Saturday, March 31, 2007

Studyin' w/ Lena's Journalin' Today to 3rd John - Who's voice Do you heed sheep or shepards?

There are friendships and there are friendships.
Our language is so narrow in it’s expression, people call their dog their best friend and then call a lifelong school chum a friend and them call their neighbor a friend and then call the dearest and closest person to their heart in life a friends also. We all know there are casual acquaintances and there are friendly friends, personal friends, then also co-worker relationships and then there are friendships that are based in the Spirit and the Word and live and grow there. This is the type expressed here. What else in life here on earth is as important as a relationship based upon mutual agreement and understanding of a continued growth in the spirit? There is really no deeper relationship in this life than that which is based on spiritual understanding. John is expressing the joy of a relationship based on Jesus as Lord.
There is no greater joy when a parent raises a child in the natural or in the spirit, and they become a son, and then a friend. Friends see eye to eye.
Is God our Father in the sense of He birthed us according to the spirit? Has He been able to raise us up yet? Then do we submit ourselves to His will and to the will of others He has set up in our lives to help lead and teach us? Have we grown into sons who willingly obey the Father to any extent? Lastly, do we see eye to eye and face to face with God? In that, we will have grown through stages and become as Abraham was, the friend of God. What greater joy a Father has to know His children submit themselves to the growth process, and thus are walking a walk of truth!
Vs 7 is quite interesting, for there are places in scripture that say the wealth of sinful men is laid up for the righteous to have and use. This is saying those who carry the burden of strictly working with and for God, with the spreading of the gospel message, have decided to not rely on men for food, clothing, or shelter, but have decided to put their trust in God through the avenue of the blessings from hearts of love of His people. We who get money by working for men, should be thinking towards storing up a bit of what we’ve worked for to contribute to the efforts of those who sow the word day in and out faithfully. In that we become a part of that work also.
Do you love to be the leader? Think about it before you quickly answer no.
Ask yourself, Do I mostly do what I want in life? Do you spend your time like you choose, spend your money as you choose, go when you want, stay when you want? Lead yourself through each day? Or are others allowed to initiate other activities into your schedules that are inconvenient to you and you lovingly adjust to their additions? This true attitude is found in the heart’s responses to changes made in what we have made our own plans for. Are your own plans easily adjusted, changed or even canceled? This is a good gage to see who the true leader is.
Another gage of you being your own leader would be, who’s voice do you listen to and follow after? A Shepard’s voice or that of another sheep? Who do you tend to go after, what the sheep has said to you, maybe even about the flock or Shepard? Or what the Shepard and other leaders have said? Are you in the center, on the inside of the pasture, or are you on the outskirts and wandering, wondering what to do and which way to go? Has your ear been lent to accusations against leaders? Do you speak ill of leaders?
If so, you are your own leader! You are also out in Wolfville and it is no one’s fault if you get hurt or divided out there, but yours. You choose to be “out there”. In fact, you probably had many choices up to this point, to follow Shepard’s, but for some reason you led yourself a lot more than you listened to what others said. Now you’re “out there”, you’re uncovered, uncommitted, unprotected, and about to be devoured. Satan roams about as a roaring lion, seeking who he is able to devour. Those on the outskirts, especially those who are there observing and spending a lot of time in deciding whether to be in the center or not, are the ones devoured first. Thoes in the center are protected.
Did you k now, you cannot successfully protect yourself. God set it up that way on purpose!
Get back into the center, before you are a contentious one. Follow, and don’t lead even yourself until you’ve been following faithfully for sometime.
Listen just being “a Christian” or going to church for years, does NOT mean you are a leader or a follower, either. These are heart issues. Remember God looks on the heart. You being on the outside shows where your heart is, your unwillingness to listen to a Shepard is evidence you have a heart issue that needs tending to. Your willingness to listen to and be convinced against shepards with sheep voices heeded is a serious heart issue, God will not deal with you or it, at all if you do not ask Him humbly or willingly submit yourself to the dealings. He’ll allow the enemy to devour you by your freewill choices.
Don’t allow bad examples to influence you.
Speaking ill of any leadership at anytime is a bad example!!!!! You know it is.
It does not even matter if they are wrong or not. Do you not believe God is great enough to correct wrongs, or are you the appointed one? The issue is this, you can’t trust God when a person is wrong, can you? This is always the issue. It is an authority issue, your issue shows up with men, but it is an issue with God.
Why do you have to settle every argument? (The reason I can say this today is this is where I was at, I repented of this serious heart problem and now know I must trust God, especially in the hardest of areas).
If I care how I speak about leaders, I care about how I honor God. If I care for the sheep and the bad influence in spreading a bad heart issue, I also care about my own relationship with God. If I give to those who do not deserve it, in my eyes, I am showing I trust God anyway! I am demonstrating my faith in Him who is greater than any situation. I want His blessings on both my life, and others’ lives, especially those I follow and support.
If I speak ill against one group of leaders, I’ll do it in other areas of my life, like my boss, or husband, or…..you name it. It is a heart issue that we will all stand before God on. He’s asking us to rise up now and be willing to clean the slate now, then we won’t have to stand before Him guilty of that, later on.
Repentance is the only way out of that. Repentance is getting face to face, eye to eye, and saying, “God You are right, I agree with You, and no matter how hard it is, I’m going forward, Your way! I trust You and refuse to trust my own self. I love You enough to obey You and Your word as the first word in my life.”
Our life before God is known by the fruit. The fruit, either good or bad, is a symptom for us to see that we need to steer this way or that, change or remain under influencers or not.
Who’s voice do you, as a sheep, follow? Not just Jesus The Great Shepard, but any earthly shepards also? Or a whole lot of other sheep?

3rd John Today's Daily Bread Reading

Greetings
1 This letter is from John, the elder.
I am writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth.

2 Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. 3 Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. 4 I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.

Caring for the Lord’s Workers
5 Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. 7 For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. 8 So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth.
9 I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us. 10 When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church.

11 Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

12 Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth.

Conclusion
13 I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to write it with pen and ink. 14 For I hope to see you soon, and then we will talk face to face.
15 Peace be with you.

Your friends here send you their greetings. Please give my personal greetings to each of our friends there.

Friday, March 30, 2007

Studyin' 1 Peter 4 W/ Lena's Journalin' for Today

Do you understand true love is proven to be true through trials and testing? It is not known as true love, unless proven by fire. God does not want love from us in word only, just as we do not expect love from Him in word only.
He willingly suffered to demonstrate His great love for us. He tells us to prove Him, and we do. When we received Him, because we believed Him, we felt we’d be blessed by Him, because we were blessed by who we were drawn to and believed that what we saw in Him was glorious and it drew us to love Him. We loved what we saw He’d so willingly done FOR us.
In that courtship, decisions for a lifetime were made, we did not see much on the side of reciprocal love, like our minds were not necessarily flooded with thoughts of what we could do for Him, which they could have and should have been, and for some, maybe they were. But, we loved Him because we first sensed how great His love for us was/is.
Love must always go through the proof of fire. If it comes through purified, it is true. Suffering is like fire. This causes me to think of Job’s firey trials, and losses, and horrible suffering of spirit, soul and body. Jesus also suffered, in Spirit, soul and body. Both Job & Jesus came out with resurrected life. The question to us today is, will we? Will we even submit ourselves to the trial willingly? Will we find our love for and faith in Him, are gold, or wood, hay, stubble? It must be shown to both us and to God of which composition we are.
It is so much better to find this out during our earth lives, than to burn eternally because we were untried here.
How do trials come? That which proves us? Jesus said, not My will, Lord, but Yours be done, accomplished in and through My life and My death. That started the process. One’s dependency must be tried to be truly in Him.
Let the world try us, they are far more merciful than God. And they may kill off the body, but if tried to be true in faith, they can never have the spirit! Mockery? He is our judge. If they mock us wrongly now, it will be shown later on, in His light. I may not be justified now, but that’s ok, I don’t have to be, just as Jesus did not have to be. He knew His place in God’s heart and that is what mattered. Is that what matters to me, or do I have to be proven right in the here and now, and in the eyes of men?
The house of God should be willingly judged and found to be in Him, even if the finding only happens in a personal part of the heart. If the one being judged finds his heart is truly all God’s, and is humbly all after the Lordship of Christ, that judgment was worth its scrutinization.
When a Christian is persecuted, it probably means he is advancing. He is taking back territory for the Kingdom of God. The enemy gets angry at that. Those who do not take much spiritual ground for the Lord Jesus Christ, do not have a whole lot of opposition!
Now I said enemy opposition, not consequences of the flesh for wrong decisions made, or evil actions having to be paid for. I’m talking onslaught, attacks with no cause.
Who do we trust? Trust is a key issue behind most every action. We say, In God we trust. Those words will be proven to us personally, and to the world around us also. For the world to see Christians tried, and proven, is a God thing. We should withstand in the evil day, and come out shining His glory. They should be able to stand back and see what happens to us, to see if they want to be a part of God’s eternal family also.

