that is you, then please do speak to somebody today about finding out how you can start this relationship with the Living God, Jesus Christ. He calls you by name. Jesus says to all here "Come!  Let me get in the driving seat and you hold on to Me! Follow me and follow me wholeheartedly and with all aspects of your life, obey Me alone!  I will take all your burdens, give you true freedom and independence and help you in all aspects of life! Come! Follow me!" Right mouse click here to download as a MP3 audio file

Saturday, 1 October 2022   But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. Acts 10:35   The previous verse said, “Then Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.'” That is immediately followed up by Peter, saying, “But in every nation.”   Of these words, Bengel rightly states, “It is not an indifferentism of religions, but an indifferency (impartiality) as to the acceptance of nations, that is here asserted.” What is to be said does not include people simply because they faithfully pursue their personal religion, but it is inclusive of those of any nation who faithfully pursue God as he is revealed to people.   Hence, Job can be included in this. Rahab and Naaman likewise are noted in this category in the Bible. However, it cannot be said of someone in Islam or Buddhism today. They are excluded from the thought until a change is made in their mind (a repenting) to turn to the truth of God that has been revealed.   It doesn't matter if it is a person in Pakistan, Tanzania, Russia, Japan, or any other nation – which is the thought that was expressed to Peter in the descent of the great object filled with the various beasts, birds, and so on. With this understood, Peter next says, “whoever fears Him.” To be more precise, it says, “the one fearing Him.”   This is an upward acknowledgment of God, and it is an action directed toward Him. God is looking at those who are fearing Him in the knowledge of Him that has been made available to the person. Of Cornelius, it said that he was “one who feared God” (Acts 10:2). Paul speaks of this in Romans 2 –   “For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law 13 (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; 14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) 16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” Romans 2:12-16   Job did not possess the Law of Moses, and yet he had a law written upon his heart that led him to seek out the true God as He had been thus far revealed. He anticipated restoration with Him through the promised Messiah, and he was noted as a son of God (Job 1:6) through this. Peter continues with “and works righteousness.”   Again, it is a present participle, saying, “and is working righteousness.” This is a horizontal acknowledgment of God, and it is seen in actions directed toward others according to a standard that is pure and faithful. God is looking at those who are fearing Him and who are then expressing that fear of Him in a manner that is appropriate. Of Cornelius, it said that he “gave alms to the people and prayed to God always” (Acts 10:2). Someone may give alms to the people, but he may not be doing it because of an acknowledgment of God. Instead, he may be doing it to simply to get ahead in life. That is self-serving and unacceptable.   Likewise, of Job, it says that he was “one who feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). Job confessed that –   “I was eyes to the blind, And I was feet to the lame. 16 I was a father to the poor, And I searched out the case that I did not know. 17 I broke the fangs of the wicked, And plucked the victim from his teeth.” Job 29:15-17   Like Cornelius, these things were done because he feared God. And this is the heart of the Law of Moses, as spoken by Jesus –   “So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and ‘your neighbor as yourself.'” Luke 10:27   This is the thought now being expressed, with that noted, Peter finishes with, “is accepted by Him.” In the Greek it is an adjective connected to a present tense verb – “is acceptable.” The incorrect translation would cause a rather significant theological problem. Rather, the full clause rightly says, “is acceptable to Him.”   John Gill rightly says, “though God accepts of such who fear him, and work righteousness from a right principle, and to a right end, without any regard to their being circumcised, or not circumcised, or to their being of this or the other nation, yet their fear of him, and working righteousness, are not the ground of their acceptance; but are to be considered as descriptive of the persons, who are accepted by him in Christ; for there is no acceptance of persons or services, but in Christ Jesus.”   Such a person is “acceptable” to God, but only in Christ can he be “accepted” by Him. One cannot do an end around God in Christ. Job anticipated the coming Messiah through his limited knowledge of what God was doing. Cornelius is now on the “after” side of the coming of Jesus. God has heard his prayers and seen his deeds and has sent Peter to take him the necessary further step to Christ Jesus.   The entire account bears this out. It is not that Cornelius was accepted by God, but that he is acceptable to God because of his rightly directed heart and his actions which displayed that heart. Now, Peter has been summoned to take that heart that acknowledges God and direct it to the Messiah, who alone can remove his sin and make him accepted by God.   Life application: A wrongly translated word can make a world of difference. The NKJV, following after the KJV, has introduced an error that makes it appear that Cornelius has been accepted by (or with) God apart from Jesus. From there, an explanation of what the true meaning is must be constructed, as John Gill did above.   The error of translation can be overcome by a continued reading of the passage which reveals Cornelius was saved after hearing and accepting the gospel. But it is far too often the case that people will take a verse, such as this one now being analyzed, and make up an entire commentary or sermon about how people are saved by their right heart towards God and their good works towards others if they have never met Jesus. And it would all be based on a mistranslation that has been copied again and again from eons ago –   Tyndale Bible of 1526 is accepted with him.   Coverdale Bible of 1535 is accepted vnto him.   Bishops' Bible of 1568 is accepted with hym.   Geneva Bible of 1587 is accepted with him.   King James Bible is accepted with him.   New King James Version is accepted by Him.   As a side note, the word “accepted” can also be an adjective, such as “he is handsome in the accepted sense.” However, the meaning when combined with “is” changes it to a verb. As such the meaning is changed as well. Be studious and be ready to question both people's commentaries and their translations. In the end, no person will be saved apart from what God is doing in Christ. There are no loopholes, no end-arounds, and no acceptable “Plan B's.” It is Jesus who saves. Thank God for Jesus!   Heavenly Father, thank You for our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. May we never waffle in our convictions or in our proclamations concerning Him. May we take His words of John 14:6 as true, literal, and unchangeable – “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Thank You, O God, that You have made this way possible! Amen.

How ought we view the Bible-- Is taking it seriously too radical-- Is it okay to disagree -or disregard- certain parts-- Does it matter how a Christian views the Bible - after all, isn't a Christian defined by putting their faith, hope, and trust in Jesus-- So what does it matter how we view the rest of the Bible--

How ought we view the Bible- Is taking it seriously too radical- Is it okay to disagree -or disregard- certain parts- Does it matter how a Christian views the Bible - after all, isn't a Christian defined by putting their faith, hope, and trust in Jesus- So what does it matter how we view the rest of the Bible-

