Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
1 Corinthians 10:1-33
Warnings against Idolatry
1I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, F49 what happened to our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea on dry ground. 2As followers of Moses, they were all baptized in the cloud and the sea. 3And all of them ate the same miraculous F50 food, 4and all of them drank the same miraculous water. For they all drank from the miraculous rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 5Yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and he destroyed them in the wilderness.
6These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did 7or worship idols as some of them did. For the Scriptures say, "The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged themselves in pagan revelry." F51 8And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. 9Nor should we put Christ F52 to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. 10And don't grumble as some of them did, for that is why God sent his angel of death to destroy them. 11All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close.
12If you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin. 13But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.
14So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. 15You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am about to say is true. 16When we bless the cup at the Lord's Table, aren't we sharing in the benefits of the blood of Christ? And when we break the loaf of bread, aren't we sharing in the benefits of the body of Christ? 17And we all eat from one loaf, showing that we are one body. 18And think about the nation of Israel; all who eat the sacrifices are united by that act.
19What am I trying to say? Am I saying that the idols to whom the pagans bring sacrifices are real gods and that these sacrifices are of some value? 20No, not at all. What I am saying is that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don't want any of you to be partners with demons. 21You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord's Table and at the table of demons, too. 22What? Do you dare to rouse the Lord's jealousy as Israel did? Do you think we are stronger than he is?
23You say, "I am allowed to do anything"—but not everything is helpful. You say, "I am allowed to do anything"—but not everything is beneficial. 24Don't think only of your own good. Think of other Christians and what is best for them.
25Here's what you should do. You may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace. Don't ask whether or not it was offered to idols, and then your conscience won't be bothered. 26For "the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." F53
27If someone who isn't a Christian asks you home for dinner, go ahead; accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered to you and don't ask any questions about it. Your conscience should not be bothered by this. 28But suppose someone warns you that this meat has been offered to an idol. Don't eat it, out of consideration for the conscience of the one who told you. 29It might not be a matter of conscience for you, but it is for the other person. Now, why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks? 30If I can thank God for the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it? 31Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God. 32Don't give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God. 33That is the plan I follow, too. I try to please everyone in everything I do. I don't just do what I like or what is best for me, but what is best for them so they may be saved.
FOOTNOTES:F49: Greek brothers. F50: Greek spiritual; also in 10:4. F51: Exod 32:6. F52: Some manuscripts read the Lord. F53: Ps 24:1.
~Lena’s Journalin’~
Ever feel warned by God?
This is a great one to take a God-warning from. Egypt is a type of worldly system, in which we’ve come out of , a place of darkness where deeds of sin are a daily lifestyle and where we were before we repented and made changes towards following God’s pathways. When we made that decision, God stepped in big time and delivered us from bondages, He caused our old life enemies to drown in the sea, they tried to come after us, but because we kept facing forward and crossed over to the other side and switched kingdoms and the Master to whom we obey, etc, we felt a huge sense of victory.
BUT, if we do not continue in that constant decision making process, deciding for what is God and moving forward away from what we thought was life, but is now revealed to us as not being of eternal value, we could very well end up as bad as when we began, not able to go all the way towards eternity with God’s plans etc.
Why was God not pleased? Remember faith pleases God. So they must have lost their faith along the journey, they must have said things like,” Lord, I did want to come with You, but not quite this far. I did like You and feel good around You, but now things are getting very hard for me…”.That is all a part of the growth in the walk process. If we are walking with Him, things do graduate from easy to medium to harder to expert J. There is supposed to be growth.
One HUGE deception of religion and religious establishments is- you get saved, you become happy in God and feel ooey gooey wonderful and then can stay there the rest of your days in Christ, no requirements, no requests from God (or others), no change needed, etc. Those are lies from satan. Have you noticed in the NT how Jesus’ anger was always expressed at religious works and religious mindsets? They were harder to deal with than outright blatant sin!
This passage is speaking to religious Christians who have been taught in error, to believe we cross over, then we enter the promise of heaven and we just wait for heaven someday. God created us humans to come to Him and then get His work done before they go on to heaven. And believe me if we worked with God everyday inside of His perfect will without mistakes, there’s more work available to do in our lifetimes than we can accomplish. I wonder what happens when Christians don’t ever allow themselves to go to a place where they ever do any of the work? I wonder what happens to the work? Who do we think will do it?
WHO are we living for? WHAT do we live for? ASK yourself that today and BE honest, look at your life, all of your earthly belongings, all you’ve accomplished, all you own, your family, and ask this question of yourself. Then ask God to make you brave, of so very brave to repent and change, to walk away, completely away from the kingdoms you’ve built that stand in the way of being able to join into His work, ask Him to make you brave enough to smash idols that you’ve placed on your walls, or erected in your life for some sort of family memory or some sort of security and protection.
There is NO security or protection that is real except those of the eternal nature! Everything else is a mirage, a façade, a lie.
What is pagan revelry? Any action, behavior or activity that is not centered in Christ. WWJD. Soap operas, worldly concerts, habits of the flesh, etc etc…Anything that does not represent or celebrate, or make a platform to lead others to God. It may look nice and good, but is it specifically about or unto God Most High?
We think if it doesn’t have a wicked look about it, and isn’t spitting fire at us, it’s ok. Some even explain away things that are obviously ugly looking. Does it steal, kill or destroy at all, in any way, shape or form and even by relation of past present or future? Does it at all have any hint of that or of coming out of that? Then it is clearly pagan. Make it clear now, or God will (later on). Does it bring life and invite life all around you? (THIS ONE IS BIG) If spirits from above were looking at your things or your actions or listening to your music from above with no explanation from you, would they be invited to be there with you and your things? Good spirits or bad ones? I tell everyone I talk to about this, take the roof off of your house and open it up to the skies where angels of God and demonic spirits hover. That is what our houses look like in the spirit. Spirits are looking for invitations, to land somewhere and set up housekeeping. Can they do that at your house? Are the angels of God invited without any words, just by your stuff or what they see you do? Do they see you worship and depend on God for any problems worries, cares, dependencies etc, or do they see us worry, take substances when we feel bad, watch TV to feel we have company, etc?
The spirit realm is much more real that the natural realm. How do you think the tape will be played back of our lives before God? The video crew is out there, the accuser of the brethren is out there. Going to church twice a week does NOT at all speak in the spirit realm if the life at home is not at least on the journey of matching up.
How does one get to a place where God helps in temptation? Through obedience and willingness to ask and to change and to be helped. If God sees us go to the bottle or whatever when we’re weak, why does He need to help us? We aren’t asking, we’re just going there instead of to Him, now if we ask as we reluctantly go, we maybe journeying towards recognizing Him as our source, but in the spirit realm the only way that is known is if it is seen and heard in prayer, out loud. When we depend on God, it doesn’t take years and years and years to get to a place or dependency if we are ruled by Him and His spirit. Many things take years, but there is a definitive progression, from glory to glory.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Today Our Daily Bread 2 Corinthians 10 ++
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’, which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
2 Corinthians 10:1-18
Paul Defends His Authority
1Now I, Paul, plead with you. I plead with the gentleness and kindness that Christ himself would use, even though some of you say I am bold in my letters but timid in person. 2I hope it won't be necessary, but when I come I may have to be very bold with those who think we act from purely human motives. 3We are human, but we don't wage war with human plans and methods. 4We use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil's strongholds. 5With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ. 6And we will punish those who remained disobedient after the rest of you became loyal and obedient.
F32 You must recognize that we belong to Christ just as much as those who proudly declare that they belong to Christ. 8I may seem to be boasting too much about the authority given to us by the Lord. But this authority is to build you up, not to tear you down. And I will not be put to shame by having my work among you destroyed.
9Now this is not just an attempt to frighten you by my letters. 10For some say, "Don't worry about Paul. His letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are really bad!" 11The ones who say this must realize that we will be just as demanding and forceful in person as we are in our letters.
12Oh, don't worry; I wouldn't dare say that I am as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, and measuring themselves by themselves. What foolishness!
13But we will not boast of authority we do not have. Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God's plan for us, and this plan includes our working there with you. 14We are not going too far when we claim authority over you, for we were the first to travel all the way to you with the Good News of Christ. 15Nor do we claim credit for the work someone else has done. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow and that our work among you will be greatly enlarged. 16Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places that are far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question about being in someone else's territory. 17As the Scriptures say,
"The person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the Lord has done." F33
18When people boast about themselves, it doesn't count for much. But when the Lord commends someone, that's different!
FOOTNOTES:F32: Or Look at the obvious facts. F33: Jer 9:24.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved. For more information about the NLT, please click here.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
I’m going to expose an enemy of the soul today. Remember the “soul” is the mind will and emotions of a human being. We are Spirits, who live in a body and have a soul. The enemy is after our bodies and souls, this is the way he can get to our spirits. If he is allowed by willful disobedience or unbroken generational curses, or whatever to bring illness & disease on our bodies, than he has made entry to torment our souls, even turn our thoughts against God, and voila, he’s gained ground into our spirit’s which were designed by God for fellowship, communion and eternal life.
One deception from God’s and our enemy is that a mere human man or woman cannot have words that are directly from God for us. I mean, we think that when people tell us of God’s words to or for us, we look at the person after the flesh that is on their bodies and we look at any previous actions we may have seen them do before that we didn’t like or agree with and we say to ourselves, “No it’s just so and so and their mighty opinions again!”
I want to show you a scripture today that I’ve been rehearsing over and over again. (by the way I’m showing you about spiritual warfare here)
2 Cor 5:16(Amp) Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a [purely] human point of view [in terms of natural standards of value]. [No] even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, yet now [we have such knowledge of Him that] we know Him no longer [in terms of the flesh]. 17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! 18 But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him].
And again, 2 Cor 5:16 in the New Living Translation
So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!
Please do not be tempted here to use these scriptures to defend yourself and the thinking that you were raised with. We are talking about the work of God in our lives, the word that works change in our lives. What is hindering the word’s change of us? Our souls and the way we’ve thought all of our lives, right? Right.
So God send messengers our way to help us move towards the fulfillment of change in our lives, to help us hear His words to us personally, to help us see what we did not understand ( like right now) and we feel this temptation or hear a voice inside of our heads saying, “we’ll that’s just “Lena” talking”.
Do you realize people did that to Jesus? Why do you think the Bible tells us they did that to Jesus? Because our enemy has been around a lot longer than we have here and he’s the same enemy.
Wisdom listens to the word and the history of it. If we disregard God’s words to us and especially if we disregard the messengers, even in our own homes, sent to us by God, we will go NO where. No advancing.
Do you know what happens when there’s no advance? Think warfare….the enemy is coming, the Chief knows it, he says to the peoples of the villages- Go, he says to the troops- advance, and -Go, he tells people to - move out, and they do not listen, they choose to stay put. What happens? Maybe they didn’t like the commander himself, he wasn’t very nice or gentle? Maybe they knew him in the past and he was a sinner, or did bad things. SO what! Go! Why? Who cares, Go. Well…? No “wells” here, if you stay there or refuse to move on, you die. Your faith dies, your purpose dies, your physical body gets sick and weak and comes under curses and dies. God’s vision for the whole of the army dies, because you were in His army, you were a part, but you are out now. Yeah, he goes on, but not with you. We don’t go on together and we’re not as strong as we were because you are not with “us”.