1 Peter 4

Living for God
1 So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin. 2 You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. 3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.
4 Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you. 5 But remember that they will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead. 6 That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead—so although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.

7 The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.

10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

Suffering for Being a Christian
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. 13 Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
14 So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. 15 If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. 16 But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! 17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? 18 And also,

“If the righteous are barely saved,
what will happen to godless sinners?”

19 So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Study Time w/ Lena's Journalin' To Roman's 12 Today

This morning as I read this, I realize some of us have been convinced of a lie. That being, if we make any and all kinds of sacrifices to God, He is well pleased.
This is not the whole truth. The enemy likes to take some truth and expound on it, he has done this for ages.
Those who listen to his exaggerations, become deceived.
Religion is a tool in the hands of the evil one sent to deceive those who do believe in God and Jesus. If the enemy can keep people religious, he has won a war for the hearts of men. Religion is based on deeds, actions, performance, and good works, that the contributor has somehow perceived make one look good; either before the eyes of the world, or before God.
God is Great, and he sees way beyond any deeds, actions, or performances. He looks at the heart, and that is the part of us He is after, the whole heart, not the half heart, and the whole heart freely and willingly given to Him, because of faith and in response to His great extended love.
So what is higher than sacrifices made? Obedience is, given willingly.
What is the difference?
One can do a sacrifice without the will to do it being involved. A sacrifice can be a good work done to rack up what one perceives as a spiritual point before God. God does not keep score of anything that is not freely offered of a freewill that is not acting out of a revelation with corresponding action of that revelation, and an outward reciprocation of that love.
A Living sacrifice?
With Old Testament sacrifices, people had to work for money or barter to purchase an animal suitable to the measure of the offense they’d participated in before God. Then they’d have to take the animal sacrifice to the house of the Lord and have the priest slit it’s throat, drain the blood out, and stand before God in that person’s place, asking for mercy for himself and for the persons and then burn the animal you just bought and brought as an offering for your sin. Of course you did not have to do this if you did not care about obeying God or being in right standing with Him. That was up to you to spend your time and money and life this way, in constant need of others to stand for in you, in constant need of working to buy sacrifice offerings for your sins.
If a person was supernaturally clean and did not sin, did they have to go buy anything with their time and money to bring to the house of the Lord? Did they even have to go? Did they even appreciate the priest? Could they bring God a freewill sacrifice or offering if they just desired to, for no reason at all except to give a gift, a token of thanksgiving? They could give a gift to and for the house of God, if they thought to and wanted to, out of no obligation to offer it. They could work, go buy an animal or fruit or other food items, or gold or jewels, and take it as a gift to the house of the Lord, if they thought to or wanted to take the time to do that.
Let’s look at some definitions here…

. http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/S/SACRIFICE%2C+IN+THE+OLD+TESTAMENT%2C+3/
The emphasis is laid on obedience, without which sacrifices are worthless and repugnant to God, but repudiates the idea of giving anything to God or of feeding Him. Everything already belongs to Him, He is not hungry, He would scorn the idea of drinking the blood of goats, etc ….When the heart is right, then, as an expression of true-heartedness, devotion, repentance and faith…..burnt offerings are highly acceptable sacrifices that meant worship, which is a complex exercise of the soul
Free-will offering - Free-will offering a spontaneous gift (Ex. 35:29), a voluntary sacrifice (Lev. 22:23; Ezra 3:5), as opposed to one in consequence of a vow, or in expiation of some offence.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/freewill%20offering


So this New Testament scripture today says, “I beg of you dear brethren in Christ, let’s offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice…..”!!!!
Huh?
Wait a minute, you know what sacrifice means, right? It does not usually mean - live. In fact in the OT, once something was offered up, it was also burned up. Consumed, brought to nothing, did not look like it did when it was brought in at all, no resemblance of the former in the latter.
Another thing, sacrifices were not asked of humans, humans bring the sacrifices to God, they buy something that represents them, and it takes the place of them being offered up.
So, did I read this right? You, human, person who is alive right now, offer your own body up on an altar of sacrifice? Ew boy.
Vaut iz de author of dis saying exactly?
Give
Freely
Willingly
Give
Buy what costs you everything, and don’t sell out cheaply for anything.
Bring yourself to God’s House willingly, as often as the call goes out, be willing to be in the house. When you are not assembling with other believers in the house of God, be the living, breathing house of God, demonstrating His kingdom come on earth with arms and legs.
Live Christ. Be as He is, in demonstration, as an exact replica, better than a carbon copy.
Be willing to do what it takes, to become as He was while He was on earth, as we are now. Cause His earth life demonstration to be fruitful in you. Perpetuate that. Get saved, healed, and delivered. Be a witness of His life on earth and His resurrection and ascension.
Don’t say that kind of lifestyle is for an elect few, and I’m not one of those. Change into His image and likeness! Willingly, not because you are told you need to or have to.
Forgive, as He forgave, willingly. You choose Him, because you love Him, are responding to Him, and want to be His servant while you are on the earth.
Where would Christ’s body go, what would He do, who would He join Himself to? Would he sit and watch TV all night every night for days on end with no governor? Would He be intimate with a lady (or a man) He is not married to? Would he cheat at work or on His taxes or break the laws of the land with no regard to the authorities set around us by God His Father? Or Would he believe in all He does His body is not His own, but is a representative of His Father on earth?
I believe when this is saying don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to, it is speaking of examining and judging ourselves in light of and according to the Divinely High standard of the Words of God.
Many of us like to justify ourselves and measure our rights and wrongs, and we seem to do so according to how our culture or society measures them. If we live by our own standard or a world standard, we’ll never reach for the prize through obedient action, that our Lord has for us, which really is more and more of Him in a closer walk with Him. In measuring ourselves like the world does, we get closer to the world and its ways and we distance ourselves further and further from God’s kingdom rule.
I’ve heard people use this scripture to say, “Yeah, see the Bible does say don’t judge people and they are judging me wrongly, they shouldn’t judge!”
Let me help you in that. It’d be better to be judged wrongly by the harshest human judge here on earth, especially a brother or sister in the faith, than to settle up with God Most High in eternity. Any judgments here are nowhere as strict as His standards are. Even Jesus allowed sinful men to wrongly accuse and judge Him without speaking a word of retaliation. He stood righteously before His Father in love, and as a willing living sacrifice.
Let me give an example: Maybe someone at home or at work says you are impatient, you take it as a criticism, you don’t like being criticized, you justify yourself and even argue with them, maybe you send a criticism back their way, telling them what you’ve thought of some of their behaviors, but just hadn’t voiced it yet. Now you have an ill feeling about them and you feel they are judging you.
Can you find any ounce of truth in their criticism? Would you be willing to hear the truth out of it, even if it was delivered in the wrong spirit? Could you lay down pride next time they came in to lay another criticism on you and say something like, “Ya know, you are so right, I haven’t been as patient as I could be. I apologize for offending you with my lack of patience”?
They won’t know what or who hit them!
What about if you sit in a Bible study group and something is said that you have struggled with and can’t seem to measure up to yet? Maybe you have a habit you can’t seem to break, that you’ve not yet surrendered to the Lordship of Christ in. Maybe you have not grown up into a greater faith in Him, believing His power is available for you to garb a hold of now and you haven’t yet seen by revelation of the spirit that His word is at work even in your physical body to overcome a habit or an illness, etc. Just because you have not arrived there does not mean the minister has judged you. It means God is calling and offering you another opportunity for change and growth. Look at what was said, is it true about your situation? Does it apply? Is His power great enough to cause a human to overcome in that area? Can you make a withdrawal of that appropriated power, if you believe? Can you do all things through Christ? I did not say are you yet, I said, can you?
It would be better to be “judged” now in it than to stand before God in eternal judgment where He may very well say, ”Why did you not believe in the power I offered you to overcome? Was My Son’s sacrificing not enough for your problem or situation or to overcome a habit?”
At that time, we will see whether we choose fear as a motivator rather than faith, and weakness over the given strength of Christ alive and readily available in us. There will be absolutely no excuses except that we made freewill choices for or against God and His word.
What about being an active part of your own local church? What kept you from being who you are created to be now in the earth for the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived to think someone is not giving you a place by not giving you a title to minister under.
Come under them, wash their feet, serve their vision and ministry. God gives most ministers a vision way greater than they can do themselves. He does that so that He can gather and assemble a people together for training and see if others are willing to submit what they’ve seen alone, and plant it as an offering that may get consumed inside of the vision of a corporate visionary. He does it to prove our character before presenting us to the greater world than just our neighborhoods. If we never serve locally, don’t expect to fulfill that prophecy that was given you or told you, the one that said something like, you’ll go into missions and serve the world’s peoples.
God wills to send sons out into the world, not children, who are barely learning to obey Him and won’t serve anyone but themselves. He needs His ministry on earth to be solid and successful. He does not want the peoples of the world to be a trail and error platform for immature ones to play games on. He uses the local church to prove us and then if we submit ourselves to that proving, he has fathers present proven sons to a lost world in need of healing. If a person does not exercise faith to heal his own household, why would he have faith to heal the world and be able to take back spiritual territory that belongs to God. A person has as much authority operating in them as they submit themselves unto.
Why would one not operate in a gift provide them by the spirit of Christ? Intimidation, fear, lack of motivation, lack of faith? In God’s eyes, whatever is not of faith, is sin. The world’s systems may tell us we just aren’t outgoing, but God commissioned each believer to go out and preach His words. The world may say, it’s ok to be shy, but shyness is actually pride manifested in an opposite form of arrogance. It is polite arrogance, which is a mask, because those who hide behind it are actually offending God, by not believing in His strength to overcome and they are not in love with Him enough yet to obey Him. He said, “My perfect love casts out all fear”. Fear and intimidation and timidity, are the same. They keep us from doing and being what God has made each of us to be.
We sing, “It’s all about you, Jesus…” yet when God looks at our lives and what we hold back from Him, is it about Him or about us and our comfort? The Holy Spirit came to move man outside of Himself and out of his old comfort zones. He is all the comfort we need. To stroke fear as a comforter, is to play with God’s enemy.