One of the most important, the most profound, the most fundamental influences on our lives is how we see ourselves. And let me say, how we see ourselves, isn't always that healthy. So … what sort of an impact is that having on your life? DISTORTED MIRROR SYNDROME On a fairly regular basis in the various series and programmes that I share with you here on 'Christianityworks', I touch on things like self-image, low self-esteem, giftings and abilities – that sort of thing. There's a reason that I keep coming back to that genre of discussion if you will, and that reason is this: I see so many people in this world who are walking around with a distorted view of who they are, and those distortions (fed to them largely by the people in the systems and the economy that surround them) are ruining their lives. So as I was thinking and praying about what we could talk about starting this week, I came to the conclusion that it was time for a whole series on self-image, and so I've called it "So … How's Your Self-Image Looking?", because the aim I guess is to challenge you about how you see yourself. If you've ever read Stephen Covey's book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", you may remember that one of the things he starts off with is how we see the world. He describes it something like this: ‘It's like we each have a different set of glasses on our face. Maybe yours have a pink tint and mine have a yellow tint and the next person's have a green tint, and what we see and how we see it depends entirely on those lenses through which we're looking at the world. Most commonly, people say that "seeing is believing", but actually no, argues Covey, "believing is seeing". What you believe profoundly influences what you see.' A few weeks ago on the programme, I shared the difference between someone who's secure in themselves and someone who's insecure. Let's say you're insecure. A person comes up to you and shares a constructive, well-meaning piece of criticism with you. None of us likes criticism, but an insecure person is going to react terribly to that. They might get angry; they might be hurt; they might withdraw further into their shell; they might start bad-mouthing the person who criticised them. They're all the sorts of reactions that an insecure person would have. A secure person on the other hand might initially be annoyed by the criticism, but fairly quickly starts thinking about it, and assessing it as objectively as they can, and if the criticism has some basis to it, they start to do some things to change – to learn from what they've just heard; to get better at this thing that maybe they've botched up the last time round. Do you see how believing is seeing? How the lenses through which we perceive the world profoundly impact what we see and what we feel and how we react? And let me ask you: In this one small example of handling criticism, which person ends up being better off for the experience, the secure one, or the insecure one? That's pretty obvious, right? That's why I said at the beginning of the programme that how we see ourselves is one of the most important, the most profound, the most fundamental influences on our lives. And it's an influence either for good or for bad; for liberation or for bondage; for building an amazing future, or for living a rotten life. That's not hyperbole. I'm not overstating the case here at all. I used to have a terrible self-image of myself. Now let me tell you, it was truly a rotten life. When I was young (and that's always where it starts, let me tell you), I was short and dumpy and not very good at running and not very good at sports, and in a sports-mad nation like Australia that simply wasn't a good thing. The other boys used to make fun of me and even when I went and became an officer in the Australian army (a four-year degree course), I was almost kicked out in my final year of officer training for failing the cross-country by just twelve seconds. Other people looked down on me. Forget the fact I had other talents and abilities, my peers considered me to be something less than they were, in fact, considerably less. Now I caught up with some of these guys recently from the Royal Military College, Duntroon (my classmates). It had been thirty-four years since I'd seen most of them. We were all young men back then, when we were training to be officers. Anyway, we had a great night together, eating and drinking and reminiscing and laughing, and you know, none of them seemed to remember anymore that I was the guy that couldn't run as fast as them. They'd all moved on, but can you see how these hurts from the past can live on in you and distort your self-image? So many people are carrying round the reproach of the past with them, and they wonder why they're not having such a great life. The Bible talks about the reproach of the past, and God is super-keen to remove it from us, because while we're still carrying it around with us, we simply can't live the life that He has planned for us. Have a listen to this. Joshua 5:9: “Then the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you', so that place has been called Gilgal unto this day.” That was said to Joshua (the new leader of Israel) after Israel had been slaves for several centuries in Egypt. Now they were about to cross over into the land that God had promised to Abraham many, many centuries before, so why did God say this thing about rolling back the reproach from the past? Why did God do that? Because God knew they wouldn't be able to take hold of the Promised Land, battle by battle, if they were still living in their heads as slaves from Egypt. These people had to see themselves as God's chosen people (not lowly slaves), in order to fight the battles they would need to fight to take hold of all the blessings of the promised land. So God lifted the reproach of Egypt, that sense of looking back on the past and deciding they weren't good enough. He lifted that off them, so that they could enter and take and enjoy the Promised Land. Well, let me tell you this: God wants to lift the reproach of your past off you too, so that you can enter the promises He has for your life, so that you can fight the battles He has for you to fight, and so that you can enjoy the blessings He has for you to enjoy. I know what some people are thinking right now. ‘Nah, my life has failure written all over it. That can never happen to me. I'm always going to be fat and ugly. I'm always going to be not good enough. I'll never be free from my insecurities.' Well, that's simply not what God has to say about you, so let's start listening to what God actually does have to say about you. Here it is, Isaiah 54:4-5: “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace. For you will forget the shame of your youth, and the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your Husband, the LORD of Hosts is His name; the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, and the God of the whole earth He is called.” Maybe you do have failure written all over your life. You're divorced (maybe once, maybe more than once). You don't look the way you want to look. You haven't achieved what you want to achieve. You aren't perceived the way you want to be perceived. People don't acknowledge you and praise you the way you want to be acknowledged and praised, so you look at your crummy little life in your crummy little neck of the woods, and you think to yourself: ‘Blah! There's nothing anybody can do with me; I'm done.' Well, here's what I want to leave you with today: God is not done with you. For as long as you have breath, God is not done with you. He won't be done with you until you're dead and then, if you believe in Jesus, you'll enjoy eternal blessing. That's what this series is all about. It's called "So … How's Your Self-Image Looking?" We're going to discover together from God's Word how to be free from the reproach of the past, so that you can enter into and live in the life that God has promised for you. AN ACCURATE PICTURE I had a message on my blog from a man just the other day who has been through bankruptcy. He and his wife had a taxicab business in New Zealand, and it just didn't go that well. Anybody who knows anything about driving taxis knows that it's very long hours just to get a reasonable return; it can be tough. Anyhow, this man couldn't make a go of it, despite all the long hours. Let me ask you something: Do you enjoy failure? No. Me neither. So let me ask you then: How do you get on in the face of failure? When something like that, something you've worked really hard at in life, You've poured out all your energies into it and it goes belly up, and people look at you, and it's as though someone has stamped the word failure across your forehead in big red upper-case letters, and it doesn't seem to matter how hard you scrub; you just can't get rid of that sense of failure plastered all over you? See, it's things like that, that shape our self-image, and when it comes to the making of our self-image, one failure seems to outweigh more than a hundred successes. Have you ever noticed how that works? That's why relying on success and failures, on our comparisons between ourselves and other people, on what we think other people think of us, on the images of success that the advertising industry tells us we should aspire to but seem forever out of our grasp … That's why relying on all of that stuff out there is so incredibly dangerous – because none of it's accurate. None of it really tells us who we are, and what we're worth. Looking out there to find our self-worth, and shaping our self-image based on all that palaver out there, is a little bit like looking at yourself through one of those distorted mirrors down at the local amusement park – something we talked about on a programme I think a few weeks back. Believing the wrong things about yourself is simply no way to live your life, is it? The question is though, where do you start to get an accurate picture of who you really are – the good, the bad, and the ugly? Where do you turn to get an objective and yet incredibly loving assessment of yourself, on which to base your self-image (how you see yourself; where you fit in; what you were made to be and to do)? There's nothing more wonderful, let me tell you, than feeling secure in your own skin; than enjoying who you are, and in fact, being totally relaxed and totally comfortable and even delighted with who you're not. It's just a stunning feeling to have twenty-four by seven for the rest of your life; really, and it's a feeling that I've only had for less than half of my time here on this earth so far. That doesn't mean that any of us is ever going to be perfect, but to be secure in who we are, to see yourself for who you truly are and to be totally at peace with that, is simply awesome. So today, and for the remainder of this series, I want to share with you how to go from insecure to secure because I used to be an incredibly insecure person: Always trying to please other people; always worried about what others thought of me; trying to impress them; secretly feeling like a charlatan on the inside, because of all my failures and limitations that I knew about that I was trying to hide. Does any of that sound just vaguely familiar? Most months, I write a booklet to go along with each of these new series. This month the booklet's called: ‘How to Receive a Whole New Self-Image', and I'll share with you in a couple of minutes how you can request your free copy of this latest ten-chapter book, but because I'm a visual person, one of the first things I always do when I'm planning a new series (or a new booklet or a book) is to choose the cover-image for the book. It's something I always do myself, because it's an integral part of the creative process for me of putting together a new series of messages like this. So if you request your free book, you'll see that the image is that of an apple reflected in a mirror: Well, not so much an apple as an apple core with the flesh eaten off. Isn't that so often how we perceive ourselves – all chewed-up; all worn-out; all worthless by comparison to the rest of the world? But how does God see us? Well, that's the second part of the image that I chose, because the reflection of the apple core in the mirror is that of a full, green, healthy, shiny apple; whole and complete; a perfect specimen. And that to me so powerfully depicts the difference between how we perceive ourselves and how God sees us. You see, there's something special that you and I need to know about ourselves to be able to move on from a distorted self-image to the real one – the true one, and that's this: That you and I are handcrafted in the very image of God (the imago Dei) and that always, always was God's intent. Genesis 1:26-27: “'Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: Cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind', and it was so. And God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps along the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. But then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth', so God created humankind in His image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” And you see, there's your starting-point, because that's how God sees you: Not as a chewed-out old apple core, but as a perfect specimen made in His image – the apple of His eye. Now have you made some mistakes along the way? Course you have. Are you chewed-out to some extent? Well, yeah, probably. Are you forensically perfect in this moment? No, but God sees the potential for you to be, and that – that's why He sent Jesus: So that through Jesus, you could be forgiven and restored back into this perfect image in which you were created – the very image of God. That's the starting-point, and that's the ending-point, and that's what Jesus is all about – restoring you back to the original image, the very image of God. That's not some fairy-story; that's the story. It's the story that God has had for you and for your life from the very beginning of time … before the beginning of time. He always, always knew that you and I would be imperfect. He always knew that you and I would reject Him, and He always, always knew that He was going to send Jesus to die on that cross for you and for me so that we could be forgiven and restored back into His image (the imago Dei). And do you know what God says in the very next breath after ‘Male and female He created them'? He says this in verse 28: “God blessed them and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it'.” Made in God's image in order to be what? Blessed! That's you! That His plan for you! Do you know what the one profound difference is between the image that God has of you, and the image the world reflects back at you? His image is the image of love, whereas the world's image is the image of criticism; of putting you down; of making you feel worthless. When the world looks at you, more often than not, it sees an opportunity to make use of you. But when God looks at you, the way a father or a mother gazes at their child, He sees someone He made in His image to love and to bless … And sure: He sees the chewed-out bits; the blemishes, but He looks at them not with criticism, but with love! What He sees is the potential to restore you back to that original image – His image. God looks at you and He sees your potential. He sees all that's possible, and that's why He sent Jesus for you. A FAITH CHOICE It seems to me that you and I have a significant faith choice to make each and every day when it comes to who or what we believe about our self-image. Way too many people are believing what the world has to say. After all, every time you turn the television on, advertisers are dangling these glossy images of beauty and success under your nose, and they tell you that if you buy their product, this is how it's going to be for you: successful, beautiful, balanced, happy people fawning over you. But of course, it never happens quite that way, does it? Those images turn out to be a cruel mirage, and so they continue to feed our distorted self-image. They continue to rob us of the true image that God has created in us – His image, and the same is true of how we live our lives, what we actually do with our lives. That's something we're going to talk about a whole bunch more next week on the programme, but all too often, we're trying to do things we were never made to do. The passage I always come back to in order to get my faith choice right (about believing who I am and what my worth is) is Psalm 139. If you've been listening to this programme for any length of time, you'll be getting to know this passage rather well, ‘cos it's so important. Have another listen. It's beautiful (Psalm 139:13-18): “For it was You, God, who formed my inner parts; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; that I know very well. My frame wasn't hidden from You when I was being made in secret, intricately woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance; in Your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are Your thoughts, o God, how vast is the sum of them! I try to count them, but they are more than the sand; I come to the end, and I am still with You.” In other words, the Psalmist who wrote that is saying to God: "LORD, I am amazed; I'm totally gob-smacked at who I am, who You made me to be. I … God, I just can't get my mind round it." Now, let me ask you something: Which one are you going to believe – the Word of God, or the world; the advertising industry, or the Bible? Perhaps you've never quite thought about it in those terms, but it's a stark choice. You know what they say: ‘You are what you eat.' If you continually swallow the rubbish the world feeds you, if you continually dine on that junk-food emotional diet, and stare into those distorted mirrors believing the distorted image they reflect back at you, your life is going to be a mess. Your sense of self-worth is going to be destroyed. It follows as surely as night follows day, but (and here's the big but) if you choose instead to gaze into the Word of God, to listen to His Spirit, to experience His loving arms around you, to live out God's Word in your life … If you choose to believe what God says about you, and you start living as though it's true (‘cos it is), then little by little, your self-esteem, your self-worth, your self-image is going to be restored back into the right image – the image of God in which you were created. So this is what I want to leave you with today: From this moment forward, which one is it going to be? Who are you going to believe? And perhaps to help you answer that question for yourself, you could start with: "What do I want my life to look like? Do I want to be safe and secure in who I am in Christ, or do I want to be insecure and plagued by low self-esteem or pride or both?" I don't know about you, but that sounds like something of a no-brainer, I would have thought. So please, grab your Bible this week. Start reading it. Start here at Psalm 139, and some of the other Scriptures that we've been talking about today, and start hearing and seeing and believing who God says you are, and what plans God has for your life, and the love that He wants to pour out on you, through Jesus Christ His Son.

