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.
HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY !
Isaiah 10:1-34
1Destruction is certain for the unjust judges, for those who issue unfair laws. 2They deprive the poor, the widows, and the orphans of justice. Yes, they rob widows and fatherless children! 3What will you do when I send desolation upon you from a distant land? To whom will you turn for help? Where will your treasures be safe? 4I will not help you. You will stumble along as prisoners or lie among the dead. But even then the LORD's anger will not be satisfied. His fist is still poised to strike.
Judgment against Assyria
5"Destruction is certain for Assyria, the whip of my anger. Its military power is a club in my hand. 6Assyria will enslave my people, who are a godless nation. It will plunder them, trampling them like dirt beneath its feet. 7But the king of Assyria will not know that it is I who sent him. He will merely think he is attacking my people as part of his plan to conquer the world. 8He will say, 'Each of my princes will soon be a king, ruling a conquered land. 9We will destroy Calno just as we did Carchemish. Hamath will fall before us as Arpad did. And we will destroy Samaria just as we did Damascus. 10Yes, we have finished off many a kingdom whose gods were far greater than those in Jerusalem and Samaria. 11So when we have defeated Samaria and her gods, we will destroy Jerusalem with hers.'"
12After the Lord has used the king of Assyria to accomplish his purposes in Jerusalem, he will turn against the king of Assyria and punish him—for he is proud and arrogant. 13He boasts, "By my own power and wisdom I have won these wars. By my own strength I have captured many lands, destroyed their kings, and carried off their treasures. 14By my greatness I have robbed their nests of riches and gathered up kingdoms as a farmer gathers eggs. No one can even flap a wing against me or utter a peep of protest."
15Can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it? Is the saw greater than the person who saws? Can a whip strike unless a hand is moving it? Can a cane walk by itself?
16Listen now, king of Assyria! Because of all your evil boasting, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will send a plague among your proud troops, and a flaming fire will ignite your glory. 17The LORD, the Light of Israel and the Holy One, will be a flaming fire that will destroy them. In a single night he will burn those thorns and briers, the Assyrians. 18Assyria's vast army is like a glorious forest, yet it will be destroyed. The LORD will completely destroy Assyria's warriors, and they will waste away like sick people in a plague. 19Only a few from all that mighty army will survive—so few that a child could count them!
Hope for the LORD's People
20Then at last those left in Israel and Judah F28 will trust the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. They will no longer depend on the Assyrians, who would destroy them. 21A remnant of them will return F29 to the Mighty God. 22But though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a few of them will return at that time. The LORD has rightly decided to destroy his people. 23Yes, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has already decided to consume them.
24So this is what the Lord, the LORD Almighty, says: "My people in Jerusalem, F30 do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they oppress you just as the Egyptians did long ago. 25It will not last very long. In a little while my anger against you will end, and then my anger will rise up to destroy them."
26The LORD Almighty will beat them with his whip, as he did when Gideon triumphed over the Midianites at the rock of Oreb, or when the LORD's staff was raised to drown the Egyptian army in the sea. 27In that day the LORD will end the bondage of his people. He will break the yoke of slavery and lift it from their shoulders. F31
28Look, the mighty armies of Assyria are coming! They are now at Aiath, now at Migron. They are storing some of their equipment at Micmash. 29They are crossing the pass and are staying overnight at Geba. Fear strikes the city of Ramah. All the people of Gibeah—the city of Saul—are running for their lives. 30Well may you scream in terror, you people of Gallim! Shout out a warning to Laishah, for the mighty army comes. Poor Anathoth, what a fate is yours! 31There go the people of Madmenah, all fleeing. And the citizens of Gebim are preparing to run. 32But the enemy stops at Nob for the rest of that day. He shakes his fist at Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
33But look! The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will chop down the mighty tree! He will destroy all that vast army of Assyria—officers and high officials alike. 34The Mighty One will cut down the enemy as an ax cuts down the forest trees in Lebanon.
FOOTNOTES:F28: Hebrew and the house of Jacob. F29: Hebrew Shear-jashub; see 7:3; 8:18. F30: Hebrew Zion. F31: As in Greek version; Hebrew reads The yoke will be broken, for you have grown so fat.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Assyria is the world system, led by satan and his co-horts. It is everything that is against and plots against God and the godly. We are at war in the spirit against Assyria, have been at war w/ Assyria, whether we choose to be or not, we are. We are either with them or against them, with God or against God. There are ONLY 2 sides of this “game”, no middle road. In fact the ones who deceptively think they are in the middle will automatically be destroyed, 1st.
So, Assyria has thrown at us circumstantial evidences, has accused us, has lived our lives out for us. What can we do? Are we tired of it? Tired enough we no longer fight it? Do we succumb to its pull and ploy? We have, that’s for sure. But there is a way out, yet only one way out.
The blood of Jesus is the only exit sign, only doorway out. Yet when covered by the blood, the Assyrian armies will tell you that you are not covered and you should fear them, because they are greater and their pull on your life is stronger. The familiarity and sway and pull of the old haunts us when we do not know the truth.
Can anyone tell you your name is not your name? What if they tell you for 4 hours a day that it is not your name? What if they say it everyday for weeks and months and years? How do you know it’s your name? Who told you it was/is your name? I mean could they not be mistaken? I mean the birth certificate could be a hoax, right?
We’re talking about warfare here. Does this not sound like a tactic of warfare? The enemy will lead a person into believing lies. The enemy is a liar and the truth is not in him.
So you are covered by the blood of the Lamb? How do you know, who told you that? What is that based on? Truth, trust, godly fear, faith, hope and love are the basis of our walk with God. What is the basis of our war with evil? Lies and more lies.
The enemy has lied to us even about our circumstances, really. He’s exalted situations and led us to believe they are so big that even God could not get through for us. That is a lie. We’ve got to let God in, go open the door. Trust Him at His word and believe in it, enough to live it.
These parents were tired, were moved by situational evidences, which are based on lies and not truths. They gave up, they let the enemy have their kids because of believing lies.
Rise up parents. Your kids are children of the KING. They are destined for greatness in God’s kingdom. Do not allow the enemy to have your seed. They belong to God!
As soon as anyone gets saved the destiny of God is upon their whole family. God has set us up as a messenger, an ambassador, into that family for salvation. If you know the Lord, your family, your kids are destined to also know the Lord. It does not matter what it looks like, that is merely the lie portrayed in vision form.
Make believe vision is the picture goal you are in a store shopping for. Which do you choose for your family? Life or death, blessing or cursing? I did not say, which do you wish for and hope will happen? I said which do you choose? Which picture will you purchase? Ok the one that is called “Life” has a higher price, then you may need to go spend some time and make some sacrifices to “purchase” it. Jesus did, with His blood. It was important enough to spend life on and go get it. Are your kids important enough?
Then put that picture on your spiritual wall and tell every principality and power that this IS the picture of your family. Oh, they don’t look like this, but this is how they will look! This IS how they are destined to look. Agree with God’s word about your family and don’t let it go, no matter what seems to smoke screen itself into your view. Clear the smoke away from the picture and believe God!
Then if something happens to say otherwise, go back to God’s word and get into agreement further and do not let go of the specified promise, such as “Acts 16:31 …me and my whole house will be saved!” If an enemy comes to try to lie to you about that, or lie to your seed about that, lift your wings like a mother bird and make a loud peep, so he will flee and get away from where he does not belong. Get off of God’s and our territory!
That does not mean become contentious and controlling, It means PRAY - UNTIL - SOMETHING – DIFFERENT - HAPPENS. P.U.S.H. out the promises of God to fruition. Do not give up in the spirit until they are brought forth. That IS why you are here in the earth anyway, to be a prayer ambassador and to live as a godly example to all who need to become ambassadors to their own households.
When you pray, make sure you are praying God’s will, which can only be found inside of His word. Make sure what you are PUSH-ing for is truly based on His words.
To pray your own desires is not scriptural, unless your desires line up with God’s desires.
Here are a few key desires in the design of God for Life:
#1 To Love God with all the heart and soul and might
#2 Then to love people
#3 Then to desire, that all men would be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth.
# 4 to fulfill the Genesis mandate and the Great co-mission. [Be Fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, rule it and have dominion, Then also, Go into all the world preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgive, heal cleanse, set free, baptize in water and fill with the Holy Spirit.]
That’s enough to last a lifetime, forever, Amen.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Friday, May 12, 2006
Today Deuteronomy 11
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.
Deuteronomy 11:1-32 -
1"You must love the LORD your God and obey all his requirements, laws, regulations, and commands. 2Listen! I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the LORD your God or seen his greatness and awesome power. 3They weren't there to see the miraculous signs and wonders he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land. 4They didn't see what the LORD did to the armies of Egypt and to their horses and chariots—how he drowned them in the Red Sea F26 as they were chasing you, and how he has kept them devastated to this very day! 5They didn't see how the LORD cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here. 6They weren't there to see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab, a descendant of Reuben) when the earth opened up and swallowed them, along with their households and tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7But you have seen all the LORD's mighty deeds with your own eyes!
