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.
Romans 8:1-39 -
Life in the Spirit
1So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2For the power F25 of the life-giving Spirit has freed you F26 through Christ Jesus, from the power of sin that leads to death.
3The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us F27 who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace. 7For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. 8That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them are not Christians at all.) 10Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive F28 because you have been made right with God. 11The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you.
12So, dear brothers and sisters, F29 you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it F30 and its evil deeds, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children F31 of God.
15So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family F32 —calling him "Father, dear Father." F33 16For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children. 17And since we are his children, we will share his treasures—for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
The Future Glory
18Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. 19For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse. 21All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, F34 including the new bodies he has promised us. 24Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don't need to hope for it. 25But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.
26And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. 28And we know that God causes everything to work together F35 for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. 30And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave them right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory.
Nothing Can Separate Us from God's Love
31What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?
33Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. 34Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.
35Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? 36(Even the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep." F36 ) 37No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. 39Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
FOOTNOTES: F25: Greek the law; also in 8:2b. F26: Some manuscripts read me. F27: Or accomplished by us. F28: Or the Spirit will bring you eternal life. F29: Greek brothers; also in 8:29. F30: Greek put it to death. F31: Greek sons; also in 8:19. F32: Greek You received a spirit of sonship. F33: Greek "Abba, Father." Abba is an Aramaic term for "father." F34: Greek wait anxiously for sonship. F35: Some manuscripts read And we know that everything works together. F36: Ps 44:22. Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living Translation
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
The law of Moses could not save man. Have you ever read through the Old Testament requirements, the law of Moses in it’s entirety? It is hard to read it all for about 4 or 5 verses into it one gets to feeling the impossibilities of being able to keep the law. Even just the 10 commandments are hard for any human to get through without seeing our failures and weaknesses.
There is a reason for this extensiveness. It is to show man his great need for God and the only way to God, which is through Christ. Through comparison to the law, even a really good natured man can see he comes short of the glory of God. This has a point to make. Men cannot be what they need to be and are called and designed to be outside of the covering of Christ, Only through His blood can any man be truly saved from the death penalty of sin.
So, knowing this, we see there is hope for a man to be covered in his sin. That covered man is not made perfect to where he’ll never make another mistake or ever miss a mark, but it goes way beyond missing marks, the question becomes - “are you washed and covered by the redeeming blood, no matter what mistakes you make? And do you endeavor to walk in a manner that will please and show gratefulness for the cost involved to pay for that freedom you can enjoy?”
Isn’t it just amazingly awesome to have the covering of the blood of Jesus, and to be called God’s very own child? One has to see that this adoption into God’s family will never be based on how much one deserves it or how well one behaves. There’s no earning of this family position, just faith united with the family plan of God. God planned your life in this time period.
It is so important for ones who are seeing this picture to realize our time here is for a purpose that goes beyond the realization of being a family member with Jesus as our brother. That realization is merely the beginning of an eternal lifetime with our Father God. It starts on earth and will continue someday in heaven. While we are here in the earth realm, we have an assignment from God to spread the good news of the adoption, which is available to anyone who will believe and receive it, and to teach others to preach this same message. If we never got anything we were dreaming for on earth, but we became a participator in making this dream our Father has come true, we will find blessings beyond all measure, both now and later on.
I believe to walk in the spirit, is to walk in tune with that pursuit of God’s dream. To stay in tune with how we can do our part and portion in making it happen. When was the last time you wholeheartedly spent time, effort, money etc, to make another person’s dream come true? If you did, you received a tremendous amount of joy. The joy of the Father God is so great towards those who choose His way when they could and are free to choose their own ways.
What is completely amazing is God already knows what our dreams in life are. When He sees we are in hot pursuit of His dreams more than we are in pursuit of our own dreams, He is turned on! He wants ours to come true, and guess what? He’s the only one that can make it happen anyway!
We’ll suffer and toil and live and work hard to pursue our own dreams, they are that important to us. Even having a natural baby is painful, takes work and then to raise it is a whole ‘nother thing. We’re willing to do that for our own plans in life, what about God’s? Is His dream that important to us? That we’d work hard for it, spend money on it, toil, sweat, take extra time, etc?
When we walk in the spirit, we do not fulfill the lusts- passions and desires of the flesh.
Ok, so we may get a hold of the pursuit of God’s dream as a good idea, now how bold will we be about its execution?
Do you realize when man pursues his own dreams and never goes after God’s, when man suffers for self, and lives for self, when man will not speak up for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the earth actually suffers? Do you realize that many of the sufferings of the earth can be rectified through an obedient people? Every time a man begins to turn and fulfill the destiny of God, as an active participator in the divine plan, a piece of earth is redeemed. The earth is groaning, shaking, saying- “Please people, please rise up while there is still time to, and speak boldly as you were destined and created to speak. Don’t pursue your own dream, lay your dream down and pursue God’s dream! Please people, don’t you know when you make God’s dream come true, all of yours will just happen?”
Earthquakes, wars, storms, volcanoes, tsunamis, terrorist attacks, are all groanings…
God gave each believer a supernatural ability, to be able to speak as the spirit speaks and proclaim what the spirit desires to proclaim. It is an awesome response-ability(I wrote it that way on purpose!), for a man, any man, or a group of people, to execute the plans of God. How can one know how and what to do without the Divine help of God? We’ve been given the spirit of Christ and God. We’ve been given the spirit without measure. We can have and use as much as we want. He is available for the takers, those who desire Him and His Divine help can have as much as they want!
Esther chapter 1 says the king prepared a banquet, told servants to set tables up with unceasing amounts of food and a bottomless wine vats. He said anyone can come as often as they want, they are welcomed to come. They can eat and drink all they want. But they won’t be forced to come eat and drink, they can starve and die of thirst if they choose to, but there’s plemty available for those who want to come eat and drink.
We have access to God’s word (food-bread), very easy access in our world as it is now. We can have as much as we want, and we have access to God’s spirit (wine). We can eat and drink at anytime of the day or night, as much as we want, and as much as we want His plan to happen will be as much as we partake of, for we must eat and drink for strength to do the will of the Lord. How much of the will do we want? Do we want to be like the sole beneficiary in a family? That is dependant upon how much we ate and drank. We can say we want it all day long, but how much we really want is shown to God in how much we prepare by eating and drinking!
Now this is the big question from this passage:
Can anything separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? Can death (of a loved one) or life (and all of its toil and pain), can a principality, an evil work, an evil spirit’s work, separate you from walking in the way of love, walking in the pursuit of God’s will? Will anything in life or death stop you from walking in faith in Christ? Anything? Think about it. Can anything at all separate you out of the way of God’s Divine love and of your active participation in the unfolding of His eternal plan while you’re still able to be a part of its fulfillment on earth?
Is there anything at all that can make you stop loving God or loving people or pursuing His will? I don’t mean agreeing that His will is good and that it is good to win souls or it is good to go to church. I mean is there anything that can make you not participate in going after and the active doing of His will?
It is a pivotal question to ask. Can offense in church do it? Can things that don’t go your way do it? Can pressure and stress take you out? If any of this stuff can, the earth will groan, till it about explodes from being so shut up with unfulfilled purpose, it cannot contain the pain of. It would be like a woman in transition about to push out the baby, but no one will have it, or let it come out, in fact people hold it back from coming out.
That’s the groaning that’s going on! That baby will come out or that baby and that woman will die and it’s God’s baby and God’s woman and He won’t let her and them die, so others will die instead, if the purpose of God is not assumed responsibility of and invited and helped to come forth through the participation of human people like you and me.
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Friday, October 06, 2006
1 Cor 14 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.
1 Corinthians 14
The Gifts of Tongues and Prophecy
1Let love be your highest goal, but also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives, especially the gift of prophecy. 2For if your gift is the ability to speak in tongues,[a] you will be talking to God but not to people, since they won't be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious. 3But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them. 4A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally in the Lord, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church.
5I wish you all had the gift of speaking in tongues, but even more I wish you were all able to prophesy. For prophecy is a greater and more useful gift than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church can get some good out of it.
6Dear brothers and sisters,[b] if I should come to you talking in an unknown language,[c] how would that help you? But if I bring you some revelation or some special knowledge or some prophecy or some teaching--that is what will help you. 7Even musical instruments like the flute or the harp, though they are lifeless, are examples of the need for speaking in plain language. For no one will recognize the melody unless the notes are played clearly. 8And if the bugler doesn't sound a clear call, how will the soldiers know they are being called to battle? 9And it's the same for you. If you talk to people in a language they don't understand, how will they know what you mean? You might as well be talking to an empty room.
10There are so many different languages in the world, and all are excellent for those who understand them, 11but to me they mean nothing. I will not understand people who speak those languages, and they will not understand me. 12Since you are so eager to have spiritual gifts, ask God for those that will be of real help to the whole church.
13So anyone who has the gift of speaking in tongues should pray also for the gift of interpretation in order to tell people plainly what has been said. 14For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don't understand what I am saying.
15Well then, what shall I do? I will do both. I will pray in the spirit,[d] and I will pray in words I understand. I will sing in the spirit, and I will sing in words I understand. 16For if you praise God only in the spirit, how can those who don't understand you praise God along with you? How can they join you in giving thanks when they don't understand what you are saying? 17You will be giving thanks very nicely, no doubt, but it doesn't help the other people present.
18I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19But in a church meeting I would much rather speak five understandable words that will help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.
20Dear brothers and sisters, don't be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature and wise in understanding matters of this kind. 21It is written in the Scriptures,[e]
"I will speak to my own people through unknown languages and through the lips of foreigners. But even then, they will not listen to me,"[f] says the Lord. 22So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers. 23Even so, if unbelievers or people who don't understand these things come into your meeting and hear everyone talking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy. 24But if all of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don't understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin, and they will be condemned by what you say. 25As they listen, their secret thoughts will be laid bare, and they will fall down on their knees and worship God, declaring, "God is really here among you."