Romans 12 Today

A Living Sacrifice to God
1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
3 Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

9 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. 11 Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. 12 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 13 When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. 15 Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!

17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. 18 Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

19 Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,

“I will take revenge;
I will pay them back,”
says the Lord.

20 Instead,

“If your enemies are hungry, feed them.
If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap
burning coals of shame on their heads.”

21 Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Lena's Study Journalin' to 1 Cor 11 Today _ who is your Father-father? Your Mother-mother? Covering? Willingly

Imitate a man?
So many would say no thank you. So many would cringe at that thought, so many do not even want to be like their parents are, in our day.
My family and I were talking the other night about how people who had the last names of their trades, how “The Smiths” used to be the family who ran the blacksmith business in the town or community. The business boasted proudly of being generations strong. You grew up in training and under the apprenticeship of a father-brother-uncle situation, where this is so understood that this is what we do, and even stronger than that was the understanding of this is who we are. There weren’t other considerations or options.
We were taught in this model to trust God, and the order he’d set up for us in the family units, and we did not question that He had obviously chosen for us the family in which we were born in. We left it up to Him who we became by trade, within that household and the community we were planted in by family and by birth.
Now we hardly know who we are, don’t want anyone else to tell us which way to head, won’t follow anyone else, and are our own persons. We wait till after 13 years of school, to decide what we might like to think of becoming on our own. Then we pay tons of money to learn how to enter that career field and maybe become what we paid to do and be. The children and adults are confused and no one likes to work for anyone else, all want to be their own bosses!
What a free society we now live in! We don’t have to follow anyone’s lead, model our lives around anyone else, or do what anyone tells us to. There are no copies, no fathers, no mothers. We absolutely do not have to come under a fathering or a mothering spirit, and most would say that anything that even resembles that is dictatorial or controlling. You absolutely do not have to be controlled or dictated to by anyone, but you can.
What?
You could submit yourself to the leadership of someone else. You could learn from others. You could be fathered and mothered, especially in your faith. You could even learn the trade of someone else, and walk alongside of them, learning as you go and take over a business, but you don’t have to. Only if you want to. It’s always up to us what we do and do not do. The will is a very strong force to be reckoned with, and God is such a gentleman in nature that He usually lets us have our way. As we have our way and make our own decisions, he also allows us to live with the set of circumstances we set ourselves up for in our decisions too.
Repentance to the following of His lead, is the only thing to straighten up the messes we’ve created for ourselves. We can only have a bit of relief here and there without repentance, but to solve the problem, and make the necessary changes takes a complete turn around inside of going back and willingly following His designed order.
Paul makes an offer to freewill humans here: Follow me, a mere man, as I attempt as best I can, to follow Christ! Trust God enough to follow a man, love a man, and learn from a man. If the man fails or hurts you, you have a Holy Father above who is great enough to repair whatever it is that happened inside of you. Your source of happiness or fulfillment is not in man, it is wholeheartedly in Christ, and He never fails anyone, ever. Being that secure in Him, we can extend our souls to come under men.
We willingly come under men, because God said to (probably one of those issues where trust is proven) and coming inside of that order, things come into alignment that never would without that trust factor being activated. Even angels stand at attention to that action, for they understand authority and rule. Anointing is released, because a man had enough faith in God to do His word, even to the risk of that man possibly being hurt, believing God is great enough to heal any wounds, and that they can be made to be string enough in Him to withstand any evil plot, even canceling appointments with evil, due to obedience, which releases a blessing of protection.
“A man ought not have his head covered”. This means that a man, who so chooses, becomes vulnerable before God. He trusts God enough, to willingly expose himself to what he’s been told are his enemies. He does not set up His own self protecting fortress, he surrenders to God’s word and humbles himself. He’s correctable and pliable in God’s mighty hands. He allows other men to guide him here on earth, he is teachable. He willingly submits his life under the Lordship of Christ. The lordship of Christ means, Christ tells Him what to do, where to go, who to be around or not, where to live work, play, etc. He believes he is not his own person, living here for the building up of his own kingdom. He realizes that he is here on assignment for a short time, as an ambassador of God’s kingdom. He is God’s man, God’s servant-leader, not because someone set up a bunch of rules and regulations around him, but because he put himself willingly under the hand of others lead and dared to act as a son would act towards fathers or mothers. He’s willingly under command, and in so being, God is setting Him up by instruction in an “apprenticeship program” of the spiritual,l eternal kingdom order. God designed this order to train him in oder to make him a ruler over territories, in the spirit. The angels (both good and evil) know this person by the actions of his everyday life. He is marked for and by God!
The woman knows all of the above, and is able to honor the man she places her life under the leadership of. She understands head covering for her is her fortress and protection. (P.S. hair is only symbolic of a visible statement of what is going on positionally as one places their life under another, but order of command, understanding rank and rule in the spirit). This order is Divine order, it is not designed by men. Men have mimicked it for us to see in militaries, because it has worked well, for everyone knows their positions and then they can easily at any beck and call, engage against an enemy. Yes, exactly! She understands this, and knows God has put them in this ranking system because of angelic protection and because of enemy powers in alignment against the family model and unit. She understands if the man does not see the above place of rule that is ok, she must stay in her place under God, until he does see it. She prays he will see it and submit himself to the vulnerability of it through a trusting relationship of His eternal Father. She isn’t there, in her place because he deserves for her to be under him, she is there because of her own love and trust of God. If she stays there, he;;l be able to get there faster than if the whole family had to get there.
Why is this important? Because of the angels.
The angels know order better than any human does. The forces of evil would love for men to never ever know or understand this order. Where there is no alignment or order there is chaos and every evil work is allowed to manifest. This is a tactic of the enemy in warfare, even natural warfare. Confuse the ranks, or take out the leaders and you have weakened the forces and can so easily come in and take over.
Why else has the enemy succeeded in almost disintegrating the family order on earth? Why else do people not come under other people? Why else are fathers and mothers absent when needed to raise children? Why else does he offer us money instead of family life? He is not ignorant, but we have been and we perish for what we do not know.
Time to awaken, discern the body of the Lord properly, heed the words of God, forgive men, and get in our proper positions, no matter how deserving of the rank, anyone is. God set up the ranks. Honor God, trust God, and get in line to save your family. This is the main way to fight. When a person, and then a relationship, and then a household, gets in alignment, God moves for them, God confuses their enemies, God rules on their behalf!
Sickness, disease, mental anguish, weakness, these are all taken care of, when a body gets in proper alignment. Some of these symptoms are our spirits crying out within us, asking us to please line up.
Chiropractors say when a person gets in line, all kinds of healing is released! It is true, so true.
Judge rightly, asking,” am I in line today, am I submitted to God’s word enough to willingly submit myself to God, my husband, my pastors, leaders, boss, or parents?”
If we judge ourselves this way, we won’t be a subject of the mockery of hypocrisy. We will stand as a person of order before the eyes of God, with no shame of being an independent one outside of the design of God’s Holy Kingdom both in our earth and in our heavenly assignments.
When we eat the bread, and drink the cup of the Lord (yes Master) Jesus, we say, to heaven and hell, “Lord, I recognize Your Divine design and I place myself in that design willingly. I wiling respond to that Divine design and order, and I stand inside of my God ordered position, willingly”.
We refuse to be independent of God and of people. We bring together for repair any separations. We refuse to allow divisions inside or among us, for we see ourselves unified as a member of the holy armies of God. We assemble as He has chosen, because we understand it is He who chooses for us and we who get to demonstrate a willingness to submit to those He has chosen for us. We don’t go to the church of our choice or love the family of our choice, or the boss of our choice, we’ve chosen Him and have allowed Him to choose for us who we’ll love and obey.
We do not follow strange order, independent of the word of God. We do not follow strange voices that tell us we’re fine alone and can do whatever we want to in life. We know we can do what we want, but we choose to do what He wants, for we see the greater eternal picture we are so actively and willingly involved in.
We eat that bread and drink that cup of blessing, we remember this order and our positions in it, until the Lord comes and makes a new order.