The Blessings of Obedience
8"Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and occupy the land you are about to enter. 9If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the LORD swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey! 10For the land you are about to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and dug out irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden. 11It is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain—12a land that the LORD your God cares for. He watches over it day after day throughout the year!
13"If you carefully obey all the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, and if you worship him, 14then he will send the rains in their proper seasons so you can harvest crops of grain, grapes for wine, and olives for oil. 15He will give you lush pastureland for your cattle to graze in, and you yourselves will have plenty to eat.
16"But do not let your heart turn away from the LORD to worship other gods. 17If you do, the LORD's anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and your harvests will fail. Then you will quickly die in that good land the LORD is now giving you. 18So commit yourselves completely to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. 19Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. 20Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors.
22"Be careful to obey all the commands I give you; show love to the LORD your God by walking in his ways and clinging to him. 23Then the LORD will drive out all the nations in your land, though they are much greater and stronger than you. 24Wherever you set your feet, the land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. F27 25No one will be able to stand against you, for the LORD your God will send fear and dread ahead of you, as he promised you, wherever you go in the whole land.
26"Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! 27You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today. 28You will receive a curse if you reject the commands of the LORD your God and turn from his way by worshiping foreign gods.
29"When the LORD your God brings you into the land to possess it, you must pronounce a blessing from Mount Gerizim and a curse from Mount Ebal. 30(These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley, F28 near the town of Gilgal. They are located toward the west, not far from the oaks of Moreh.) 31For you are about to cross the Jordan to occupy the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you are living in that land, 32you must be careful to obey all the laws and regulations I am giving you today.
FOOTNOTES:F26: Hebrew sea of reeds. F27: Hebrew to the western sea. F28: Hebrew the Arabah.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Obedience is the key to blessing or cursing. It unlocks or locks the doors of opportunity and looses blessings or cursings into our lives.
We must take responsibility for what God has given to us. He’s given us His word and how is it we feel we have so much liberty that we can take it or leave it or pick it up whenever we please to? That’s the liberty of the will. In America we have the liberty of the will in full gamut. Though we have that liberty it does not mean we should take the liberty we’ve been allotted.
Think about other liberties in America, yes we’ve been given them by our government, but should we take them? If we do we move in on the respected space of others, and for what, to show we are free?
We are so much more responsible than we think. We are not responsible only to what we choose to be, no we are responsible to what God requires, known or unknown.
A question to ask ourselves is, could we know? Yes we can, especially in America, where we can read, have resources galore, and the way has been paved and provided for us to know. The knowledge is for the taker, as much as any would like to have they can, at just about any time of day or night. That increases the responsibility greatly, which is wonderful, until accountability time.
Don’t be deceived into thinking we have the liberty of choice. Choice was given us that we’d love Him freely as He chose to love us, enough to go to hell to rescue us from the consequences of choice.
How great, how wide, how deep how high is the love of God for us? John 3:16: He sent His only begotten Son that whoever believes in the Son, will not choose be doomed to hell, but rather will choose his destiny to live in eternal life! Have we ever loved like that? Enough to change our minds and choose life, then extend ourselves even to our own hurt for the eternal sake of others?
We wonder why we’re not so blessed. Blessing lies in choosing. Choosing life!
We cannot blame God for not blessing us, or making things hard on us, we have chosen a harder road when we do not love and obey God’s words. The consequences of right choices, and righteous living, are blessings.
Some of us give up hope of ever being able to choose right and live righteously for God, so we say something like, “I hope my children, or those who come after me, will choose righteously”. That is a good thing to hope, but what example have we left for them to follow? It is a false hope to think they’ll do better if we quit.
The power of the word lies in our witness. Have we received the Lord and witnessed the goodness of God to save a soul? Yes, and so we must not quit, we must press in and press on and pass on life and blessing to all of those who are watching for our godly examples now.
It is a cop out to think that it would be better for those after us if we quit. The betterment comes when we go all the way and leave a legacy, a pathway of blessing for them to follow after and go beyond our expectations.
We can’t expect to reap a harvest of blessings where we did not sow towards one. That can happen by the grace of God, but there is a godly principle in order, we reap what we sow, good, bad or otherwise! Christians and non-Christians alike, reap what they sow. How can we expect to reap blessing in the hope for our seed, when we’ve not shown them the way of blessing through obedience?
Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Don’t live on misguided hope. Put faith and action to the hope that it will be better for your seed. Be the blessing, be the fathers, be the mothers of faith to the next generations. Naturally and spiritually speaking! THAT would not be God’s fault that our hope is deferred. We can change the outcome, right now. Making a turn around is the best way ever, a fresh new start can happen when we will just turn and walk in another direction. God gives us the liberty to do so.
The teaching of the word to our children and people we befriend and influence is not in words given or preached to them, it is in living proof. Prove the word to people, to your children by your life, that means change! Don’t be deceived into thinking that if you say words to people you’ll be setting them free. The word is powerful, BUT the power lies inside of a changed life willing to be the proof. The proof is in the pudding? Guess what? You’re the pudding!
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
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.
Deuteronomy 11:1-32 -
1"You must love the LORD your God and obey all his requirements, laws, regulations, and commands. 2Listen! I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the LORD your God or seen his greatness and awesome power. 3They weren't there to see the miraculous signs and wonders he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land. 4They didn't see what the LORD did to the armies of Egypt and to their horses and chariots—how he drowned them in the Red Sea F26 as they were chasing you, and how he has kept them devastated to this very day! 5They didn't see how the LORD cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here. 6They weren't there to see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab, a descendant of Reuben) when the earth opened up and swallowed them, along with their households and tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7But you have seen all the LORD's mighty deeds with your own eyes!
The Blessings of Obedience
8"Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and occupy the land you are about to enter. 9If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the LORD swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey! 10For the land you are about to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and dug out irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden. 11It is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain—12a land that the LORD your God cares for. He watches over it day after day throughout the year!
13"If you carefully obey all the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, and if you worship him, 14then he will send the rains in their proper seasons so you can harvest crops of grain, grapes for wine, and olives for oil. 15He will give you lush pastureland for your cattle to graze in, and you yourselves will have plenty to eat.
16"But do not let your heart turn away from the LORD to worship other gods. 17If you do, the LORD's anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and your harvests will fail. Then you will quickly die in that good land the LORD is now giving you. 18So commit yourselves completely to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. 19Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. 20Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors.
22"Be careful to obey all the commands I give you; show love to the LORD your God by walking in his ways and clinging to him. 23Then the LORD will drive out all the nations in your land, though they are much greater and stronger than you. 24Wherever you set your feet, the land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. F27 25No one will be able to stand against you, for the LORD your God will send fear and dread ahead of you, as he promised you, wherever you go in the whole land.
26"Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! 27You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today. 28You will receive a curse if you reject the commands of the LORD your God and turn from his way by worshiping foreign gods.
29"When the LORD your God brings you into the land to possess it, you must pronounce a blessing from Mount Gerizim and a curse from Mount Ebal. 30(These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley, F28 near the town of Gilgal. They are located toward the west, not far from the oaks of Moreh.) 31For you are about to cross the Jordan to occupy the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you are living in that land, 32you must be careful to obey all the laws and regulations I am giving you today.
FOOTNOTES:F26: Hebrew sea of reeds. F27: Hebrew to the western sea. F28: Hebrew the Arabah.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Obedience is the key to blessing or cursing. It unlocks or locks the doors of opportunity and looses blessings or cursings into our lives.
We must take responsibility for what God has given to us. He’s given us His word and how is it we feel we have so much liberty that we can take it or leave it or pick it up whenever we please to? That’s the liberty of the will. In America we have the liberty of the will in full gamut. Though we have that liberty it does not mean we should take the liberty we’ve been allotted.
Think about other liberties in America, yes we’ve been given them by our government, but should we take them? If we do we move in on the respected space of others, and for what, to show we are free?
We are so much more responsible than we think. We are not responsible only to what we choose to be, no we are responsible to what God requires, known or unknown.
A question to ask ourselves is, could we know? Yes we can, especially in America, where we can read, have resources galore, and the way has been paved and provided for us to know. The knowledge is for the taker, as much as any would like to have they can, at just about any time of day or night. That increases the responsibility greatly, which is wonderful, until accountability time.
Don’t be deceived into thinking we have the liberty of choice. Choice was given us that we’d love Him freely as He chose to love us, enough to go to hell to rescue us from the consequences of choice.
How great, how wide, how deep how high is the love of God for us? John 3:16: He sent His only begotten Son that whoever believes in the Son, will not choose be doomed to hell, but rather will choose his destiny to live in eternal life! Have we ever loved like that? Enough to change our minds and choose life, then extend ourselves even to our own hurt for the eternal sake of others?
We wonder why we’re not so blessed. Blessing lies in choosing. Choosing life!
We cannot blame God for not blessing us, or making things hard on us, we have chosen a harder road when we do not love and obey God’s words. The consequences of right choices, and righteous living, are blessings.
Some of us give up hope of ever being able to choose right and live righteously for God, so we say something like, “I hope my children, or those who come after me, will choose righteously”. That is a good thing to hope, but what example have we left for them to follow? It is a false hope to think they’ll do better if we quit.