A Call to Orderly Worship
26Well, my brothers and sisters, let's summarize what I am saying. When you meet, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in an unknown language, while another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must be useful to all and build them up in the Lord. 27No more than two or three should speak in an unknown language. They must speak one at a time, and someone must be ready to interpret what they are saying. 28But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.
29Let two or three prophesy, and let the others evaluate what is said. 30But if someone is prophesying and another person receives a revelation from the Lord, the one who is speaking must stop. 31In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak, one after the other, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged. 32Remember that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit and can wait their turn. 33For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the other churches.[g]
34Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. 35If they have any questions to ask, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings.[h]
36Do you think that the knowledge of God's word begins and ends with you Corinthians? Well, you are mistaken! 37If you claim to be a prophet or think you are very spiritual, you should recognize that what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself. 38But if you do not recognize this, you will not be recognized.[i]
39So, dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and don't forbid speaking in tongues. 40But be sure that everything is done properly and in order.
Footnotes:
a. 1 Corinthians 14:2 Or in unknown languages; also in 14:4, 5, 13, 14, 18, 22, 28, 39.
b. 1 Corinthians 14:6 Greek brothers; also in 14:20, 26, 39.
c. 1 Corinthians 14:6 Or in tongues; also in 14:19, 23, 26, 27.
d. 1 Corinthians 14:15 Or in the Spirit; also in 14:15b, 16.
e. 1 Corinthians 14:21 Greek in the law.
f. 1 Corinthians 14:21 Isa 28:11-12.
g. 1 Corinthians 14:33 The phrase as in all the other churches could be joined to the beginning of 14:34.
h. 1 Corinthians 14:35 Some manuscripts place verses 34-35 after 14:40.
i. 1 Corinthians 14:38 Some manuscripts read If you are ignorant of this, stay in your ignorance.
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
The context of this chapter is the corporate meetings of the congregations of faith-filled spirit-filled believers who consider themselves, before the Lord, as His living Body in the earth.
The purpose of the corporate assembly is to be in a place where the preaching and teaching of the word and worship of God would come up to God in the earth in the strength that only unity can bring, what a sound before the ears of God Most High when unity comes from an assembly of people who believe Him! The world is full of disunity and disagreements. What a sign and wonder it is when any corporately assembled people can agree!
Remember it is faith that pleases our Father God, without faith it is impossible to please Him. If our assembly has to do with pleasing Him, then whenever we assemble we ought to assemble by faith in Him, not just in a loving trust and a desire for fellowship of one another, but in a purposeful venture of bringing pleasure to our Father.
If we think of our assemblies this way it would remove many opportunities for strife, murmurs and complaints amongst the members of the body. We would not so much look for the differences and the controversies, even in the scripture. Remember All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 2 Tim 3:16
Reproof and correction are not for controversy, but for my own personal change into union with His words. I’m not to try to bring correction to God’s words, they are to bring corrections to my own personal life, in order to align me with His words. That way, a me can make a we, and a we can make a Him, in the earth. That is the point, that one who’s been so unusual to the world can be seen in the earth through a living body of believers in unity. The question to ask would be, “What part of my own life can be adjusted that the instructions given by His word would unify me more?”
When we look at and study and read scripture we really need to remove from our natural minds the tendency to contradict or argue or contest the words of God. It is the world that contests and contradicts the word of God, believers are to learn of and from God’s words, accepting its “newly presented ideas” as their own new ideas. That’s putting on the mind of Christ. We allow the word to remove the controversy of our old mindsets and give us newborn thoughts of life and love in the spirit. The natural mind does not readily receive of spirituals, but is initially at enmity with the ideals of God’s spirit.
Where religious minds are concerned, this passage and other passages on this same subject are disregarded from being real for our active participation today.
May I present that the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever and that He and His words are the same? Therefore the words of God are for yesterday, today and forever.
There are divers tongues, there are tongues of men (humanly understood languages), and of angels(which are not humanly understood). There is also suggested appropriate times for the use of these “gifts” from the Lord, times which may be of more effective use than other times. Those who speak, speak through the Holy Spirit. Now remember Jesus sent The Holy Spirit to live inside of men who are still here in the earth, available to spread His gospel message far and wide, wherever spirit-filled, spirit-led people are. In this way the Spirit of God could be everywhere at every time after Jesus left the earth. The same God in Jesus was now able to be in believers of Jesus everywhere, no matter what background or location, God was able to use men and speak through men around the world.
Tongues of men edify men, tongues of God……edify God? That last part may be a good question to ask. Does our natural day to day speaking edify God? Does a human being speaking the same kinds of words God speaks, cause God to be edified, built up?
God said, God saw, the world was laid out via His words.
Is our world laid out by our words? Maybe we don’t like the way our world has been laid out. So, what have we been saying about our world? Who do we sound like when we speak of our world, speak over our world?
Lena said, Lena saw. I might want to put my hand over my mouth at times. How about changing the words that proceed out of the mouth instead? How about silencing the words and doing some “replacement therapy”, like beginning to speak differently, beginning to speak as God speaks, as God would speak over my world.
At first that may be foreign to me, it may even mess with my mind. Eexactly! THAT was God’s idea when he asked us to receive a part of His spirit that would confound our own worry, doubt and wrong speech.
Maybe it will change my mind, then my speech, then my world. Aha, That’s the point! Words made the world, formed the world, can make and can change and form my world into a whole new world. God is waiting for it to be so.
Paul said vs 18, “I speak in tongues more than you all…”, and he changed the known world with the gospel message that reached the heart of you and I, though he was on earth 2000 years earlier and that word has just as much power as when it was presented.
Maybe the faith lever needs to be increased in that which we do not yet understand, receive by faith, act out our faith. Beginning to speak as God speaks.
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
1 Corinthians 14
The Gifts of Tongues and Prophecy
1Let love be your highest goal, but also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives, especially the gift of prophecy. 2For if your gift is the ability to speak in tongues,[a] you will be talking to God but not to people, since they won't be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious. 3But one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them. 4A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally in the Lord, but one who speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church.
5I wish you all had the gift of speaking in tongues, but even more I wish you were all able to prophesy. For prophecy is a greater and more useful gift than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what you are saying so that the whole church can get some good out of it.
6Dear brothers and sisters,[b] if I should come to you talking in an unknown language,[c] how would that help you? But if I bring you some revelation or some special knowledge or some prophecy or some teaching--that is what will help you. 7Even musical instruments like the flute or the harp, though they are lifeless, are examples of the need for speaking in plain language. For no one will recognize the melody unless the notes are played clearly. 8And if the bugler doesn't sound a clear call, how will the soldiers know they are being called to battle? 9And it's the same for you. If you talk to people in a language they don't understand, how will they know what you mean? You might as well be talking to an empty room.
10There are so many different languages in the world, and all are excellent for those who understand them, 11but to me they mean nothing. I will not understand people who speak those languages, and they will not understand me. 12Since you are so eager to have spiritual gifts, ask God for those that will be of real help to the whole church.
13So anyone who has the gift of speaking in tongues should pray also for the gift of interpretation in order to tell people plainly what has been said. 14For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don't understand what I am saying.
15Well then, what shall I do? I will do both. I will pray in the spirit,[d] and I will pray in words I understand. I will sing in the spirit, and I will sing in words I understand. 16For if you praise God only in the spirit, how can those who don't understand you praise God along with you? How can they join you in giving thanks when they don't understand what you are saying? 17You will be giving thanks very nicely, no doubt, but it doesn't help the other people present.
18I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19But in a church meeting I would much rather speak five understandable words that will help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.
20Dear brothers and sisters, don't be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature and wise in understanding matters of this kind. 21It is written in the Scriptures,[e]
"I will speak to my own people through unknown languages and through the lips of foreigners. But even then, they will not listen to me,"[f] says the Lord. 22So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is for the benefit of believers, not unbelievers. 23Even so, if unbelievers or people who don't understand these things come into your meeting and hear everyone talking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy. 24But if all of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don't understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin, and they will be condemned by what you say. 25As they listen, their secret thoughts will be laid bare, and they will fall down on their knees and worship God, declaring, "God is really here among you."
A Call to Orderly Worship
26Well, my brothers and sisters, let's summarize what I am saying. When you meet, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in an unknown language, while another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must be useful to all and build them up in the Lord. 27No more than two or three should speak in an unknown language. They must speak one at a time, and someone must be ready to interpret what they are saying. 28But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.
29Let two or three prophesy, and let the others evaluate what is said. 30But if someone is prophesying and another person receives a revelation from the Lord, the one who is speaking must stop. 31In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak, one after the other, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged. 32Remember that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit and can wait their turn. 33For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the other churches.[g]
34Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. 35If they have any questions to ask, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings.[h]
36Do you think that the knowledge of God's word begins and ends with you Corinthians? Well, you are mistaken! 37If you claim to be a prophet or think you are very spiritual, you should recognize that what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself. 38But if you do not recognize this, you will not be recognized.[i]
39So, dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and don't forbid speaking in tongues. 40But be sure that everything is done properly and in order.
Footnotes:
a. 1 Corinthians 14:2 Or in unknown languages; also in 14:4, 5, 13, 14, 18, 22, 28, 39.
b. 1 Corinthians 14:6 Greek brothers; also in 14:20, 26, 39.
c. 1 Corinthians 14:6 Or in tongues; also in 14:19, 23, 26, 27.
d. 1 Corinthians 14:15 Or in the Spirit; also in 14:15b, 16.
e. 1 Corinthians 14:21 Greek in the law.
f. 1 Corinthians 14:21 Isa 28:11-12.
g. 1 Corinthians 14:33 The phrase as in all the other churches could be joined to the beginning of 14:34.
h. 1 Corinthians 14:35 Some manuscripts place verses 34-35 after 14:40.
i. 1 Corinthians 14:38 Some manuscripts read If you are ignorant of this, stay in your ignorance.