1 Corinthians 11 Today

1 11:1 And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.

Instructions for Public Worship
2 I am so glad that you always keep me in your thoughts, and that you are following the teachings I passed on to you. 3 But there is one thing I want you to know: The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 A man dishonors his head if he covers his head while praying or prophesying. 5 But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head. 6 Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair! But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or her head shaved, she should wear a covering.
7 A man should not wear anything on his head when worshiping, for man is made in God’s image and reflects God’s glory. And woman reflects man’s glory. 8 For the first man didn’t come from woman, but the first woman came from man. 9 And man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man. 10 For this reason, and because the angels are watching, a woman should wear a covering on her head to show she is under authority.
11 But among the Lord’s people, women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women. 12 For although the first woman came from man, every other man was born from a woman, and everything comes from God.
13 Judge for yourselves. Is it right for a woman to pray to God in public without covering her head? 14 Isn’t it obvious that it’s disgraceful for a man to have long hair? 15 And isn’t long hair a woman’s pride and joy? For it has been given to her as a covering. 16 But if anyone wants to argue about this, I simply say that we have no other custom than this, and neither do God’s other churches.
Order at the Lord’s Supper
17 But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. 18 First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. 19 But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!
20 When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper. 21 For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk. 22 What? Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this!
23 For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.
31 But if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way. 32 Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
33 So, my dear brothers and sisters, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other. 34 If you are really hungry, eat at home so you won’t bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Studying Luke 10 together, Lena's Journalin'

Mary or Martha? What is the difference between these sisters in this moment of demonstration? Choice. Jesus said Mary has chosen the better part.
Everyday, all day long is filled with choices. Do we choose the better part? Or do we see the better part, head that direction and then get distracted by other parts along the way? Are we able to see vision far enough and clear enough to go after it in focused form, and work for it now because of what we see will come to pass later on? Are we able to set other things aside for its pursuit? Does its passion drive us in one direction, or the lack of passion take us all over the place, trying this and that out, all the while getting off track and forgetting who we are, what we’re here for, and quite possibly what we’re doing?
Gotta know purpose, will, and destiny.
I used to think each man had a purpose, like a career field or something. Now I see each man has the very same purpose in life, each one the same. The same words of God over all men. Universe =’s one word.
Love God, love people. To know one’s eternal Father, and to make His eternal Father known, to a lost and eternally dying world, whichever part of it we already live and work in.
I don’t believe we have to work in a certain career field to fulfill His purposes. I believe in whichever job and community we live and work in, we can be who we are purposed to be. The only obstacle is our passion level. It is freewill choice. It is revelation.
He is providing revelation today for whoever will receive it, by believing it.
How does God know you want revelation? He knows by what he sees us do. What He tells you, you believe and you do something to play it out. You are willing to apply action to faith, showing God with the living proof of your life’s obedience that you believe Him at His words. These are those who see more.
Jesus said, “to he who has, will receive more and more, but to him who won’t see; even what he saw will be taken from him. He’s not on guard. It isn’t important to him, if it was, he’d apply it actively.
Humans do what is important to them. If we won’t do it, it is not important to us. To say it is and not do it, is hypocrisy. If we say we love God, but do not love our brethren, we lie, and the truth is not in us. If we say church is important to us or we are committed to being a part of it, yet we choose to do other things instead, no matter what those things are, we show how important it is to us. If we say we love a person or we regard them as family, and when it comes time to honor them or give them honor, but we have something else to do, it shows how important they really are to us at this point. If we say money is not everything to us and we trust God completely, yet we miss Bible Studies for working overtime a lot, we are saying with actions what is truly important. We may say winning souls to the Lord, is very important work. What are we doing as a contributor to that work? If it is important to us, we’ll be an active part of it. It will be an integral part of us.
Our society has somehow taught us passivity is acceptable and that what we intend is what we did. This is a deception and the cloak of it needs to come off of the Christian’s eyes.
We do what is important to us.
Choices, choices. EVERYDAY, choices.
When we pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers into the Harvest fields, what are we praying for? We are praying that more people who are born again, will have desire stirred up for what He desires, and love who He loves, with an eternal never ending, love. We pray for the believers to have a revelation of eternal death and life. We are asking for a softening of the heart in those who already say they know Him, for they must see what He sees as important, and then they will do something about it. We pray that, this is what they will want to live and work for in life, the salvation of souls. That they will see how much people live for things that will burn up in a moment, and that, that which is lasting is what was invested in the saving of people’s souls. We pray we’ll see the proper order of priority in life as all else has barely any matter at all. We pray for the believers or those who call themselves by the name of Christ, to get this. Father we offer this now as a prayer, for those in our own communities, for those we co-labor with in Your kingdom, that we’ll become God centered and leave self centeredness to a past time in this life. We ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to reveal day to day choices to the potential laborers, and the effects those choices have on the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. We ask that a new desire would be stirred up inside of each believer and each believer would desire to become a leader in word and deed. That they’d have a desire to build the Kingdom of the true King and not of themselves or their own names or fame. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Why does Jesus emphasize being childlike? Children are accepting, innocent enough to trust God at His words and do them without question or debate or reasoning how it would work with everything else in our lives, how we can fit it in. They stop what they are presently doing at any given time to be with and relate to ones who they love, it does not matter what it is, they are not too busy, they are taught that by us later on, but it is not in them. Life is simple and they follow and copy parental leaders. They want parents and want to be taught and loved. Yes they are vulnerable, but trusting. They don’t have cares that cause them to decide for or against God. They know what is right and what isn’t, they are sensitive to His spirit and act on what they sense.
Who is my neighbor? He is the one in dire need of healing, soundness of mind and heart and of eternal salvation. He is the one others have passed by, are too busy for, and maybe don’t have time to regard. They take on every form known to man, from youngest to oldest. It is the one we care to give our lives for. It’s the one in the most need, before us. It is the one who deserves Him least. It is the one who has been left to die beside the road of life’s passersby. It is the one we would not normally associate with, the one we’d not choose if God didn’t choose them for us. I’m not just speaking physical outward hurts or of low society, we must see this state of being by the spirit, for a person could be dressed nicely and be a CFO of our company, but behind the mask they are this Samaritan person by the roadway.