The power of the word lies in our witness. Have we received the Lord and witnessed the goodness of God to save a soul? Yes, and so we must not quit, we must press in and press on and pass on life and blessing to all of those who are watching for our godly examples now.
It is a cop out to think that it would be better for those after us if we quit. The betterment comes when we go all the way and leave a legacy, a pathway of blessing for them to follow after and go beyond our expectations.
We can’t expect to reap a harvest of blessings where we did not sow towards one. That can happen by the grace of God, but there is a godly principle in order, we reap what we sow, good, bad or otherwise! Christians and non-Christians alike, reap what they sow. How can we expect to reap blessing in the hope for our seed, when we’ve not shown them the way of blessing through obedience?
Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Don’t live on misguided hope. Put faith and action to the hope that it will be better for your seed. Be the blessing, be the fathers, be the mothers of faith to the next generations. Naturally and spiritually speaking! THAT would not be God’s fault that our hope is deferred. We can change the outcome, right now. Making a turn around is the best way ever, a fresh new start can happen when we will just turn and walk in another direction. God gives us the liberty to do so.
The teaching of the word to our children and people we befriend and influence is not in words given or preached to them, it is in living proof. Prove the word to people, to your children by your life, that means change! Don’t be deceived into thinking that if you say words to people you’ll be setting them free. The word is powerful, BUT the power lies inside of a changed life willing to be the proof. The proof is in the pudding? Guess what? You’re the pudding!
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Today Prov 22
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.
Proverbs 22:1-29 -
1Choose a good reputation over great riches, for being held in high esteem is better than having silver or gold. 2The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD made them both.
3A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
4True humility and fear of the LORD lead to riches, honor, and long life.
5The deceitful walk a thorny, treacherous road; whoever values life will stay away.
6Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it.
7Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.
8Those who plant seeds of injustice will harvest disaster, and their reign of terror will end.
9Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor.
10Throw out the mocker, and fighting, quarrels, and insults will disappear.
11Anyone who loves a pure heart and gracious speech is the king's friend.
12The LORD preserves knowledge, but he ruins the plans of the deceitful.
13The lazy person is full of excuses, saying, "If I go outside, I might meet a lion in the street and be killed!"
14The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit; those living under the LORD's displeasure will fall into it.
15A youngster's heart is filled with foolishness, but discipline will drive it away.
16A person who gets ahead by oppressing the poor or by showering gifts on the rich will end in poverty.
Thirty Sayings of the Wise
17Listen to the words of the wise; apply your heart to my instruction. 18For it is good to keep these sayings deep within yourself, always ready on your lips. 19I am teaching you today—yes, you—so you will trust in the LORD. 20I have written thirty sayings for you, filled with advice and knowledge. 21In this way, you may know the truth and bring an accurate report to those who sent you.
22Do not rob the poor because they are poor or exploit the needy in court. 23For the LORD is their defender. He will injure anyone who injures them.
24Keep away from angry, short-tempered people, 25or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul.
26Do not co-sign another person's note or put up a guarantee for someone else's loan. 27If you can't pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you.
28Do not steal your neighbor's property by moving the ancient boundary markers set up by your ancestors.
29Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than ordinary people.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
A Good reputation, a good name, what is that? What does that say about you? We know our names say a lot. We’ve met people and their names and the picture we get when we hear their name remains with us. That is what that means. When others think of our name, whenever our names are mentioned, how does it sound, and what goes along with it? A good reputation?
It is easier to work and get money to live, than to build a good reputable name. Why? It takes change. If I work for money, I don’t have to be kind or fruitful in character, but if/when I “work” for God, as a kingdom Ambassador, I have to change my character, often. If I do not, I do not represent Him.
So who am I working for then? God or me? God or the world? It will show by the mention of my name.
My name is the evidence of my outward witness all summed up.
Remember witness means martyr. Martyr is a dead man, a man who died for a cause. Is not the salvation of this world we have so little time to live in worth the death of my old nature and old ways of thinking and responding? Yes, it is.
A prudent person is an orchestrator. He sets stages, he sets things up with a goal in mind, or with a vision in heart. He does things on purpose so that “A” would lead to B,C,D,E,F and so forth. What does he see? Effects of evil and effects of good. He sees that and does something about it, he doesn’t only talk about it, identifying it as evil or good, he sets the stage to eliminate the evil and go all out for the good, replacement thinking and action. He foresees the danger ahead, that is speaking of hell’s fire. He does something about that both for himself, his own family and for the well being of others. He hides himself from danger, does not mean he does not face it, it means he is not found a part of it. It is NOT his life!
What exactly is humility? Bowing is a good way to describe it. It says there is One greater than I whom I trust and submit to. In our society we all desire to be right, Mr. Right, Mrs. Right, etc. Not regarding the rights and wrongs, we bow to God and those He desires to honor and esteem, whether they deserve it or not. Humility gets down from its high horse and walks, allowing another to ride. It says, yes, you are right to others, it considers who they are in the spirit, more than who they appear to be in the natural.
A big definition of humility is agreement, because God is One and desires us to be one with Him and His word. Because He says so, that’s why folks. Agreement because of unity. Compliance, because of a deep love and trust relationship with our Father.
I love the way this expresses the famous train up a child scripture. Keep that child on the pathway, by living example. To train means do it over and over and over again-Do it right, THEY will stay the faith when we do. This goes both for spiritual and for natural children.
Do we love pureness of heart and graciousness of speech? If we do we will honor God and be it in the proof of our lives. That does not ever mean, we love it when others do it to us, it means we love it enough to become it, by adaptation of character to a new way. Jesus is the WAY. His way is higher than mine. Yes we all like to be treated nicely, but do we love the attribute enough to treat others the same way? To show someone else how it is lived out?
Why does it mention a lazy person? In what context? Well, the Bible is all about God’s eternal kingdom. We’re talking first about laziness in kingdom living and witness. The time for excuses are over. God can see right through that. They are called excuses, because that is what they are, they are not valid, hold no weight concerning eternal matters.
When we stand before God and He asks us what we did with His Son and did we know the good news? We’ll have an answer which will be exposed as it is truth. Then when He asks us how long we knew and how many people did we give it to, how many did we pursue on purpose, how many did we change for and become an example to enough that they also could trust in Jesus? We cannot say, “I was tired, I had to work, I needed to take care of such and such business, I was afraid to speak, my head hurt”, etc. Those excuses will be excuses of laziness manifested. We’ll have served self, if we were found lazy. We have overcome, why have we overcome? To give life to others. Eternal life. Why get and be healed? To give life. Why get up and accomplish? Why change? This is that, reason. Eternal life, given to others.
Wisdom words - get around some kingdom people who on purpose are orchestrating His purposes. Then act like them, don’t resist them or contradict them, serve them, become as they are, as they follow Christ. Hang around the godly and get molded into a godly nation of people to show Jesus to the world God set you to live in for the time you have left.
Make the most of your time? There’s only One way to do that. It is kingdom business as usual. Kingdom can be worked and exemplified wherever you are, at home, at work, in the marketplaces. It is more of who you are than what you do. That is the evidence, your life.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
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.
Proverbs 22:1-29 -
1Choose a good reputation over great riches, for being held in high esteem is better than having silver or gold. 2The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD made them both.
3A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
4True humility and fear of the LORD lead to riches, honor, and long life.
5The deceitful walk a thorny, treacherous road; whoever values life will stay away.
6Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it.
7Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.
8Those who plant seeds of injustice will harvest disaster, and their reign of terror will end.
9Blessed are those who are generous, because they feed the poor.
10Throw out the mocker, and fighting, quarrels, and insults will disappear.
11Anyone who loves a pure heart and gracious speech is the king's friend.
12The LORD preserves knowledge, but he ruins the plans of the deceitful.
13The lazy person is full of excuses, saying, "If I go outside, I might meet a lion in the street and be killed!"
14The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit; those living under the LORD's displeasure will fall into it.
15A youngster's heart is filled with foolishness, but discipline will drive it away.
16A person who gets ahead by oppressing the poor or by showering gifts on the rich will end in poverty.
Thirty Sayings of the Wise
17Listen to the words of the wise; apply your heart to my instruction. 18For it is good to keep these sayings deep within yourself, always ready on your lips. 19I am teaching you today—yes, you—so you will trust in the LORD. 20I have written thirty sayings for you, filled with advice and knowledge. 21In this way, you may know the truth and bring an accurate report to those who sent you.
22Do not rob the poor because they are poor or exploit the needy in court. 23For the LORD is their defender. He will injure anyone who injures them.
24Keep away from angry, short-tempered people, 25or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul.
26Do not co-sign another person's note or put up a guarantee for someone else's loan. 27If you can't pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you.
28Do not steal your neighbor's property by moving the ancient boundary markers set up by your ancestors.
29Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than ordinary people.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
A Good reputation, a good name, what is that? What does that say about you? We know our names say a lot. We’ve met people and their names and the picture we get when we hear their name remains with us. That is what that means. When others think of our name, whenever our names are mentioned, how does it sound, and what goes along with it? A good reputation?
It is easier to work and get money to live, than to build a good reputable name. Why? It takes change. If I work for money, I don’t have to be kind or fruitful in character, but if/when I “work” for God, as a kingdom Ambassador, I have to change my character, often. If I do not, I do not represent Him.