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
The context of this chapter is the corporate meetings of the congregations of faith-filled spirit-filled believers who consider themselves, before the Lord, as His living Body in the earth.
The purpose of the corporate assembly is to be in a place where the preaching and teaching of the word and worship of God would come up to God in the earth in the strength that only unity can bring, what a sound before the ears of God Most High when unity comes from an assembly of people who believe Him! The world is full of disunity and disagreements. What a sign and wonder it is when any corporately assembled people can agree!
Remember it is faith that pleases our Father God, without faith it is impossible to please Him. If our assembly has to do with pleasing Him, then whenever we assemble we ought to assemble by faith in Him, not just in a loving trust and a desire for fellowship of one another, but in a purposeful venture of bringing pleasure to our Father.
If we think of our assemblies this way it would remove many opportunities for strife, murmurs and complaints amongst the members of the body. We would not so much look for the differences and the controversies, even in the scripture. Remember All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 2 Tim 3:16
Reproof and correction are not for controversy, but for my own personal change into union with His words. I’m not to try to bring correction to God’s words, they are to bring corrections to my own personal life, in order to align me with His words. That way, a me can make a we, and a we can make a Him, in the earth. That is the point, that one who’s been so unusual to the world can be seen in the earth through a living body of believers in unity. The question to ask would be, “What part of my own life can be adjusted that the instructions given by His word would unify me more?”
When we look at and study and read scripture we really need to remove from our natural minds the tendency to contradict or argue or contest the words of God. It is the world that contests and contradicts the word of God, believers are to learn of and from God’s words, accepting its “newly presented ideas” as their own new ideas. That’s putting on the mind of Christ. We allow the word to remove the controversy of our old mindsets and give us newborn thoughts of life and love in the spirit. The natural mind does not readily receive of spirituals, but is initially at enmity with the ideals of God’s spirit.
Where religious minds are concerned, this passage and other passages on this same subject are disregarded from being real for our active participation today.
May I present that the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever and that He and His words are the same? Therefore the words of God are for yesterday, today and forever.
There are divers tongues, there are tongues of men (humanly understood languages), and of angels(which are not humanly understood). There is also suggested appropriate times for the use of these “gifts” from the Lord, times which may be of more effective use than other times. Those who speak, speak through the Holy Spirit. Now remember Jesus sent The Holy Spirit to live inside of men who are still here in the earth, available to spread His gospel message far and wide, wherever spirit-filled, spirit-led people are. In this way the Spirit of God could be everywhere at every time after Jesus left the earth. The same God in Jesus was now able to be in believers of Jesus everywhere, no matter what background or location, God was able to use men and speak through men around the world.
Tongues of men edify men, tongues of God……edify God? That last part may be a good question to ask. Does our natural day to day speaking edify God? Does a human being speaking the same kinds of words God speaks, cause God to be edified, built up?
God said, God saw, the world was laid out via His words.
Is our world laid out by our words? Maybe we don’t like the way our world has been laid out. So, what have we been saying about our world? Who do we sound like when we speak of our world, speak over our world?
Lena said, Lena saw. I might want to put my hand over my mouth at times. How about changing the words that proceed out of the mouth instead? How about silencing the words and doing some “replacement therapy”, like beginning to speak differently, beginning to speak as God speaks, as God would speak over my world.
At first that may be foreign to me, it may even mess with my mind. Eexactly! THAT was God’s idea when he asked us to receive a part of His spirit that would confound our own worry, doubt and wrong speech.
Maybe it will change my mind, then my speech, then my world. Aha, That’s the point! Words made the world, formed the world, can make and can change and form my world into a whole new world. God is waiting for it to be so.
Paul said vs 18, “I speak in tongues more than you all…”, and he changed the known world with the gospel message that reached the heart of you and I, though he was on earth 2000 years earlier and that word has just as much power as when it was presented.
Maybe the faith lever needs to be increased in that which we do not yet understand, receive by faith, act out our faith. Beginning to speak as God speaks.
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Matthew 6 Is Your House God's House too?
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.
Matthew 6:1-34
Jesus Teaches About Giving 1 "Be careful! When you do good things, don't do them in front of people to be seen by them. If you do that, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2"When you give to the poor, don't be like the hypocrites. They blow trumpets in the synagogues and on the streets so that people will see them and honor them. I tell you the truth, those hypocrites already have their full reward. 3So when you give to the poor, don't let anyone know what you are doing. 4Your giving should be done in secret. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you. Jesus Teaches About Prayer 5"When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. They love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners and pray so people will see them. I tell you the truth, they already have their full reward. 6When you pray, you should go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you. 7"And when you pray, don't be like those people who don't know God. They continue saying things that mean nothing, thinking that God will hear them because of their many words. 8Don't be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him. 9So when you pray, you should pray like this: '
Our Father in heaven, may your name always be kept holy. 10 May your kingdom come and what you want be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us the food we need for each day. 12 Forgive us for our sins, just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us. 13 And do not cause us to be tempted, but save us from the Evil One.' 14Yes, if you forgive others for their sins, your Father in heaven will also forgive you for your sins. 15But if you don't forgive others, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.
Jesus Teaches About Worship 16"When you give up eating, F21 don't put on a sad face like the hypocrites. They make their faces look sad to show people they are giving up eating. I tell you the truth, those hypocrites already have their full reward. 17So when you give up eating, comb your hair and wash your face. 18Then people will not know that you are giving up eating, but your Father, whom you cannot see, will see you. Your Father sees what is done in secret, and he will reward you. God Is More Important than Money 19"Don't store treasures for yourselves here on earth where moths and rust will destroy them and thieves can break in and steal them. 20But store your treasures in heaven where they cannot be destroyed by moths or rust and where thieves cannot break in and steal them. 21Your heart will be where your treasure is. 22"The eye is a light for the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. And if the only light you have is really darkness, then you have the worst darkness. 24"No one can serve two masters. The person will hate one master and love the other, or will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. You cannot serve both God and worldly riches.
Don't Worry 25"So I tell you, don't worry about the food or drink you need to live, or about the clothes you need for your body. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. 26Look at the birds in the air. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds. 27You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it. 28"And why do you worry about clothes? Look at how the lilies in the field grow. They don't work or make clothes for themselves. 29But I tell you that even Solomon with his riches was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers. 30God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today but tomorrow is thrown into the fire. So you can be even more sure that God will clothe you. Don't have so little faith! 31Don't worry and say, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' 32The people who don't know God keep trying to get these things, and your Father in heaven knows you need them. 33The thing you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you. 34So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
FOOTNOTES:F21 give up eating - This is called "fasting." The people would give up eating for a special time of prayer and worship to God. It was also done to show sadness and disappointment.
Copyright Statement: New Century Version
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
It is so awesome that our gospel is a God-centered, God-exalting gospel and not a man-centered and man-exalting gospel. In fact, inside of our gospel is a war against man and self-centeredness, for satan is the man and self-centered author and with our entering into a new kingdom through the gospel of the Lordship of Christ, we change fathers and masters and we go from a life of thinking in a prideful self-centered way to thinking and loving for Christ and all of His God-centered ways.
This citizenship change is not without controversy, for satan, the father of lies, does not appreciate losing a citizen and a fellow worker! Why do you think there is intimidation involved in worship? Why do people feel uncomfortable dancing, jumping, clapping and raising their hands in church? It is a warring against an old self-centered, satan-exalting lifestyle. One must worship God on and with purpose, not in the flesh, but in and by the spirit. Remember who Lucifer was, the worship leader of heaven. He likes worship and likes it directed for him and his purposes which is hatred of God.
Prayer can even be self-centered and self-exalting in nature. It can be about me and me and me and my wishes and my desires. What is so cool and shows maturity in prayer is when my wishes become His wishes, His wishes become mine. That does not come automatically. It comes through humility, study and the building of a relationship where I listen to His word and am willing to do whatever it is He says to do.
The very initiation and beginning of our prayer life is for the will and exaltation of God as Father of our eternal family. After we are willing to hear and do and we have gone and done His will, then we can declare we have all we need, because we’ve been a participant in giving Him what He needs from those who populate the earth for Him to win this war of pride and self-exaltation!
If we do not forgive then the nature of God is not yet in us. God did not hold a grudge against you. He sent His beloved Son who shed all of His blood for you. You may have been a child abuser, had an abortion, been an angry tyrant, hated people, been a God curser or whatever, but His Son knowing that full well, decided to love you anyway and to die for you! Wow! If we do not forgive than we do not give honor to that bloodshed and if we do not give honor to that bloodshed are we His? Do we belong to Him, do we look and act as sons? If not, than we are not, and so we are not - forgiven.
What is of eternal value that we do here? Anything we do as we live for God. Behaviors, attitudes and actions in any and everything we do. If what we do or what we buy or how we spend our time does not promote a deep love for Christ, God, and the world, then we need to make a trade off and do more of what promotes and brings exercise to this lifestyle.
There are so many monetary things we are working for and spending our life and time on that have nothing to do with making an eternal investment at all. That investment is both being made for us and for our kids and those around us who see our lives. If we invest in the kingdom, we bring the kingdom into their lives as we touch their lives, if we don’t invest in the kingdom we have stolen from them what could have been due them through us.
What do you do on break at work? When you sit to read what do you read? , (Like while in Drs. Office waiting rooms, at break with magazines, at home with newspaper articles, scanning the internet, etc.) When you listen to music while you drive down the road are you building up your spiritually alive in Christ man towards more God exaltation? Or is your music self or man-exalting and emotion stirring? When you take your child to a movie who or what is it about? When you come away from the movie what is your child left to think about for days on end? Do you take him or her to God’s house with you, or maybe drop them off? Are what goes on in God’s house and the actions and behaviors of your house the same? Like could and would you bring what your family does in your house into what you perceive as God’s house, and be comfortable doing it?