Do you remember a time where a man would not listen to or obey God and God tried to speak to his heart first and again and then what happened, who spoke next? An animal spoke to him. What kind of animal? A jackass (sorry kids) did the speaking to the man of God. Why? He was stubborn, disregarding, explaining away, reasoning etc. God didn’t send a bunny rabbit to speak to him, He sent a mule! This may sound funny, but maybe God tried to speak to us directly to our hearts, but we were stubborn and added reason to His words to us, we tried to figure out how we’d implement the change He was asking for. We made excuse after excuse, disregarding the messengers. When we figured we couldn’t really follow through successfully with His request to us, we became stubborn and added excuses to our reason, and he brought offers to us through other avenues, other vehicles, maybe not in a form we liked, maybe our stubbornness brought a person to us in a form we would not choose, but it is still His grace, His last “ditch” efforts to save us from our own ways and plans and from staying where we are and being killed off. Maybe our disobedience to His words, through whatever avenue caused a donkey to come our way as a messenger. That donkey is our last change call to obey God, to save us.
Forget the messenger, take His words as from God, as God Himself giving the words. 2 Cor 5:16! THIS will save your soul, your walk with God, your family, your blessings, your positions, your health, your life! All of it is a test, Do we pass? Have we been listening to the ones God has sent our way to help us study? Or are they mere men? Another lie the enemy uses is judgment and condemnation. I believe in this passage it speaks of that, anyway, the judgment IS upon those who will not hear and do the word that God has spoken. The enemy wants to tell us men aren’t supposed to judge us. BUT If we will not put ourselves in the merciful hands of men and allow them to judge us for God (God has set men as judges in the earth) we ourselves unexcused selves will stand before God Most High in judgment and we will be condemned for not obeying His words, His voice, His messengers. The condemnation is avoided here by an obedient heart. There is NO condemnation to those who obey God. Romans 8.
The word clearly says, if you love Me you will obey Me. What does that mean? If we will not obey Him and heed His messengers set in our lives, we do not love Him. We can say we do all we want, but the love of God is evidenced inside of obedience to Him and His words, no matter what form they show up in.
Let the words of humans, or even animals bring conviction to your heart. If you convict yourself, you can stand under His blood and ask for help. Ask Him to convict you of sin, don’t wait to get convicted! Find more and more places to become like Him, He is holy. The point is not how much of my old life can I keep, it’s how much of all of my life can I continue to give over to Him. What means the most to us, if we give it away it is worth the most of all.
It is not wisdom to say,” but that Christian doesn’t do that or get rid or that” don’t even say, “I’m not convicted…” If there is a comparison at all, compare with the word, compare with the spirit, compare with the holiness of God, as we do that we will press on, not stay where we are. We will Go, Advance,Live etc.
Increase in conviction, increase in hearing His voice in any and every form it appears, increase in the word, increase in conviction. Ask for it, What a thought, huh? A God thought at that.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’, which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
2 Corinthians 10:1-18
Paul Defends His Authority
1Now I, Paul, plead with you. I plead with the gentleness and kindness that Christ himself would use, even though some of you say I am bold in my letters but timid in person. 2I hope it won't be necessary, but when I come I may have to be very bold with those who think we act from purely human motives. 3We are human, but we don't wage war with human plans and methods. 4We use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil's strongholds. 5With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ. 6And we will punish those who remained disobedient after the rest of you became loyal and obedient.
F32 You must recognize that we belong to Christ just as much as those who proudly declare that they belong to Christ. 8I may seem to be boasting too much about the authority given to us by the Lord. But this authority is to build you up, not to tear you down. And I will not be put to shame by having my work among you destroyed.
9Now this is not just an attempt to frighten you by my letters. 10For some say, "Don't worry about Paul. His letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are really bad!" 11The ones who say this must realize that we will be just as demanding and forceful in person as we are in our letters.
12Oh, don't worry; I wouldn't dare say that I am as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, and measuring themselves by themselves. What foolishness!
13But we will not boast of authority we do not have. Our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God's plan for us, and this plan includes our working there with you. 14We are not going too far when we claim authority over you, for we were the first to travel all the way to you with the Good News of Christ. 15Nor do we claim credit for the work someone else has done. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow and that our work among you will be greatly enlarged. 16Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places that are far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question about being in someone else's territory. 17As the Scriptures say,
"The person who wishes to boast should boast only of what the Lord has done." F33
18When people boast about themselves, it doesn't count for much. But when the Lord commends someone, that's different!
FOOTNOTES:F32: Or Look at the obvious facts. F33: Jer 9:24.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved. For more information about the NLT, please click here.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
I’m going to expose an enemy of the soul today. Remember the “soul” is the mind will and emotions of a human being. We are Spirits, who live in a body and have a soul. The enemy is after our bodies and souls, this is the way he can get to our spirits. If he is allowed by willful disobedience or unbroken generational curses, or whatever to bring illness & disease on our bodies, than he has made entry to torment our souls, even turn our thoughts against God, and voila, he’s gained ground into our spirit’s which were designed by God for fellowship, communion and eternal life.
One deception from God’s and our enemy is that a mere human man or woman cannot have words that are directly from God for us. I mean, we think that when people tell us of God’s words to or for us, we look at the person after the flesh that is on their bodies and we look at any previous actions we may have seen them do before that we didn’t like or agree with and we say to ourselves, “No it’s just so and so and their mighty opinions again!”
I want to show you a scripture today that I’ve been rehearsing over and over again. (by the way I’m showing you about spiritual warfare here)
2 Cor 5:16(Amp) Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a [purely] human point of view [in terms of natural standards of value]. [No] even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, yet now [we have such knowledge of Him that] we know Him no longer [in terms of the flesh]. 17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! 18 But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him].
And again, 2 Cor 5:16 in the New Living Translation
So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!
Please do not be tempted here to use these scriptures to defend yourself and the thinking that you were raised with. We are talking about the work of God in our lives, the word that works change in our lives. What is hindering the word’s change of us? Our souls and the way we’ve thought all of our lives, right? Right.
So God send messengers our way to help us move towards the fulfillment of change in our lives, to help us hear His words to us personally, to help us see what we did not understand ( like right now) and we feel this temptation or hear a voice inside of our heads saying, “we’ll that’s just “Lena” talking”.
Do you realize people did that to Jesus? Why do you think the Bible tells us they did that to Jesus? Because our enemy has been around a lot longer than we have here and he’s the same enemy.
Wisdom listens to the word and the history of it. If we disregard God’s words to us and especially if we disregard the messengers, even in our own homes, sent to us by God, we will go NO where. No advancing.
Do you know what happens when there’s no advance? Think warfare….the enemy is coming, the Chief knows it, he says to the peoples of the villages- Go, he says to the troops- advance, and -Go, he tells people to - move out, and they do not listen, they choose to stay put. What happens? Maybe they didn’t like the commander himself, he wasn’t very nice or gentle? Maybe they knew him in the past and he was a sinner, or did bad things. SO what! Go! Why? Who cares, Go. Well…? No “wells” here, if you stay there or refuse to move on, you die. Your faith dies, your purpose dies, your physical body gets sick and weak and comes under curses and dies. God’s vision for the whole of the army dies, because you were in His army, you were a part, but you are out now. Yeah, he goes on, but not with you. We don’t go on together and we’re not as strong as we were because you are not with “us”.
Do you remember a time where a man would not listen to or obey God and God tried to speak to his heart first and again and then what happened, who spoke next? An animal spoke to him. What kind of animal? A jackass (sorry kids) did the speaking to the man of God. Why? He was stubborn, disregarding, explaining away, reasoning etc. God didn’t send a bunny rabbit to speak to him, He sent a mule! This may sound funny, but maybe God tried to speak to us directly to our hearts, but we were stubborn and added reason to His words to us, we tried to figure out how we’d implement the change He was asking for. We made excuse after excuse, disregarding the messengers. When we figured we couldn’t really follow through successfully with His request to us, we became stubborn and added excuses to our reason, and he brought offers to us through other avenues, other vehicles, maybe not in a form we liked, maybe our stubbornness brought a person to us in a form we would not choose, but it is still His grace, His last “ditch” efforts to save us from our own ways and plans and from staying where we are and being killed off. Maybe our disobedience to His words, through whatever avenue caused a donkey to come our way as a messenger. That donkey is our last change call to obey God, to save us.
Forget the messenger, take His words as from God, as God Himself giving the words. 2 Cor 5:16! THIS will save your soul, your walk with God, your family, your blessings, your positions, your health, your life! All of it is a test, Do we pass? Have we been listening to the ones God has sent our way to help us study? Or are they mere men? Another lie the enemy uses is judgment and condemnation. I believe in this passage it speaks of that, anyway, the judgment IS upon those who will not hear and do the word that God has spoken. The enemy wants to tell us men aren’t supposed to judge us. BUT If we will not put ourselves in the merciful hands of men and allow them to judge us for God (God has set men as judges in the earth) we ourselves unexcused selves will stand before God Most High in judgment and we will be condemned for not obeying His words, His voice, His messengers. The condemnation is avoided here by an obedient heart. There is NO condemnation to those who obey God. Romans 8.
The word clearly says, if you love Me you will obey Me. What does that mean? If we will not obey Him and heed His messengers set in our lives, we do not love Him. We can say we do all we want, but the love of God is evidenced inside of obedience to Him and His words, no matter what form they show up in.
Let the words of humans, or even animals bring conviction to your heart. If you convict yourself, you can stand under His blood and ask for help. Ask Him to convict you of sin, don’t wait to get convicted! Find more and more places to become like Him, He is holy. The point is not how much of my old life can I keep, it’s how much of all of my life can I continue to give over to Him. What means the most to us, if we give it away it is worth the most of all.
It is not wisdom to say,” but that Christian doesn’t do that or get rid or that” don’t even say, “I’m not convicted…” If there is a comparison at all, compare with the word, compare with the spirit, compare with the holiness of God, as we do that we will press on, not stay where we are. We will Go, Advance,Live etc.
Increase in conviction, increase in hearing His voice in any and every form it appears, increase in the word, increase in conviction. Ask for it, What a thought, huh? A God thought at that.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Today Our Daily Bread Eph 6 ++
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Ephesians 6:1-24
Children and Parents
1Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. 2"Honor your father and mother." This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. 3And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, "you will live a long life, full of blessing." F12
4And now a word to you fathers. Don't make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord.
Slaves and Masters
5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
9And in the same way, you masters must treat your slaves right. Don't threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.
The Whole Armor of God
10A final word: Be strong with the Lord's mighty power. 11Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. 12For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.
13Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. 15For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. F13 16In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. F14 17Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.
19And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words as I boldly explain God's secret plan that the Good News is for the Gentiles, too. F15 20I am in chains now for preaching this message as God's ambassador. But pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should.