So who am I working for then? God or me? God or the world? It will show by the mention of my name.
My name is the evidence of my outward witness all summed up.
Remember witness means martyr. Martyr is a dead man, a man who died for a cause. Is not the salvation of this world we have so little time to live in worth the death of my old nature and old ways of thinking and responding? Yes, it is.
A prudent person is an orchestrator. He sets stages, he sets things up with a goal in mind, or with a vision in heart. He does things on purpose so that “A” would lead to B,C,D,E,F and so forth. What does he see? Effects of evil and effects of good. He sees that and does something about it, he doesn’t only talk about it, identifying it as evil or good, he sets the stage to eliminate the evil and go all out for the good, replacement thinking and action. He foresees the danger ahead, that is speaking of hell’s fire. He does something about that both for himself, his own family and for the well being of others. He hides himself from danger, does not mean he does not face it, it means he is not found a part of it. It is NOT his life!
What exactly is humility? Bowing is a good way to describe it. It says there is One greater than I whom I trust and submit to. In our society we all desire to be right, Mr. Right, Mrs. Right, etc. Not regarding the rights and wrongs, we bow to God and those He desires to honor and esteem, whether they deserve it or not. Humility gets down from its high horse and walks, allowing another to ride. It says, yes, you are right to others, it considers who they are in the spirit, more than who they appear to be in the natural.
A big definition of humility is agreement, because God is One and desires us to be one with Him and His word. Because He says so, that’s why folks. Agreement because of unity. Compliance, because of a deep love and trust relationship with our Father.
I love the way this expresses the famous train up a child scripture. Keep that child on the pathway, by living example. To train means do it over and over and over again-Do it right, THEY will stay the faith when we do. This goes both for spiritual and for natural children.
Do we love pureness of heart and graciousness of speech? If we do we will honor God and be it in the proof of our lives. That does not ever mean, we love it when others do it to us, it means we love it enough to become it, by adaptation of character to a new way. Jesus is the WAY. His way is higher than mine. Yes we all like to be treated nicely, but do we love the attribute enough to treat others the same way? To show someone else how it is lived out?
Why does it mention a lazy person? In what context? Well, the Bible is all about God’s eternal kingdom. We’re talking first about laziness in kingdom living and witness. The time for excuses are over. God can see right through that. They are called excuses, because that is what they are, they are not valid, hold no weight concerning eternal matters.
When we stand before God and He asks us what we did with His Son and did we know the good news? We’ll have an answer which will be exposed as it is truth. Then when He asks us how long we knew and how many people did we give it to, how many did we pursue on purpose, how many did we change for and become an example to enough that they also could trust in Jesus? We cannot say, “I was tired, I had to work, I needed to take care of such and such business, I was afraid to speak, my head hurt”, etc. Those excuses will be excuses of laziness manifested. We’ll have served self, if we were found lazy. We have overcome, why have we overcome? To give life to others. Eternal life. Why get and be healed? To give life. Why get up and accomplish? Why change? This is that, reason. Eternal life, given to others.
Wisdom words - get around some kingdom people who on purpose are orchestrating His purposes. Then act like them, don’t resist them or contradict them, serve them, become as they are, as they follow Christ. Hang around the godly and get molded into a godly nation of people to show Jesus to the world God set you to live in for the time you have left.
Make the most of your time? There’s only One way to do that. It is kingdom business as usual. Kingdom can be worked and exemplified wherever you are, at home, at work, in the marketplaces. It is more of who you are than what you do. That is the evidence, your life.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Eph 6 Today
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.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
All of this word in the form of exhortation is about love, and what love does willingly, even when not deserved.
Children obey because…. Not because of how one acts or does or does not deserve to be obeyed, but because this is what is pleasing to the Lord. It pleases the lord when we show love for ones of earth, when we show the unconditional love and respect due people who are made in the image and likeness of God. God wants us to win the world to Him, not because they deserve it or deserve His unfailing love, but rather because He loves them no matter how mean or ugly they are.
But isn’t respect earned? By the world’s standard yes, by the standard of God’s word, it is given - period. It is given as though one is respecting the Creator by respecting the creation.
We are all God’s children, good, bad or otherwise, and we are the objects of His Divine love. This is in no way based on our performance or who much we can or ever will be able to earn His love.
Who shows this true love of God in our world? God? Yes, He does, by Divine revelation, but what about in human understanding, in a see, taste, touchy world? He shows and proves His word through living vessels who desire to give it in a visible form to an undeserving people. Why? Only because His great love has been revealed to the individual who is doing the loving and can extend their souls. Can you extend your soul beyond yourself and give to one not deserving? If so, you are just like your Father-God.
Yes, Yes, Yes, people should all do as God’s word deems, all should behave in a manner fitting of Christ’s body, but they all do not, and they all do not choose to, so what then? Reciprocation? Sowing and reaping? Yes. Sow what you’d desire to reap, no matter what. Don’t give back for what is evidently given you. If we live that way, we are only citizens of the world and have not changed spiritual residencies yet. Kingdom ambassadors live to please their Boss as they represent their kingdom.
Some may remain in slavery naturally speaking. Situations may not really change. There may still be an unfair ruler in your home who does not choose to love without condition, or a boss at work who is always taking from your love bank, when you did not authorize withdrawals! Just because you got saved did not mean your whole world is now prepared to become Christian. It means you are a Christian inside of your world, the very kingdom you came out of, God is sending you back into to show salvation to and to lead to Christ. Do you think that will happen by fairness and recompense? That’s the same way you lived and acted before Christ. The thing that will change is you, or salvation may not have yet come to your world.
So go on strike? No, rather serve willingly anyway. THIS is the way of Christ. Complain about how unfairly you are treated and how you now being a new Christian, deserve better; As though God now has given you such favor and blessing that all of life is now a rose bed? We’ll guess what baby? The roses have, Thorns. Yes they are beautiful, but this is God’s garden and we must be very careful to be able to enjoy it. It is not about the giving of blessings into our lives now, but our displaying blessings to a lost world.
Who is your Master anyway?
How in the world will I ever be able to do this? Not alone, that’s for sure! How can one live this way? Only by loving the one who supplies the love, being in his awesome life changing presence enough to change and get so full, you can spill out and fill the earth with like kind. Get covered, cover your earth nature over with the spiritual nature of God. We are NOT fighting people? Can you get that? Our fights with people are a smoke screen. The real fight we are engaged in is one in the spirit, one of satan and God, 2 kingdoms at war against one another. Light and darkness. We win. If we look like Him to the end.
Who’s are we anyway? That is evident in whom we obey, who we take orders from, who we look and act like, In the spirit realm it is very easy to see which side you are on. It’s not by saying, it is by doing.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
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.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
All of this word in the form of exhortation is about love, and what love does willingly, even when not deserved.
Children obey because…. Not because of how one acts or does or does not deserve to be obeyed, but because this is what is pleasing to the Lord. It pleases the lord when we show love for ones of earth, when we show the unconditional love and respect due people who are made in the image and likeness of God. God wants us to win the world to Him, not because they deserve it or deserve His unfailing love, but rather because He loves them no matter how mean or ugly they are.
But isn’t respect earned? By the world’s standard yes, by the standard of God’s word, it is given - period. It is given as though one is respecting the Creator by respecting the creation.
We are all God’s children, good, bad or otherwise, and we are the objects of His Divine love. This is in no way based on our performance or who much we can or ever will be able to earn His love.
Who shows this true love of God in our world? God? Yes, He does, by Divine revelation, but what about in human understanding, in a see, taste, touchy world? He shows and proves His word through living vessels who desire to give it in a visible form to an undeserving people. Why? Only because His great love has been revealed to the individual who is doing the loving and can extend their souls. Can you extend your soul beyond yourself and give to one not deserving? If so, you are just like your Father-God.
Yes, Yes, Yes, people should all do as God’s word deems, all should behave in a manner fitting of Christ’s body, but they all do not, and they all do not choose to, so what then? Reciprocation? Sowing and reaping? Yes. Sow what you’d desire to reap, no matter what. Don’t give back for what is evidently given you. If we live that way, we are only citizens of the world and have not changed spiritual residencies yet. Kingdom ambassadors live to please their Boss as they represent their kingdom.
Some may remain in slavery naturally speaking. Situations may not really change. There may still be an unfair ruler in your home who does not choose to love without condition, or a boss at work who is always taking from your love bank, when you did not authorize withdrawals! Just because you got saved did not mean your whole world is now prepared to become Christian. It means you are a Christian inside of your world, the very kingdom you came out of, God is sending you back into to show salvation to and to lead to Christ. Do you think that will happen by fairness and recompense? That’s the same way you lived and acted before Christ. The thing that will change is you, or salvation may not have yet come to your world.
So go on strike? No, rather serve willingly anyway. THIS is the way of Christ. Complain about how unfairly you are treated and how you now being a new Christian, deserve better; As though God now has given you such favor and blessing that all of life is now a rose bed? We’ll guess what baby? The roses have, Thorns. Yes they are beautiful, but this is God’s garden and we must be very careful to be able to enjoy it. It is not about the giving of blessings into our lives now, but our displaying blessings to a lost world.