Today, we are repeating ourselves once again, but I believe it is important to get the events of Revelation 10-14 in order, to help us understand the timetable of the Tribulation. The scene here is the “great” city of Jerusalem in the middle of the Tribulation. The time clock for the Seven-year Tribulation begins to tick when Antichrist makes a peace treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27). I'm pretty convinced that on the very day he signs this treaty, at the same hour, these two unnamed witnesses miraculously appear and begin to prophesy their message warning of the judgments that are about to come. Israel is deceived and accepts Antichrist as their Messiah, who allows them to rebuild the temple at this time. It is in these three and half years that the 144,000 Jews are saved and sealed and then sent to the nations preaching the Gospel, so that millions more repent and trust Christ from every nation, every tribe, every kindred and every tongue. At this same time the seven seals are opened and the first six trumpets sound and all the terrible judgments we read about in Revelation 8-9 take place. In these first three and half years, millions of earth dwellers are killed in these judgments, and yet the worst is yet to come when the seventh angel sounds the seventh trumpet and the seven bowls of God's wrath are poured out on the earth during the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. Of course, the Antichrist and his followers hate these two witnesses who are exposing their satanic agenda. No doubt the Antichrist sends numerous assassins to murder the two witnesses, but fire comes out of their mouths and kill anyone who tries to harm them. Can you imagine watching this on the evening news every day all over the world? But finally, at exactly the end of one thousand two hundred and sixty days (exactly three and a half years), the Antichrist, or beast as he is called in this chapter, is able to overcome and kill them. To display his victory, he allows their dead bodies to lay in the street, where he killed them for three and half days, so the whole world can celebrate. The world has a “Satanic Christmas”! They dance, make merry and even share gifts with each other. Remember back in Rev. 9:20-21 these followers of Antichrist would not repent despite the warnings and the plagues: “But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” But then the unthinkable happens!!!! With the whole world watching on television, the breath of life from God enters these two witnesses and they immediately rise to their feet. The world is struck with great fear and then a voice from heaven called these two to come up to heaven! It is obvious that the events that we describe above could not have literally happened fifty plus years ago. But now with satellites circling the globe, and internet technology, it is easy to see how this could be fulfilled today! With Israel back in the Promise Land, and the current world situation of unrest, along with the threat of nuclear war upon us, we should heed the words of Jesus: “So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near--at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away…Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:33-44)

When your output exceeds your intake, you are heading towards burnout. Distraction can lead to disillusionment and disillusionment leads to discouragement, and discouragement leads to dropout because you are burned-out! Choose to be WITH Jesus before you attempt to doing anything FOR Jesus. WHO you are in Jesus is far more important than what you DO for Jesus: So, focus on the WHO before getting to the DO!

When your output exceeds your intake, you are heading towards burnout. Distraction can lead to disillusionment and disillusionment leads to discouragement, and discouragement leads to dropout because you are burned-out! Choose to be WITH Jesus before you attempt to doing anything FOR Jesus. WHO you are in Jesus is far more important than what you DO for Jesus: So, focus on the WHO before getting to the DO!

#JESUS ‒ So hältst du selbst den stärksten Feind draußen | Andreas Hörner by ICF Grünheide

Devotional Prayer by Be Inspired by His Word © Song by Todd Dulaney We love to call Your name It's something we cannot explain That happens when we proclaim Your Great Name, Your Great Name King Jesus No other name King Jesus (None stronger) None stronger We can call on You Things change, yes When we call on Your name (Let me see your hands now) There is power in the name of Jesus (So much power) Power in Your name (Come on let it rise, there is power in) There is power in the name of Jesus (So much power in) Power in Your name (Things change when I call You) Things change when we call You Jesus (Things change when) Things change when we call Your name (Something happens when I call) Things change when we call You Jesus Things change when we call Your name (Say I'm free when) Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 59:1‭, ‬19 KJV Prayer Lord eternal thank you for this amazing new dawn and grace of life Thank you father for your word that daily sets my feet on the rock Father thank you for forgiveness of sin and your blood shed for my salvation Ancient of days thank you for victory that I have in and through you in my life Lord thank you because when I call you, you answer me Lord thank you for your power that saves and gives me victory in all areas Lord thank you for daily loading me with benefits and grace to finish well and strong Father for every ordinance of the wicked that comes in as a flood raise standard against them Lord in anyway the workers of iniquity wants to take the glory over my life destroy their plans Lord eliminate the desires of the workers of darkness of this nation and nations around the world Father cause confusion in the camp of the workers of iniquity and terminate their ultimate goals Lord uphold your church and your children through the journey of life Father I come to you just as I am let your mercy speak for me where I can or can't appear in person Lord in all that I do, let me encounter divine visitation that births victory Lord over(mention) raise a standard against all opposing forces or counsel in Jesus name Lord concerning the vessel used for this daily prayer all impacted by it and our household show us your mercy and give us victory in Jesus name *Personal Prayer* Thank you abba father for answered prayers in Jesus name *Confess Daily; Sin shall not have dominion over me, Iam operating in the power of the word of God. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus by faith, as Jesus is so am I in this world. The name of Jesus is working in my life and working for me. I will never be a prey of the wicked and Wickedness of this world. God has counted me worthy and given me victory all around. The grace to excel and overcome rests and abides inside of me like never before. I am victorious in all that I do in Jesus name amen.* Today's Prayer by Be Inspired (by His Word) © 25th January 2021 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/be-inspired-by-his-word/message

#love #trinity #jesus #newwine #nwnws Following Jesus means that you not only know Him, but are willing to go to the places and people He calls us to. So often the path before the Christian is a path of unknowing - a path of mystery that expects us to let go and give into the crazy, scandalous ways of living and loving as Jesus So how are to navigate the terrain before us? How do we faithfully step into the truth of loving me, you and everyone in between? In this episode of New Wine Uncorked, Phil, Kayla, Jim, and Matt traverse the wonderful terrain of living and loving… How are we to live and love those in our lives, in both word and deed? Recorded live on Fridays at 10am (pst) New Wine UnCorked seeks to step into culture with a heart bent towards engagement, reconciliation, and relationship.

Highlights: A Terrible Duty - Episode 28I said in a previous chapter that chastity was the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. But I am not sure I was right. I believe the one I have to talk of today is even more unpopular: the Christian rule, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Because in Christian morals “thy neighbor” includes “thy enemy,” and so we come up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies….They say, “That sort of talk makes them sick.” And half of you already want to ask me, “I wonder how you'd feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?” ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin agains us.' There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms. It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven. There are no two ways about it. What are we to do?When you start mathematics you do not begin with calculus; you begin with simple addition. In the same way, if we really want to learn how to forgive, perhaps we had better start with something easier than the Gestapo! One might start with forgiving one's husband or wife, or parents or children…for something they have done or said in the last week. That will probably keep us busy for the moment Forgiveness is not an emotionForgiveness is not minimizing the offense.A good many people imagine that forgiving your enemies means making out that they are really not such bad fellows after all, when it is quite plain that they are…Christianity does not want us to reduce by one atom the hatred we feel for cruelty and treachery We ought to hate them. Forgiveness is not releasing the offender from the consequences of his actions. There are offenses where it may be best to allow the natural consequences of the offense to play out. What is forgiveness? Something inside us, the feeling of resentment, the feeling that wants to get one's own back, must be simply killed…we must feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves - to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may…be cured; in fact, to wish his good…wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not. Forgiveness is not always instantaneous. It may take a life-time to resolve all the residual issues related to forgiveness. It's a process.I do not mean that anyone can decide this moment that he will never feel it any more. That is not how things happen. I mean that every time it bobs its head up, day after day, year after year, all our lives long, we must hit it on the head. Perhaps it makes it easier if we remember that that is how He loves us. Not for any nice, attractive qualities we think we have, but just because we are…For really there is nothing else in us to love; creatures like us who actually find hatred such a pleasure that to give it up is like giving up beer or tobacco. No pit is so deep that God is not deeper still. (Corrie Ten Boom)The biggest problem with un-forgiveness is that we “burn the bridge across which we ourselves must travel.” But when we refuse to extend forgiveness to others, we undermine the ground upon which we need to stand before God. There can be no double standard in God's family when it comes to forgiveness.Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. (Jesus)So forgive one another as God in Christ forgave us. (Paul) 