Final Greetings
21Tychicus, a much loved brother and faithful helper in the Lord's work, will tell you all about how I am getting along. 22I am sending him to you for just this purpose. He will let you know how we are, and he will encourage you.
23May God give you peace, dear brothers and sisters, F16 and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24May God's grace be upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
FOOTNOTES:F12: Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16. F13: Or For shoes, put on the readiness to preach the Good News of peace with God. F14: Greek by the evil one. F15: Greek explain the mystery of the gospel. F16: Greek brothers.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
This law is a natural and a spiritual law of God. Can we read this another way defining it for our hearts rather than only our minds?
Paraphrase- “Those who are being nurtured by someone in some way, whether naturally or spiritually speaking, should be loving to those who’ve been set in their lives by God to bring them up, responding to them by obedience. Why? Because of your love for the Lord. Use this as a way to express your love to Him. Love obeys. It is the only true expression of a free will being to another. That expression of love comes out and rises against the rebellion satan started long ago, against God. It shows God we are with Him, and trust and believe Him enough to recognize and appreciate those He’s set us with to be formed and fashioned by. That is why it is the best thing to be participating in…” When you love this way and continually express love to God by loving His people and showing you trust Him, your life will be full of purpose overflowing over into generations beyond you, Your life will have been lived for God rather than yourself and that kind of seed will grow eternally!”
“And to those who nurture others both in the natural and in the spiritual WAY, don’t purposely do what makes those you nurture frustrated, lead them by displaying spiritual fruits of righteousness and right living, bring them into a living, close and intimate relationship with you, so that they can trust God by trusting you! Disciple them after the character of Christ, as you establish a face to face relationship with them.”
Ok what if you have no living face to face type relationship with someone, but you find yourself in service to them? I wonder if your service to them would at all affect their life? It depends on you. If you trust God and rely on Him rather than the acts of men, you could serve them as though you were serving Him. It would take a complete change of mind, which can come through a face to face relationship with Him. When this says earthly masters, I believe it speaks of the unsaved, those who do not nurture others in the Lord. Come up from underneath and support these as witnesses to win them over to God. Submission to them would be like being their platform to raise them to a higher place so they could see Christ. Being led by the Holy Spirit would be a must in these situations. Be able to display His righteous fruit would take a sold out relationship with Him. What a better opportunity to get closer and closer to God yourself!
Our lives here are so short in light of the life we will forever live with Christ and God. We have got to come up to the throne room and see this, or else we will continually find ourselves in the scuffle of this life and its miseries and torments. Our reward here is His presence with us carrying us through, leaving a trail of His presence wherever we go and have gone, a trail that is evident when we leave this place, He’s left here for others to have seen, so that no matter who they are, they may be able to find Him, receive Him, and come to that place of eternal change. Those who love (are patient, kind, long suffering, etc 1 Cor 13) Will have great reward in the eternal realm, which truly is only a blink away.
BUT HOW does one believe and live this way here, where there are scuffles everyday? They cannot without the Helper the Holy Spirit and His Divine influence upon one’s naturally lived out life. Without God’s presence we lose in adverse situations. Without the increase of the obedience to His will and to the nurture of His daily words, we ourselves cannot and will not succeed in anyway here in the walk of love. There is a call to God’s throne, the veil was rent in two for us to come through to that Heavenly place each and everyday. We have access to Our Father minute by minute and we can go there and see the full view of the picture of where we’re at. If we get up and outside of our natural eyesight and soar up in the heavenly places where we’ve been rightly seated with Him, FAR ABOVE the spiritual scuffle, FAR above the spirits that are at war against us, we’ll see and have the strength through Christ to do ALL things. In the throne room we can dress like God and therefore be transformed into His image and likeness by wearing His clothes and becoming who He is!
We receive and believe truth and we are Born Again! Salvation is the very beginning of that Christ-likeness. Our hearts and lives covered by the redemption of His blood, the righteousness of faith in His sacrifice, knowing He paid for me to be eternally minded, to have this heavenly view of life, and assurance that I’m eternally blood purchased is the next step of God clothing. When we know that for ourselves we are already equipped to go and tell as many others as possible about that, leading them into the same discipleship we’ve entered into.
When we’ve opened our mouths for the Gospel, and have taken it everyplace we go as true witnesses, we can then lift up a shield of faith against evil, we begin to take ground that belongs to our new Master. We give salvation out to others by who and what we now know, through our own discipleship. We are readied with the word of God to give the word of God as a gift, as a spiritual weapon against satan’s ploys for this world. The weapons are visible in the form of bringing salvation to others. Freeing them from the lies of the devil. Having enough truth to penetrate darkness, by freeing others. This armor of God is active and engaged. The warfare is not standing still waving a sword at an enemy and yelling out the name of Jesus. It is the active life of a saved person, it is that that person now establishes a relationship with God and he joins himself in fellowship of those older than he in this faith and he hangs around them enough to be a disciple, he prays to God and gets instruction straight from the Lord himself, then in response to his truly alive faith, he goes and talks to others about who he loves.
THAT is the spiritual warfare we are engaged in! ONLY that will take “land” for God. Sitting in a prayer closet and staying locked up for years while we yell and scream at circumstances and tell the devil where to go, are minimal in comparison to a living moving faith walk with evidence and fruit! The Commission to EVERY believer is GO! By ALL means go into the prayer closet, BUT come out with your shining armor, he’s crowned you king, He’s the king of kings, and the Lord of lords! He wants children, until there are no more children left to be had, that commission will fill each of our daily lives until the day we die. We cannot stay in the prayer closet alone for our lifetime’s here, we have to bring the prayer closet out with us and in us as we GO intio all the world and preach.
I’m sharpening you- today
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Ephesians 6:1-24
Children and Parents
1Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. 2"Honor your father and mother." This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. 3And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, "you will live a long life, full of blessing." F12
4And now a word to you fathers. Don't make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord.
Slaves and Masters
5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
9And in the same way, you masters must treat your slaves right. Don't threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.
The Whole Armor of God
10A final word: Be strong with the Lord's mighty power. 11Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. 12For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.
13Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. 15For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. F13 16In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. F14 17Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.
19And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words as I boldly explain God's secret plan that the Good News is for the Gentiles, too. F15 20I am in chains now for preaching this message as God's ambassador. But pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should.
Final Greetings
21Tychicus, a much loved brother and faithful helper in the Lord's work, will tell you all about how I am getting along. 22I am sending him to you for just this purpose. He will let you know how we are, and he will encourage you.
23May God give you peace, dear brothers and sisters, F16 and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24May God's grace be upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
FOOTNOTES:F12: Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16. F13: Or For shoes, put on the readiness to preach the Good News of peace with God. F14: Greek by the evil one. F15: Greek explain the mystery of the gospel. F16: Greek brothers.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
This law is a natural and a spiritual law of God. Can we read this another way defining it for our hearts rather than only our minds?
Paraphrase- “Those who are being nurtured by someone in some way, whether naturally or spiritually speaking, should be loving to those who’ve been set in their lives by God to bring them up, responding to them by obedience. Why? Because of your love for the Lord. Use this as a way to express your love to Him. Love obeys. It is the only true expression of a free will being to another. That expression of love comes out and rises against the rebellion satan started long ago, against God. It shows God we are with Him, and trust and believe Him enough to recognize and appreciate those He’s set us with to be formed and fashioned by. That is why it is the best thing to be participating in…” When you love this way and continually express love to God by loving His people and showing you trust Him, your life will be full of purpose overflowing over into generations beyond you, Your life will have been lived for God rather than yourself and that kind of seed will grow eternally!”
“And to those who nurture others both in the natural and in the spiritual WAY, don’t purposely do what makes those you nurture frustrated, lead them by displaying spiritual fruits of righteousness and right living, bring them into a living, close and intimate relationship with you, so that they can trust God by trusting you! Disciple them after the character of Christ, as you establish a face to face relationship with them.”
Ok what if you have no living face to face type relationship with someone, but you find yourself in service to them? I wonder if your service to them would at all affect their life? It depends on you. If you trust God and rely on Him rather than the acts of men, you could serve them as though you were serving Him. It would take a complete change of mind, which can come through a face to face relationship with Him. When this says earthly masters, I believe it speaks of the unsaved, those who do not nurture others in the Lord. Come up from underneath and support these as witnesses to win them over to God. Submission to them would be like being their platform to raise them to a higher place so they could see Christ. Being led by the Holy Spirit would be a must in these situations. Be able to display His righteous fruit would take a sold out relationship with Him. What a better opportunity to get closer and closer to God yourself!
Our lives here are so short in light of the life we will forever live with Christ and God. We have got to come up to the throne room and see this, or else we will continually find ourselves in the scuffle of this life and its miseries and torments. Our reward here is His presence with us carrying us through, leaving a trail of His presence wherever we go and have gone, a trail that is evident when we leave this place, He’s left here for others to have seen, so that no matter who they are, they may be able to find Him, receive Him, and come to that place of eternal change. Those who love (are patient, kind, long suffering, etc 1 Cor 13) Will have great reward in the eternal realm, which truly is only a blink away.
BUT HOW does one believe and live this way here, where there are scuffles everyday? They cannot without the Helper the Holy Spirit and His Divine influence upon one’s naturally lived out life. Without God’s presence we lose in adverse situations. Without the increase of the obedience to His will and to the nurture of His daily words, we ourselves cannot and will not succeed in anyway here in the walk of love. There is a call to God’s throne, the veil was rent in two for us to come through to that Heavenly place each and everyday. We have access to Our Father minute by minute and we can go there and see the full view of the picture of where we’re at. If we get up and outside of our natural eyesight and soar up in the heavenly places where we’ve been rightly seated with Him, FAR ABOVE the spiritual scuffle, FAR above the spirits that are at war against us, we’ll see and have the strength through Christ to do ALL things. In the throne room we can dress like God and therefore be transformed into His image and likeness by wearing His clothes and becoming who He is!
We receive and believe truth and we are Born Again! Salvation is the very beginning of that Christ-likeness. Our hearts and lives covered by the redemption of His blood, the righteousness of faith in His sacrifice, knowing He paid for me to be eternally minded, to have this heavenly view of life, and assurance that I’m eternally blood purchased is the next step of God clothing. When we know that for ourselves we are already equipped to go and tell as many others as possible about that, leading them into the same discipleship we’ve entered into.
When we’ve opened our mouths for the Gospel, and have taken it everyplace we go as true witnesses, we can then lift up a shield of faith against evil, we begin to take ground that belongs to our new Master. We give salvation out to others by who and what we now know, through our own discipleship. We are readied with the word of God to give the word of God as a gift, as a spiritual weapon against satan’s ploys for this world. The weapons are visible in the form of bringing salvation to others. Freeing them from the lies of the devil. Having enough truth to penetrate darkness, by freeing others. This armor of God is active and engaged. The warfare is not standing still waving a sword at an enemy and yelling out the name of Jesus. It is the active life of a saved person, it is that that person now establishes a relationship with God and he joins himself in fellowship of those older than he in this faith and he hangs around them enough to be a disciple, he prays to God and gets instruction straight from the Lord himself, then in response to his truly alive faith, he goes and talks to others about who he loves.