Who is your Master anyway?
How in the world will I ever be able to do this? Not alone, that’s for sure! How can one live this way? Only by loving the one who supplies the love, being in his awesome life changing presence enough to change and get so full, you can spill out and fill the earth with like kind. Get covered, cover your earth nature over with the spiritual nature of God. We are NOT fighting people? Can you get that? Our fights with people are a smoke screen. The real fight we are engaged in is one in the spirit, one of satan and God, 2 kingdoms at war against one another. Light and darkness. We win. If we look like Him to the end.
Who’s are we anyway? That is evident in whom we obey, who we take orders from, who we look and act like, In the spirit realm it is very easy to see which side you are on. It’s not by saying, it is by doing.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Ezra 10 Today
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.
Ezra 10:1-44 -
The People Confess Their Sin
1While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and throwing himself to the ground in front of the Temple of God, a large crowd of people from Israel—men, women, and children—gathered and wept bitterly with him. 2Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, a descendant of Elam, said to Ezra, "We confess that we have been unfaithful to our God, for we have married these pagan women of the land. But there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3Let us now make a covenant with our God to divorce our pagan wives and to send them away with their children. We will follow the advice given by you and by the others who respect the commands of our God. We will obey the law of God. 4Take courage, for it is your duty to tell us how to proceed in setting things straight, and we will cooperate fully."
5So Ezra stood up and demanded that the leaders of the priests and the Levites and all the people of Israel swear that they would do as Shecaniah had said. And they all swore a solemn oath. 6Then Ezra left the front of the Temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. He spent the night F48 there, but he did not eat any food or drink. He was still in mourning because of the unfaithfulness of the returned exiles. 7Then a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the returned exiles should come to Jerusalem. 8Those who failed to come within three days would, if the leaders and elders so decided, forfeit all their property and be expelled from the assembly of the exiles.
9Within three days, all the people of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. This took place on December 19, F49 and all the people were sitting in the square before the Temple of God. They were trembling both because of the seriousness of the matter and because it was raining. 10Then Ezra the priest stood and said to them: "You have sinned, for you have married pagan women. Now we are even more deeply under condemnation than we were before. 11Confess your sin to the LORD, the God of your ancestors, and do what he demands. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from these pagan women."
12Then the whole assembly raised their voices and answered, "Yes, you are right; we must do as you say!" 13Then they added, "This isn't something that can be done in a day or two, for many of us are involved in this extremely sinful affair. This is the rainy season, so we cannot stay out here much longer. 14Let our leaders act on behalf of us all. Everyone who has a pagan wife will come at the scheduled time with the leaders and judges of his city, so that the fierce anger of our God may be turned away from us concerning this affair." 15Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this course of action, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.
16So this was the plan that they followed. Ezra selected leaders to represent their families, designating each of the representatives by name. On December 29, F50 the leaders sat down to investigate the matter. 17By March 27 of the next year F51 they had finished dealing with all the men who had married pagan wives.
Those Guilty of Intermarriage
18These are the priests who had married pagan wives:
From the family of Jeshua son of Jehozadak F52 and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19They vowed to divorce their wives, and they each acknowledged their guilt by offering a ram as a guilt offering.
20From the family of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.
21From the family of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.
22From the family of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23These are the Levites who were guilty: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
24This is the singer who was guilty: Eliashib.
These are the gatekeepers who were guilty: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25These are the other people of Israel who were guilty:
From the family of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malkijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Hashabiah, F53 and Benaiah.
26From the family of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah.
27From the family of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza.
28From the family of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
29From the family of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth.
30From the family of Pahath-moab: Adna, Kelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh.
31From the family of Harim: Eliezer, Ishijah, Malkijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, 32Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah.
33From the family of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.
34From the family of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel, 35Benaiah, Bedeiah, Keluhi, 36Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu.
38From the family of Binnui F54 : Shimei, 39Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, 40Macnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.
43From the family of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, and Benaiah.
44Each of these men had a pagan wife, and some even had children by these wives. F55
FOOTNOTES:F48: As in parallel text at 1 Esdras 9:2; Hebrew reads He went. F49: Hebrew on the twentieth day of the ninth month, of the Hebrew calendar. This event occurred on December 19, 458 B.C.; also see note on 7:9a. F50: Hebrew On the first day of the tenth month, of the Hebrew calendar. This event occurred on December 29, 458 B.C.; also see note on 7:9a. F51: Hebrew By the first day of the first month, of the Hebrew calendar. This event occurred on March 27, 457 B.C.; also see note on 7:9a. F52: Hebrew Jozadak, a variant name for Jehozadak. F53: As in parallel text at 1 Esdras 9:26; Hebrew reads Malkijah. F54: As in Greek version; Hebrew reads Jaasu, 38Bani, Binnui. F55: Or and they sent them away with their children. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him and receive Him, we are entering into a covenant relationship with His Spirit, likened for us to a marriage relationship – it is till death do us part. The thing about this covenant is, we don’t ever die!
Before we met and entered into covenant with the Lord Jesus we belonged to the world, we were already in covenant relationship with our father the evil one (devil = d’iabolos =d’evil= god of evil) We had to change Mater’s/Kings and kingdom allegiances. We had to separate from one covenant while solidifying another new covenant.
The Bible says if we are not for God we are against Him, period. There truly is NO middle road.
Luke 11:23 "Anyone who isn't helping me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me.
Sin is all about separation from the pure fellowship of God and people, His creation, those He loves. Sin separates. In this chapter He is saying separate yourselves from that which brings separation between you and I, between us together in pure fellowship. Divorce that, rather than Me. Change covenant partners. You were in partnership with eternal death, now sever that partnership and come receive eternal life and the lifestyle that leads to that life forever.
If you take time to look up all of the names of all of those who thought they’d covenanted with the Lord, but had not separated themselves from sin and it’s slavery, you will see meanings that show us each one of our potentials in Christ. If we separate from sin’s stronghold on us, we will become what He created us to become.
One of the names mean: rest, one means: God’s helper, another means: friend, another: work of God, and then also, God is great…
We all say we want to see and be these things, but we think God will just wave His magic word over us and we’ll change. No, we are the ones that change and bring the changes to pass, by leaving completely what was and becoming what is. We won’t see the greatness of God nor will we rest or even enter the work etc, till we completely separate from the old lifestyles we embraced outside of our covenant with God.
One command of the great commission and of the Genesis mandate is to reproduce after our like kind. That means if you have pure faith in God whoever you influence, whoever spends time with you and follows you, will also have that, you’ll pass it on, they’ll copy you if they follow you. What if you live some with God and some with the world and have not separated from the world? Well you’ll also reproduce that lifestyle, and it won’t be pretty in the eyes of the covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact it will add numbers of more who are against Him.
We reproduce, we have “children”, in and outside of the covenant with God.
How do we see the greatness of God? Reproduce after His kind. Be redeemed by the precous blood of the Lamb of God and redeem others with that blood, it is the highest payment ever given for sin. Valuable enough to share and save souls from hell, or do we believe that? Show your faith by your works, says the Lord.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
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.
Ezra 10:1-44 -
The People Confess Their Sin
1While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and throwing himself to the ground in front of the Temple of God, a large crowd of people from Israel—men, women, and children—gathered and wept bitterly with him. 2Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, a descendant of Elam, said to Ezra, "We confess that we have been unfaithful to our God, for we have married these pagan women of the land. But there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3Let us now make a covenant with our God to divorce our pagan wives and to send them away with their children. We will follow the advice given by you and by the others who respect the commands of our God. We will obey the law of God. 4Take courage, for it is your duty to tell us how to proceed in setting things straight, and we will cooperate fully."
5So Ezra stood up and demanded that the leaders of the priests and the Levites and all the people of Israel swear that they would do as Shecaniah had said. And they all swore a solemn oath. 6Then Ezra left the front of the Temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. He spent the night F48 there, but he did not eat any food or drink. He was still in mourning because of the unfaithfulness of the returned exiles. 7Then a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the returned exiles should come to Jerusalem. 8Those who failed to come within three days would, if the leaders and elders so decided, forfeit all their property and be expelled from the assembly of the exiles.
9Within three days, all the people of Judah and Benjamin had gathered in Jerusalem. This took place on December 19, F49 and all the people were sitting in the square before the Temple of God. They were trembling both because of the seriousness of the matter and because it was raining. 10Then Ezra the priest stood and said to them: "You have sinned, for you have married pagan women. Now we are even more deeply under condemnation than we were before. 11Confess your sin to the LORD, the God of your ancestors, and do what he demands. Separate yourselves from the people of the land and from these pagan women."
12Then the whole assembly raised their voices and answered, "Yes, you are right; we must do as you say!" 13Then they added, "This isn't something that can be done in a day or two, for many of us are involved in this extremely sinful affair. This is the rainy season, so we cannot stay out here much longer. 14Let our leaders act on behalf of us all. Everyone who has a pagan wife will come at the scheduled time with the leaders and judges of his city, so that the fierce anger of our God may be turned away from us concerning this affair." 15Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah opposed this course of action, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.