Our house is God’s house, if we call ourselves His. THIS is a big breech in the religious church that God wants to repair. That I’d go to God’s house and then go home to a different kind of house is an unjust measure and an unjust balance. It is an abomination. We’re not in a social club with God that’s nice and good, we’re here to do His will. It says we CANNOT serve God’s call and money’s call. It is not maybe some can, it is, none can.
The biggest part of that change over in right thinking that leads to right action is - Trust. Who do we really trust? Also just hoping and trying do not cut it. it is faithful life application of the word and faithful withdrawals of the benefits of our covenant relationship that bring His power into our situations. Just like The Lord’s prayer above. As we seek God’s kingdom first, worship Him first, do His will first, then we have all the right in the world to command His blessings on everything we put our hands unto! The money we make can be multiplied and we can watch God do the miraculous where we are concerned! Serving God and having our money blessed is so different than serving money.
Wanting what God wants moves His heart to move heaven and earth’s circumstances for His kids, wouldn’t you do that for your loving honoring obedient child? Even human fathers give love to their kids, how much MORE does God the Father love us.
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
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.
Matthew 6:1-34
Jesus Teaches About Giving 1 "Be careful! When you do good things, don't do them in front of people to be seen by them. If you do that, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2"When you give to the poor, don't be like the hypocrites. They blow trumpets in the synagogues and on the streets so that people will see them and honor them. I tell you the truth, those hypocrites already have their full reward. 3So when you give to the poor, don't let anyone know what you are doing. 4Your giving should be done in secret. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you. Jesus Teaches About Prayer 5"When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. They love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners and pray so people will see them. I tell you the truth, they already have their full reward. 6When you pray, you should go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you. 7"And when you pray, don't be like those people who don't know God. They continue saying things that mean nothing, thinking that God will hear them because of their many words. 8Don't be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him. 9So when you pray, you should pray like this: '
Our Father in heaven, may your name always be kept holy. 10 May your kingdom come and what you want be done, here on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us the food we need for each day. 12 Forgive us for our sins, just as we have forgiven those who sinned against us. 13 And do not cause us to be tempted, but save us from the Evil One.' 14Yes, if you forgive others for their sins, your Father in heaven will also forgive you for your sins. 15But if you don't forgive others, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.
Jesus Teaches About Worship 16"When you give up eating, F21 don't put on a sad face like the hypocrites. They make their faces look sad to show people they are giving up eating. I tell you the truth, those hypocrites already have their full reward. 17So when you give up eating, comb your hair and wash your face. 18Then people will not know that you are giving up eating, but your Father, whom you cannot see, will see you. Your Father sees what is done in secret, and he will reward you. God Is More Important than Money 19"Don't store treasures for yourselves here on earth where moths and rust will destroy them and thieves can break in and steal them. 20But store your treasures in heaven where they cannot be destroyed by moths or rust and where thieves cannot break in and steal them. 21Your heart will be where your treasure is. 22"The eye is a light for the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. And if the only light you have is really darkness, then you have the worst darkness. 24"No one can serve two masters. The person will hate one master and love the other, or will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. You cannot serve both God and worldly riches.
Don't Worry 25"So I tell you, don't worry about the food or drink you need to live, or about the clothes you need for your body. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. 26Look at the birds in the air. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds. 27You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it. 28"And why do you worry about clothes? Look at how the lilies in the field grow. They don't work or make clothes for themselves. 29But I tell you that even Solomon with his riches was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers. 30God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today but tomorrow is thrown into the fire. So you can be even more sure that God will clothe you. Don't have so little faith! 31Don't worry and say, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' 32The people who don't know God keep trying to get these things, and your Father in heaven knows you need them. 33The thing you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you. 34So don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
FOOTNOTES:F21 give up eating - This is called "fasting." The people would give up eating for a special time of prayer and worship to God. It was also done to show sadness and disappointment.
Copyright Statement: New Century Version
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
It is so awesome that our gospel is a God-centered, God-exalting gospel and not a man-centered and man-exalting gospel. In fact, inside of our gospel is a war against man and self-centeredness, for satan is the man and self-centered author and with our entering into a new kingdom through the gospel of the Lordship of Christ, we change fathers and masters and we go from a life of thinking in a prideful self-centered way to thinking and loving for Christ and all of His God-centered ways.
This citizenship change is not without controversy, for satan, the father of lies, does not appreciate losing a citizen and a fellow worker! Why do you think there is intimidation involved in worship? Why do people feel uncomfortable dancing, jumping, clapping and raising their hands in church? It is a warring against an old self-centered, satan-exalting lifestyle. One must worship God on and with purpose, not in the flesh, but in and by the spirit. Remember who Lucifer was, the worship leader of heaven. He likes worship and likes it directed for him and his purposes which is hatred of God.
Prayer can even be self-centered and self-exalting in nature. It can be about me and me and me and my wishes and my desires. What is so cool and shows maturity in prayer is when my wishes become His wishes, His wishes become mine. That does not come automatically. It comes through humility, study and the building of a relationship where I listen to His word and am willing to do whatever it is He says to do.
The very initiation and beginning of our prayer life is for the will and exaltation of God as Father of our eternal family. After we are willing to hear and do and we have gone and done His will, then we can declare we have all we need, because we’ve been a participant in giving Him what He needs from those who populate the earth for Him to win this war of pride and self-exaltation!
If we do not forgive then the nature of God is not yet in us. God did not hold a grudge against you. He sent His beloved Son who shed all of His blood for you. You may have been a child abuser, had an abortion, been an angry tyrant, hated people, been a God curser or whatever, but His Son knowing that full well, decided to love you anyway and to die for you! Wow! If we do not forgive than we do not give honor to that bloodshed and if we do not give honor to that bloodshed are we His? Do we belong to Him, do we look and act as sons? If not, than we are not, and so we are not - forgiven.
What is of eternal value that we do here? Anything we do as we live for God. Behaviors, attitudes and actions in any and everything we do. If what we do or what we buy or how we spend our time does not promote a deep love for Christ, God, and the world, then we need to make a trade off and do more of what promotes and brings exercise to this lifestyle.
There are so many monetary things we are working for and spending our life and time on that have nothing to do with making an eternal investment at all. That investment is both being made for us and for our kids and those around us who see our lives. If we invest in the kingdom, we bring the kingdom into their lives as we touch their lives, if we don’t invest in the kingdom we have stolen from them what could have been due them through us.
What do you do on break at work? When you sit to read what do you read? , (Like while in Drs. Office waiting rooms, at break with magazines, at home with newspaper articles, scanning the internet, etc.) When you listen to music while you drive down the road are you building up your spiritually alive in Christ man towards more God exaltation? Or is your music self or man-exalting and emotion stirring? When you take your child to a movie who or what is it about? When you come away from the movie what is your child left to think about for days on end? Do you take him or her to God’s house with you, or maybe drop them off? Are what goes on in God’s house and the actions and behaviors of your house the same? Like could and would you bring what your family does in your house into what you perceive as God’s house, and be comfortable doing it?
Our house is God’s house, if we call ourselves His. THIS is a big breech in the religious church that God wants to repair. That I’d go to God’s house and then go home to a different kind of house is an unjust measure and an unjust balance. It is an abomination. We’re not in a social club with God that’s nice and good, we’re here to do His will. It says we CANNOT serve God’s call and money’s call. It is not maybe some can, it is, none can.
The biggest part of that change over in right thinking that leads to right action is - Trust. Who do we really trust? Also just hoping and trying do not cut it. it is faithful life application of the word and faithful withdrawals of the benefits of our covenant relationship that bring His power into our situations. Just like The Lord’s prayer above. As we seek God’s kingdom first, worship Him first, do His will first, then we have all the right in the world to command His blessings on everything we put our hands unto! The money we make can be multiplied and we can watch God do the miraculous where we are concerned! Serving God and having our money blessed is so different than serving money.
Wanting what God wants moves His heart to move heaven and earth’s circumstances for His kids, wouldn’t you do that for your loving honoring obedient child? Even human fathers give love to their kids, how much MORE does God the Father love us.
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Luke 19 The table of the Will - time to overturn personal rebellion
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Luke 19:1-48
Jesus and Zacchaeus
1Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. 2There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was one of the most influential Jews in the Roman tax-collecting business, and he had become very rich. 3He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowds. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree beside the road, so he could watch from there.
5When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. "Zacchaeus!" he said. "Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today."
6Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7But the crowds were displeased. "He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner," they grumbled.
8Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have overcharged people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!"
9Jesus responded, "Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham. 10And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost."
Story of the Ten Servants
11The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away. 12He said, "A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return. 13Before he left, he called together ten servants and gave them ten pounds of silver F85 to invest for him while he was gone. 14But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say they did not want him to be their king.
15"When he returned, the king called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what they had done with the money and what their profits were. 16The first servant reported a tremendous gain—ten times as much as the original amount! 17'Well done!' the king exclaimed. 'You are a trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.'
18"The next servant also reported a good gain—five times the original amount. 19'Well done!' the king said. 'You can be governor over five cities.'
20"But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, 'I hid it and kept it safe. 21I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn't yours and harvesting crops you didn't plant.'
22"'You wicked servant!' the king roared. 'Hard, am I? If you knew so much about me and how tough I am, 23why didn't you deposit the money in the bank so I could at least get some interest on it?' 24Then turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, 'Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who earned the most.'
25"'But, master,' they said, 'that servant has enough already!'
26"'Yes,' the king replied, 'but to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who are unfaithful, F86 even what little they have will be taken away. 27And now about these enemies of mine who didn't want me to be their king—bring them in and execute them right here in my presence.'"