THAT is the spiritual warfare we are engaged in! ONLY that will take “land” for God. Sitting in a prayer closet and staying locked up for years while we yell and scream at circumstances and tell the devil where to go, are minimal in comparison to a living moving faith walk with evidence and fruit! The Commission to EVERY believer is GO! By ALL means go into the prayer closet, BUT come out with your shining armor, he’s crowned you king, He’s the king of kings, and the Lord of lords! He wants children, until there are no more children left to be had, that commission will fill each of our daily lives until the day we die. We cannot stay in the prayer closet alone for our lifetime’s here, we have to bring the prayer closet out with us and in us as we GO intio all the world and preach.
I’m sharpening you- today
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Today Our Daily Bread Psalm 45 ++
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Book of Psalm 45:1-17
For the choir director:
A psalm of the descendants of Korah, to be sung to the tune "Lilies."
A love song.
1 My heart overflows with a beautiful thought! I will recite a lovely poem to the king, for my tongue is like the pen of a skillful poet.
2 You are the most handsome of all. Gracious words stream from your lips. God himself has blessed you forever.
3 Put on your sword, O mighty warrior! You are so glorious, so majestic!
4 In your majesty, ride out to victory, defending truth, humility, and justice. Go forth to perform awe-inspiring deeds!
5 Your arrows are sharp, piercing your enemies' hearts. The nations fall before you, lying down beneath your feet.
6 Your throne, O God, F33 endures forever and ever. Your royal power is expressed in justice.
7 You love what is right and hate what is wrong. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.
8 Your robes are perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cassia. In palaces decorated with ivory, you are entertained by the music of harps.
9 Kings' daughters are among your concubines. At your right side stands the queen, wearing jewelry of finest gold from Ophir!
10 Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say. Forget your people and your homeland far away.
11 For your royal husband delights in your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
12 The princes of Tyre F34 will shower you with gifts. People of great wealth will entreat your favor.
13 The bride, a princess, waits within her chamber, dressed in a gown woven with gold.
14 In her beautiful robes, she is led to the king, accompanied by her bridesmaids.
15 What a joyful, enthusiastic procession as they enter the king's palace!
16 Your sons will become kings like their father. You will make them rulers over many lands.
17 I will bring honor to your name in every generation. Therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever.
FOOTNOTES:F33: Or Your divine throne. F34: Hebrew The daughter of Tyre
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
~ Who or what is your heart’s overflow to or for? THE KING? Which King? King Jesus and Him alone?. I mean there ARE other kings, kings of earth, kings of heaven, kings of me! You can tell which one you serve by the abundant flow of thoughts going through your mind. Are the thoughts in your mind about your problems? Hmmm, then maybe they are your “king”, they rule you. Are they of your self, your ambitions, your goals and how much you can get more of? Then maybe your king is you or money is who or what you are ruled by. What about your family, your kids, your husband, etc? We can even be ruled by good kings, BUT there is only One ruler who is to take up the energies, the strength of our thoughts, Jesus IS that KING. Does He rule? Or does someone or something else? I know we may start out wrong, thinking about wrong things, but we can change our minds. We decide what we think about. If you think you don’t decide, you’ve been deceived and you need to take back the territory of your mind, then put a flag in it that says, “This Place Belongs to God” and leave the sign there. Don’t go back and replace the sign with, “This Place belongs to Me”, or “this place belongs to money’s love”, etc. Stake it for God and replace the thoughts with His! His thoughts come straight out of His word. His word contains His thoughts. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think that way, rethink it, replace it with His words. If He is the ruler His thoughts take precedence! We could say, “Yes Sir!” Ever talk someone up, like just to try to have fun with them and make them feel lavished upon? This is what this Psalmist is doing with God. He is lavishing His love on God. Lavishing loving words on God is a way to silence other voices. Really. It shows our souls who’s King, who’s stronger, Who’s mighty etc. It reminds us, as we give the lovely words to God. Are you His? Are you at least following Him? It will be evidenced by your words and then also the proof of your words, called your actions. Do you love righteousness? That Jesus died, shed His blood, saved you from sin’s death grip, and rescued you from hell? YES, we all shout, right? BUT there’s more that is so inside of the character of God, the character He’s teaching us about and imparting into us. It is about hatred. Oh we’ve hated many things, mainly people, but do we hate what God hates, despise what comes against his image and likeness, what comes against people, what comes against his plan of salvation for people, what hinders them from receiving Him? How much do we hate it? Enough to divorce it? Enough to completely separate ourselves from it? Enough to not associate with any hint of it? WOW, What a question. Well if we do not despise sin, we are as well a participator of it and the very things we say we’d like to have in God do not belong to us. Why are our prayers not answered? Why is there no anointing, or God-likeness about us, where people are healed etc? We did not go ALL the way, in loving and lavishing our love on God, making Him our King and hating evil enough to separate ourselves form it and walk away as we walk towards God! Myrrh, Aloe, Cassia? That is a process of being there, of getting to where he went for us. He suffered, through bitterness of soul (Myrrh), he died, he was risen, healed and brought the finished work to God and us (aloe), and he yielded His life, ALL of it for the good of others (cassia). Do you see yourself in any of these processes? God ALL the Way through, Come out the otherside, cross over, Don’t stop or quit. We who cross over, walk through etc, are daughters and sons, queens, brides, princes, kings (little “k”) That’s who we are in Him, continually honoring Him, living where He lives going where He goes. The only reason He goes into places of darkness is to shine light brightly. He even went into the temple where it was dark and his stance there was to overturn tables. He does not do what darkness does, ever, he hates that. No appearance of any type of evil ever, on purpose, because we decide!
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Book of Psalm 45:1-17
For the choir director:
A psalm of the descendants of Korah, to be sung to the tune "Lilies."
A love song.
1 My heart overflows with a beautiful thought! I will recite a lovely poem to the king, for my tongue is like the pen of a skillful poet.
2 You are the most handsome of all. Gracious words stream from your lips. God himself has blessed you forever.
3 Put on your sword, O mighty warrior! You are so glorious, so majestic!
4 In your majesty, ride out to victory, defending truth, humility, and justice. Go forth to perform awe-inspiring deeds!
5 Your arrows are sharp, piercing your enemies' hearts. The nations fall before you, lying down beneath your feet.
6 Your throne, O God, F33 endures forever and ever. Your royal power is expressed in justice.
7 You love what is right and hate what is wrong. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.
8 Your robes are perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cassia. In palaces decorated with ivory, you are entertained by the music of harps.
9 Kings' daughters are among your concubines. At your right side stands the queen, wearing jewelry of finest gold from Ophir!
10 Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say. Forget your people and your homeland far away.
11 For your royal husband delights in your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
12 The princes of Tyre F34 will shower you with gifts. People of great wealth will entreat your favor.
13 The bride, a princess, waits within her chamber, dressed in a gown woven with gold.
14 In her beautiful robes, she is led to the king, accompanied by her bridesmaids.
15 What a joyful, enthusiastic procession as they enter the king's palace!
16 Your sons will become kings like their father. You will make them rulers over many lands.
17 I will bring honor to your name in every generation. Therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever.
FOOTNOTES:F33: Or Your divine throne. F34: Hebrew The daughter of Tyre
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
~ Who or what is your heart’s overflow to or for? THE KING? Which King? King Jesus and Him alone?. I mean there ARE other kings, kings of earth, kings of heaven, kings of me! You can tell which one you serve by the abundant flow of thoughts going through your mind. Are the thoughts in your mind about your problems? Hmmm, then maybe they are your “king”, they rule you. Are they of your self, your ambitions, your goals and how much you can get more of? Then maybe your king is you or money is who or what you are ruled by. What about your family, your kids, your husband, etc? We can even be ruled by good kings, BUT there is only One ruler who is to take up the energies, the strength of our thoughts, Jesus IS that KING. Does He rule? Or does someone or something else? I know we may start out wrong, thinking about wrong things, but we can change our minds. We decide what we think about. If you think you don’t decide, you’ve been deceived and you need to take back the territory of your mind, then put a flag in it that says, “This Place Belongs to God” and leave the sign there. Don’t go back and replace the sign with, “This Place belongs to Me”, or “this place belongs to money’s love”, etc. Stake it for God and replace the thoughts with His! His thoughts come straight out of His word. His word contains His thoughts. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think that way, rethink it, replace it with His words. If He is the ruler His thoughts take precedence! We could say, “Yes Sir!” Ever talk someone up, like just to try to have fun with them and make them feel lavished upon? This is what this Psalmist is doing with God. He is lavishing His love on God. Lavishing loving words on God is a way to silence other voices. Really. It shows our souls who’s King, who’s stronger, Who’s mighty etc. It reminds us, as we give the lovely words to God. Are you His? Are you at least following Him? It will be evidenced by your words and then also the proof of your words, called your actions. Do you love righteousness? That Jesus died, shed His blood, saved you from sin’s death grip, and rescued you from hell? YES, we all shout, right? BUT there’s more that is so inside of the character of God, the character He’s teaching us about and imparting into us. It is about hatred. Oh we’ve hated many things, mainly people, but do we hate what God hates, despise what comes against his image and likeness, what comes against people, what comes against his plan of salvation for people, what hinders them from receiving Him? How much do we hate it? Enough to divorce it? Enough to completely separate ourselves from it? Enough to not associate with any hint of it? WOW, What a question. Well if we do not despise sin, we are as well a participator of it and the very things we say we’d like to have in God do not belong to us. Why are our prayers not answered? Why is there no anointing, or God-likeness about us, where people are healed etc? We did not go ALL the way, in loving and lavishing our love on God, making Him our King and hating evil enough to separate ourselves form it and walk away as we walk towards God! Myrrh, Aloe, Cassia? That is a process of being there, of getting to where he went for us. He suffered, through bitterness of soul (Myrrh), he died, he was risen, healed and brought the finished work to God and us (aloe), and he yielded His life, ALL of it for the good of others (cassia). Do you see yourself in any of these processes? God ALL the Way through, Come out the otherside, cross over, Don’t stop or quit. We who cross over, walk through etc, are daughters and sons, queens, brides, princes, kings (little “k”) That’s who we are in Him, continually honoring Him, living where He lives going where He goes. The only reason He goes into places of darkness is to shine light brightly. He even went into the temple where it was dark and his stance there was to overturn tables. He does not do what darkness does, ever, he hates that. No appearance of any type of evil ever, on purpose, because we decide!
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Today Our Daily Bread 1 Peter 5 ++
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
1 Peter 5:1-14
Advice for Elders and Young Men
1And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share his glory and his honor when he returns. As a fellow elder, this is my appeal to you: 2Care for the flock of God entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. 3Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your good example. 4And when the head Shepherd comes, your reward will be a never-ending share in his glory and honor.
5You younger men, accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, serve each other in humility, for
"God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble." F18
6So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. 7Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.
8Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. 9Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters F19 all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.
10In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 11All power is his forever and ever. Amen.
Peter's Final Greetings
12I have written this short letter to you with the help of Silas, F20 whom I consider a faithful brother. My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that the grace of God is with you no matter what happens.