16So this was the plan that they followed. Ezra selected leaders to represent their families, designating each of the representatives by name. On December 29, F50 the leaders sat down to investigate the matter. 17By March 27 of the next year F51 they had finished dealing with all the men who had married pagan wives.
Those Guilty of Intermarriage
18These are the priests who had married pagan wives:
From the family of Jeshua son of Jehozadak F52 and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19They vowed to divorce their wives, and they each acknowledged their guilt by offering a ram as a guilt offering.
20From the family of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.
21From the family of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah.
22From the family of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23These are the Levites who were guilty: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
24This is the singer who was guilty: Eliashib.
These are the gatekeepers who were guilty: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25These are the other people of Israel who were guilty:
From the family of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malkijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Hashabiah, F53 and Benaiah.
26From the family of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah.
27From the family of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza.
28From the family of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai.
29From the family of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth.
30From the family of Pahath-moab: Adna, Kelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh.
31From the family of Harim: Eliezer, Ishijah, Malkijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, 32Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah.
33From the family of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei.
34From the family of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel, 35Benaiah, Bedeiah, Keluhi, 36Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu.
38From the family of Binnui F54 : Shimei, 39Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, 40Macnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph.
43From the family of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, and Benaiah.
44Each of these men had a pagan wife, and some even had children by these wives. F55
FOOTNOTES:F48: As in parallel text at 1 Esdras 9:2; Hebrew reads He went. F49: Hebrew on the twentieth day of the ninth month, of the Hebrew calendar. This event occurred on December 19, 458 B.C.; also see note on 7:9a. F50: Hebrew On the first day of the tenth month, of the Hebrew calendar. This event occurred on December 29, 458 B.C.; also see note on 7:9a. F51: Hebrew By the first day of the first month, of the Hebrew calendar. This event occurred on March 27, 457 B.C.; also see note on 7:9a. F52: Hebrew Jozadak, a variant name for Jehozadak. F53: As in parallel text at 1 Esdras 9:26; Hebrew reads Malkijah. F54: As in Greek version; Hebrew reads Jaasu, 38Bani, Binnui. F55: Or and they sent them away with their children. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him and receive Him, we are entering into a covenant relationship with His Spirit, likened for us to a marriage relationship – it is till death do us part. The thing about this covenant is, we don’t ever die!
Before we met and entered into covenant with the Lord Jesus we belonged to the world, we were already in covenant relationship with our father the evil one (devil = d’iabolos =d’evil= god of evil) We had to change Mater’s/Kings and kingdom allegiances. We had to separate from one covenant while solidifying another new covenant.
The Bible says if we are not for God we are against Him, period. There truly is NO middle road.
Luke 11:23 "Anyone who isn't helping me opposes me, and anyone who isn't working with me is actually working against me.
Sin is all about separation from the pure fellowship of God and people, His creation, those He loves. Sin separates. In this chapter He is saying separate yourselves from that which brings separation between you and I, between us together in pure fellowship. Divorce that, rather than Me. Change covenant partners. You were in partnership with eternal death, now sever that partnership and come receive eternal life and the lifestyle that leads to that life forever.
If you take time to look up all of the names of all of those who thought they’d covenanted with the Lord, but had not separated themselves from sin and it’s slavery, you will see meanings that show us each one of our potentials in Christ. If we separate from sin’s stronghold on us, we will become what He created us to become.
One of the names mean: rest, one means: God’s helper, another means: friend, another: work of God, and then also, God is great…
We all say we want to see and be these things, but we think God will just wave His magic word over us and we’ll change. No, we are the ones that change and bring the changes to pass, by leaving completely what was and becoming what is. We won’t see the greatness of God nor will we rest or even enter the work etc, till we completely separate from the old lifestyles we embraced outside of our covenant with God.
One command of the great commission and of the Genesis mandate is to reproduce after our like kind. That means if you have pure faith in God whoever you influence, whoever spends time with you and follows you, will also have that, you’ll pass it on, they’ll copy you if they follow you. What if you live some with God and some with the world and have not separated from the world? Well you’ll also reproduce that lifestyle, and it won’t be pretty in the eyes of the covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact it will add numbers of more who are against Him.
We reproduce, we have “children”, in and outside of the covenant with God.
How do we see the greatness of God? Reproduce after His kind. Be redeemed by the precous blood of the Lamb of God and redeem others with that blood, it is the highest payment ever given for sin. Valuable enough to share and save souls from hell, or do we believe that? Show your faith by your works, says the Lord.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Ezra 9 Today
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.
Ezra 9:1-15
Ezra's Prayer concerning Intermarriage
1But then the Jewish leaders came to me and said, "Many of the people of Israel, and even some of the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the other peoples living in the land. They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. 2For the men of Israel have married women from these people and have taken them as wives for their sons. So the holy race has become polluted by these mixed marriages. To make matters worse, the officials and leaders are some of the worst offenders."
3When I heard this, I tore my clothing, pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat down utterly shocked. 4Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel came and sat with me because of this unfaithfulness of his people. And I sat there utterly appalled until the time of the evening sacrifice.
5At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees, lifted my hands to the LORD my God. 6I prayed, "O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7Our whole history has been one of great sin. That is why we and our kings and our priests have been at the mercy of the pagan kings of the land. We have been killed, captured, robbed, and disgraced, just as we are today.
8"But now we have been given a brief moment of grace, for the LORD our God has allowed a few of us to survive as a remnant. He has given us security in this holy place. Our God has brightened our eyes and granted us some relief from our slavery. 9For we were slaves, but in his unfailing love our God did not abandon us in our slavery. Instead, he caused the kings of Persia to treat us favorably. He revived us so that we were able to rebuild the Temple of our God and repair its ruins. He has given us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
10"And now, O our God, what can we say after all of this? For once again we have ignored your commands! 11Your servants the prophets warned us that the land we would possess was totally defiled by the detestable practices of the people living there. From one end to the other, the land is filled with corruption. 12You told us not to let our daughters marry their sons, and not to let our sons marry their daughters, and not to help those nations in any way. You promised that if we avoided these things, we would become a prosperous nation. You promised that we would enjoy the good produce of the land and leave this prosperity to our children as an inheritance forever.
13"Now we are being punished because of our wickedness and our great guilt. But we have actually been punished far less than we deserve, for you, our God, have allowed some of us to survive as a remnant. 14But now we are again breaking your commands and intermarrying with people who do these detestable things. Surely your anger will destroy us until even this little remnant no longer survives. 15O LORD, God of Israel, you are just. We stand before you in our guilt as nothing but an escaped remnant, though in such a condition none of us can stand in your presence."
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
STOP! Please note this is not about racism. NOT at all. God is not offended in who’s white, peach, yellow, red black, colored, etc. His interest goes way beyond the outward color of skin, He is after hearts. Hearts, if anyone has noticed, are the same color, which has no bearing if they weren’t the same color, because this is a faith issue.
There are truly only 2 races. The race of Adam and the race of Jesus Christ. There are only two kingdoms- The kingdoms of this world, and the kingdoms of our Lord. That’s it. Narrows it down a bit, huh? Quite.
So why is the Lord so against one nation being intertwined in covenant together with another nation? Well, if there are only two, what does that mean? Believers and unbelievers, in Christ.
We were all born in Adam and can be miraculously changed, converted, switch kingdoms in Christ. Once we do, we do for covenant love. The reason we switch is to also bring others to make the switch. There’s a great rescue which is the new order of everyday.
Marriage was originally designed by God to bring into agreement, this work of covenant rescue, the saving of lives. If one is not “saved” and the other covenant partner is, the work is hindered, tainted, in its purity of effectiveness, maybe even thwarted. Rather than two becoming one in the work of God, they are trying to become one with each other and in each other and the work is greatly ignored, because the greater work becomes the working out of the marriage itself, rather than the two working together to strengthen God’s kingdom and grow it up. They spend their lives trying to agree together about being together and what faith they hold separately and how it works for them.
The tragedy? The work of God dwarfed or ceased from being able to be worked by me. I forsake it, to work on my marriage instead. Of course marriage needs work anyway, but not with this focus and no advancements for the Lord. Are we married in the eyes of the Lord or in the eyes of men? That becomes evident in the work.
What is being reproduced? A strong army of Saviors? Or strife and contention? Are we (it takes a me to make a we) One in Him? Are we able to go up and take cities, nations? Or do we spend our life just trying to take our own home?
The key word here is “Let”, we let it happen. That’s what can happen with an untrained free-will. We allow things, no biggie, not a big deal, they are in love, ya know? In love with whom? God? Or themselves? What we allow is allowed, what we don’t allow is not allowed. If we just let the chips fall where they lay, we’re going to pay a price for it later on. There will be consequence for choices made, that don’t seem that bad. We may never even know, who could have been saved, won over, healed, delivered by our Covenant Godly union.
Now, what if we did not know? What if we’re already there? Could it be we can save a nation by saving a man or a woman? Could it be God will forgive sin and wrong choices made? Of course! He’ll redeem what we’ve mistaken. That does not mean divorce, it means come into covenant with the Lord for that one soul at least! It means ask for the grace of God to be a light to that one, to shine the true unhypocritical love of God in living proof daily. Intercede that that one will be turned into another nation, converted, redeemed, and switch allegiances.