Luke 10 Today's Daily Bread

Luke 10
Jesus Sends Out His Disciples
1 The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. 2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. 3 Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. 4 Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road.
5 “Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ 6 If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you. 7 Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay.

8 “If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you. 9 Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’ 10 But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘We wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this—the Kingdom of God is near!’ 12 I assure you, even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a town on judgment day.

13 “What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. 14 Yes, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you. 15 And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead.”

16 Then he said to the disciples, “Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.”

17 When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”

18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! 19 Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. 20 But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”

Jesus’ Prayer of Thanksgiving
21 At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.
22 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

23 Then when they were alone, he turned to the disciples and said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you have seen. 24 I tell you, many prophets and kings longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”

The Most Important Commandment
25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Parable of the Good Samaritan
30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.
31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Jesus Visits Martha and Mary
38 As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. 40 But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Monday, March 26, 2007

Study Matthew 10 Today w/ Lena's Journalin'

I’d like to center in on a few key scriptures today for greater understanding sake.
Give as freely as you have received!
Received what?
Salvation, the freedom to make the righteous choice, for eternal life.
Healing
Deliverance
Whatever else God has shown you by revelation and has given you by His Spirit.
The things we’ve received are free gifts from our Father God and our Father loves that we have believed and have received them. He’s given us an abundance for the purpose of sharing. God is all about sharing. If one will not share, what he has may even be taken away from Him. If he is unwilling to even speak of it with others, verbally sharing his faith in God, it may be that it is not a genuine reception of the free gift of salvation. Their faith could be weak and not strong enough to hold on to what one has received.
The kingdom of God is all about sowing and reaping, giving and receiving. Not of buying and selling, getting more and more for me and mine only.
“Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves.
There is a spiritual warfare that we are already a part of. When we receive Jesus we’ll hopefully have our eyes opened to it. We must know that what we have received, the enemy of God is after, especially our belief in eternal salvation and anything we are told that God has given us.
The enemy wants to steal it away even after we have believed in it. His biggest tactic in any area one’s faith increases in is, to lie to you. “Did God REALLY say that, that way? Did He REALLY mean that for you, or just for others, but it’s not really for you?”
The enemy is a thief and a liar and the truth cannot even be found in him, he is a wolf among sheep, the place he is most found is among those who are attempting to believe and be taught in the ways of the Lord.
When we “get saved” we have come into the very place he sows tares in to try to uproot our newfound faith. Be aware, he may look like a sheep, or even a shepard, but he is NOT! (in the mind, he always challenges the very things we are studying in the Bible).
You’ll know him by His lies. The only way to be and stay free of him and his divisive trickery, is to know the truth. This is why older Christians tell younger Christians to read the word of God daily. If you are My disciples indeed- you’ll know the truth – by studying and searching to learn about it, and that truth will set and keep you free!
Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul.
Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Fear is another area the enemy lies to us in and uses to cause doubt to fill our minds and hearts. Fear opposes faith. Yep, it is the opposition. One must fear the Lord above all else. That means one who desires to follow the Lord, must believe His words above every manipulative lie. Each disciple of the Lordship of Christ must trust the Lord, even above his own mental reasoning. He must relay on the Lord for what he does not see.
Ever notice satan always appeals to the 5 senses, the sense realm? On the other hand, God appeals to the spirit man and the spirit and eternal realms. Think about that. The sense realm is only for here, while we are physically alive on earth. It helps us navigate our physical way around earth, as earth beings. BUT we are not mere earth beings, we are spirit beings, living in earth bodies, and we have clearly seen people live a supernatural way in earth suits. Jesus was one who rose above the mere sense realm. That does not mean we do not use our senses, they were given us by God, we use them, but we do not allow them to govern and rule us, we have a Master who rules above the human senses.
There is another sense that all other senses need to bow to. An eternal sense.
If one gets a glimpse of that, they can endure a whole gamut of attacks on the human senses here.
THE question of all time is... PLEASE get this, for it is a huge Kingdom of heaven key - If they touch your senses, or hurt or harm your physical body, or torment and lie to your soul (mind, will, and the emotional part) will you give your eternal faith up? This is the story of Job. This is our story too.
“You don’t know what they’ve done to me….You don’t know how they treat me…if you only knew what I have to go home to…there are some things I can never tell or describe that I’ll carry with me my whole life….” These are stories we all have. NOT one story is too large an obstacle or too great an impossibility for what Jesus did on the cross to remove the power of it against any human who believes in and receives Him. Not one.
The question is – will you curse God and die?
Or will you say, as Job did, “though You slay me, (Because I think in my mind, as the enemy lies to me and tells me You don’t care enough about me to save me from these diseases of my body or soul) I will forever bless Your name”?
Job got there. So must we.
Every challenge in life is about that. Will you choose to or refuse to forgive, will you love God no matter what happens to your body or soul?no matter the in or affliction?
When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Worry is the enemy of trust. It is the test of faith in God. If/as one worries they do not trust God. There is no measurement. I can’t even worry a little and say I trust God. They do not go together. If I trust God, especially for what I cannot see, I have faith in Him. Whatever is not of faith is sin. God has no pleasure in me trying to work it out inwardly or figure it out. He is all in for faith which works by love. Faith which has demonstrable action.
If I need a job, I should look for one and go to work at one, not worry while I wait for Him to bring one to me!
If you are treated wrongly, you don’t need to argue or prove your point. Do you believe God is for you? If not, why not? Is it based on circumstance or in faith in His word which you have faithfully studied? Have you begun to study His words yet?
Whenever a person is non-trusting or worrisome, it is pretty easy to tell they don’t know God well enough yet, have not read His word much believing it at face value, and haven’t built their faith up enough yet to believe in it yet, taking God at His word period.
Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.
If we are not changing and showing our faith-walk to the world we live in by daily demonstration, to where people notice we’ve changed, especially in our heart motives and attitudes; then we need to submit ourselves to development. Our witness needs to be so outward that this is our new lifestyle, a visible lifestyle. He is our all in all, our conversation. If He is not that important to us and we are not that consumed with love for our Lord, then the question needs to be asked, “Is He yet become our personal Lord?” If we find He has not been Lord over our choices and actions, because I’ve allowed Him to be, then how do I change that? I become His bond slave. I begin to love, serve, and obey Him, as I do, my love will increase. This walk is not a feeling walk, it is a faith and obedience walk!
I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