Highlights: How to Make Marriage Work: Two important keys to making marriage work. First - The determination that marriage is for life. “Christianity teaches that marriage is for life…a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism…”one flesh.” They (various churches) all regard divorce as something like cutting up a living body…some think the operation so violent that it cannot be done at all; others admit it as a desperate remedy in extreme cases. They are all agreed!…What all disagree with is the modern view that it is a simple readjustment of partners, to be made whenever people feel they are no longer in love with one another.” “Whatever people say, the state called “being in love” usually does not last. If the old fairy-tale ending “They lived happily ever after is taken to mean “They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,” then it says what probably never was nor ever could be true…but, of course, ceasing to be “in love” need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense…is not merely a feeling. It's a deep unity maintained by the will…couples can have this love for each other even at those moments when they don't like each other. " We marry the person with whom we have fallen in love; they learn to fall in love with the person they marry. (Paul Tournier) “We never know whom we marry; we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will change…The primary problem is…learning how to love and care for the stranger to whom you find yourself married…Marriage changes us. Having children changes us. A career switch changes us. Age changes us.” (Tim Keller) “A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one. I do not think that…My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognize that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives.” Second - The determination that marriage is for service. In Ephesians 5 the wife and the husband are told to do the same thing! Surrender your pride, deny yourselves and serve the needs of your spouse before your own. Paul uses the language of patriarchy, but he fills the vocabulary with new meaning. He makes a concession to the semantics of his patriarchal culture, but he turns the words inside out. He defines “headship” as servanthood! The patriarchal model is left standing on its head. There are no more bosses…only servants. “He who would be great among you must become the servant of all.” (Jesus) So, “Who's the boss?” “Who's in charge?” These are the wrong questions. Husbands and wives, your home is not your castle it's your Mt. Calvary. It's the place we are called to lay down our lives. “Matrimony, like other holy orders, was never intended as a comfort station for lazy people. On the contrary, it is a systematic program of deliberate and thoroughgoing self-sacrifice. A man's Page of 2 2 home is not his castle so much as his monastery…It is a radical step and is not intended for anyone who is not prepared to surrender his own will and to be wholeheartedly submissive to the will of another.” (Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage) “Whether we are husband or wife, we are not to live for ourselves but for the other. And that is the hardest yet single most important function of being a husband or a wife in marriage…If two spouses each say, “I'm going to treat my self-centeredness as the main problem in the marriage,” you have the prospect of a truly great marriage.” (Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage) 

The Point: Your work ethic comes from your worship ethic Source: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 There is space between what you should and shouldn't do, and something will happen in that space: Worship or Idolatry Paul is writing to the Christians in Thessalonica to remind them of the importance of worship in light of Christ's final return. However… - They were getting lazy and selfish (this is the opposite of worship) - They had poor work ethic because they were super focused on themselves… Their worship was making sure they were good enough - They were relying only on church members to take care of their needs - Making noise through gossip, slander, and bad noise about God. Here is a reality we find… Idle hands find idols When you're lazy you will find something to worship, because you were created to worship. Let's see what Paul says. 6 Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. Paul here is fighting their continued wrong view of Jesus' return, BUT he is also fighting the Greek culture that put more of the work on the slave rather than themselves. The first time Paul addressed this, the people could claim ignorance, but this time there is no excuse… “We command you… In the name of Jesus” So what is the punishment for not following this order? “Keep Away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us” - Disassociate yourself from them & remove the unhealthy influences - Keep away from people with poor work ethic This is church discipline. - The idea is to isolate the perpetrator so that they may see their sin - They can recognize the thing that needs to change Paul is saying, “look around and identify those who are distracting you from worship.” (So let me ask you this….) Identify the sin and realize who's fault it is 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. 9 It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. One of the biggest distractions from our worship to God is laziness. If we are not actively seeking to worship God in our life, when we're lazy, we begin to worship in the wrong way. - Biggest temptation we face is to worship the creation over the creator Paul has set the example with his own life. He worked for a living. He didn't depend on the church to take care of him. The heart ache we feel with our children is the same heart ached Paul has here! Paul is saying, “If you are worshipping, your are working” 10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. This is where it's different: What you are told today is if you don't blatantly meet the needs of everyone, you aren't being Jesus. There are some needs that don't need to be met Compassion does not mean enabling someone's laziness. When someone's lazy, they feel that time with something else. This is not how God has intended us to be. God is not lazy. Every action of our salvation required work. GOSPEL 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. He can command them in the Lord Jesus Christ to work because the Lord Jesus Christ worked We should work quietly and so we don't have to be a burden to others- But what happens if we lean into our laziness? 13 As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Do not regard him

-Sung Psalm- 118---Do you see Jesus- -Hopefully, by now, you are seeing him more and more clearly - so that you can say, -Yes, by faith, I do see him--- And where are you- -I hope that you are seeing that again - by faith - you have ascended into the heavenlies, where we now gather with Jesus----So what-- If the book of Hebrews ended at the end of chapter 12, it would still be true - but it might easily be mistaken for -pie in the sky by-and-by.---Chapter 13 tells us here is how to make visible on earth the fellowship of the heavenly city-

Welcome to the weekly sermon from Otterbein United Methodist Church, Navarre, Ohio. More at https://otterbeinconnection.org. This week’s scripture from the NIV John 19:16-27 16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. The Crucifixion of Jesus So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to …

Working with What I Have Been Given Luke 19:11​-27 11 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. 12 He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. 15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. 18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 19 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. 20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: 21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. 22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: 23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? 24 And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. 25 (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) 26 For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. 27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. Jesus tells us a parable about how we should respond to the news of His return. We have a job and responsibility while we await our Lord’s return. The question for us is “what are we to do?” He has called us to watch, wait and work. How will Jesus find us if He returned today, faithful, or unfaithful? I) We Have Been Entrusted with the King’s Goods While He is Away A) What are the Gifts that we have Been Given? 1) Time: 2) Talent: 1 Corinthians 12:7&11 3) Temple: 1Corinthians 6:19​-20 4) Testimony: 5) Treasure: We should give God His money. Malachi 3:8-10 B) How do we Use the Gifts that Have Been Given 1) We are to Use the Gifts God has Given us to SERVE One Another. 1 Peter 4:10​, 1 Timothy 6:17​-19 says, 2) We are to be a CHANNEL of His Blessings, not a Reservoir. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 3) We are to be CAREFUL that Gifts are our Servant, Not our Master. The warning is this: Matthew 6:24​. Jesus also warns us: Luke 16:11​ 4) We are to Use What We Have to Honor the One Who Gave It to Us. Proverbs 3:9 II) We Will Give an Account to the King When He Returns A) The Giving of Account to the Nobleman. B) The giving of Account to Jesus So, what can we do if we haven’t done well thus far with what God has given us: 1. Acknowledge the areas that we have been bad stewards in. Once I have acknowledged my sins and confessed my sins, then I need to 2. REPENT! This means not only do I recognize I have been going in the wrong direction, but now I change directions and begin walking a new path. 3. DO NOT LIVE IN THE PAST! You can’t change past mistakes and failures. Learn from them, get forgiveness for them and move FORWARD. Remember, God is the God of second chances. Take what God gave you and turn it into something “bigger and better.” That’s a good steward.

Have you had the experience of crying out to God for many years, and then as the busy-ness of life takes over, the cry is still there, but not so loud? Then one day you have this moment, where the Holy Spirit nudges you and says, 'Look.' You look and see that God is answering that prayer. A smile comes over your face, and your heart feels full. The blindness of busy-ness is lifted. The blindness of busy-ness When this recently happened to me, I started thinking about how we often get so focused on other things, that we miss what God is doing. Proverbs 29:18 in The Message Bible says ... If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed. Proverbs 29:18 The Message When I obeyed the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and looked and saw what God was doing, I did indeed feel and know that I was most blessed. The Amplified Bible says Proverbs 29:18 this way, Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained; But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God]. Proverbs 29:18 AMP Ummm ... No revelation of God and His word ... the people are unrestrained... The blindness in our thinking Let's look at this scripture for a moment in the context of our thought-life. That is, when our thoughts are not focused on God's truth they can wander wherever they desire. This happens when we are not actively taking our thoughts captive, as God says to do in 2 Corinthians 10:5. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV This is another blindness, not towards what God is doing, but in relation to what we are thinking! Negative thoughts causing blindness I experienced this type of blindness recently when I let negative thoughts overwhelm me. They caused me to lose sight of God's word. I couldn't see the good. I couldn't see a positive path forward. The story Over the past month our daughter has had nine medical appointments in relation to her left leg, and there are two more this coming week. Attending all these appointments brought back the memories of the multiple hospital visits from her time of having chemotherapy treatment. Late last week, both my daughter and I were at the point of sighing, crying and thinking, 'No, not another appointment,' and 'Will it always be like this?' So strong is the emotional pull of old memories and feelings of despair - grief. For our daughter during recent years the negative experiences around these ongoing appointments have been offset by the joy and excitement of swimming training and competing at sporting events. But due to COVID-19 restrictions and other factors beyond our control, those activities are currently not happening. So, the question she now often asks is, 'What is there to look forward to?' What is there to look forward to? What is there to look forward to? Yes, blindness can stop us looking forward and it can stop us looking to Jesus. The blind beggar These thoughts about blindness led me to reading the story of Jesus healing the blind beggar Bartimaeus, recounted in Mark 10 and Luke 18. Then they came to Jericho. And as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a great crowd, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, a son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have pity and mercy on me [now]! And many severely censured and reproved him, telling him to keep still, but he kept on shouting out all the more, You Son of David, have pity and mercy on me [now]!" And Jesus stopped and said, Call him. And they called the blind man, telling him, Take courage! Get up! He is calling you. And throwing off his outer garment, he leaped up and and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, What do you want Me to do for you? And the blind man said to Him, Master, let me receive my sight. And Jesus said to him, Go your way; your faith has healed you. And at once he receive his sight and accompanied Jesus on the road. Mark 10:46-52 AMPC What did God speak to you about as we read that story? For me, there were four things which I share below. But first, lets give thanks for the revelation God brings to us through His word. Remember Proverbs 29:18 that we read earlier, Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained; But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God]. Proverbs 29:18 AMP Keep asking. Don't give up Firstly, Bartimaeus called out to Jesus not once, but twice. He didn't give up. Interestingly when this story is recounted in Luke, earlier in Chapter 18, Jesus is teaching the disciples about prayer, saying, Don't you know that God, the true judge, will grant justice to all of his chosen ones who cry out to him night and day? He will pour out his Spirit upon them. He will not delay to answer you and give you what you ask for. God will give swift justice to those who don't give up. So be ever praying, ever expecting, just like the widow was with the judge. Luke 18:7-8a TPT Jesus finishes this teaching about prayer with this question, a challenge to me and you ... Yet when the Son of Man comes back, will he find this kind of persistent faithfulness in his people? Luke 18:8b TPT Revelation (or reminder) Keep calling out to Jesus. Let's be people of persistent faith.   Courage to respond Secondly, when Jesus responded to the blind beggar's call, it appears from the disciple's words that Bartimaeus was a little hesitant to go to Jesus. So they went to the blind man and said, "Have courage! Get up! Jesus is calling for you!" Mark 10:49 TPT As we know Bartimaeus did muster the courage, get up and go to Jesus. Imagine if he hadn't. He would have missed that opportunity to receive healing. The Message Bible says, They called him. "It's your lucky day! Get up! He's calling you to come!" Mark 10:49 The Message His lucky day indeed! Revelation (or reminder) Sometimes it takes courage to respond to what Jesus asks us to do, but that is part of the faith adventure. Note: there is a great song that reminds me to take courage: Take Courage by Kristine DiMarco.   Throw off the old cloak Thirdly, look what Bartimeaus did when he responded to Jesus ... And throwing off his outer garment, he leaped up and came to Jesus. Luke 10:50 AMPC It seems like, that to get up, Bartimeaus had to throw off something - his outer garment. The Passion Translation says, So he threw off his beggars' cloak, jumped up, and made his way to Jesus. Luke 10:50 TPT He had to throw off the cloak that represented his old life, before he could receive the new life Jesus had for him. Revelation (or reminder) This was one of the main points of the story God wanted me to understand. I had to throw off the old memories of years of medical appointments. I had to take those thoughts captive and remind myself that we are in a new season now. This is not the past. God is doing a new thing. Some serious talk to self, declaring God's truth and promises was required. For both me, but for our daughter.   Confidence in Jesus' power Finally, Bartimaeus had confidence that Jesus could make him well. Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith [and confident trust in My power] has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and began following Jesus on the road. Mark 10:52 AMP So a question for us, "Who or what are we putting our confidence in today?" Revelation (or reminder) There is only one answer -> Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." John 14:6 NKJV   The Blindness and Jesus So just remember to keep a look out for blindness in your life. The blindness of busy-ness can cause us to miss seeing what God is doing in our lives. The blindness of negative thinking can stop us looking to Jesus, the One we need to have our confidence in. The importance of confidence in Jesus Three final thoughts on the importance of confidence in Jesus, and accompanying scripture, because remember what the Amplified Bible says in Proverbs 29:18. Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained; But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God]. Proverbs 29:18 AMP 1. We need to have confidence that with Jesus we can do all things. I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfil His purpose - I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.] Philippians 4:13 AMP 2. We need to have confidence that with Jesus we can more than overcome. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Romans 8:37 NKJV 3. And when we can't find that confidence, we need to remember. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power my rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9-11 NIV To find out more please visit https://wendyrobinson.com.au