13Your sister church here in Rome F21 sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark. 14Greet each other in Christian love. F22 Peace be to all of you who are in Christ.
FOOTNOTES:F18: Prov 3:34. F19: Greek your brothers. F20: Greek Silvanus. F21: Greek The elect one in Babylon. Babylon was probably a code name for Rome. F22: Greek with a kiss of love.
~Lena’s Journalin’ ~
When God gives authority and position to people it is for service. It is to come up from underneath others and assist them in growth, to bring them into His fullness.
If we humble ourselves, we are deciding to place ourselves in a position underneath others, believing God has sent people to mold us and change us. Humility puts oneself on the Potter’s wheel. Humility subjects one to the change of another, the help of another, the sharpening of others. It says I trust You (God) enough to yield to the process of change. That person is a yielder and they willingly open themselves up to the manipulation of God’s Spirit. The person who readily opens themselves to God is in a position of vulnerability before God and God steps in as that person’s defense. When persons defend themselves continuously they don’t need God’s help and so he allows them to fight on their own and many times they will lose, BUT the person who has continuously yielded to God and His work is a person whom God will step up to the plate for and unleash His miraculous works for.
Why be under the authority of mere men? Because if/when we trust God enough to do what he says, He will step in and win any victory for us, that the mere man may not be able to win.
Life is like a Masterpiece, a woven tapestry. It takes work, it takes practice, It takes time. Let patience have its perfecting work in you. Let God arise and every enemy be scattered on your behalf today.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
1 Peter 5:1-14
Advice for Elders and Young Men
1And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share his glory and his honor when he returns. As a fellow elder, this is my appeal to you: 2Care for the flock of God entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. 3Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your good example. 4And when the head Shepherd comes, your reward will be a never-ending share in his glory and honor.
5You younger men, accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, serve each other in humility, for
"God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble." F18
6So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you. 7Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.
8Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. 9Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters F19 all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.
10In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 11All power is his forever and ever. Amen.
Peter's Final Greetings
12I have written this short letter to you with the help of Silas, F20 whom I consider a faithful brother. My purpose in writing is to encourage you and assure you that the grace of God is with you no matter what happens.
13Your sister church here in Rome F21 sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark. 14Greet each other in Christian love. F22 Peace be to all of you who are in Christ.
FOOTNOTES:F18: Prov 3:34. F19: Greek your brothers. F20: Greek Silvanus. F21: Greek The elect one in Babylon. Babylon was probably a code name for Rome. F22: Greek with a kiss of love.
~Lena’s Journalin’ ~
When God gives authority and position to people it is for service. It is to come up from underneath others and assist them in growth, to bring them into His fullness.
If we humble ourselves, we are deciding to place ourselves in a position underneath others, believing God has sent people to mold us and change us. Humility puts oneself on the Potter’s wheel. Humility subjects one to the change of another, the help of another, the sharpening of others. It says I trust You (God) enough to yield to the process of change. That person is a yielder and they willingly open themselves up to the manipulation of God’s Spirit. The person who readily opens themselves to God is in a position of vulnerability before God and God steps in as that person’s defense. When persons defend themselves continuously they don’t need God’s help and so he allows them to fight on their own and many times they will lose, BUT the person who has continuously yielded to God and His work is a person whom God will step up to the plate for and unleash His miraculous works for.
Why be under the authority of mere men? Because if/when we trust God enough to do what he says, He will step in and win any victory for us, that the mere man may not be able to win.
Life is like a Masterpiece, a woven tapestry. It takes work, it takes practice, It takes time. Let patience have its perfecting work in you. Let God arise and every enemy be scattered on your behalf today.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Today Our Daily Bread James 5 ++
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Yesterday’s Daily Bread was written when I was very, very sleepy, as you can tell by the atrocious spelling mistakes . I left out the reference !- Matthew 5, One of the best, a good one to replace your meditations.
Love U, Lena
James 5:1-20
Warning to the Rich
1Look here, you rich people, weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. 2Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. 3Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh in hell. F15 This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. 4For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
5You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every whim. Now your hearts are nice and fat, ready for the slaughter. 6You have condemned and killed good people who had no power to defend themselves against you.
Patience in Suffering
7Dear brothers and sisters, F16 you must be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who eagerly look for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They patiently wait for the precious harvest to ripen. 8You, too, must be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.
9Don't grumble about each other, my brothers and sisters, or God will judge you. For look! The great Judge is coming. He is standing at the door!
10For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. Job is an example of a man who endured patiently. From his experience we see how the Lord's plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and mercy.
12But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned for it.
The Power of Prayer
13Are any among you suffering? They should keep on praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to the Lord.
14Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well. And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.
16Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. 17Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! 18Then he prayed for rain, and down it poured. The grass turned green, and the crops began to grow again.
Restore Wandering Believers
19My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, 20you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.
FOOTNOTES:F15: Or will eat your flesh like fire. F16: Greek brothers; also in 5:9, 10, 12, 19.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
What a passage! I’m looking at the first section “Warning to the Rich”. I wonder if the scholars considered titling it, “Warning to the Destitute”? Everything in our Born again spirit led life should be thought of through the eyes of God’s plan, His Kingdom on earth, for eternity, plan.
This first passage is really speaking of this plan, in fact it is actually talking about the true purpose of human life on earth. Of ALL of the spirit beings who could have been put inside of bodies and born as humans, guess what? We’re it! You do know there are new spirit beings, new chances being born everyday, right? New potential, new life, new purposes, etc… What I so see it as saying, is this- we are here because of God’s love for the world, just as Jesus came out of God’s love for the world, so He created every man, woman and child with that same hope about them. What is that hope? That all men would be saved by the blood sacrifice of Jesus’ and that all men would in turn bring others to that great salvation. That is the purpose of life here in a nutshell, a big one at that. Even if a person does not know this, they are still held to its purpose and call. They will stand before God in judgment one day having fulfilled as much of this purpose as possible or not. If they tried to build for themselves and their own families little manly kingdoms on earth, where all of their physical, mental and social needs were met by their own plans and successes, there will be eternal trouble awaiting, because the purposes to fulfill are NOT our own selfish and even good purposes. The purposes to be fulfilled are the purposes of God.
When Jesus was here on earth, He used earthly things to show us that the Lord has been putting us all in OJT for sometime. He used the things set by God that are happening all around us to show us we’ve been “set up” for kingdom of God success. One such thing was a field of harvest, harvesters, laborers, investors, wheat to become bread, etc… he showed us that the world is the field, that Kingdom workers were harvesters and a harvester who works a field can turn that work into food for nations, namely the nourishment of true life that comes from knowing and following after God’s words.
If a person goes out and makes their own fields, which all men have that tempting potential to do. If they raise up servants unto themselves, if in using the principles of God, they get rich in worldly treasures that will burn in fire and won’t be able to go with them in death, If they put on crowns and invest in more and more of the same, they are in Big Kingdom Business trouble, eternal type of trouble. They will find it was worth absolutely nothing. I believe when we stand before our Father God, His righteous Son and His inviting Holy Spirit, we will be in our full intellect and understanding. I believe that before our very eyes will flash the scope of the end from the beginning and all of the in between, but it will be in a form that we do understand, and the biggest regret of all will be felt inside of us as never before, that we did not love the world as He does, enough to go work in another man’s field even as a servant to save somebody.
Jesus did that, he had a Kingdom in heaven and glorious with the father god 24/7 as we know days and he came and bowed down to another, went into the field of another ( the world was ruled by satan) and he served in the field when He owned the field, He served so hard there that He died there shedding all of His blood for the field, to pay the price to give the field to another, His father.
Any and all worldly self- exalting, self – supplying, self- serving, self- promoting ambitions etc. are going to burn up! They have no eternal value whatsoever.
Many times sickness comes to us as a result of disobediences and unfulfilled purposes. Things become out of line, things are chaotic and our bodies respond. It’s like when one gets close to a flame, the heat alerts us that if we get closer we’ll get burned. The heat says, “turn around, don’t do that, repent!” sickness does not come from God, it comes from the devil, who has rule in us if we are outside of the rule or will of God. If God has asked you to do or not do something and you disregard Him or take his words as mere hints which you don’t HAVE to obey, you have just entered into enemy territory. If you find yourself there use it as a check point, ask yourself if you’ve resisted God’s nudging spirit, even in the simplest thing like quitting a bad habit. Resist God’s nudge and open doors to other so-called friends. The ridiculous thing is those are not friends at all, they are out to destroy any potential the kingdom of God has here on earth- us! Light-bulb time….Thus the sickness! ( it comes to steal kill, destroy- Jn 10:10) If we repent, change our minds and hearts and actions towards doing God’s nudging will, we will find ourselves stomping on the head of a snake, a serpent, a liar and thief of God and His kingdom plan.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Yesterday’s Daily Bread was written when I was very, very sleepy, as you can tell by the atrocious spelling mistakes . I left out the reference !- Matthew 5, One of the best, a good one to replace your meditations.
Love U, Lena
James 5:1-20
Warning to the Rich
1Look here, you rich people, weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. 2Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. 3Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh in hell. F15 This treasure you have accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. 4For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
5You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every whim. Now your hearts are nice and fat, ready for the slaughter. 6You have condemned and killed good people who had no power to defend themselves against you.
Patience in Suffering
7Dear brothers and sisters, F16 you must be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who eagerly look for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They patiently wait for the precious harvest to ripen. 8You, too, must be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.
9Don't grumble about each other, my brothers and sisters, or God will judge you. For look! The great Judge is coming. He is standing at the door!
10For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. Job is an example of a man who endured patiently. From his experience we see how the Lord's plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and mercy.
12But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned for it.
The Power of Prayer
13Are any among you suffering? They should keep on praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to the Lord.
14Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well. And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.
16Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. 17Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! 18Then he prayed for rain, and down it poured. The grass turned green, and the crops began to grow again.
Restore Wandering Believers
19My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, 20you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.
FOOTNOTES:F15: Or will eat your flesh like fire. F16: Greek brothers; also in 5:9, 10, 12, 19.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
What a passage! I’m looking at the first section “Warning to the Rich”. I wonder if the scholars considered titling it, “Warning to the Destitute”? Everything in our Born again spirit led life should be thought of through the eyes of God’s plan, His Kingdom on earth, for eternity, plan.
This first passage is really speaking of this plan, in fact it is actually talking about the true purpose of human life on earth. Of ALL of the spirit beings who could have been put inside of bodies and born as humans, guess what? We’re it! You do know there are new spirit beings, new chances being born everyday, right? New potential, new life, new purposes, etc… What I so see it as saying, is this- we are here because of God’s love for the world, just as Jesus came out of God’s love for the world, so He created every man, woman and child with that same hope about them. What is that hope? That all men would be saved by the blood sacrifice of Jesus’ and that all men would in turn bring others to that great salvation. That is the purpose of life here in a nutshell, a big one at that. Even if a person does not know this, they are still held to its purpose and call. They will stand before God in judgment one day having fulfilled as much of this purpose as possible or not. If they tried to build for themselves and their own families little manly kingdoms on earth, where all of their physical, mental and social needs were met by their own plans and successes, there will be eternal trouble awaiting, because the purposes to fulfill are NOT our own selfish and even good purposes. The purposes to be fulfilled are the purposes of God.