The Triumphal Entry
28After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. 29As they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. 30"Go into that village over there," he told them, "and as you enter it, you will see a colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, 'The Lord needs it.'"
32So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. 33And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, "Why are you untying our colt?"
34And the disciples simply replied, "The Lord needs it." 35So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.
36Then the crowds spread out their coats on the road ahead of Jesus. 37As they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
38 "Bless the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in highest heaven!" F87
39But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, "Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!"
40He replied, "If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!"
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
41But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry. 42"I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from you. 43Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you. 44They will crush you to the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you."
Jesus Clears the Temple
45Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants from their stalls. 46He told them, "The Scriptures declare, 'My Temple will be a place of prayer,' but you have turned it into a den of thieves." F88
47After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. 48But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.
FOOTNOTES: F85: Greek 10 minas; 1 mina was worth about 3 months' wages. F86: Or who have nothing. F87: Pss 118:26; 148:1. F88: Isa 56:7; Jer 7:11.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living Translation
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
“He was one of the most influential”….Jesus is looking to make disciples of people of influence, Jesus is looking to make influencers out of disciples! Influence causes the gospel message to spread far and wide.
Have you ever thought to pray for people who are already in positions of influence, pray that God will appear to them, save them, deliver them and use them right where they are at? Or do you just complain about who they are and the bad things they do to hurt you and our world?
Praying for them to be saved and watching it happen would take a whole lot less time than raising up a governmental leader from a baby, though we want to raise our disciples and our children to be leaders and people of influence we also need to pray for those who are already ruling over us!
I’m talking about praying regularly, Praying with a target, PUSH-ing, Praying Until Something Happens! Something happened to Zaccheus, he met Jesus, and he got saved!
Pray that people in government and leadership positions will seek God, and find God and will look for Him with all they are, pray that God will come visit them in an intimate way, in their own homes. That they will turn from wickedness and change wholeheartedly in such a visible way that their influence will be used in God’s kingdom! Pray they will come down from the high places of pride and acknowledge God as Lord and Master of everything they are involved in. Pray that they will see Jesus as they come out of hiding. This goes for anyone in authority, bosses, husbands, church leaders, group leaders, teachers, administrators… We are in such a high alert time. God wants to move governments.
We know God sent His only begotten Son Jesus to the earth with an earth mission and an earth assignment, but do we know we all have that same assignment? Do we know who we are and what we were sent here to do and what we were called, commissioned and discipled into? Jesus in His day said he was a King sent by God to make the temple new, they did not see or understand that message, they thought He’d tear down the natural temple and get on the throne of a natural king. He did not do either of those natural things, but he over threw religious order and sat down at the right hand of God, far above principalities and powers and rulers of wickedness in heavenly(earth realm) places, and was given a name above every name, and then gave that same authoritative name to anyone who would come into covenant relationship with Him while here on earth.
We are stewards of God’s Divine plan for man, for the earth’s inhabitants. Do we realize that? If we don’t we are missing out on the knowing of our life’s purpose.
Our stewardship is about ruling the earth. Our stewardship is about filling the earth with more who are like Jesus. Our stewardship is about having dominion – not domineering, but of taking territory away from the domination of God enemy and winning now and later. Our stewardship is about the Genesis Mandate and of the Great Co-mission. If we do not do it, we do not believe it and we are saying we” hate Him and do not want Him to be our king”.(those who are not for Me are automatically against Me) If He is our King, we are His subjects, subjected to His will, stewards of His purposes, the purposes of His Divine Kingdom. It says those who would not steward the treasure of the King, were found to hate the king. It was clear they did not want Him to be their king. They were executed and ceased to be a part of His kingdom.
The rubber is meeting the road in this day we are in. We can say the right things all day long, we can act like a Christian or just look like one, but because it is time to Do the word of God, as stewards of the Divine plan, it will be known very clearly who wants Him as their true King or not. The proof will be in the doing!
In the day of Daniel when the King told everyone to bow to his great idol, people all over everywhere could say they wouldn’t bow, but the proof was made known on the day the trumpet blew. The trumpet is blowing in Zion.
Yesterday in prayer we had 2 prophetic words that said- “this is the beginning of the end time harvest!” That would mean it is time to work and give account, give account and work.
Another person to pray for in authority are the Kingdom of God workers, that they’ll stay at the work, as unto Him, and that they’ll desire to give accurate accounts, also that they’ll have strength to stay the distance, be loyal and not bow.
What does the Lord have need of? Laborers who love Him and through loving obedience, do the work of the kingdom. He needs to subdue rebellion, in me, in you, in our rulers and for a people who will pray and pull down strongholds in their own lives and in the areas they live in!
He needs to be esteemed and worshipped as though He is King. He is, but do we acknowledge it as so, personally?
Jesus wept, why? Because they refused the opportunity presented them and rather than overcoming their enemies conquered! We still have time to arise and defeat every foe. We have been given righteous tools and the power and authority of sons of God. Our Daddy owns the Universe! We belong to Him! We don’t have to empower lies and let them rule our little or big worlds. Time to nullify lies and stand for truth.
The religious sought to kill Him, really they wanted to kill the word that had come alive in their midst and challenged their systems, their pity parties, their lack of self control, lack of love, lack of obedience to God rather than man or self. Does your own flesh rise up against the knowledge of God? Of course it does, it has been trained by the sway of evil! Turn the tide, change the outcome, reprogram by the word of God.
Jesus was showing them they can turn things that are so wrong around and make them so right! So can we! The problems we see in our lives are opportunities for the strength and power of the Lord and His word to arise! Nothing is impossible to our Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, He is the maker of heaven and earth! Come on, what impossible problem do we have that’s that big? Come on, we love and serve a Mighty God. The only thing between us and Him are a few tables, They can easily be turned over!
The will is one of those tables. Let’s will His will, giving Him the glory due His name!
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Luke 19:1-48
Jesus and Zacchaeus
1Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. 2There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was one of the most influential Jews in the Roman tax-collecting business, and he had become very rich. 3He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowds. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree beside the road, so he could watch from there.
5When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. "Zacchaeus!" he said. "Quick, come down! For I must be a guest in your home today."
6Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. 7But the crowds were displeased. "He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner," they grumbled.
8Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have overcharged people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!"
9Jesus responded, "Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham. 10And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost."
Story of the Ten Servants
11The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away. 12He said, "A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return. 13Before he left, he called together ten servants and gave them ten pounds of silver F85 to invest for him while he was gone. 14But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say they did not want him to be their king.
15"When he returned, the king called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what they had done with the money and what their profits were. 16The first servant reported a tremendous gain—ten times as much as the original amount! 17'Well done!' the king exclaimed. 'You are a trustworthy servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.'
18"The next servant also reported a good gain—five times the original amount. 19'Well done!' the king said. 'You can be governor over five cities.'
20"But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, 'I hid it and kept it safe. 21I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn't yours and harvesting crops you didn't plant.'
22"'You wicked servant!' the king roared. 'Hard, am I? If you knew so much about me and how tough I am, 23why didn't you deposit the money in the bank so I could at least get some interest on it?' 24Then turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, 'Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who earned the most.'
25"'But, master,' they said, 'that servant has enough already!'
26"'Yes,' the king replied, 'but to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who are unfaithful, F86 even what little they have will be taken away. 27And now about these enemies of mine who didn't want me to be their king—bring them in and execute them right here in my presence.'"
The Triumphal Entry
28After telling this story, Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. 29As they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. 30"Go into that village over there," he told them, "and as you enter it, you will see a colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, 'The Lord needs it.'"
32So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. 33And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, "Why are you untying our colt?"
34And the disciples simply replied, "The Lord needs it." 35So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.
36Then the crowds spread out their coats on the road ahead of Jesus. 37As they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.
38 "Bless the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in highest heaven!" F87
39But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, "Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!"
40He replied, "If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!"
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
41But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry. 42"I wish that even today you would find the way of peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from you. 43Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you. 44They will crush you to the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you have rejected the opportunity God offered you."
Jesus Clears the Temple
45Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants from their stalls. 46He told them, "The Scriptures declare, 'My Temple will be a place of prayer,' but you have turned it into a den of thieves." F88
47After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him. 48But they could think of nothing, because all the people hung on every word he said.
FOOTNOTES: F85: Greek 10 minas; 1 mina was worth about 3 months' wages. F86: Or who have nothing. F87: Pss 118:26; 148:1. F88: Isa 56:7; Jer 7:11.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living Translation
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
“He was one of the most influential”….Jesus is looking to make disciples of people of influence, Jesus is looking to make influencers out of disciples! Influence causes the gospel message to spread far and wide.
Have you ever thought to pray for people who are already in positions of influence, pray that God will appear to them, save them, deliver them and use them right where they are at? Or do you just complain about who they are and the bad things they do to hurt you and our world?
Praying for them to be saved and watching it happen would take a whole lot less time than raising up a governmental leader from a baby, though we want to raise our disciples and our children to be leaders and people of influence we also need to pray for those who are already ruling over us!
I’m talking about praying regularly, Praying with a target, PUSH-ing, Praying Until Something Happens! Something happened to Zaccheus, he met Jesus, and he got saved!
Pray that people in government and leadership positions will seek God, and find God and will look for Him with all they are, pray that God will come visit them in an intimate way, in their own homes. That they will turn from wickedness and change wholeheartedly in such a visible way that their influence will be used in God’s kingdom! Pray they will come down from the high places of pride and acknowledge God as Lord and Master of everything they are involved in. Pray that they will see Jesus as they come out of hiding. This goes for anyone in authority, bosses, husbands, church leaders, group leaders, teachers, administrators… We are in such a high alert time. God wants to move governments.