This part of the passage can easily be misunderstood by the natural minded man in each of us. So we start by asking, “Why would God a Father Himself, be against the family, isn’t He the one who set up the very design of family?”
Yes He did, and yes He is a family God, who is called Our Father.
We are all born into natural families with natural blood, that blood was tainted and stained by the sin nature and the unrighteous choices of mankind. Therefore every man must stand before God and be born again, cleaned out of the stains of natural blood and made spiritually and eternally alive in Christ. It is the grace of God that while we are alive on earth we find out about this breech and are actually offered the repair with God as our One and only True and eternal Father.
That has to be the most important thing in all of our lives lived here, is finding out about Jesus and making it right with God as our eternal Father – FIRST. This has to be first.
With some, there is a very strong natural love, for their natural families, so much so, that they’d choose them first, even above considering God as their true and eternal Father and Jesus as Savior and Lord, acknowledging Jesus as the precious Son of God who came to repair the breech between every man and God as their true Father.
All must acknowledge God as eternal Father, with complete loyalty and allegiance to Him in life, first. This decision must be so important in priority, even to the possible separation of a natural family, if in fact that decision would happen to cause that kind of a separation of family members.
The decision for God as eternal Father and earthly Master must be made, and it is imperative to eternal salvation. If we do not love God that much here, we’ll not be with Him in eternity later on.
This could and should be a life altering decision each human makes, even if it means your family disagrees or would think to disown you. It does NOT mean become a person of strife who argues your new found faith with your family.
The cross in demonstration and in the practical application of your faith is this : I love God enough to change my own lifestyle and emanate His great and unconditional love for others, especially those of your own (possibly very hard to live with) households.
I cannot just do with my family what we’ve always done together if it offends my new Father-Master, which is now my God. If my family and I did drugs together each Friday night, I’d separate from them and stop doing that behavior. I would not tell them they need to stop. I’d stop. I’m serving God and it offends Him, so as far as I’m concerned, I do not participate with my family in that anymore.
If my family gets together or we call one another and gossip together about other family members, I must stop choose to that, for I am no longer my own person, living as I deem. My Father is offended when I gossip about other people, so I stop. I steer the conversations to other areas, or I politely tell my family member I need to get off of the phone. I may tell them I have now chosen to speak differently where speaking of others is concerned. If they are angry and choose to stay away from me, then it is a price I willingly pay for in order to please My new Father God, for what He thinks of my behavior is what matters most to me.
I pray that my family will see me changing and desire to be changed by His great love for them also. I do not offend them on purpose. I love them out of their darkness. I love them into His love for them just as they are, so they desire to be changed as I also am changed. Being irritated at them for doing drugs or gossiping does not work His love in them, they are sinners, sinners sin. It is wrong to make a sinner act like a saint when they don’t yet know God. You act as God likes you to act, and love them as you walk out your faith-walk. He’ll use these unsaved ungodly people to develop the loving people part of the cross in us. He’ll use them to develop patience and all kinds of spiritual fruits in us.


“If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine;

or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.

If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.

If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

Remember the cross represents loving God first, then because of that great love we have for our Father, we love who He loves - people, just as He loved us.
If we only love Him, but have a hard time loving people, our love for Him is not yet strong enough. It needs to be strengthened by obedient actions. If we say we love God, but somehow cannot bring ourselves into a discipline with action to find love for others, we’re liars, His proven truth is not yet in us.
That is clinging to our own lives, lived out our own ways. We must lose that thinking and change our behaviors in order to be faithful ones who are really living now for that life eternal.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Matthew 10 Today (3-26-07)'s Daily Bread

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles
Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. 2 Here are the names of the twelve apostles:
first, Simon (also called Peter),
then Andrew (Peter’s brother),
James (son of Zebedee),
John (James’s brother),
3 Philip,
Bartholomew,
Thomas,
Matthew (the tax collector),
James (son of Alphaeus),
Thaddaeus,
4 Simon (the zealot),
Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).

5 Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, 6 but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. 7 Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!

9 “Don’t take any money in your money belts—no gold, silver, or even copper coins. 10 Don’t carry a traveler’s bag with a change of clothes and sandals or even a walking stick. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve to be fed.

11 “Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a worthy person and stay in his home until you leave town. 12 When you enter the home, give it your blessing. 13 If it turns out to be a worthy home, let your blessing stand; if it is not, take back the blessing. 14 If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave. 15 I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on the judgment day.

16 “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. 17 But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. 18 You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. 19 When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. 20 For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

21 “A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. 22 And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When you are persecuted in one town, flee to the next. I tell you the truth, the Son of Man will return before you have reached all the towns of Israel.

24 “Students are not greater than their teacher, and slaves are not greater than their master. 25 Students are to be like their teacher, and slaves are to be like their master. And since I, the master of the household, have been called the prince of demons, the members of my household will be called by even worse names!

26 “But don’t be afraid of those who threaten you. For the time is coming when everything that is covered will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. 27 What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear!

28 “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. 30 And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

32 “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.

34 “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.

35 ‘I have come to set a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36 Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

37 “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 39 If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

40 “Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the Father who sent me. 41 If you receive a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will be given the same reward as a prophet. And if you receive righteous people because of their righteousness, you will be given a reward like theirs. 42 And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.”

Study Time w/ Lena's Journalin' Genesius 18 - Friends of God?

Abraham, means “father of many (nations)”.
Each of us who are born again in Christ, are the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:13). The question is, are we at a place of being a father to any, as well as many?
This is what God is after, people who will father other people. Even the world is looking for fathers. They are presently setting up programs all around our nation. They’re called mentorship programs, where one person, usually an older person or one with more of the experience, helps guide a younger person, usually a student. They help them, teach them, and lead them. The student becomes accountable to them even in behaviors, for behaviors shape every part of our lives and affect even our future and our present workable relationships.
God is looking for people who are willing to be changed enough for the purpose of building a solid relationship with their Father God, that they can also reflect Him to others properly, for they know Him personally and desire to be a proper reflection. Then they can turn around to those younger in Christ and father them in the ways of the Lord.
There’re only a few things preventing this design and vision from God to be enacted among humanity. A willingness to be a real, live, and true example, a willingness for that Abram to be changed into a father figure, then a willingness for someone to come under another human who may be mistaken at times or make some wrong decisions in directing other humans. That takes a great and forgiving relationship with God and a heightened trust level for a mentored one to believe God can and would repair any mistake we did not make for ourselves.
As a potential mentor/father are we perceptive and sensitive to the things God is saying or wants to show us? (i.e. Abraham saw the angels coming, had a sense they had a message, wanted them and God to know He was interested, and set up an atmosphere for them to dwell in for at least enough time for them to be able to deliver their message).
Are we receptive to the words of God? Remember if we decide to pick and choose the vessels we will receive or not receive the words of God through,we are not yet sensitive to Him. In fact usually a mentor/father is chosen for you, not by you. So God chooses the persons who will speak into your life, from parents you did not choose, to family members whom you did not choose, to teachers you also did not choose, to a boss you did not choose, to a neighbor you did not choose, to a roommate you did not choose, co-workers, employees, and all of those around us we did not choose.
If we know and believe in, and trust, and really rely upon Him, it won’t matter who He has chosen, with His Divine help we can first become a son and then a father. As submitted ones, who willingly submit to the ways He works out our salvation, we find ourselves changed, even inside of present situations. Resistance, because we did not initiate or choose will cause us to be swung into a struggle of the spirit and soul, the struggle will not ever change the persons involved, it just makes one who needs change miserable, until they yield (i.e. Jacob wrestled with God).
Abraham set up an atmosphere for hearing God’s message. He knew God had something important to say to Him and he wanted the messengers to be in an atmosphere to be able to speak it.
Do you ever set up the atmosphere of your heart before you go to church or a bible study or a meeting with a mentor/father? Are you resistant, scared, angry, defensive, dreading, non-responsive, or insensitive? If any of these apply, then you must change your atmosphere to make it conducive to hearing God’s voice through His messengers. The only way to hear clearly is to be humbled in spirit and soul and be willing to be corrected. Only sons can be fathered. Sons are ones who yield themselves to change as often as necessary to honor their Father God more and more and more.
Abraham (a man with nothing more than promise of being made into a father someday), decided to feed the messengers of God!
Jesus said My meat and My drink is to do the will of Him who sent Me, I always do what My Father says to do. I represent Him completely.
Jesus is God!
How does a human feed God? How does a human give God sustenance?
That human chooses to do the non self initiated will of God, even through the words of messengers.
Abraham was a father, because he did the will of God. A son is not a son until he does his father’s will. When he himself chooses to live that way, he’ll become a father. For God will have entrusted him as faithful in smaller things as a son first, fathers rule over much.
Do you know that Abram was called Abraham by God WAYYYYY before he became what Abraham meant? Why did it take so long, and why do things take so long for us? Or why do they maybe never even happen in one’s lifetime even if God spoke them over the person through a messenger?
I hear people say all of the time, that it is because His time is not the same as ours. That is true, His time NOW, the to obey is also NOW, His time for us to respond to Him is Now. His time for us to do what He has said, inside of