Now what about our seed? Teach, train, live as examples before them of the covenant love of God. Make right choices that will affect them for eternity. Be an example of loving obedience.
They are watching. They watch our choices, they watch our priorities, they watch our excuses, to serve God or not, when it’s convenient or not. They watch that. They watch what we’ll overcome odds for. Our example is powerful and yet for them it gets watered down, like passing a story along. If we compromise, they do the more. If God is a 2nd burner in our lives, He’ll be the 3rd for them, unless a miracle occurs in spite of our poor example. The Divine design of God is people being examples, living proof to other people.
When going to church is a choice we make or don’t make, they quite possibly will not make that choice when they have the chance later in life. If we don’t choose the fruit of God’s spirit in activation in our homes, the children will not believe God’s word. He made them to believe by seeing living proof.
What’s truly important to us? We’re living it. If work is #1 we live it. We can say all we want that God is #1, but the proof is in the evidence of our lives daily lived out.
I’ve seen people time and time again go to work not feeling well, but miss church assemblies week after week, because they did not feel well…They’d overcome it for work, but for the kingdom work it is on the 2nd burner. I understand the reasoning behind it is, I’m off on Sunday to recover for the week because I worked when I was ill and now I’m saving up more strength to go work more. Do we believe in healing? Do we get truly refreshed in God’s presence? Does Christ give us strength? Or does more rest? Do we believe God’s word?
Who are we really working for? Pharaoh or Jesus? That’s not an easy question, it ruffles feathers, big time. The proof of what we believe is shown in our daily lives. It is amazing what people will become well for. Think about it.
It’s all about covenant. Your good, at my expense.
Who do I have covenant with?
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
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.
Ezra 9:1-15
Ezra's Prayer concerning Intermarriage
1But then the Jewish leaders came to me and said, "Many of the people of Israel, and even some of the priests and Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the other peoples living in the land. They have taken up the detestable practices of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. 2For the men of Israel have married women from these people and have taken them as wives for their sons. So the holy race has become polluted by these mixed marriages. To make matters worse, the officials and leaders are some of the worst offenders."
3When I heard this, I tore my clothing, pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat down utterly shocked. 4Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel came and sat with me because of this unfaithfulness of his people. And I sat there utterly appalled until the time of the evening sacrifice.
5At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees, lifted my hands to the LORD my God. 6I prayed, "O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7Our whole history has been one of great sin. That is why we and our kings and our priests have been at the mercy of the pagan kings of the land. We have been killed, captured, robbed, and disgraced, just as we are today.
8"But now we have been given a brief moment of grace, for the LORD our God has allowed a few of us to survive as a remnant. He has given us security in this holy place. Our God has brightened our eyes and granted us some relief from our slavery. 9For we were slaves, but in his unfailing love our God did not abandon us in our slavery. Instead, he caused the kings of Persia to treat us favorably. He revived us so that we were able to rebuild the Temple of our God and repair its ruins. He has given us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
10"And now, O our God, what can we say after all of this? For once again we have ignored your commands! 11Your servants the prophets warned us that the land we would possess was totally defiled by the detestable practices of the people living there. From one end to the other, the land is filled with corruption. 12You told us not to let our daughters marry their sons, and not to let our sons marry their daughters, and not to help those nations in any way. You promised that if we avoided these things, we would become a prosperous nation. You promised that we would enjoy the good produce of the land and leave this prosperity to our children as an inheritance forever.
13"Now we are being punished because of our wickedness and our great guilt. But we have actually been punished far less than we deserve, for you, our God, have allowed some of us to survive as a remnant. 14But now we are again breaking your commands and intermarrying with people who do these detestable things. Surely your anger will destroy us until even this little remnant no longer survives. 15O LORD, God of Israel, you are just. We stand before you in our guilt as nothing but an escaped remnant, though in such a condition none of us can stand in your presence."
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
STOP! Please note this is not about racism. NOT at all. God is not offended in who’s white, peach, yellow, red black, colored, etc. His interest goes way beyond the outward color of skin, He is after hearts. Hearts, if anyone has noticed, are the same color, which has no bearing if they weren’t the same color, because this is a faith issue.
There are truly only 2 races. The race of Adam and the race of Jesus Christ. There are only two kingdoms- The kingdoms of this world, and the kingdoms of our Lord. That’s it. Narrows it down a bit, huh? Quite.
So why is the Lord so against one nation being intertwined in covenant together with another nation? Well, if there are only two, what does that mean? Believers and unbelievers, in Christ.
We were all born in Adam and can be miraculously changed, converted, switch kingdoms in Christ. Once we do, we do for covenant love. The reason we switch is to also bring others to make the switch. There’s a great rescue which is the new order of everyday.
Marriage was originally designed by God to bring into agreement, this work of covenant rescue, the saving of lives. If one is not “saved” and the other covenant partner is, the work is hindered, tainted, in its purity of effectiveness, maybe even thwarted. Rather than two becoming one in the work of God, they are trying to become one with each other and in each other and the work is greatly ignored, because the greater work becomes the working out of the marriage itself, rather than the two working together to strengthen God’s kingdom and grow it up. They spend their lives trying to agree together about being together and what faith they hold separately and how it works for them.
The tragedy? The work of God dwarfed or ceased from being able to be worked by me. I forsake it, to work on my marriage instead. Of course marriage needs work anyway, but not with this focus and no advancements for the Lord. Are we married in the eyes of the Lord or in the eyes of men? That becomes evident in the work.
What is being reproduced? A strong army of Saviors? Or strife and contention? Are we (it takes a me to make a we) One in Him? Are we able to go up and take cities, nations? Or do we spend our life just trying to take our own home?
The key word here is “Let”, we let it happen. That’s what can happen with an untrained free-will. We allow things, no biggie, not a big deal, they are in love, ya know? In love with whom? God? Or themselves? What we allow is allowed, what we don’t allow is not allowed. If we just let the chips fall where they lay, we’re going to pay a price for it later on. There will be consequence for choices made, that don’t seem that bad. We may never even know, who could have been saved, won over, healed, delivered by our Covenant Godly union.
Now, what if we did not know? What if we’re already there? Could it be we can save a nation by saving a man or a woman? Could it be God will forgive sin and wrong choices made? Of course! He’ll redeem what we’ve mistaken. That does not mean divorce, it means come into covenant with the Lord for that one soul at least! It means ask for the grace of God to be a light to that one, to shine the true unhypocritical love of God in living proof daily. Intercede that that one will be turned into another nation, converted, redeemed, and switch allegiances.
Now what about our seed? Teach, train, live as examples before them of the covenant love of God. Make right choices that will affect them for eternity. Be an example of loving obedience.
They are watching. They watch our choices, they watch our priorities, they watch our excuses, to serve God or not, when it’s convenient or not. They watch that. They watch what we’ll overcome odds for. Our example is powerful and yet for them it gets watered down, like passing a story along. If we compromise, they do the more. If God is a 2nd burner in our lives, He’ll be the 3rd for them, unless a miracle occurs in spite of our poor example. The Divine design of God is people being examples, living proof to other people.
When going to church is a choice we make or don’t make, they quite possibly will not make that choice when they have the chance later in life. If we don’t choose the fruit of God’s spirit in activation in our homes, the children will not believe God’s word. He made them to believe by seeing living proof.
What’s truly important to us? We’re living it. If work is #1 we live it. We can say all we want that God is #1, but the proof is in the evidence of our lives daily lived out.
I’ve seen people time and time again go to work not feeling well, but miss church assemblies week after week, because they did not feel well…They’d overcome it for work, but for the kingdom work it is on the 2nd burner. I understand the reasoning behind it is, I’m off on Sunday to recover for the week because I worked when I was ill and now I’m saving up more strength to go work more. Do we believe in healing? Do we get truly refreshed in God’s presence? Does Christ give us strength? Or does more rest? Do we believe God’s word?
Who are we really working for? Pharaoh or Jesus? That’s not an easy question, it ruffles feathers, big time. The proof of what we believe is shown in our daily lives. It is amazing what people will become well for. Think about it.
It’s all about covenant. Your good, at my expense.
Who do I have covenant with?
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Today 2 Kings 7
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 Kings 7:1-20 -
1Elisha replied, "Hear this message from the LORD! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost only half an ounce of silver, F16 and ten quarts of barley grain will cost only half an ounce of silver. F17 "
2The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, "That couldn't happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!" But Elisha replied, "You will see it happen, but you won't be able to eat any of it!"
Lepers Visit the Enemy Camp
3Now there were four men with leprosy F18 sitting at the entrance of the city gates. "Why should we sit here waiting to die?" they asked each other. 4"We will starve if we stay here, and we will starve if we go back into the city. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway."
5So that evening they went out to the camp of the Arameans, but no one was there! 6For the Lord had caused the whole army of Aram to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians F19 to attack us!" they cried out. 7So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, and they fled for their lives.
8When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. 9Finally, they said to each other, "This is not right. This is wonderful news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace."
10So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened—that they had gone out to the Aramean camp and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there was not a single person around. 11Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.
Israel Plunders the Camp
12The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, "I know what has happened. The Arameans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city."