We know God sent His only begotten Son Jesus to the earth with an earth mission and an earth assignment, but do we know we all have that same assignment? Do we know who we are and what we were sent here to do and what we were called, commissioned and discipled into? Jesus in His day said he was a King sent by God to make the temple new, they did not see or understand that message, they thought He’d tear down the natural temple and get on the throne of a natural king. He did not do either of those natural things, but he over threw religious order and sat down at the right hand of God, far above principalities and powers and rulers of wickedness in heavenly(earth realm) places, and was given a name above every name, and then gave that same authoritative name to anyone who would come into covenant relationship with Him while here on earth.
We are stewards of God’s Divine plan for man, for the earth’s inhabitants. Do we realize that? If we don’t we are missing out on the knowing of our life’s purpose.
Our stewardship is about ruling the earth. Our stewardship is about filling the earth with more who are like Jesus. Our stewardship is about having dominion – not domineering, but of taking territory away from the domination of God enemy and winning now and later. Our stewardship is about the Genesis Mandate and of the Great Co-mission. If we do not do it, we do not believe it and we are saying we” hate Him and do not want Him to be our king”.(those who are not for Me are automatically against Me) If He is our King, we are His subjects, subjected to His will, stewards of His purposes, the purposes of His Divine Kingdom. It says those who would not steward the treasure of the King, were found to hate the king. It was clear they did not want Him to be their king. They were executed and ceased to be a part of His kingdom.
The rubber is meeting the road in this day we are in. We can say the right things all day long, we can act like a Christian or just look like one, but because it is time to Do the word of God, as stewards of the Divine plan, it will be known very clearly who wants Him as their true King or not. The proof will be in the doing!
In the day of Daniel when the King told everyone to bow to his great idol, people all over everywhere could say they wouldn’t bow, but the proof was made known on the day the trumpet blew. The trumpet is blowing in Zion.
Yesterday in prayer we had 2 prophetic words that said- “this is the beginning of the end time harvest!” That would mean it is time to work and give account, give account and work.
Another person to pray for in authority are the Kingdom of God workers, that they’ll stay at the work, as unto Him, and that they’ll desire to give accurate accounts, also that they’ll have strength to stay the distance, be loyal and not bow.
What does the Lord have need of? Laborers who love Him and through loving obedience, do the work of the kingdom. He needs to subdue rebellion, in me, in you, in our rulers and for a people who will pray and pull down strongholds in their own lives and in the areas they live in!
He needs to be esteemed and worshipped as though He is King. He is, but do we acknowledge it as so, personally?
Jesus wept, why? Because they refused the opportunity presented them and rather than overcoming their enemies conquered! We still have time to arise and defeat every foe. We have been given righteous tools and the power and authority of sons of God. Our Daddy owns the Universe! We belong to Him! We don’t have to empower lies and let them rule our little or big worlds. Time to nullify lies and stand for truth.
The religious sought to kill Him, really they wanted to kill the word that had come alive in their midst and challenged their systems, their pity parties, their lack of self control, lack of love, lack of obedience to God rather than man or self. Does your own flesh rise up against the knowledge of God? Of course it does, it has been trained by the sway of evil! Turn the tide, change the outcome, reprogram by the word of God.
Jesus was showing them they can turn things that are so wrong around and make them so right! So can we! The problems we see in our lives are opportunities for the strength and power of the Lord and His word to arise! Nothing is impossible to our Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth, He is the maker of heaven and earth! Come on, what impossible problem do we have that’s that big? Come on, we love and serve a Mighty God. The only thing between us and Him are a few tables, They can easily be turned over!
The will is one of those tables. Let’s will His will, giving Him the glory due His name!
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Matt 21 King of Who? Who's in charge?
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.
Matthew 21:1-46
Jesus Enters Jerusalem as a King 1 As Jesus and his followers were coming closer to Jerusalem, they stopped at Bethphage at the hill called the Mount of Olives. From there Jesus sent two of his followers 2and said to them, "Go to the town you can see there. When you enter it, you will quickly find a donkey tied there with its colt. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone asks you why you are taking the donkeys, say that the Master needs them, and he will send them at once." 4This was to bring about what the prophet had said: 5"Tell the people of Jerusalem, 'Your king is coming to you. He is gentle and riding on a donkey, on the colt of a donkey.' " Isaiah 62:11; Zechariah 9:9 6The followers went and did what Jesus told them to do. 7They brought the donkey and the colt to Jesus and laid their coats on them, and Jesus sat on them. 8Many people spread their coats on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The people were walking ahead of Jesus and behind him, shouting, "PraiseF59 to the Son of David! God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Psalm 118:26 Praise to God in heaven!" 10When Jesus entered Jerusalem, all the city was filled with excitement. The people asked, "Who is this man?" 11The crowd said, "This man is Jesus, the prophet from the town of Nazareth in Galilee."
Jesus Goes to the Temple 12Jesus went into the Temple and threw out all the people who were buying and selling there. He turned over the tables of those who were exchanging different kinds of money, and he upset the benches of those who were selling doves. 13Jesus said to all the people there, "It is written in the Scriptures, 'My Temple will be called a house for prayer.' F60 But you are changing it into a 'hideout for robbers.' "F61 14The blind and crippled people came to Jesus in the Temple, and he healed them. 15The leading priests and the teachers of the law saw that Jesus was doing wonderful things and that the children were praising him in the Temple, saying, "PraiseF62 to the Son of David." All these things made the priests and the teachers of the law very angry. 16They asked Jesus, "Do you hear the things these children are saying?" Jesus answered, "Yes. Haven't you read in the Scriptures, 'You have taught children and babies to sing praises'?" F63 17Then Jesus left and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. The Power of Faith 18Early the next morning, as Jesus was going back to the city, he became hungry. 19Seeing a fig tree beside the road, Jesus went to it, but there were no figs on the tree, only leaves. So Jesus said to the tree, "You will never again have fruit." The tree immediately dried up. 20When his followers saw this, they were amazed. They asked, "How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?" 21Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I did to this tree and even more. You will be able to say to this mountain, 'Go, fall into the sea.' And if you have faith, it will happen. 22If you believe, you will get anything you ask for in prayer." Leaders Doubt Jesus' Authority 23Jesus went to the Temple, and while he was teaching there, the leading priests and the older leaders of the people came to him. They said, "What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?" 24Jesus answered, "I also will ask you a question. If you answer me, then I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. 25Tell me: When John baptized people, did that come from God or just from other people?" They argued about Jesus' question, saying, "If we answer, 'John's baptism was from God, ' Jesus will say, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 26But if we say, 'It was from people, ' we are afraid of what the crowd will do because they all believe that John was a prophet." 27So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." Jesus said to them, "Then I won't tell you what authority I have to do these things. A Story About Two Sons 28"Tell me what you think about this: A man had two sons. He went to the first son and said, 'Son, go and work today in my vineyard.' 29The son answered, 'I will not go.' But later the son changed his mind and went. 30Then the father went to the other son and said, 'Son, go and work today in my vineyard.' The son answered, 'Yes, sir, I will go and work, ' but he did not go. 31Which of the two sons obeyed his father?" The priests and leaders answered, "The first son." Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God before you do. 32John came to show you the right way to live. You did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Even after seeing this, you still refused to change your ways and believe him. A Story About God's Son 33"Listen to this story: There was a man who owned a vineyard. He put a wall around it and dug a hole for a winepress and built a tower. Then he leased the land to some farmers and left for a trip. 34When it was time for the grapes to be picked, he sent his servants to the farmers to get his share of the grapes. 35But the farmers grabbed the servants, beat one, killed another, and then killed a third servant with stones. 36So the man sent some other servants to the farmers, even more than he sent the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to the servants that they had done before. 37So the man decided to send his son to the farmers. He said, 'They will respect my son.' 38But when the farmers saw the son, they said to each other, 'This son will inherit the vineyard. If we kill him, it will be ours!' 39Then the farmers grabbed the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40So what will the owner of the vineyard do to these farmers when he comes?" 41The priests and leaders said, "He will surely kill those evil men. Then he will lease the vineyard to some other farmers who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." 42Jesus said to them, "Surely you have read this in the Scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone. The Lord did this, and it is wonderful to us.' Psalm 118:22-23 43"So I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who do the things God wants in his kingdom. 44The person who falls on this stone will be broken, and on whomever that stone falls, that person will be crushed." F64 45When the leading priests and the Pharisees heard these stories, they knew Jesus was talking about them. 46They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the people, because the people believed that Jesus was a prophet.
FOOTNOTES:F60 Praise - Literally, "Hosanna, " a Hebrew word used at first in praying to God for help. At this time it was probably a shout of joy used in praising God or his Messiah.F61 Praise - Literally, "Hosanna, " a Hebrew word used at first in praying to God for help. At this time it was probably a shout of joy used in praising God or his Messiah.F62 'My Temple…prayer.' - Quotation from Isaiah 56:7.F63 'hideout for robbers.' - Quotation from Jeremiah 7:11.F64 'You…praises' - Quotation from the Septuagint (Greek) version of Psalm 8:2.F65 Verse 44 - Some copies do not have verse 44.
Copyright Statement: New Century Version
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
Did you ever realize there were two donkey’s? A mother and her colt?
Donkey’s have a certain characteristic about them that they are known by, that is a stubborness and a rebellious nature.
Which did Jesus ride, the matured tried mother or the untried untamed colt? The mature or the immature?
He rode the colt. He mounted and rode the colt! He mounted stubbornness and rode on rebellion! Mine and yours and everyone ever born after us. He is King of kings and Lord of lords.
Those in the crowd that day called out to Him as though He could answer their prayers! As though He was King and God! They shouted “Hosanna”, meaning “save us, come save us!”. This crowd had a revelation.
Do most kings ride donkeys? Didn’t that seem odd? A King riding a mule? Not with a Divine revelation it didn’t. To the natural eye, it was heresy.