a faith filled and trusting relationship is NOW. It is also forever, it is not to not to be up and down, whishy washy, and here and there.
It must become settled by us, in our own minds and hearts, that His will and our will are the same. One reason it took time was Ishmael. Men who do not trust God and have not settled it forever, will try to work it out their own way.
The delay is not always because it is God’s timing. It may very well be you have not submitted yourself to be receptive of His who is responsive to the change needed in you to bring you to a place of sonship, as one who will be faithful when the promise is fulfilled in your life, God will know by your resolve you are now ready to be an executor of His own will also.
Time is to grow up, me made matured, be found and proven faithful. The person decides how long that takes by the decisions they make and their active follow through.
Abraham/father gave the messengers his best. his best service, his best gifts, his time, all that was give was his best. How many of us want to give our all to another person who would father us for God?
In the good ol’ USA, that is like a mockery. Give your best to others? You save up your best for yourself, for no one else gives you their best, ever. If you don’t save it for yourself, you’ll never get the best! That is so contrary to obedience to the word. The word of God states, that the 1st shall be last, and the last first, if you want to be great, serve others, if you seek to save your own life you’ll lose, if you seek to lose (give away) your own life’s plans and desires, you’ll find life – eternal.
It’s dog eat dog world here and self protective mode is in 5th gear!
Trust people? Whew, do you know what you are saying? Yes I do. I do know. It takes an over comer to trust people. It takes a person with a strong relationship with God to trust people, it takes a person willing to lay down their own life and not take it back up, to trust and follow after fathers/ mentors/ people!
Yep, it does.
Is God great enough to protect us? Yes He is.
Is He great enough to heal us, even if a person re-injures us? He is that also.
Is He great enough to make another persons mistakes right, if they do us wrong? It depends?
Do you believe Him in and for that? Do you trust Him? Or will you just step in and repair it as best you can, all the while you separate yourself again from those who hurt you and never become a father because you would not trust God to do what it took to be a son?
Separating from people means separating from God, one cannot operate in one and not the other, they are one in the same. If we will not repair human relationships, we are not willing to operate in the principles written in the word of God. Forgiveness is one of the biggest principles to follow in God’s word. As you forgive others, you will be forgiven according to that measure in Christ.
After Abraham served strangers by faith, after he gave his best, after he trusted God, the messengers spoke God’s promise into His life! A SON became a father! Of course that was only the beginning of many, many sons to come, in which we who submit ourselves to Christ and God, His way, are in that number.
In being a father, Abraham would stand in the gap for others who were not yet sons or fathers, for God desires nations of peoples who are called by His name. He desires to save the wretched, the lonely, the perverted, the corrupt, the filthy, the vile, whosoever will, whosoever will be offered sonship through a human father/mentor.
Intercession takes a lot of trust and reliance on God to see beyond what one sees and believe God to penetrate the darkness with His spirit. To call for the impossible to be made possible. To bring heaven’s government down to earth. It is hard to look at what appears and believe anything good could come. No good comes from evil in itself, but an evil heart can turn towards God and God uses men to petition on behalf of those who are lost.
Abraham became God’s friend. God is looking for friendship, even beyond sonship & fatherhood. He is looking for man to become as He is and to desire what He desires on earth. That man, the man who is a son and a father, and an intercessor, God will not withhold revelations and secrets from him.
Can Abraham speak like God, not of what he sees naturally speaking, but of what could be changed? Abraham can, but is that the real question, really? We can too, but still, is that the true question? No. The question to all Abrahams is will he choose to? To speak of what is not yet seen, trusting God to see beyond what he does see, to what does not yet appear.
Lord, if only 50% stay with You after they’ve said they have received You, will the world be saved with this many who will truly become fathers in the faith?
What about if only 45% of those who say they are Christian, believer-disciples stay with the faith-walk all of their days?
Lord, in the natural their fruit that remains isn’t looking all that good, so much has come against them and they’ve succumbed to many an attack.
What about 30%, Lord, if only 30% of those who say they are disciples really are, if we find there are only 30% of those who say they are, really are, in action and in deed? Can the world be saved with only that many as laborers?
Lord, Can You save our corrupt world with only 30% of those who say they are, really being disciples/fathers/mentors/teachers?
Yes, I can.
He will save by many or by few. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few."
1 Sam 14:6
He is GOD!

Genesis 18 Today's Daily Bread

Genesis 18
A Son Is Promised to Sarah
1 The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day. 2 He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the ground.
3 “My lord,” he said, “if it pleases you, stop here for a while. 4 Rest in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your feet. 5 And since you’ve honored your servant with this visit, let me prepare some food to refresh you before you continue on your journey.”

“All right,” they said. “Do as you have said.”

6 So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, “Hurry! Get three large measures of your best flour, knead it into dough, and bake some bread.” 7 Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to his servant, who quickly prepared it. 8 When the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk and the roasted meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham waited on them in the shade of the trees.

9 “Where is Sarah, your wife?” the visitors asked.

“She’s inside the tent,” Abraham replied.

10 Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”

Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. 11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”

But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”

Abraham Intercedes for Sodom
16 Then the men got up from their meal and looked out toward Sodom. As they left, Abraham went with them to send them on their way.
17 “Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” the Lord asked. 18 “For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. 19 I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Then I will do for Abraham all that I have promised.”

20 So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. 21 I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.”

22 The other men turned and headed toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham. 23 Abraham approached him and said, “Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? 24 Suppose you find fifty righteous people living there in the city—will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? 25 Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

26 And the Lord replied, “If I find fifty righteous people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.”

27 Then Abraham spoke again. “Since I have begun, let me speak further to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose there are only forty-five righteous people rather than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”

And the Lord said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five righteous people there.”

29 Then Abraham pressed his request further. “Suppose there are only forty?”

And the Lord replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the forty.”

30 “Please don’t be angry, my Lord,” Abraham pleaded. “Let me speak—suppose only thirty righteous people are found?”

And the Lord replied, “I will not destroy it if I find thirty.”

31 Then Abraham said, “Since I have dared to speak to the Lord, let me continue—suppose there are only twenty?”

And the Lord replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

32 Finally, Abraham said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me if I speak one more time. Suppose only ten are found there?”

And the Lord replied, “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

33 When the Lord had finished his conversation with Abraham, he went on his way, and Abraham returned to his tent.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Hebrews 13 Today's Daily Bread

Concluding Words
1 Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. 2 Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! 3 Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.
4 Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery.

5 Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said,

“I will never fail you.
I will never abandon you.”

6 So we can say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper,
so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me?”

7 Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them.

10 We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp. 12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. 13 So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. 14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.

15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. 16 And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.

17 Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.

18 Pray for us, for our conscience is clear and we want to live honorably in everything we do. 19 And especially pray that I will be able to come back to you soon.

20 Now may the God of peace—
who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great Shepherd of the sheep,
and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—
21 may he equip you with all you need
for doing his will.
May he produce in you,
through the power of Jesus Christ,
every good thing that is pleasing to him.
All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.

22 I urge you, dear brothers and sisters, to pay attention to what I have written in this brief exhortation.

23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released from jail. If he comes here soon, I will bring him with me to see you.