When Jesus was here on earth, He used earthly things to show us that the Lord has been putting us all in OJT for sometime. He used the things set by God that are happening all around us to show us we’ve been “set up” for kingdom of God success. One such thing was a field of harvest, harvesters, laborers, investors, wheat to become bread, etc… he showed us that the world is the field, that Kingdom workers were harvesters and a harvester who works a field can turn that work into food for nations, namely the nourishment of true life that comes from knowing and following after God’s words.
If a person goes out and makes their own fields, which all men have that tempting potential to do. If they raise up servants unto themselves, if in using the principles of God, they get rich in worldly treasures that will burn in fire and won’t be able to go with them in death, If they put on crowns and invest in more and more of the same, they are in Big Kingdom Business trouble, eternal type of trouble. They will find it was worth absolutely nothing. I believe when we stand before our Father God, His righteous Son and His inviting Holy Spirit, we will be in our full intellect and understanding. I believe that before our very eyes will flash the scope of the end from the beginning and all of the in between, but it will be in a form that we do understand, and the biggest regret of all will be felt inside of us as never before, that we did not love the world as He does, enough to go work in another man’s field even as a servant to save somebody.
Jesus did that, he had a Kingdom in heaven and glorious with the father god 24/7 as we know days and he came and bowed down to another, went into the field of another ( the world was ruled by satan) and he served in the field when He owned the field, He served so hard there that He died there shedding all of His blood for the field, to pay the price to give the field to another, His father.
Any and all worldly self- exalting, self – supplying, self- serving, self- promoting ambitions etc. are going to burn up! They have no eternal value whatsoever.
Many times sickness comes to us as a result of disobediences and unfulfilled purposes. Things become out of line, things are chaotic and our bodies respond. It’s like when one gets close to a flame, the heat alerts us that if we get closer we’ll get burned. The heat says, “turn around, don’t do that, repent!” sickness does not come from God, it comes from the devil, who has rule in us if we are outside of the rule or will of God. If God has asked you to do or not do something and you disregard Him or take his words as mere hints which you don’t HAVE to obey, you have just entered into enemy territory. If you find yourself there use it as a check point, ask yourself if you’ve resisted God’s nudging spirit, even in the simplest thing like quitting a bad habit. Resist God’s nudge and open doors to other so-called friends. The ridiculous thing is those are not friends at all, they are out to destroy any potential the kingdom of God has here on earth- us! Light-bulb time….Thus the sickness! ( it comes to steal kill, destroy- Jn 10:10) If we repent, change our minds and hearts and actions towards doing God’s nudging will, we will find ourselves stomping on the head of a snake, a serpent, a liar and thief of God and His kingdom plan.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Today Our Daily Bread Psalm 68 ++
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Psalm 68:1-35
For the choir director: A psalm of David. A song.
1 Arise, O God, and scatter your enemies. Let those who hate God run for their lives.
2 Drive them off like smoke blown by the wind. Melt them like wax in fire. Let the wicked perish in the presence of God.
3 But let the godly rejoice. Let them be glad in God's presence. Let them be filled with joy.
4 Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the LORD— rejoice in his presence!
5 Father to the fatherless, defender of widows— this is God, whose dwelling is holy.
6 God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But for rebels, there is only famine and distress.
7 O God, when you led your people from Egypt, when you marched through the wilderness,
Interlude
8 the earth trembled, and the heavens poured rain before you, the God of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
9 You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary Promised Land.
10 There your people finally settled, and with a bountiful harvest, O God, you provided for your needy people.
11 The Lord announces victory, and throngs of women shout the happy news.
12 Enemy kings and their armies flee, while the women of Israel divide the plunder.
13 Though they lived among the sheepfolds, now they are covered with silver and gold, as a dove is covered by its wings.
14 The Almighty scattered the enemy kings like a blowing snowstorm on Mount Zalmon.
15 The majestic mountains of Bashan stretch high into the sky.
16 Why do you look with envy, O rugged mountains, at Mount Zion, where God has chosen to live, where the LORD himself will live forever?
17 Surrounded by unnumbered thousands of chariots, the Lord came from Mount Sinai into his sanctuary.
18 When you ascended to the heights, you led a crowd of captives. You received gifts from the people, even from those who rebelled against you. Now the LORD God will live among us here.
19 Praise the Lord; praise God our savior! For each day he carries us in his arms.
Interlude
20 Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign LORD rescues us from death.
21 But God will smash the heads of his enemies, crushing the skulls of those who love their guilty ways.
22 The Lord says, "I will bring my enemies down from Bashan; I will bring them up from the depths of the sea.
23 You, my people, will wash your feet in their blood, and even your dogs will get their share!"
24 Your procession has come into view, O God— the procession of my God and King as he goes into the sanctuary.
25 Singers are in front, musicians are behind; with them are young women playing tambourines.
26 Praise God, all you people of Israel; praise the LORD, the source of Israel's life.
27 Look, the little tribe of Benjamin leads the way. Then comes a great throng of rulers from Judah and all the rulers of Zebulun and Naphtali.
28 Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have in the past.
29 The kings of the earth are bringing tribute to your Temple in Jerusalem.
30 Rebuke these enemy nations— these wild animals lurking in the reeds, this herd of bulls among the weaker calves. Humble those who demand tribute from us. F48 Scatter the nations that delight in war.
31 Let Egypt come with gifts of precious metals; let Ethiopia F49 bow in submission to God.
32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth. Sing praises to the Lord.
Interlude
33 Sing to the one who rides across the ancient heavens, his mighty voice thundering from the sky.
34 Tell everyone about God's power. His majesty shines down on Israel; his strength is mighty in the heavens.
35 God is awesome in his sanctuary. The God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
Praise be to God!
~Lena’s Journalin’~
I was on pause for 2 days, but wanted to at least get to Today’s word and post it.
Our church had a Weekend Encounter that I was away helping on.
What an awesome time in the Lord! A high recommendation for all!
I see this scripture as a faith declaration being made out over our lives, whatever is happening.
It is a way to come outside of and get a higher view of our circumstances, and take authority over them in and through prayer, a prayer of faith in God, declarations and invitations to the work of the Lord, to God’s spirit being unleashed into our lives and to settle whatever is “going on” that is trying to rise against His word over us.
The Lord speaks words over us, whether in the Bible, whether our names and their meanings, whether and encouraging reminder etc. the enemy comes immediately to take God’s word away from us. How powerful is God, how power-filled are His words to us, in us, through us?
Lies are defined by belief. Who’s words do we believe?
As quickly as an attempt comes to steal God’s word, is as quickly as it can also leave us and take its threats with it. Sometimes it is as simple as blowing smoke away or praising God rather than magnifying enemy attempts to steal from us. Refusing to complain or dwell on enemy activity and making choices to magnify God and His word even when an enemy comes knocking and threatening us are tools for victory. This Psalm is FULL of victory. Reciting his Psalm in faith is agreeing with the words God has already spoken over us and our circumstances. The Bible says when two or three agree together on things in heaven, anything can be done. If we one agree with god One that makes two agreeing, If we add one more believer, Volia- three-fold cord and the power increase is on! Turn up and on the power of God, Join your faith with God’s word and include fellowshio with other believers who agree with God’s words also.
Love U !
Lady Lena Marie
Daughter of God Most High
The MOST POWERFUL enemy defeater EVER, Amen !
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Psalm 68:1-35
For the choir director: A psalm of David. A song.
1 Arise, O God, and scatter your enemies. Let those who hate God run for their lives.
2 Drive them off like smoke blown by the wind. Melt them like wax in fire. Let the wicked perish in the presence of God.
3 But let the godly rejoice. Let them be glad in God's presence. Let them be filled with joy.
4 Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the LORD— rejoice in his presence!
5 Father to the fatherless, defender of widows— this is God, whose dwelling is holy.
6 God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But for rebels, there is only famine and distress.
7 O God, when you led your people from Egypt, when you marched through the wilderness,
Interlude
8 the earth trembled, and the heavens poured rain before you, the God of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
9 You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary Promised Land.
10 There your people finally settled, and with a bountiful harvest, O God, you provided for your needy people.
11 The Lord announces victory, and throngs of women shout the happy news.
12 Enemy kings and their armies flee, while the women of Israel divide the plunder.
13 Though they lived among the sheepfolds, now they are covered with silver and gold, as a dove is covered by its wings.
14 The Almighty scattered the enemy kings like a blowing snowstorm on Mount Zalmon.
15 The majestic mountains of Bashan stretch high into the sky.
16 Why do you look with envy, O rugged mountains, at Mount Zion, where God has chosen to live, where the LORD himself will live forever?
17 Surrounded by unnumbered thousands of chariots, the Lord came from Mount Sinai into his sanctuary.
18 When you ascended to the heights, you led a crowd of captives. You received gifts from the people, even from those who rebelled against you. Now the LORD God will live among us here.
19 Praise the Lord; praise God our savior! For each day he carries us in his arms.
Interlude
20 Our God is a God who saves! The Sovereign LORD rescues us from death.
21 But God will smash the heads of his enemies, crushing the skulls of those who love their guilty ways.
22 The Lord says, "I will bring my enemies down from Bashan; I will bring them up from the depths of the sea.
23 You, my people, will wash your feet in their blood, and even your dogs will get their share!"
24 Your procession has come into view, O God— the procession of my God and King as he goes into the sanctuary.
25 Singers are in front, musicians are behind; with them are young women playing tambourines.
26 Praise God, all you people of Israel; praise the LORD, the source of Israel's life.
27 Look, the little tribe of Benjamin leads the way. Then comes a great throng of rulers from Judah and all the rulers of Zebulun and Naphtali.
28 Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have in the past.
29 The kings of the earth are bringing tribute to your Temple in Jerusalem.
30 Rebuke these enemy nations— these wild animals lurking in the reeds, this herd of bulls among the weaker calves. Humble those who demand tribute from us. F48 Scatter the nations that delight in war.
31 Let Egypt come with gifts of precious metals; let Ethiopia F49 bow in submission to God.
32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth. Sing praises to the Lord.
Interlude
33 Sing to the one who rides across the ancient heavens, his mighty voice thundering from the sky.
34 Tell everyone about God's power. His majesty shines down on Israel; his strength is mighty in the heavens.
35 God is awesome in his sanctuary. The God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
Praise be to God!
~Lena’s Journalin’~
I was on pause for 2 days, but wanted to at least get to Today’s word and post it.
Our church had a Weekend Encounter that I was away helping on.
What an awesome time in the Lord! A high recommendation for all!
I see this scripture as a faith declaration being made out over our lives, whatever is happening.
It is a way to come outside of and get a higher view of our circumstances, and take authority over them in and through prayer, a prayer of faith in God, declarations and invitations to the work of the Lord, to God’s spirit being unleashed into our lives and to settle whatever is “going on” that is trying to rise against His word over us.
The Lord speaks words over us, whether in the Bible, whether our names and their meanings, whether and encouraging reminder etc. the enemy comes immediately to take God’s word away from us. How powerful is God, how power-filled are His words to us, in us, through us?