Are we natural men who do not see or understand the things of God? Or are we spirit beings who can see into a world not yet seen and bring it into manifestation in our own personal worlds?
This is what prayer is and what prayer does.
Prayer brings God’s Divine and heavenly desires into manifestation in the earth realm. It uses human earth beings who have legal right to do what they want, who have freewill’s to decided to be earthly or heavenly citizens, no matter where they live. Prayer brings revelation and then takes the revealed things of God and calls for them, just as God, the Lord of the Universe said, “Light be” and light was, so human spirit beings, who’s citizenship is not of this world, can call into being what they do not yet naturally see, and make it visible to natural eyes. It takes agreeing with God and His word. He’s written it all out for us to decide to agree or disagree with Him. When we disagree there is a stubbornness unleashed and curses are active, when we agree with God’s word we nullify curses and bring blessings, we ride on rebellion and conquer over opposing forces that have tried to illegally dominate earth. This is why we are here to change the world from the inside out, from the invisible to the visible.
So why would an enemy steal our times of prayer and use them for something else? If you understand why we pray you’ll see it very clearly. Why is praying silently what he’d rather we do? Those prayers are more like wishes or communion times with God, but prayers that are said aloud and declarative are the kinds that move atmosphere’s. We’re atmosphere movers. How do we know what to move out of God’s way? We have to know His word and be in fellowship and communion with his spirit. When was the last time you asked God what he’d like for you to declare for Him today? I think for most of us that is a new thought. I don’t think we’ve acknowledged we have that much power or authority, but we do. If we are Christians, we are little Christ’s. That does not mean we are small and without as much power, that means we are back to the garden where God made man in His own image and likeness, just like the Father, Son and Spirit, 3 in 1.We’re a restored people, taking off where Adam and Jesus left off, except we’ve multiplied, there are many of us. The only way we stay a few is to listen to the wrong voice, the voice of a liar who says we have no authority and no power, the voice that says How can a little me make any difference?”, and so we don’t.
We are who allow an enemy to come take over our times with God, we are the ones that say yes or no to that. We can let the thief stay or tell him to go. We are the lords of our own houses. Jesus says , This house was designed as a house of prayer (that house He’s speaking of is humans), but YOU have made it a den for thieves. If we made it that way, we can also unmake it, no matter how inconvenient that may be! Time to move the enemy out, there is a spiritual work to be done in the earth. Jesus said pray- “Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..” That’s the work. Let’s go for it. It’s not about whether we deserve the work or are even wholly equipped for the work, when we put on the full armor of God and we’re equipped, we accept the blood sacrifice of Jesus and in that we deserve, not for any other reason. Yeah you are rotten sometimes and rebellious and don’t work hard enough, so what! His blood paid the price for all of our shortcomings. He is King of even rebellious kings and Lord of stubborn lords. He can save by many or by few and nothing is impossible to this God we serve, Rise up in the blood bought strength of Christ being at least willing to be a participator in the execution of the will of the Lord and He’ll absolutely strengthen you!
Say “yes- Lord”. To say “Lord” and not say “yes” is contradictory. Jesus said there are people who will have said “Lord, Lord”, but did not do what He said while they still had time to in the earth. He told them at the gate of heaven that He does not know them.
True love is reflected by obedience. Let’s repent today while today is still a day to live in and turn to serve Him because of His great love for us. He first loved us in such a mighty demonstrative way. We also ought to love Him and one another the same sacrificial way.
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
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.
Matthew 21:1-46
Jesus Enters Jerusalem as a King 1 As Jesus and his followers were coming closer to Jerusalem, they stopped at Bethphage at the hill called the Mount of Olives. From there Jesus sent two of his followers 2and said to them, "Go to the town you can see there. When you enter it, you will quickly find a donkey tied there with its colt. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone asks you why you are taking the donkeys, say that the Master needs them, and he will send them at once." 4This was to bring about what the prophet had said: 5"Tell the people of Jerusalem, 'Your king is coming to you. He is gentle and riding on a donkey, on the colt of a donkey.' " Isaiah 62:11; Zechariah 9:9 6The followers went and did what Jesus told them to do. 7They brought the donkey and the colt to Jesus and laid their coats on them, and Jesus sat on them. 8Many people spread their coats on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The people were walking ahead of Jesus and behind him, shouting, "PraiseF59 to the Son of David! God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord! Psalm 118:26 Praise to God in heaven!" 10When Jesus entered Jerusalem, all the city was filled with excitement. The people asked, "Who is this man?" 11The crowd said, "This man is Jesus, the prophet from the town of Nazareth in Galilee."
Jesus Goes to the Temple 12Jesus went into the Temple and threw out all the people who were buying and selling there. He turned over the tables of those who were exchanging different kinds of money, and he upset the benches of those who were selling doves. 13Jesus said to all the people there, "It is written in the Scriptures, 'My Temple will be called a house for prayer.' F60 But you are changing it into a 'hideout for robbers.' "F61 14The blind and crippled people came to Jesus in the Temple, and he healed them. 15The leading priests and the teachers of the law saw that Jesus was doing wonderful things and that the children were praising him in the Temple, saying, "PraiseF62 to the Son of David." All these things made the priests and the teachers of the law very angry. 16They asked Jesus, "Do you hear the things these children are saying?" Jesus answered, "Yes. Haven't you read in the Scriptures, 'You have taught children and babies to sing praises'?" F63 17Then Jesus left and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. The Power of Faith 18Early the next morning, as Jesus was going back to the city, he became hungry. 19Seeing a fig tree beside the road, Jesus went to it, but there were no figs on the tree, only leaves. So Jesus said to the tree, "You will never again have fruit." The tree immediately dried up. 20When his followers saw this, they were amazed. They asked, "How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?" 21Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I did to this tree and even more. You will be able to say to this mountain, 'Go, fall into the sea.' And if you have faith, it will happen. 22If you believe, you will get anything you ask for in prayer." Leaders Doubt Jesus' Authority 23Jesus went to the Temple, and while he was teaching there, the leading priests and the older leaders of the people came to him. They said, "What authority do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?" 24Jesus answered, "I also will ask you a question. If you answer me, then I will tell you what authority I have to do these things. 25Tell me: When John baptized people, did that come from God or just from other people?" They argued about Jesus' question, saying, "If we answer, 'John's baptism was from God, ' Jesus will say, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' 26But if we say, 'It was from people, ' we are afraid of what the crowd will do because they all believe that John was a prophet." 27So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." Jesus said to them, "Then I won't tell you what authority I have to do these things. A Story About Two Sons 28"Tell me what you think about this: A man had two sons. He went to the first son and said, 'Son, go and work today in my vineyard.' 29The son answered, 'I will not go.' But later the son changed his mind and went. 30Then the father went to the other son and said, 'Son, go and work today in my vineyard.' The son answered, 'Yes, sir, I will go and work, ' but he did not go. 31Which of the two sons obeyed his father?" The priests and leaders answered, "The first son." Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God before you do. 32John came to show you the right way to live. You did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him. Even after seeing this, you still refused to change your ways and believe him. A Story About God's Son 33"Listen to this story: There was a man who owned a vineyard. He put a wall around it and dug a hole for a winepress and built a tower. Then he leased the land to some farmers and left for a trip. 34When it was time for the grapes to be picked, he sent his servants to the farmers to get his share of the grapes. 35But the farmers grabbed the servants, beat one, killed another, and then killed a third servant with stones. 36So the man sent some other servants to the farmers, even more than he sent the first time. But the farmers did the same thing to the servants that they had done before. 37So the man decided to send his son to the farmers. He said, 'They will respect my son.' 38But when the farmers saw the son, they said to each other, 'This son will inherit the vineyard. If we kill him, it will be ours!' 39Then the farmers grabbed the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40So what will the owner of the vineyard do to these farmers when he comes?" 41The priests and leaders said, "He will surely kill those evil men. Then he will lease the vineyard to some other farmers who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." 42Jesus said to them, "Surely you have read this in the Scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone. The Lord did this, and it is wonderful to us.' Psalm 118:22-23 43"So I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people who do the things God wants in his kingdom. 44The person who falls on this stone will be broken, and on whomever that stone falls, that person will be crushed." F64 45When the leading priests and the Pharisees heard these stories, they knew Jesus was talking about them. 46They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the people, because the people believed that Jesus was a prophet.
FOOTNOTES:F60 Praise - Literally, "Hosanna, " a Hebrew word used at first in praying to God for help. At this time it was probably a shout of joy used in praising God or his Messiah.F61 Praise - Literally, "Hosanna, " a Hebrew word used at first in praying to God for help. At this time it was probably a shout of joy used in praising God or his Messiah.F62 'My Temple…prayer.' - Quotation from Isaiah 56:7.F63 'hideout for robbers.' - Quotation from Jeremiah 7:11.F64 'You…praises' - Quotation from the Septuagint (Greek) version of Psalm 8:2.F65 Verse 44 - Some copies do not have verse 44.
Copyright Statement: New Century Version
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
Did you ever realize there were two donkey’s? A mother and her colt?
Donkey’s have a certain characteristic about them that they are known by, that is a stubborness and a rebellious nature.
Which did Jesus ride, the matured tried mother or the untried untamed colt? The mature or the immature?
He rode the colt. He mounted and rode the colt! He mounted stubbornness and rode on rebellion! Mine and yours and everyone ever born after us. He is King of kings and Lord of lords.
Those in the crowd that day called out to Him as though He could answer their prayers! As though He was King and God! They shouted “Hosanna”, meaning “save us, come save us!”. This crowd had a revelation.
Do most kings ride donkeys? Didn’t that seem odd? A King riding a mule? Not with a Divine revelation it didn’t. To the natural eye, it was heresy.
Are we natural men who do not see or understand the things of God? Or are we spirit beings who can see into a world not yet seen and bring it into manifestation in our own personal worlds?