24 Greet all your leaders and all the believers there. The believers from Italy send you their greetings.

25 May God’s grace be with you all.

Friday, March 23, 2007

StudyTime w/ Lena's Journalin' Today Exodus 12

Why does the Lord God challenge us so often, leading us into a lifestyle of obedience’s?
Love is obedient. God is love. He created us to be as He is. He is obedient. Love obeys. Love and obedience together are the highest expressions of praise and honor displayed when one obeys another. It is the only proper expressive response of a freewill being to another. It is the epitome of the demonstration of love with active meaning. It is living proof.
All deep root systems are evidenced above the ground where they are seen. Obedience is the fruit of deeply rooted and grounded love.
Let’s stop right here a minute - Just a minute. I did not say God loves you when you obey. I said you show God you love Him when you do. God is a covenant God and He already demonstrated His great love to an ungodly and an undeserving world. God IS love and loves the world, always has, always will.
If you never ever do anything obedient towards Him or extend love towards those He loves, ever, He still loved you! He still tried your whole life to offer Himself and His will to you. IF you never accepted it, or believed in it, or received it. If you rejected it, He still loved you. You just never responded to His love or reciprocated it. The obedience’s I’m writing of here are reciprocal from people to God and in honor of God, and from people to other people.
So the Lord has a request. He’ll not force a people fulfill His requests. He lays the request out. It is His desire outlined for those who desire to do it. It is always for the good of the one who’d obey/do it. It is to guide them righteously. They can take it or leave it. Yes there will be consequences, which are actually signals from His heart of grace, to steer one back towards truth.
If we are His disciples indeed (in action) we’ll know the Truth and the Truth will set us free! We’ll love truth. We’ll walk in Truth. We’ll buy it from Him and sell it not. He is Truth. His word is Truth. It is to be obeyed by - lovers of truth and righteousness.
If one never heard or knew truth before, yet loves truth, when he hears it, he simply responds by doing it, because he knows His Father who is Truth and that He can easily be trusted and followed.
Think of Egypt as our life while we are alive on earth. It is a very brief timeframe that we live here. In fact, no one themselves really knows how long one gets to live here. It could be anywhere from less than one year to 100+ years, in our day.
Egypt is the ways we live, are taught and think as world citizens. It is the ways of the people who have been raised in the ways of the earth and culture we are alive inside of. It is man’s attempt to be and be known.
The Lord says to the people in earth who have said, “we want to “buy a ticket” that will cause our lives to be lived way beyond this brief timeframe, and while we are still in this timeframe we desire to be taught differently than those who that are worldly wise can teach us. We want to be taught to live for what is beyond our days here, and help lead others to see as far off as eternity calls for them to.” They say, by their actions, “we know we are eternal beings. If we only live as earth citizens while we are here on earth, we’ll perish in eternal darkness, for each man has choices to make for eternity, while he is still in Egypt. If we choose light and life, we must prove that we really are a citizen of light and life now, for we know that Egypt is the place of proving of love and obedience.”
The Lord says to that people, “Ok then, pack your bags, we’re gonna live here on earth, but not be like the citizens doomed for darkness. If you want to know how to do that, follow My lead, My direction, My instructions. Following MY commands, and I will graciously lead you there. Let me tell you ahead of time that outside of the obedience of My commands there is pain, suffering, and possible tragedy. Hopefully that will be like a barbed wire or an electric fence and while you are still on earth. If given attention to, it will lead you back here into following safely after Me once again. It is one thing for the body here to be in pain or even killed off, but a whole ‘nother for the spirit to be taken away from Me in eternity!”
So, do these things for your family’s sake. If/when you do them, your whole family will be under My protective hand even while you are citizens living in Egypt, but it will be as though you are foreigners of another land.
Obedience covers areas a man alone, as a protector, can never cover. Can a man be everywhere at all times? Can he always know everything that is set out by enemy power to overcome his household? Are his eyes in everyplace at all times knowing all things? How then can that man be responsible before God to cover and protect his whole household, from eldest to youngest? All the way from Grandfather to Great Grandchild, to sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins? Can any man do that alone?
It would be impossible for a man to do that alone, but in Christ, under the protective covering of the Lordship of an eternal supernatural King, he can. Through obedient actions, he has the help of God to be and do what he is accountable before God to be and do. God never tells man to do what He would not equip them to do.
God does not require a man alone to save his own household, he does require each and every man to trust God to the saving of His household. That man must willingly come under the covering of love and obedience to God. That man must as representative desire truth and buy but sell it not.
This is salvation to that mans’ sons, daughters, heritage, lineage, legacy, and generations. The man who will not willingly reciprocate love and obedience to God as a son does a father, that man is willingly sacrificing his household for his own stubborn selfishness.
There was a sacrifice made that sons of men would not die, lineage would continue, generations would be blessed. Each person must believe and receive that for his own household, each man is responsible before God to willingly humbly respond to that invitation of blessing. He must “shed blood” and paint it on the doorways of his home, for every evil spirit to visibly see. There must be a visible laying down of a life, if a life is not offered, or given, LISTEN - then a life will be taken!
Life must be given, one way or another. There are no other options. Sacrifices must be made to the Lord who Is God of all. The sacrifice is representative of the purchasing of a ticket to citizenship of another kingdom and another King of another realm that continues from here on.
It shows one trusts One other than his own strength can handle or eyes can see, or ears can hear by himself. It shows dependency. It shows the man is not about to exalt himself as lord or king, except when given that position as a tried and true son of God.
Do not linger on this thought, for before you act upon it in obedience your very life or that of your own family could easily be taken away unmarked as the citizen of an eternal kingdom.
Marks are what tell the spirit world who’s we are. It was a spirit of death that passed over looking to see if any blood was willingly shed and given, a life poured out from the head of the household for this household. It was passing over to look for a marked home, in which a man, through obedience, truly loved God and wives and sons and family enough to do what it took to save them.
I’ve heard people say, “God was so unmerciful, the death angel should not have come”. God was merciful, told us the death angel was coming, told us how, what, and when to do whatever is needed to be marked and to mark our families. He even gave enough grace to allow our neighbors to come in with us too. That is/was His great mercy. If one is of the house of love they obey His words without challenging questions.
It is the great mercy of God, that this earth time will end. He knows the time period that we have, and if we listen and obey Him we’ll be beneficiaries of the time we have now and later on.
No yeast means, don’t bring the earth’s culture into your household and involve and mix it into how you live and think and believe, and how you raise your family. Don’t commune with it, don’t ingest it, and make it a part of who you are! Take times off while you are still in “Egypt” set it apart for your family to concentrate on worshiping God alone. Stay marked for Him even after Passover. Make this stuff who you are, and what you do. Be one who is a living sacrifice offered to God for your household, daily. Be one who trusts God to watch between you and who you cannot always see. Don’t mix with the world and become like it. Do this as regularly as you will, reminding one another of who we are In Him.
Rest from working for the world systems weekly. Don’t allow them to shape who you are by telling you how to do what you to do everyday.
Go to God’s House on the first day of each week, and allow His spirit to instruct you on how to live out your weeks unto Him while you are still in this earthly world. Don’t even be your own boss all of the time, follow the men and women of God too. Have a man or woman above you to obey, on purpose. Be covered by blood all week long!
After a time of governing yourself, your own house and being a faithful follower in the house of God, be a kingdom of God influencer when you are out and about, working and putting learning time in. Discern what is precious and what is not. Be a sower, reaper, harvestor.
REMEMBER all of this! Everyday, always! Remember. Live in such a way as to protect the memory of it and never distance self from its memory. This is who you are. The world you live and work in is going to try to convince you that you are someone else’s sons, say no by how you live, everyday.
Laws? Fences, barbed wire, electric? These are oh so gracious reminders.
Who do God’s laws apply to? They apply to the godly and the ungodly. The godly should be the ones who are asking for them, and study to learn how to bring more of them for the establishment of heaven on earth. Godly ones desire the fences of His great grace, and so want His eternal supernatural directions in this life. The ungodly are accountable to them, but don’t want to do them, don’t want to obey them, and don’t want mere earth citizens telling them what to do. The godly see beyond the here and now, living for the later on where they are at right now. The ungodly have no vision of the kingdom establishment here one earth.
So who does all of this apply to? All who say they are of Christ, of God, of the House of God, and the body of Christ. Those who say they are His willingly choose to live this way as living sacrifices, listening to direction from God and others and they love and obey. The rules are not made for those who do not love Him, but for those who do.
Obedience is proof of one who wears the Mark, saying, “I belong to Him”, don’t kill me eternally, for I am His. It is evidenced in my lifestyle. I’ve cut off the desires of a flesh-led life. I’ve left behind my own crown of kingship and I’m living for His will and the deposit of that will by demonstration to others. There is far too much responsibility and accountability before God for one to say that he is of another world yet not be that way now, in demonstration. He must both say it and be it also.