Do you ever wonder why you try to do good things? And have you ever wondered what keeps you from doing them? This message explores the ways pride and fear can keep us from doing what we want to do with the proper motivation. Every day I am allowing Christ to reveal His light to others. (2 Cor. 5:18-20; Matthew 5:15-16. Shining God’s light.) Allowing Christ to overcome my pride and fear. This Message was given by Pastor Clark Cothern at LWCC in Ypsilanti Michigan on March 1st Message Notes: Every day I am allowing Christ to overcome my pride and fear as I reveal His light to others. Matthew 5:11-16 Fear and pride may factor into our alleged morality. In the Sermon on the Mount we see how Christianity is not only different from the world. It’s also different, at its core, from religion. The Light we’re talking about sharing isn’t a light of _____________. Background concept: Who killed Jesus? So who did kill Jesus? _______________ _______________. Contrasts by Jesus: a. Paths b. Houses c. Trees What you don’t hear Jesus saying: 1) Kingdom light is _____________ than religious light. (Matt. 5:14a) This reveals how Jesus expects Christians to relate to the _________. 2) Kingdom light is ____________ than religious light. (Matt. 5:20) What does Jesus mean by the word “surpass?” (Vss. 21, 27, 31, 33, 38) What do the words “But I say to you…” point to? Fear and Pride: Reasons for Our Actions Example: Lying or Not Lying 3) Kingdom light is ______________ than religious light.

Message: The gospel according to LukeText: Luke 19:28-40~Have you ever sat on a colt that has never been sat on before?~What is spontaneous worship by the disciples was planned by God. We don’t create the wave, we just ride the wave…if we want to. If you want to ride a wave, you better jump on while it is passing by.There is always someone who is opposing our worship~It is wrong to not worship the Lord.~It is wrong to keep worship to ourselves.~Satan hates our worship and praise to Jesus~So, my silence is pleasing to Satan~So, my hesitancy to worship Jesus is pleasing to Satan.~Jesus is serious enough about worship that He is willing to make stones talk if you won’t.

The Tabernacle God instructed Moses and the Israelite to build a tabernacle where He would dwell among His people. This big tent was the source of many messianic pictures and can teach us a lot about Jesus _______________________________________________________________________ So what did you think? Give us your feedback, email us at SALpodcast@gmail.com Join Our KIDScast Family! Like us on Social Media:FACEBOOKINSTAGRAM Rate & Review on iTunes Support Our Work:PATREON Check Out Our Other Show, And The BTWN Network Song Credit:  Seeds Family Worship: “Savior Of The World”, “Young”