Lies are defined by belief. Who’s words do we believe?
As quickly as an attempt comes to steal God’s word, is as quickly as it can also leave us and take its threats with it. Sometimes it is as simple as blowing smoke away or praising God rather than magnifying enemy attempts to steal from us. Refusing to complain or dwell on enemy activity and making choices to magnify God and His word even when an enemy comes knocking and threatening us are tools for victory. This Psalm is FULL of victory. Reciting his Psalm in faith is agreeing with the words God has already spoken over us and our circumstances. The Bible says when two or three agree together on things in heaven, anything can be done. If we one agree with god One that makes two agreeing, If we add one more believer, Volia- three-fold cord and the power increase is on! Turn up and on the power of God, Join your faith with God’s word and include fellowshio with other believers who agree with God’s words also.
Love U !
Lady Lena Marie
Daughter of God Most High
The MOST POWERFUL enemy defeater EVER, Amen !
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Today Our Daily Bread Genesis 32 ++
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Gensesi 32:1-32
1And Jacob went his way. Angels of God met him. 2When Jacob saw them he said, "Oh! God's Camp!" And he named the place Mahanaim (Campground).
3Then Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir in Edom. 4He instructed them: "Tell my master Esau this, "A message from your servant Jacob: I've been staying with Laban and couldn't get away until now. 5I've acquired cattle and donkeys and sheep; also men and women servants. I'm telling you all this, my master, hoping for your approval.'"
6The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him."
7Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps. 8He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."
9And then Jacob prayed, "God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, GOD who told me, "Go back to your parents' homeland and I'll treat you well.' 10I don't deserve all the love and loyalty you've shown me. When I left here and crossed the Jordan I only had the clothes on my back, and now look at me--two camps! 11Save me, please, from the violence of my brother, my angry brother! I'm afraid he'll come and attack us all, me, the mothers and the children. 12You yourself said, "I will treat you well; I'll make your descendants like the sands of the sea, far too many to count.'"
13He slept the night there. Then he prepared a present for his brother Esau from his possessions: 14two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16He put a servant in charge of each herd and said, "Go ahead of me and keep a healthy space between each herd."
17Then he instructed the first one out: "When my brother Esau comes close and asks, "Who is your master? Where are you going? Who owns these?' 18-answer him like this, "Your servant Jacob. They are a gift to my master Esau. He's on his way.'"
19He gave the same instructions to the second servant and to the third--to each in turn as they set out with their herds: 20"Say "Your servant Jacob is on his way behind us.'" He thought, "I will soften him up with the succession of gifts. Then when he sees me face-to-face, maybe he'll be glad to welcome me."
21So his gifts went before him while he settled down for the night in the camp.
22But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions.
24But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint.
26The man said, "Let me go; it's daybreak."Jacob said, "I'm not letting you go 'til you bless me."
27The man said, "What's your name?"He answered, "Jacob."
28The man said, "But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it's Israel (God-Wrestler); you've wrestled with God and you've come through."
29Jacob asked, "And what's your name?" The man said, "Why do you want to know my name?" And then, right then and there, he blessed him.
30Jacob named the place Peniel (God's Face) because, he said, "I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!"
31The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. 32(This is why Israelites to this day don't eat the hip muscle; because Jacob's hip was thrown out of joint.)
~Lena’s Journalin’~
Jacob is you and I, inside of our human nature, the nature that wars against the things of God. We’ve recently spoken of unity and dwelling with the brethren and also coming into the house of God. In the house of God and in the pursuit of unity, real God-like unity, we will “rub shoulders” with our brothers in the unity of the faith. Hopefully like Jacob, that “rubbing” (see Proverbs below J) will help bring us closer to our change, to our transformation into the image of Christ. Just going to what we call God’s house, going to church services, will not alone transform us into the image of Christ. Encounters with our brothers or even the anticipation of them, can get us there real quick. We think about our struggles to be unified and it sends us running to Our Father for change. That is a God thing. Change is a God thing.
The two camps Jacob was struggling with were his spiritually re-born nature and his old conniving nature, his manipulative nature, his cover myself and make myself look good nature.(Fig leaf, rather than fig-tree thinking) His defensive nature.
A big HUGE enemy of change is self defense, self justification. Don’t you deal with that everyday? The leaning towards proving yourself right all the time, the sway of wanting to look right, to have others see all of your efforts as good ones? Jacob was trying to make a name for himself, he was preparing in his mind to present himself before his brother, but the Lord wants to be our defense, it is the Spirit of the Lord that wants to go before us, the Spirit of the Lord, that wants to justify us by the blood of His Son. It is the Spirit of the Lord who wants to be our everything, proving Himself right, proving His blood good enough to cover our shortcomings. He wants to take our vengeance if we are correct, He wants the glory!
Ever had an all night wrestling match between your spirit and your soul, between God’s word and your reason? Whatcha wrestling about? Change. That’s usually what it is. God and His Holy Spirit and the blood of His Son Jesus want to change us into His Divine image and likeness. He wants a people who desire to be as He is, to allow Him to make them as He is in this world. Something has to lead us there.
The thought of Esau’s encounter led Him to see where he was. 20 years of just going to and casually visiting church did not bring him there. He had to get closer to people, people he didn’t think he liked, in the house of God, brethren. This intimacy, on a relational covenantal level, sent him on a Encounter with God, sent him into the place of change, Divine exchange and transformation. He thought he’d see his brother face to face and was toiling over it.
In his encounter God changed his actual nature, his walk was different from this time forward. He was a new man!
Jacob met God, not only Esau, but God, face to face and was changed- want change? Meet up with God, do it at home, do it at church, do it at an Encounter. Live and dwell with Him, live and dwell in covenant with others, let them “rub” you and know that “rubbing” is the way the Lord has set out to change you!
Psalm 133:1- Behold how good and how pleasant it is (in the ever seeing eyes of the Lord) for brethren to dwell together in unity….
Unity, Us, You and me- changing into His image, together
From glory to glory, face to face.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Gensesi 32:1-32
1And Jacob went his way. Angels of God met him. 2When Jacob saw them he said, "Oh! God's Camp!" And he named the place Mahanaim (Campground).
3Then Jacob sent messengers on ahead to his brother Esau in the land of Seir in Edom. 4He instructed them: "Tell my master Esau this, "A message from your servant Jacob: I've been staying with Laban and couldn't get away until now. 5I've acquired cattle and donkeys and sheep; also men and women servants. I'm telling you all this, my master, hoping for your approval.'"
6The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him."
7Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps. 8He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."
9And then Jacob prayed, "God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, GOD who told me, "Go back to your parents' homeland and I'll treat you well.' 10I don't deserve all the love and loyalty you've shown me. When I left here and crossed the Jordan I only had the clothes on my back, and now look at me--two camps! 11Save me, please, from the violence of my brother, my angry brother! I'm afraid he'll come and attack us all, me, the mothers and the children. 12You yourself said, "I will treat you well; I'll make your descendants like the sands of the sea, far too many to count.'"
13He slept the night there. Then he prepared a present for his brother Esau from his possessions: 14two hundred female goats, twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15thirty camels with their nursing young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16He put a servant in charge of each herd and said, "Go ahead of me and keep a healthy space between each herd."
17Then he instructed the first one out: "When my brother Esau comes close and asks, "Who is your master? Where are you going? Who owns these?' 18-answer him like this, "Your servant Jacob. They are a gift to my master Esau. He's on his way.'"
19He gave the same instructions to the second servant and to the third--to each in turn as they set out with their herds: 20"Say "Your servant Jacob is on his way behind us.'" He thought, "I will soften him up with the succession of gifts. Then when he sees me face-to-face, maybe he'll be glad to welcome me."
21So his gifts went before him while he settled down for the night in the camp.
22But during the night he got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23He got them safely across the brook along with all his possessions.
24But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint.
26The man said, "Let me go; it's daybreak."Jacob said, "I'm not letting you go 'til you bless me."
27The man said, "What's your name?"He answered, "Jacob."
28The man said, "But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it's Israel (God-Wrestler); you've wrestled with God and you've come through."
29Jacob asked, "And what's your name?" The man said, "Why do you want to know my name?" And then, right then and there, he blessed him.
30Jacob named the place Peniel (God's Face) because, he said, "I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!"
31The sun came up as he left Peniel, limping because of his hip. 32(This is why Israelites to this day don't eat the hip muscle; because Jacob's hip was thrown out of joint.)
~Lena’s Journalin’~
Jacob is you and I, inside of our human nature, the nature that wars against the things of God. We’ve recently spoken of unity and dwelling with the brethren and also coming into the house of God. In the house of God and in the pursuit of unity, real God-like unity, we will “rub shoulders” with our brothers in the unity of the faith. Hopefully like Jacob, that “rubbing” (see Proverbs below J) will help bring us closer to our change, to our transformation into the image of Christ. Just going to what we call God’s house, going to church services, will not alone transform us into the image of Christ. Encounters with our brothers or even the anticipation of them, can get us there real quick. We think about our struggles to be unified and it sends us running to Our Father for change. That is a God thing. Change is a God thing.
The two camps Jacob was struggling with were his spiritually re-born nature and his old conniving nature, his manipulative nature, his cover myself and make myself look good nature.(Fig leaf, rather than fig-tree thinking) His defensive nature.
A big HUGE enemy of change is self defense, self justification. Don’t you deal with that everyday? The leaning towards proving yourself right all the time, the sway of wanting to look right, to have others see all of your efforts as good ones? Jacob was trying to make a name for himself, he was preparing in his mind to present himself before his brother, but the Lord wants to be our defense, it is the Spirit of the Lord that wants to go before us, the Spirit of the Lord, that wants to justify us by the blood of His Son. It is the Spirit of the Lord who wants to be our everything, proving Himself right, proving His blood good enough to cover our shortcomings. He wants to take our vengeance if we are correct, He wants the glory!
Ever had an all night wrestling match between your spirit and your soul, between God’s word and your reason? Whatcha wrestling about? Change. That’s usually what it is. God and His Holy Spirit and the blood of His Son Jesus want to change us into His Divine image and likeness. He wants a people who desire to be as He is, to allow Him to make them as He is in this world. Something has to lead us there.
The thought of Esau’s encounter led Him to see where he was. 20 years of just going to and casually visiting church did not bring him there. He had to get closer to people, people he didn’t think he liked, in the house of God, brethren. This intimacy, on a relational covenantal level, sent him on a Encounter with God, sent him into the place of change, Divine exchange and transformation. He thought he’d see his brother face to face and was toiling over it.
In his encounter God changed his actual nature, his walk was different from this time forward. He was a new man!
Jacob met God, not only Esau, but God, face to face and was changed- want change? Meet up with God, do it at home, do it at church, do it at an Encounter. Live and dwell with Him, live and dwell in covenant with others, let them “rub” you and know that “rubbing” is the way the Lord has set out to change you!
Psalm 133:1- Behold how good and how pleasant it is (in the ever seeing eyes of the Lord) for brethren to dwell together in unity….