13One of his officers replied, "We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it won't be a greater loss than if they stay here and die with the rest of us."
14So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army. 15They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it. 16Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that five quarts of fine flour were sold that day for half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain were sold for half an ounce of silver, just as the LORD had promised. 17The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out. So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house. 18The man of God had said to the king, "By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost half an ounce of silver." 19The king's officer had replied, "That couldn't happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!" And the man of God had said, "You will see it happen, but you won't be able to eat any of it!" 20And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!
FOOTNOTES:F16: Hebrew 1 seah [6 liters] of fine flour will cost 1 shekel [11 grams]; also in 7:16, 18. F17: Hebrew 2 seahs [12 liters] of barley grain will cost 1 shekel [11 grams]; also in 7:16, 18. F18: Or with a contagious skin disease. The Hebrew word used here and throughout this passage can describe various skin diseases. F19: Possibly and the people of Muzur, a district near Cilicia.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Oh My Lord, THIS is what the call of God’s Spirit is saying to us today, in this season and hour, get on board, NOW. Don’t wait any longer, don’t hesitate, just as these people did not see the famine coming, so they also did not see the prosperity returning. Do you also know what truly is ahead of us? In either famine or prosperity, did they have and keep their faith in God, obtain faith in God? If not, they will not partake of the eternal kingdom. I’m telling you, Get on the boat! Get on the Boat, it is lifesaving time, no doubt.
Ya know how people doubt these truly being the last days, because it’s been said for 2000 years that these are the last days? Well they are, for someone we know, someone we influence, someone we reach. If we do not live as though it is an urgent time, we’ve missed the boat and cannot save others who are depending on us to save their souls before their last days come.
Hey, if you’ve missed the boat, it is coming around again, get on it! Really, it is time, now.
Do not say it can’t or won’t happen yet. In a DAY….
So are you diseased and your illness has held you back, has shame held you back, has anything held you back? It is time to break out of that and go for it, get what God has awaiting you! If you do not you may die as you are, what a tragedy that would be. God has a work to do with each one of us. He is working in us so we can do His work with Him. Let’s allow His work to appear in us so we can get on with His much desired and much awaited work. Our lifetime is not all to be spent with God working on us, though He loves us enough that He will spend our whole life healing us, fixing us, cleaning us up etc. Do we love Him enough to get healed, walk free and go do His work? To allow His work to appear in us?
Since you’ve believed in Jesus, how many people have you told about Him? About how He saved you, delivered you? Why sit here, get fed, like crazy with great word, and not open your life and heart to the fix so your tongue can be loosed. The word says what we bind is bound, what we loose is loosed. We’ve has wrong thinking, we’ve thought that He’s going to do it to and for us, NO it is time to rise up and walk.
You have to get up and go to church. Yeah maybe people there have hurt you, maybe people there are ones you don’t get along with, so what, go get healed! Go bring healing! You don’t go to church to please people, but to please God and He is asking you to learn to love people and face enemies of your soul, do what’s hard with His help. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.
Those lepers had to go into the enemies camp, maybe church has been that for you. Wow, huh? Go there anyway. Watch the Lord plunder the camp of the enemy for you, the brave one who stepped out in faith to please God. God is for you and no one can be against you when you meet with Him.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
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 Kings 7:1-20 -
1Elisha replied, "Hear this message from the LORD! This is what the LORD says: By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost only half an ounce of silver, F16 and ten quarts of barley grain will cost only half an ounce of silver. F17 "
2The officer assisting the king said to the man of God, "That couldn't happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!" But Elisha replied, "You will see it happen, but you won't be able to eat any of it!"
Lepers Visit the Enemy Camp
3Now there were four men with leprosy F18 sitting at the entrance of the city gates. "Why should we sit here waiting to die?" they asked each other. 4"We will starve if we stay here, and we will starve if we go back into the city. So we might as well go out and surrender to the Aramean army. If they let us live, so much the better. But if they kill us, we would have died anyway."
5So that evening they went out to the camp of the Arameans, but no one was there! 6For the Lord had caused the whole army of Aram to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and the galloping of horses and the sounds of a great army approaching. "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians F19 to attack us!" they cried out. 7So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, and they fled for their lives.
8When the lepers arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating, drinking wine, and carrying out silver and gold and clothing and hiding it. 9Finally, they said to each other, "This is not right. This is wonderful news, and we aren't sharing it with anyone! If we wait until morning, some terrible calamity will certainly fall upon us. Come on, let's go back and tell the people at the palace."
10So they went back to the city and told the gatekeepers what had happened—that they had gone out to the Aramean camp and no one was there! The horses and donkeys were tethered and the tents were all in order, but there was not a single person around. 11Then the gatekeepers shouted the news to the people in the palace.
Israel Plunders the Camp
12The king got out of bed in the middle of the night and told his officers, "I know what has happened. The Arameans know we are starving, so they have left their camp and have hidden in the fields. They are expecting us to leave the city, and then they will take us alive and capture the city."
13One of his officers replied, "We had better send out scouts to check into this. Let them take five of the remaining horses. If something happens to them, it won't be a greater loss than if they stay here and die with the rest of us."
14So two chariots with horses were prepared, and the king sent scouts to see what had happened to the Aramean army. 15They went all the way to the Jordan River, following a trail of clothing and equipment that the Arameans had thrown away in their mad rush to escape. The scouts returned and told the king about it. 16Then the people of Samaria rushed out and plundered the Aramean camp. So it was true that five quarts of fine flour were sold that day for half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain were sold for half an ounce of silver, just as the LORD had promised. 17The king appointed his officer to control the traffic at the gate, but he was knocked down and trampled to death as the people rushed out. So everything happened exactly as the man of God had predicted when the king came to his house. 18The man of God had said to the king, "By this time tomorrow in the markets of Samaria, five quarts of fine flour will cost half an ounce of silver, and ten quarts of barley grain will cost half an ounce of silver." 19The king's officer had replied, "That couldn't happen even if the LORD opened the windows of heaven!" And the man of God had said, "You will see it happen, but you won't be able to eat any of it!" 20And so it was, for the people trampled him to death at the gate!
FOOTNOTES:F16: Hebrew 1 seah [6 liters] of fine flour will cost 1 shekel [11 grams]; also in 7:16, 18. F17: Hebrew 2 seahs [12 liters] of barley grain will cost 1 shekel [11 grams]; also in 7:16, 18. F18: Or with a contagious skin disease. The Hebrew word used here and throughout this passage can describe various skin diseases. F19: Possibly and the people of Muzur, a district near Cilicia.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Oh My Lord, THIS is what the call of God’s Spirit is saying to us today, in this season and hour, get on board, NOW. Don’t wait any longer, don’t hesitate, just as these people did not see the famine coming, so they also did not see the prosperity returning. Do you also know what truly is ahead of us? In either famine or prosperity, did they have and keep their faith in God, obtain faith in God? If not, they will not partake of the eternal kingdom. I’m telling you, Get on the boat! Get on the Boat, it is lifesaving time, no doubt.
Ya know how people doubt these truly being the last days, because it’s been said for 2000 years that these are the last days? Well they are, for someone we know, someone we influence, someone we reach. If we do not live as though it is an urgent time, we’ve missed the boat and cannot save others who are depending on us to save their souls before their last days come.
Hey, if you’ve missed the boat, it is coming around again, get on it! Really, it is time, now.
Do not say it can’t or won’t happen yet. In a DAY….
So are you diseased and your illness has held you back, has shame held you back, has anything held you back? It is time to break out of that and go for it, get what God has awaiting you! If you do not you may die as you are, what a tragedy that would be. God has a work to do with each one of us. He is working in us so we can do His work with Him. Let’s allow His work to appear in us so we can get on with His much desired and much awaited work. Our lifetime is not all to be spent with God working on us, though He loves us enough that He will spend our whole life healing us, fixing us, cleaning us up etc. Do we love Him enough to get healed, walk free and go do His work? To allow His work to appear in us?
Since you’ve believed in Jesus, how many people have you told about Him? About how He saved you, delivered you? Why sit here, get fed, like crazy with great word, and not open your life and heart to the fix so your tongue can be loosed. The word says what we bind is bound, what we loose is loosed. We’ve has wrong thinking, we’ve thought that He’s going to do it to and for us, NO it is time to rise up and walk.
You have to get up and go to church. Yeah maybe people there have hurt you, maybe people there are ones you don’t get along with, so what, go get healed! Go bring healing! You don’t go to church to please people, but to please God and He is asking you to learn to love people and face enemies of your soul, do what’s hard with His help. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.
Those lepers had to go into the enemies camp, maybe church has been that for you. Wow, huh? Go there anyway. Watch the Lord plunder the camp of the enemy for you, the brave one who stepped out in faith to please God. God is for you and no one can be against you when you meet with Him.
Daily Repetitive Verses:
Isaiah 58:12 – in multiple translations….
The Amplified Bible
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
The Holy Bible, New International Version®
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
The New King James Version
Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
GOD'S WORD
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
New Life Bible
And your cities which were destroyed long ago will be built again. You will set up the stones of the bases of the old buildings. You will be called the one who builds again the broken walls, and who makes the streets on which people live like new.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