The WOW factor of Jesus Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16v24-26) The Jesus I hear about today from some people outside the church, as well as inside the Church, bears no resemblance to the Jesus who said those words. They are comfortable with a Jesus who is at their mercy and who doesn't ask too much of them! They like putting Jesus in a box and only opening the box to let Him out when required! That Jesus is an insipid, nodding head, Jesus - worthy only of being on the back shelf of a car and that's about all. But that is exactly the opposite of the Jesus who said those words from Matthew - the Jesus who commands obedience and sacrifice! As I look through the Old Testament, I read about how the world fell out of a living, dynamic relationship with God! But I also read how a Messiah, a saviour or rescuer if you like, was to be sent by God, in order to restore the world back into an intimate, living relationship with God Himself! I read the Gospels in the New Testament and I see this Messiah as the God-man, Jesus Christ. As I read the rest of the Bible's New Testament and the history of the followers of Jesus Christ and the spread of his followers, the church, through its birth and early life, I get a WOW factor about Him. But for a lot of people today, including those who would call themselves a Christian, their view or vision of Jesus is still too small. So I wonder, is your Jesus too small? 1. Who is my Jesus? As I regularly read the Bible, I see at least a six-sided portrait of Him! There are many more, but we don't have time for that today, you might be thankful to hear! a. Unique : The first word I would use for Jesus is Jesus is unique - totally unique! Never before and never to be repeated ever - Jesus Christ is the standout person from all of history! Indeed, history is divided into BC and AD - ‘Before Christ' and ‘After Christ'. In all of history, Jesus Christ is incomparable and totally unique!Yet in human form, we read that during his earthly ministry he had no physical beauty that would draw people to him. We read that Jesus' body on the cross was disfigured and tortured beyond that of human likeness. His perfect life, His salvation work on the cross and His subsequent rising from the dead, is what makes Jesus Christ unique - a once and for all lifetime Messiah or Saviour for the entire world! WOW!! b. Majestic: Then the Jesus I see is full of majesty and awe! He is not simply a king with a crown on his head. He is the King of all Kings! This Jesus Christ did not decay in the grave - He overcame death in the grave and was raised again majestically! Paul writes in Colossians 2v3, that in Jesus Christ, all the majestic treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who with unparalleled majesty is the head of the church. c. Tender : Next I go to look into his eyes - his tender eyes! Jesus looks upon people with love, adoration, justice, tenderness and compassion. Eyes filled with the tears of mercy, grace, love and compassion. Eyes that are also filled with rage at injustices! His penetrating eyes that can separate flesh and spirit!!This Jesus is kind and sympathetic - his look of love on a world that is separated from God, and a world He is calling back into an active relationship with God. The love Jesus had when he wept in the garden as he sweated drops of blood, before he was betrayed and crucified. d. Wise: Then there is Jesus the wise man! When Jesus spoke words, people were amazed! They were astounded that He spoke with elegance and yet with authority. They had never heard anyone speak like He did - with both grace and authority. The same is true today, if we are listening. That is why we read the Bible to find out what He would say to us. That is why we seek to hear Him speak to us and why we speak to Him. That is why preaching is to be seen as an act of worship - by both the preacher and the listener! e. Strong: Jesus is strong enough and capable enough, to carry any burden that we can lay upon Him. Jesus Christ gives a solid and sure foundation for all aspects of life. If something has a solid foundation, it will not fall and cannot be destroyed. Indeed Jesus Christ will never fall or decay such is His imperishability as the everlasting God. He is solid, dependable and strong; nobody and nothing can stand against Him. If we are truly His, then we ought not to fear or worry about anything, for we will be under his protection, forever! f. Lovely: finally, my Jesus oozes loveliness! He gives out a sense of exaltation and joy. Joy is not always externalized loudly as some people think but also internalized quietly! So if somebody is filled with joy, don't always expect it be seen! Jesus is altogether lovely and lovely altogether! Jesus is beyond compare for the things He has done and the things He will do. He is altogether lovely in regard to his person, humanity, birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, exultation, glorification, grace, protection, tenderness, power, wisdom, vengeance, judgment, majesty, redemption and pardon. I could go on and on!That is my Jesus -unique, majestic, tender, wise, strong and lovely. Is this your Jesus? 2. Jesus - So what? That is my Jesus, whom I seek to serve and obey every second of every day. This Jesus I seek to obey in every facet of life. And it is this Jesus whom I depend upon and personally know to be totally reliable in every way. But so what, you may say - those outside the church certainly ask it! All through each day, I know He has been dependable, going ahead of me! Amazing! This is the Jesus who commands self-sacrifice and obedience. This Jesus who commands His followers to rely solely on His sacrifice and have dependence on Him for all things. Jesus Christ who commands all His followers to a life of total obedience to Him and Him alone. This Jesus who died on a Roman cross two thousand years ago was the same Jesus who was raised from the dead, without decay, into newness of life and ascended to the right hand of the Father.There is only one Saviour for the world and there will never be another. Despite the bleating of other religions and faiths! Jesus never said, "I am a true vine; a way, a truth and a life". Just as He did not say "I am a shepherd, a door, a light or a bread of life.No - Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life. Jesus is the only great shepherd and the only door to life with God. Jesus is the only light of the world and the only bread of life. Jesus calls everyone to partake of the nourishment and shelter only He can provide. Sadly only a few respond: "Yes!" Are you one of those? 3. Jesus! WOW! Jesus WOW! What does WOW stand for, I hear you asking yourself? It means "Worthy Of Worship!" Jesus Christ most certainly is that! The Jesus WOW factor involves Jesus being radical and relevant! Even a brief look of the Gospels will reveal that about Jesus! Some people even back then didn't get Jesus, and people still don't get Him two thousand years later! And whose fault is that? Its not Jesus' fault that people today still don't respond to Him! It's a result of the church and Christians down through the ages, including today, not following Jesus and obeying His commands as closely as they could or should! People out there are looking at the Church and Christians - looking at how we behave, how we speak, how we drive our cars and looking to see if we are any different to them and looking to see what difference Jesus Christ has made in our lives! That's why my parents thought churches were dangerous places and Christians brainwashed and deluded people. They did not hesitate to tell me that that is what they thought about Christianity! But I responded to the call of Jesus, rebelled against my parents and became a follower of him 30 years ago next year. You could say I am the white sheep of my family - so far anyway! 4. We are to be little Jesus' The word Christian, means little Jesus. When living in London, after church each Sunday, we would go to this one particular Chinese restaurant for lunch each time. Often as a group of us entered and walked up the stairs to take our seats, they would say: "There go the little Jesuses!" They would mean it mockingly but we took it as a compliment! That's what being a Christian is to be - a little Jesus! In our local community, wherever we happen to live, work or be! We are to live lives worthy of Jesus Christ, being transformed by the Holy Spirit who lives inside each one of us if we are His, and being totally and willingly obedient to Him! Loving God and loving others - by, showing compassion, helping others and being the voice of Jesus Christ to a community out there, which is rapidly decaying. The world out there and this community will know you and I are Jesus' followers, if we are obedient to Him, practically showing love to all! Oh that we as the church would love each other instead of fighting with each other!Imagine this community transformed for Jesus Christ, having got the WOW factor! Imagine this community filled with people seeking to know about our Jesus, because the Christians were sacrificing their time and possessions, wanting in every aspect of life to give Jesus the glory and honour that is worthy of His name alone - just as they did in Acts 2! Loving God and loving each other as He commanded would spread the WOW factor through our local communities, both large and small! Transformed communities of people devoted to Jesus and experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in bringing people back to God the Father! The WOW factor is not always an exuberant experience but also covers the silent, contemplative and gob-smacking experiences! Jesus Christ doesn't just live in the loud, as some would proclaim, but also in the quiet where the small, still voice of God is whispered.Don't be like the only man who left Jesus' presence in sorrow. Let me read about him to you. Matthew 19v16-30 from The Message:"Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus said, "Why do you question me about what's good? God is the One who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you." The man asked, "What in particular?" Jesus said, "Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as you do yourself." The young man said, "I've done all that. What's left?" "If you want to give it all you've got," Jesus replied, "go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me." That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crest-fallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn't bear to let go. As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God's kingdom? Let me tell you, it's easier to gallop a camel through a needle's eye than for the rich to enter God's kingdom." The disciples were staggered. "Then who has any chance at all?" Jesus looked hard at them and said, "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it." Then Peter chimed in, "We left everything and followed you. What do we get out of it?" Jesus replied, "Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields-whatever-because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first." " Now riches aren't necessarily a problem but they were for that man because nothing could take precedence over them - they were his ‘god' as it were, and he was placing all his trust in them, even if he didn't realise it at the time! What are you placing your trust in, over and above, Jesus Christ? Conclusion! If you are already in a relationship with Him, He wants to give you freedom, true independence on this Independence Day, to live a life worthy of Him. Is Jesus your whole life and your whole life Jesus? That means does He have total authority over every aspect of your life. All aspects of life such as relationships, family, work, bank accounts, possessions, worries and troubles? By authority, I mean power!Following Him and carrying your own cross means that - a life sacrificed for Him and obedience to Him alone! Jesus wants to influence every area of your life - not just certain parts you are willing to give up but all aspects of life! Jesus came to earth to give comfort to the uncomfortable and we are to do the same - give comfort to those in need.Maybe you are feeling the desolation and loneliness because of decisions made in the past. Give it up willingly to Jesus and don't keep trying to take it back like a security blanket! If you have something even partially blocking your relationship with Jesus, get rid of it - ask Him to take it away! Finally, you may not yet be a follower of Jesus Christ. I don't know. If that is you, then accept His call upon you. For He is calling you, urging you to return to a relationship with God through Him and Him alone. You may not get another chance. Usually, with a small still beckoning voice, Jesus whispers: "Come! Come and follow me alone!" This Jesus wants to connect with you in an intimate, dynamic, active and spiritual relationship - remember His eyes wander the earth looking for those wanting to submit themselves willingly to Him. If that is you, then please do speak to somebody today about finding out how you can start this relationship with the Living God, Jesus Christ. He calls you by name.Jesus says to all here "Come! Let me get in the driving seat and you hold on to Me! Follow me and follow me wholeheartedly and with all aspects of your life, obey Me alone! I will take all your burdens, give you true freedom and independence and help you in all aspects of life! Come! Follow me!" As I conclude, let me read to you something CS Lewis wrote in his book, Mere Christianity, about my Jesus."I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God." I ask again: Is your vision of Jesus too small? Right mouse click here to download as a MP3 audio file You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site! Click or tap on the appropriate link below to subscribe, share or download our iPhone App!

Subscribe to the Think Update: http://thethink.institute/articles/update Get the complete show notes for this episode at http://thethink.institute. If you’ve been around churches, you’ve seen the crosses and crucifixes. The cross is central to Christian theology as a symbol of what we believe. But there’s a lot of debate about what exactly the cross represents, and what Jesus did when he died on the cross. Recently in my own circle, there’s been a lot of discussion on the subject of the Atonement. What did Jesus do when he died on the cross? And if the cross was part of God’s plan, is it fair to say God killed Jesus? So we could phrase the question this way: Why did God kill Jesus? Dr. Wellum is Professor of Christian Theology and editor of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. He and his wife Karen have five adult children. Dr. Wellum has been influential in the development of New Covenant Theology and recently, Progressive Covenantalism, which are schools of thought for interpreting the whole Bible. In this episode, Dr. Wellum and I are going to talk about the death of Jesus--what he did, why it matters, what it teaches us about God, and how we ought to respond in light of all this. We’ll unpack some of the competing views that are out there and get to the main idea, which is that the theory known as Penal Substitutionary Atonement is the best way of thinking about what Jesus accomplished. It’s going to be a theologically rich episode, with very practical implications, and it will certainly make you think. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-think-podcast/message

Pilate said to Jesus: “So, you are a king?” Jesus gave an affirmative answer to his question and, as a matter of fact, said it was for that purpose He was born into the world. He was King. He is King - then, now and future. Many people look to Him as savior, which He is. But salvation is a result of His position of kingship. Do you see your king? Do you recognize your king? See Him for He was born to be…King

About This Episode Today's listener questions are: My husband is really interested in me swallowing during oral sex. I don't get it. I honestly don't want to work up to it; it's already taken a lot of effort just to give bjs and oral sex to him. But he keeps asking. I'm not sure what to do - keep saying no, or work through my gag reflex and dislike of the smell and try it? To be honest, it kind of grosses me out even thinking of swallowing. I've tried using the gag reflex sprays too and it doesn't help much. I just need some advice. I’ve read in some books and blogs God’s biblical design and purpose is that sex is a) for reproduction b) for pleasure c) creating intimacy - these three purposes are independent of each other — reproduction is possible without pleasure/intimacy or pleasure can be possible without procreation. -the maximum goal of the Lord is intimacy, for happiness of the couple and because marriage represents intimacy between church and Jesus So.. Do you think it’s possible to have real intimacy without pleasure in sex? Like saying “if sex is not really pleasurable then intimacy is not really close” or “the greatest the pleasure the stronger the intimacy” or “a marriage can’t have actual intimacy without good sex” or “no sex, no intimacy”, etc. I know is a kind of strong question but I am struggling with this thought because I’ve read the three independent purposes of sex at some blogs/books, but I feel some explanations are missing, specially for we wives striving with orgasm or painful intercourse or trouble with arousal, so “pleasurable” is hardly a way to define sex life. Sponsor Learn About Married Dance Here (affiliate link) From the Bible In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. – Ephesians 5:28 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 I have come to my garden-my sister, my bride. I gather my myrrh with my spices. I eat my honeycomb with my honey. I drink my wine with my milk. Eat, friends! Drink, be intoxicated with love! – Song of Songs 5:1 Resources What Are the Real Purposes of Sex? – Hot, Holy & Humorous Sex's Primary Job is not Lust Management - Bonny's OysterBed7 International Pelvic Pain Society National Vulvodynia Association Finding a Good Gynecologist – Hot, Holy & Humorous Do I Have To? - The Forgiven Wife Oral Sex: Spit, or Swallow? - The Forgiven Wife Enjoying Your Husband’s Semen - The Forgiven Wife Dealing with a Gag Reflex - The Forgiven Wife Goodhead Fundamentals Kit from Married Dance (affiliate link) Marital Aid Pilot Program from Married Dance (affiliate link) When It Hurts: Maintaining Sexual Intimacy While Dealing with Pain - The Forgiven Wife Maintaining Sexual Intimacy When Sex isn’t Possible - Messy Marriage Dealing with Vulvovaginal Atrophy without Hormones - The Forgiven Wife Episode 65: Female Sexual Health Q&A with J: Should You Just Swallow Already? Is Giving a “Blow Job” Enjoyable for the Wife? Upcoming Webinar Understanding Her Sex Drive (for husbands) - November 14, 2019

Who is Jesus? So many have asked that question. It is a question all may have asked at some time in their lives. Jesus brought understanding to those who needed it. He is God in the flesh. He is the visible image of the invisible God himself.