Unity, Us, You and me- changing into His image, together
From glory to glory, face to face.
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Today Our Daily Bread Luke 19 ++
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Luke 19:1-48
Jesus and Zacchaeus
1Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. 2There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was one of the most influential Jews in the Roman tax-collecting business, and he had become very rich. 3He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowds. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree beside the road, so he could watch from there.
5When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. "Zacchaeus!" he said. "Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today."
6Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7But the crowds were displeased. "He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner," they grumbled.
8Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have overcharged people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!"
9Jesus responded, "Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham. 10And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost."
Story of the Ten Servants
11The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away. 12He said, "A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return. 13Before he left, he called together ten servants and gave them ten pounds of silver F85 to invest for him while he was gone. 14But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say they did not want him to be their king.
15"When he returned, the king called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what they had done with the money and what their profits were. 16The first servant reported a tremendous gain—ten times as much as the original amount! 17'Well done!' the king exclaimed. 'You are a trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.'
18"The next servant also reported a good gain—five times the original amount. 19'Well done!' the king said. 'You can be governor over five cities.'
20"But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, 'I hid it and kept it safe. 21I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn't yours and harvesting crops you didn't plant.'
22"'You wicked servant!' the king roared. 'Hard, am I? If you knew so much about me and how tough I am, 23why didn't you deposit the money in the bank so I could at least get some interest on it?' 24Then turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, 'Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who earned the most.'
25"'But, master,' they said, 'that servant has enough already!'
26"'Yes,' the king replied, 'but to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who are unfaithful, F86 even what little they have will be taken away. 27And now about these enemies of mine who didn't want me to be their king—bring them in and execute them right here in my presence.'"
The Triumphal Entry
28After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. 29As they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. 30"Go into that village over there," he told them, "and as you enter it, you will see a colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, 'The Lord needs it.'"
32So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. 33And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, "Why are you untying our colt?"
34And the disciples simply replied, "The Lord needs it." 35So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.
36Then the crowds spread out their coats on the road ahead of Jesus. 37As they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
38 "Bless the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in highest heaven!" F87
39But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, "Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!"
40He replied, "If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!"
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
41But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry. 42"I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from you. 43Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you. 44They will crush you to the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you."
Jesus Clears the Temple
45Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants from their stalls. 46He told them, "The Scriptures declare, 'My Temple will be a place of prayer,' but you have turned it into a den of thieves." F88
47After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. 48But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.
FOOTNOTES:F85: Greek 10 minas; 1 mina was worth about 3 months' wages. F86: Or who have nothing. F87: Pss 118:26; 148:1. F88: Isa 56:7; Jer 7:11.
~Lena’s Journalin’~
All the successes in life had not satisfied Zach, none of his money satisfied him either. He even had stature in the influential world and was not satisfied. He went after all of the things the world tells us to go after. He had actually gotten many of them for himself, enough to be able to even pat himself on the back, yet he knew there was much more.
The much more could only come from one place, that is inside of the heart of the One who created each one of us and knows well how we work, how we’re wired etc. Zach recognized something when he heard about Jesus, enough truth that he wanted to see it, to invite it in and live it out himself. He sensed he’d stay empty without God in his life, and when he heard His voice he had to come up to a higher place than his status would ever take him and see God for himself. When he was ready to do that, God came to his house, that very day.
It’s cool that the sycamore tree was a type of fig tree and Zach climbed up in its branches. He didn’t climb up in it to hide as Adam had tried to cover himself and his sin w/ figs leaves, he used it to get up to where he could see God clearer.
We cannot store up more and more things on earth and keep more and more things and ever think we’ll be secure in them. Our security is and will ever only be found within the kingdom of God and entering into the participation of kingdom thinking, acting, eating, breathing and living. All of the life of purpose, the life God gives, the life God has called us to is involved in kingdom activity, kingdom existence. Any other investments are only as temporary as we are, they will pass away with no eternal reward, and without an eternal reward, there is no eternal life, if we do not give into and receive eternal life, we live eternal death forever.
When we are born of God we are not born of God to only say we have eternal life ourselves, just as when a son is born he is not meant to dwell alone all of his days. God designed our natural and spiritual births for us to join in covenant with others and reproduce after our kind. These other talents represent the spreading of the good news of our faith to others. Jesus was saying the Master was quite disappointed that in the strength of what was given this man, he had no passionate desire to share his faith with others and make kingdom investments in their lives.
Later in the passage Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, remember Jerusalem is the city of peace, the church in the world, by design, and by call. He was so saddened that that which was set up by God and designed to bring people into His kingdom and into the peace that surpasses all understanding, and somehow it would not move past their own front doors to reach out into the world where lost people live. The church was all comfy cozy in making their own building look great, spending time and energy God had given them on things and more rules to follow, which all kept them further contained in their 4 walls of hypocrisy. He came to call them out of that darkness, to shed light on religious organization. To bring life to the whole world, religious and otherwise.
Jesus is still doing that today, through us.
Oh church of the living God, come outside of your 4 walls and see the Light and take the Light given you to the nations of peoples who live right next door to you!
God bless you as you GO!
P.S. I just noticed something- 10. There were Ten servants who He’d made the investments in, gave the investment money to.
There were 10 virgins who had lamps, and in Abraham’s conversation with God about Sodom and Gomorrah, which is a picture of a corrupted world, The Lord said, “Yes Abraham, I will save Sodom for 10 Righteous!”
Are there 10 Righteous? Are there 10 willing to invest in the people of their neighborhood or workplace or community for the kingdom and call of God?
10 is the # of the sanctification of the whole, the # of the tithe,, the tenth part , if given covers it as though the whole thing is given.
Are there 10 righteous willing to GO?
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Luke 19:1-48
Jesus and Zacchaeus
1Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. 2There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was one of the most influential Jews in the Roman tax-collecting business, and he had become very rich. 3He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowds. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree beside the road, so he could watch from there.
5When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. "Zacchaeus!" he said. "Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today."
6Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7But the crowds were displeased. "He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner," they grumbled.
8Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have overcharged people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!"
9Jesus responded, "Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham. 10And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost."
Story of the Ten Servants
11The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away. 12He said, "A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return. 13Before he left, he called together ten servants and gave them ten pounds of silver F85 to invest for him while he was gone. 14But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say they did not want him to be their king.
15"When he returned, the king called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what they had done with the money and what their profits were. 16The first servant reported a tremendous gain—ten times as much as the original amount! 17'Well done!' the king exclaimed. 'You are a trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.'
18"The next servant also reported a good gain—five times the original amount. 19'Well done!' the king said. 'You can be governor over five cities.'
20"But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, 'I hid it and kept it safe. 21I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn't yours and harvesting crops you didn't plant.'
22"'You wicked servant!' the king roared. 'Hard, am I? If you knew so much about me and how tough I am, 23why didn't you deposit the money in the bank so I could at least get some interest on it?' 24Then turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, 'Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who earned the most.'
25"'But, master,' they said, 'that servant has enough already!'
26"'Yes,' the king replied, 'but to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who are unfaithful, F86 even what little they have will be taken away. 27And now about these enemies of mine who didn't want me to be their king—bring them in and execute them right here in my presence.'"
The Triumphal Entry
28After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. 29As they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. 30"Go into that village over there," he told them, "and as you enter it, you will see a colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, 'The Lord needs it.'"
32So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. 33And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, "Why are you untying our colt?"
34And the disciples simply replied, "The Lord needs it." 35So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.
36Then the crowds spread out their coats on the road ahead of Jesus. 37As they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
38 "Bless the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in highest heaven!" F87
39But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, "Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!"
40He replied, "If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!"
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
41But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry. 42"I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from you. 43Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you. 44They will crush you to the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you."
Jesus Clears the Temple
45Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants from their stalls. 46He told them, "The Scriptures declare, 'My Temple will be a place of prayer,' but you have turned it into a den of thieves." F88
47After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. 48But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.
FOOTNOTES:F85: Greek 10 minas; 1 mina was worth about 3 months' wages. F86: Or who have nothing. F87: Pss 118:26; 148:1. F88: Isa 56:7; Jer 7:11.
~Lena’s Journalin’~
All the successes in life had not satisfied Zach, none of his money satisfied him either. He even had stature in the influential world and was not satisfied. He went after all of the things the world tells us to go after. He had actually gotten many of them for himself, enough to be able to even pat himself on the back, yet he knew there was much more.
The much more could only come from one place, that is inside of the heart of the One who created each one of us and knows well how we work, how we’re wired etc. Zach recognized something when he heard about Jesus, enough truth that he wanted to see it, to invite it in and live it out himself. He sensed he’d stay empty without God in his life, and when he heard His voice he had to come up to a higher place than his status would ever take him and see God for himself. When he was ready to do that, God came to his house, that very day.
It’s cool that the sycamore tree was a type of fig tree and Zach climbed up in its branches. He didn’t climb up in it to hide as Adam had tried to cover himself and his sin w/ figs leaves, he used it to get up to where he could see God clearer.
We cannot store up more and more things on earth and keep more and more things and ever think we’ll be secure in them. Our security is and will ever only be found within the kingdom of God and entering into the participation of kingdom thinking, acting, eating, breathing and living. All of the life of purpose, the life God gives, the life God has called us to is involved in kingdom activity, kingdom existence. Any other investments are only as temporary as we are, they will pass away with no eternal reward, and without an eternal reward, there is no eternal life, if we do not give into and receive eternal life, we live eternal death forever.
When we are born of God we are not born of God to only say we have eternal life ourselves, just as when a son is born he is not meant to dwell alone all of his days. God designed our natural and spiritual births for us to join in covenant with others and reproduce after our kind. These other talents represent the spreading of the good news of our faith to others. Jesus was saying the Master was quite disappointed that in the strength of what was given this man, he had no passionate desire to share his faith with others and make kingdom investments in their lives.
Later in the passage Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, remember Jerusalem is the city of peace, the church in the world, by design, and by call. He was so saddened that that which was set up by God and designed to bring people into His kingdom and into the peace that surpasses all understanding, and somehow it would not move past their own front doors to reach out into the world where lost people live. The church was all comfy cozy in making their own building look great, spending time and energy God had given them on things and more rules to follow, which all kept them further contained in their 4 walls of hypocrisy. He came to call them out of that darkness, to shed light on religious organization. To bring life to the whole world, religious and otherwise.
Jesus is still doing that today, through us.
Oh church of the living God, come outside of your 4 walls and see the Light and take the Light given you to the nations of peoples who live right next door to you!
God bless you as you GO!
P.S. I just noticed something- 10. There were Ten servants who He’d made the investments in, gave the investment money to.
There were 10 virgins who had lamps, and in Abraham’s conversation with God about Sodom and Gomorrah, which is a picture of a corrupted world, The Lord said, “Yes Abraham, I will save Sodom for 10 Righteous!”
Are there 10 Righteous? Are there 10 willing to invest in the people of their neighborhood or workplace or community for the kingdom and call of God?
10 is the # of the sanctification of the whole, the # of the tithe,, the tenth part , if given covers it as though the whole thing is given.
Are there 10 righteous willing to GO?
Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored. 19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.
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