Who Is Jesus? This week we answer the most important question that exists... Who is Jesus? _________________________________________________________________________ So what did you think? Give us your feedback, email us at  SALpodcast@gmail.com Join Our KIDScast Family! Check out the original Shine As Lights Podcast Like us on Social Media: FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM Rate & Review on iTunes Support Our Work: PATREON Wrath and Grace! Check out their clothing, resources and music! Song Credit:  Seeds Family Worship  "H.E.R.O" and "Young"

This episode wraps the The Daniel Adventures. How about news you can really believe? 2017 real news! Daniel 7:13 “I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds... He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence.” Every day we see and hear “fake news”. Wouldn't it be great to have some facts, some trustworthy news? We have both from Daniel! Daniel's adventures are great and teach us bravery and wisdom, but let's consider why we have this book. God placed Daniel in Babylon. He gave him dreams, visions and a platform to communicate historic future news, God's future plan for mankind. Genuine news fills this book. God has informed mankind, He has broadcast news about the future. Here's what Daniel wrote...God helping him: “I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations..., so that all people would obey him. His rule is forever... His kingdom will never be destroyed.” Here's how it happens- Jesus, the “Son of man” mentioned above, will come before His Father and be given Kingship of the Earth. He will then appear to every person on the planet. He will have world-wide and absolute authority. Every city, every country, every continent will be His. And...”His rule is forever- it will never end..” This is not dusty old news, not “fake news”, it is genuine! There is an actual day, it's on God's calendar, when this will happen. Make sure you are ready for “That Day!” Seven “Jesus Return Day” verses: Matt 25:31- Jesus: “...when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence.” Matt 25:13- Jesus: “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.” Acts 1:11- Angel report as Jesus went up to Heaven: “Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go.” 1 Cor 1:8- Paul: “He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns.” Phil 1:6- Paul: “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Titus 2:13- “we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.” I Peter 1:7- Peter: “your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Search the term “that day” for more verses. This is a widely taught, widely accepted truth in the Bible. You can believe it! Many blessings on you and yours! The Mountain Team

A daily devotional through the recorded words Jesus spoke while He walked alongside us. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com. Thanks for joining me today for "A Little Walk with God." I'm your host Richard Agee. Have you ever thought what times of trouble means? If you think back, I believe every generation thinks they lived in times of trouble. But look at where we are today! Scripture John 16:31-33 Jesus: So you believe now? Be aware that a time is coming when you will be scattered like seeds. You will return to your own way, and I will be left alone. But I will not be alone, because the Father will be with Me. I have told you these things so that you will be whole and at peace. In this world, you will be plagued with times of trouble, but you need not fear; I have triumphed over this corrupt world order. Devotional I started with a question, what does times of trouble mean? For disciples: expectation of arrest, abuse, execution For early Christians: separation from families, torture and martyrdom During middle ages: crusades, kings and lords abusing power Industrial revolution: included machinery of war and weapons that killed from great distance; homes broken as men went off to work Early 20th Century: prohibition, roaring twenties, smoky back rooms where more than just illegal drinking happened, rise of the mobs World War I and II atrocities with chemical warfare; introduction of air power and short range missiles, 60's and 70's: flower power, drugs, sexual promiscuity 80's and 90's: energy crisis, financial crises, double digit inflation, 2000: Y2K, doomsday prophecies, Today: crime, finance, sexual promiscuity, drugs, terrorism, wars, religious jihad Christians are an easy target for the blame We don't retaliate We don't apologize We predict things will get worse, not better until Jesus returns We embrace suffering because Jesus embraced suffering World doesn't understand and so blames us for things that go wrong We are in times of trouble, but… We need not fear Why? With everything that is going on, why shouldn't we fear? The answer is Jesus has already triumphed over this corrupt world order. What does it mean that Jesus has triumphed? Satan tried his hardest to defeat Him Threw the worst fear possible at Jesus, death Death is a predator with humans as it's prey Jesus overcame death proving it with His resurrection We don't need to fear because He has triumphed over the greatest fear we as humans have - death If He has already done that and lives in us, we have at our disposal the power of the resurrection that helps us face the worst Satan can throw at us Will we have trouble? Yes. Do we need to fear that trouble? No. If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don't, tell me. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for "A Little Walk with God."  

Brad Sullivan Christmas Eve, Year A December 24, 2016 Emmanuel, Houston Luke 2:1-14(15-20) Becoming Human On A Lark And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. Every time I hear Luke’s telling of Jesus’ birth, I hear Linus telling the Christmas story to Charlie Brown, letting him know what Christmas is really all about. Christmas is about the joy of God becoming human and how fantastic it is that God thinks highly enough of us, love us enough, that he actually wanted to be one of us. How crazy is that? How great, but is God just totally nuts? Maybe. Now, rumor has it that becoming human: living, dying, being resurrected for our sake, was always part of God’s plan, but what if it started on a lark, kind of just a crazy, whimsical idea? Imagine Jesus, before becoming human, saying to his Father: Jesus: Dad, you know how much we love those humans? Father: Yeah, Son. I do. Jesus: Have you ever thought about how great it would be to actually be one of them? Father: What do you mean, Son? Jesus: Well, we love them so much, I’d really like to be one of them, like how people share their lives and experiences with each other, and they draw nearer to each other through sharing their lives together. You know how you’re always wanting humans to draw nearer to you? Well, how much nearer can you get? We become one of them. Father: (considers for a moment) You know, that’s really not a bad idea. Let’s see what the Spirit says. You’ve been listening, I take it? Holy Spirit: Of course I have, and I think it’s a lovely idea. Connect with them, show them how much we care. You know, it may even be a chance to redeem them. Jesus: Hey. Father: Hmm, you know that’s a heck of an idea, something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Holy Spirit: I know you have. Father: They separated themselves from us in the Garden. Jesus: So we join ourselves back to them by becoming one of them. Father: Hmm…except there’s still that sin problem. Holy Spirit: Oh, there you go again. Father: Well, it’s a big problem. Holy Spirit: I know it is. Father: They keep hurting each other, hurting themselves, putting up barriers between each other, barriers between them and us. Holy Spirit: Uh huh. (kind of patronizing) Father: We are love. We don’t have any barriers between us. It’s not like we can have Jesus go out there and sin. Holy Spirit: I know. Father: (sigh, exasperated) All I ever wanted was for them to love each other like we love our-self, like we love them. It gets very frustrating. Holy Spirit: Well you know, if he becomes human, Jesus could join with all of their sins in his death. Jesus: Wait, what? Father: Oh, now you’re talking. We could somehow pour all of humanity’s sins onto him so even their sins won’t separate them from us. Jesus: Um…guys, I’m not so sure… Holy Spirit: It’d have to be a memorable death, too, something gruesome… Jesus: Ok guys, hold it. I was thinking of something simple, like a little weekend tryst… Father: Oh, no that wouldn’t do. You’d need to do the whole thing, you know, grow up, be born… Jesus: Ewe! You’re joking, right? You’ve seen how that whole birth thing happens? Father: You said you love them. Jesus: Oye! They are awfully cute. Ok, full deal. When do you think I should be born? The 1970s had really good music, Star Wars…no, late 1940s, early 50s England. I‘ll grow up with David Bowie. It’ll be awesome. Father: Oh Son, I’ve got just the place. Ok, so lest I lead us all into heresy forever, I pretty sure that conversation never took place, but I love the idea of God becoming human, of Jesus being born, on a lark, as someone who really loves someone else and simply wants to spend more time with them. That’s what Christmas is all about. God saying to humanity, “I love you, and I’d really like to spend more time with you.” That may seem awfully simple, but I believe nothing in creation has greater healing power than relationship and love. In Eden, we walked with God, naked and unashamed. There were no barriers to our relationships with God and no barriers to our relationships with one another. Over time then, we kept on and keep on putting up more and more barriers to each other. Initially, we decided that we wanted knowledge: Adam and Even ate from the tree of knowledge. There was much unknown in creation and the fear of the unknown began gnawing at us, eroding our trust in God, until we decided that we desired knowledge more that trust, and the first barrier to relationship was raised. Then we felt ashamed for what we had done and so we hid, and we covered ourselves with fig leaves, and the next barrier to relationship went up. Then God came and found us and asked what had happened, and we lied, passing the buck onto the serpent, passing the buck onto Eve, rather than fessing up to our fears and our lack of trust, and so another barrier to relationship went up. We went from naked and unashamed to hidden and full of shame, and ever since then, we’ve continued to put up barriers to relationships, as broken people raising defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from harm. The result of course, is that we end up harming our relationships with God and with each other…wars, murders, fights, broken friendships, all because we choose not to trust but seek instead to protect ourselves from harm, when the risk and trust of relationship is really the only thing that can heal us. So in order to heal us, God gives us the very risk and trust of relationship that we so desperately need. God gives us himself, naked and unashamed, vulnerable as a newborn baby: Jesus, born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph, a young couple, faithful and kind. They were not great rulers. They had no great power to offer God any great protection once he became human. God decided to trust us with the vulnerability of his human life, offering us his vulnerable, naked, and unashamed self, trusting in nothing more than the care of two loving and faithful parents. See, God wants us to love and trust him and so God chose to love and trust us. God also knows that life is hard, and knows we’re not always great at trusting anyone, especially someone who hasn’t walked in our shoes. So, God became human to say, “I love you, and I think you humans are pretty fantastic. So I am going to show up in your life, naked and unashamed, so that you can trust me, and if you will allow it, I will take down all of the barriers that you have put up.” That’s what Christmas is all about. That’s a pretty serious deal, God healing humanity by becoming one of us. At the same time, I have to think that for the creator of everything to become human, he’s got to be kind of crazy, whimsical, fun too. Imagine God as a toddler walking around in his creation, living amongst his beloved humans, constantly delighted by what’s around him. Imagine 2 year old Jesus running around constantly thinking, “This place is great! Look at that tree; I love that tree. Ooh, a lake! I think I’ll go swimming or maybe walking.” The very fact of the incarnation, God’s crazy notion to become human and live here with us shows us just how fantastic it is to be living here on this earth and that in God’s eyes, we really are pretty fantastic. We also need to remember of course, that life is also not always fantastic, that life is sometimes rather terrible, that we are sometimes rather terrible, and on Christmas we celebrate that Jesus came to live that part of our life too. God gets the messy parts of our lives, the times in our lives and world when things are far from fantastic. Jesus claimed even those bad times and those bad parts of our lives as his own when he became human. That’s what Christmas is all about. The greatest gift God ever gave us was the gift of God’s-self. God gave us the gift of being naked and unashamed with us, loving and trusting us so that we might once again be naked and unashamed with him and with each other. The greatest gift we can give each other, then, is the gift of ourselves, fully living, loving and trusting one another. Jesus became human so that we could love each other in and through the bad times and the good times, and then see each other and see this world and think, “this is fantastic.” Jesus became human so that we could remove our barriers, trust each other and trust God, and then love fully, love with whimsy, love on a lark. That’s what Christmas is all about. Amen.

Brad Sullivan Christmas Eve, Year A December 24, 2016 Emmanuel, Houston Luke 2:1-14(15-20) Becoming Human On A Lark And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. Every time I hear Luke’s telling of Jesus’ birth, I hear Linus telling the Christmas story to Charlie Brown, letting him know what Christmas is really all about. Christmas is about the joy of God becoming human and how fantastic it is that God thinks highly enough of us, love us enough, that he actually wanted to be one of us. How crazy is that? How great, but is God just totally nuts? Maybe. Now, rumor has it that becoming human: living, dying, being resurrected for our sake, was always part of God’s plan, but what if it started on a lark, kind of just a crazy, whimsical idea? Imagine Jesus, before becoming human, saying to his Father: Jesus: Dad, you know how much we love those humans? Father: Yeah, Son. I do. Jesus: Have you ever thought about how great it would be to actually be one of them? Father: What do you mean, Son? Jesus: Well, we love them so much, I’d really like to be one of them, like how people share their lives and experiences with each other, and they draw nearer to each other through sharing their lives together. You know how you’re always wanting humans to draw nearer to you? Well, how much nearer can you get? We become one of them. Father: (considers for a moment) You know, that’s really not a bad idea. Let’s see what the Spirit says. You’ve been listening, I take it? Holy Spirit: Of course I have, and I think it’s a lovely idea. Connect with them, show them how much we care. You know, it may even be a chance to redeem them. Jesus: Hey. Father: Hmm, you know that’s a heck of an idea, something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Holy Spirit: I know you have. Father: They separated themselves from us in the Garden. Jesus: So we join ourselves back to them by becoming one of them. Father: Hmm…except there’s still that sin problem. Holy Spirit: Oh, there you go again. Father: Well, it’s a big problem. Holy Spirit: I know it is. Father: They keep hurting each other, hurting themselves, putting up barriers between each other, barriers between them and us. Holy Spirit: Uh huh. (kind of patronizing) Father: We are love. We don’t have any barriers between us. It’s not like we can have Jesus go out there and sin. Holy Spirit: I know. Father: (sigh, exasperated) All I ever wanted was for them to love each other like we love our-self, like we love them. It gets very frustrating. Holy Spirit: Well you know, if he becomes human, Jesus could join with all of their sins in his death. Jesus: Wait, what? Father: Oh, now you’re talking. We could somehow pour all of humanity’s sins onto him so even their sins won’t separate them from us. Jesus: Um…guys, I’m not so sure… Holy Spirit: It’d have to be a memorable death, too, something gruesome… Jesus: Ok guys, hold it. I was thinking of something simple, like a little weekend tryst… Father: Oh, no that wouldn’t do. You’d need to do the whole thing, you know, grow up, be born… Jesus: Ewe! You’re joking, right? You’ve seen how that whole birth thing happens? Father: You said you love them. Jesus: Oye! They are awfully cute. Ok, full deal. When do you think I should be born? The 1970s had really good music, Star Wars…no, late 1940s, early 50s England. I‘ll grow up with David Bowie. It’ll be awesome. Father: Oh Son, I’ve got just the place. Ok, so lest I lead us all into heresy forever, I pretty sure that conversation never took place, but I love the idea of God becoming human, of Jesus being born, on a lark, as someone who really loves someone else and simply wants to spend more time with them. That’s what Christmas is all about. God saying to humanity, “I love you, and I’d really like to spend more time with you.” That may seem awfully simple, but I believe nothing in creation has greater healing power than relationship and love. In Eden, we walked with God, naked and unashamed. There were no barriers to our relationships with God and no barriers to our relationships with one another. Over time then, we kept on and keep on putting up more and more barriers to each other. Initially, we decided that we wanted knowledge: Adam and Even ate from the tree of knowledge. There was much unknown in creation and the fear of the unknown began gnawing at us, eroding our trust in God, until we decided that we desired knowledge more that trust, and the first barrier to relationship was raised. Then we felt ashamed for what we had done and so we hid, and we covered ourselves with fig leaves, and the next barrier to relationship went up. Then God came and found us and asked what had happened, and we lied, passing the buck onto the serpent, passing the buck onto Eve, rather than fessing up to our fears and our lack of trust, and so another barrier to relationship went up. We went from naked and unashamed to hidden and full of shame, and ever since then, we’ve continued to put up barriers to relationships, as broken people raising defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from harm. The result of course, is that we end up harming our relationships with God and with each other…wars, murders, fights, broken friendships, all because we choose not to trust but seek instead to protect ourselves from harm, when the risk and trust of relationship is really the only thing that can heal us. So in order to heal us, God gives us the very risk and trust of relationship that we so desperately need. God gives us himself, naked and unashamed, vulnerable as a newborn baby: Jesus, born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph, a young couple, faithful and kind. They were not great rulers. They had no great power to offer God any great protection once he became human. God decided to trust us with the vulnerability of his human life, offering us his vulnerable, naked, and unashamed self, trusting in nothing more than the care of two loving and faithful parents. See, God wants us to love and trust him and so God chose to love and trust us. God also knows that life is hard, and knows we’re not always great at trusting anyone, especially someone who hasn’t walked in our shoes. So, God became human to say, “I love you, and I think you humans are pretty fantastic. So I am going to show up in your life, naked and unashamed, so that you can trust me, and if you will allow it, I will take down all of the barriers that you have put up.” That’s what Christmas is all about. That’s a pretty serious deal, God healing humanity by becoming one of us. At the same time, I have to think that for the creator of everything to become human, he’s got to be kind of crazy, whimsical, fun too. Imagine God as a toddler walking around in his creation, living amongst his beloved humans, constantly delighted by what’s around him. Imagine 2 year old Jesus running around constantly thinking, “This place is great! Look at that tree; I love that tree. Ooh, a lake! I think I’ll go swimming or maybe walking.” The very fact of the incarnation, God’s crazy notion to become human and live here with us shows us just how fantastic it is to be living here on this earth and that in God’s eyes, we really are pretty fantastic. We also need to remember of course, that life is also not always fantastic, that life is sometimes rather terrible, that we are sometimes rather terrible, and on Christmas we celebrate that Jesus came to live that part of our life too. God gets the messy parts of our lives, the times in our lives and world when things are far from fantastic. Jesus claimed even those bad times and those bad parts of our lives as his own when he became human. That’s what Christmas is all about. The greatest gift God ever gave us was the gift of God’s-self. God gave us the gift of being naked and unashamed with us, loving and trusting us so that we might once again be naked and unashamed with him and with each other. The greatest gift we can give each other, then, is the gift of ourselves, fully living, loving and trusting one another. Jesus became human so that we could love each other in and through the bad times and the good times, and then see each other and see this world and think, “this is fantastic.” Jesus became human so that we could remove our barriers, trust each other and trust God, and then love fully, love with whimsy, love on a lark. That’s what Christmas is all about. Amen.

Sometimes even with our best efforts, because of our society it can derail our thought-life. Today’s guests know that all too well. Mordechai and Ilana have 4 children and are observant Jews, in fact Hasidic Jews.   Usually my guests are Christian, but I felt they had such helpful insight for us, that I had to have them on. It’s also incredibly encouraging to hear about the culture in which Jesus came and the background from which Paul wrote his letters.   You might not agree with all that is said and you might not want to include every idea into your lifestyle. But, I deeply believe this conversation will edify you and help you to love God and His gift of Jesus SO much more. All the links, resources, and show notes available at: delightyourmarriage.com/105

Why is it we believe more in ourselves than in Jesus? So often we think Jesus just won't help me because of some reason or another. Thats funny! Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. No one that ever came to Jesus for help did He turn down. Stop trying to be the first. Your unbelief will only delay your miracles that you need right now. Jesus will not every run out of love for you nor miracles. He said He would do more miracles that you may MARVEL! Are we done marveling at creation? Has the beauty of God's Creation suddenly become boring? I don't think so! Start looking for God's help and your miracle, TODAY!