This is what prayer is and what prayer does.
Prayer brings God’s Divine and heavenly desires into manifestation in the earth realm. It uses human earth beings who have legal right to do what they want, who have freewill’s to decided to be earthly or heavenly citizens, no matter where they live. Prayer brings revelation and then takes the revealed things of God and calls for them, just as God, the Lord of the Universe said, “Light be” and light was, so human spirit beings, who’s citizenship is not of this world, can call into being what they do not yet naturally see, and make it visible to natural eyes. It takes agreeing with God and His word. He’s written it all out for us to decide to agree or disagree with Him. When we disagree there is a stubbornness unleashed and curses are active, when we agree with God’s word we nullify curses and bring blessings, we ride on rebellion and conquer over opposing forces that have tried to illegally dominate earth. This is why we are here to change the world from the inside out, from the invisible to the visible.
So why would an enemy steal our times of prayer and use them for something else? If you understand why we pray you’ll see it very clearly. Why is praying silently what he’d rather we do? Those prayers are more like wishes or communion times with God, but prayers that are said aloud and declarative are the kinds that move atmosphere’s. We’re atmosphere movers. How do we know what to move out of God’s way? We have to know His word and be in fellowship and communion with his spirit. When was the last time you asked God what he’d like for you to declare for Him today? I think for most of us that is a new thought. I don’t think we’ve acknowledged we have that much power or authority, but we do. If we are Christians, we are little Christ’s. That does not mean we are small and without as much power, that means we are back to the garden where God made man in His own image and likeness, just like the Father, Son and Spirit, 3 in 1.We’re a restored people, taking off where Adam and Jesus left off, except we’ve multiplied, there are many of us. The only way we stay a few is to listen to the wrong voice, the voice of a liar who says we have no authority and no power, the voice that says How can a little me make any difference?”, and so we don’t.
We are who allow an enemy to come take over our times with God, we are the ones that say yes or no to that. We can let the thief stay or tell him to go. We are the lords of our own houses. Jesus says , This house was designed as a house of prayer (that house He’s speaking of is humans), but YOU have made it a den for thieves. If we made it that way, we can also unmake it, no matter how inconvenient that may be! Time to move the enemy out, there is a spiritual work to be done in the earth. Jesus said pray- “Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..” That’s the work. Let’s go for it. It’s not about whether we deserve the work or are even wholly equipped for the work, when we put on the full armor of God and we’re equipped, we accept the blood sacrifice of Jesus and in that we deserve, not for any other reason. Yeah you are rotten sometimes and rebellious and don’t work hard enough, so what! His blood paid the price for all of our shortcomings. He is King of even rebellious kings and Lord of stubborn lords. He can save by many or by few and nothing is impossible to this God we serve, Rise up in the blood bought strength of Christ being at least willing to be a participator in the execution of the will of the Lord and He’ll absolutely strengthen you!
Say “yes- Lord”. To say “Lord” and not say “yes” is contradictory. Jesus said there are people who will have said “Lord, Lord”, but did not do what He said while they still had time to in the earth. He told them at the gate of heaven that He does not know them.
True love is reflected by obedience. Let’s repent today while today is still a day to live in and turn to serve Him because of His great love for us. He first loved us in such a mighty demonstrative way. We also ought to love Him and one another the same sacrificial way.
Daily Repetitive Verses -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Luke 11 All for One and One for LOVE, for or against?
Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Luke 11:1-54
Ask for What You Need
1One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, "Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
2So he said, "When you pray, say, Father, Reveal who you are. Set the world right.3Keep us alive with three square meals.4Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil."
5Then he said, "Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. 6 An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don't have a thing on hand.' 7"The friend answers from his bed, "Don't bother me. The door's locked; my children are all down for the night; I can't get up to give you anything.' 8"But let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you need.
9"Here's what I'm saying: Ask and you'll get, Seek and you'll find; Knock and the door will open.
10"Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. 11If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? 12If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? 13As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing--you're at least decent to your own children. And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?"
No Neutral Ground
14Jesus delivered a man from a demon that had kept him speechless. The demon gone, the man started talking a blue streak, taking the crowd by complete surprise. 15But some from the crowd were cynical. "Black magic," they said. "Some devil trick he's pulled from his sleeve." 16Others were skeptical, waiting around for him to prove himself with a spectacular miracle.
17Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, "Any country in civil war for very long is wasted. A constantly squabbling family falls to pieces. 18If Satan cancels Satan, is there any Satan left? You accuse me of ganging up with the Devil, the prince of demons, to cast out demons, 19but if you're slinging devil mud at me, calling me a devil who kicks out devils, doesn't the same mud stick to your own exorcists? 20But if it's God's finger I'm pointing that sends the demons on their way, then God's kingdom is here for sure.
21"When a strong man, armed to the teeth, stands guard in his front yard, his property is safe and sound. 22But what if a stronger man comes along with superior weapons? Then he's beaten at his own game, the arsenal that gave him such confidence hauled off, and his precious possessions plundered.
23"This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you're not on my side, you're the enemy; if you're not helping, you're making things worse.
24"When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn't find anyone, it says, "I'll go back to my old haunt.' 25On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. 26It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he'd never gotten cleaned up in the first place."
27While he was saying these things, some woman lifted her voice above the murmur of the crowd: "Blessed the womb that carried you, and the breasts at which you nursed!"
28Jesus commented, "Even more blessed are those who hear God's Word and guard it with their lives!"
Keep Your Eyes Open
29As the crowd swelled, he took a fresh tack: "The mood of this age is all wrong. Everybody's looking for proof, but you're looking for the wrong kind. All you're looking for is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles. But the only proof you're going to get is the Jonah-proof given to the Ninevites, which looks like no proof at all. 30What Jonah was to Nineveh, the Son of Man is to this age.
31"On Judgment Day the Ninevites will stand up and give evidence that will condemn this generation, because when Jonah preached to them they changed their lives. A far greater preacher than Jonah is here, and you squabble about "proofs.' 32On Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will come forward and bring evidence that condemns this generation, because she traveled from a far corner of the earth to listen to wise Solomon. Wisdom far greater than Solomon's is right in front of you, and you quibble over "evidence.'
33"No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It's put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they're going. 34Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. 35Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don't get musty and murky. 36Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room."
Frauds!
37When he finished that talk, a Pharisee asked him to dinner. He entered his house and sat right down at the table. 38The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn't wash up before the meal. 39But the Master said to him, "I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. 40Stupid Pharisees! Didn't the One who made the outside also make the inside? 41Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor; then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands.
42"I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God's love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.
43"You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You love sitting at the head table at church dinners, love preening yourselves in the radiance of public flattery. 44Frauds! You're just like unmarked graves: People walk over that nice, grassy surface, never suspecting the rot and corruption that is six feet under."
45One of the religion scholars spoke up: "Teacher, do you realize that in saying these things you're insulting us?"
46He said, "Yes, and I can be even more explicit. You're hopeless, you religion scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift even a finger to help.
47"You're hopeless! You build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed. 48The tombs you build are monuments to your murdering ancestors more than to the murdered prophets. 49That accounts for God's Wisdom saying, "I will send them prophets and apostles, but they'll kill them and run them off.' 50What it means is that every drop of righteous blood ever spilled from the time earth began until now,. 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was struck down between altar and sanctuary, is on your heads. Yes, it's on the bill of this generation and this generation will pay.
52"You're hopeless, you religion scholars! You took the key of knowledge, but instead of unlocking doors, you locked them. You won't go in yourself, and won't let anyone else in either."
53As soon as Jesus left the table, the religion scholars and Pharisees went into a rage. They went over and over everything he said, 54plotting how they could trap him in something from his own mouth.
Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
I feel so sad when believers have been deceived by God’s very enemy into thinking if they ask God for something God already wants them to have, that they might actually get a demon spirit or something!
Or that they are too unworthy to get what they are asking for, such as healing or pain relief.
God is such a gentleman in nature. He gives the best gifts of all! Healing IS God’s gift. Being filled with God’s spirit is a good thing.
People have been deceived into thinking that if they ask for God’s spirit, they’ll somehow be possessed by a devil who will throw them about and control them.
God is a free-will God, HE GAVE humans free-wills, even let then choose to refuse Him if they want to! Why would the God who allows people to choose, take and possess and control you? Man, I get so sad when I see people missing out on the best gift of all, the reception of God himself and all of the supernatural help he gives to our human spirits!
Prayer is our direct connection to our father, the one who loves us. Every unanswered prayer is not because God does not will it to happen. I love how this scripture tells us to persist in those prayers. Sometimes we need to see how much we really want something, the more we ask, the more it is weighed out for us to consider all of the cost involved in getting what we ask for. Also if the enemy would lie to us telling us that we don’t really want God’s very own personal helper to come live inside of us, then how many of our prayers do you think he wants to come true? Especially God centered ones? If we decide to agree with something God says about us or our world, why would that just be so easy to get? The enemy sends angelic help to thwart the plans and will of God. If the will of God was always accomplished for us automatically we’d just love and serve God with a whole heart and the enemies of god would be defeated completely! Add a little test of faith and commitment and we find how solid we really are in agreeing with God’s will and desire.
Everything worth something has a price tag on it. Truly.
This part is gonna hit on a note of controversy, but I’m gonna write it anyway, because it is truth and love is truth and is willing to declare truth even to its own hurt or even at the chance of risking a reputation…..
My little 6 year old asked me today if Halloween is the devil’s B-day or something? She wanted to know why people put skeletons, jack-o-lanterns and other creatures of darkness as decorations in their yard at this time of year? She had told me two weeks ago (in September), that she does not want to go to our local Wal Mart until after Halloween!
Today as we were passing houses on the way home from church, she brought up the subject again. Without knowing that this was today’s scripture I used it, explaining how there was a time people thought that demon spirits went about looking for places to rest, and that even in the Bible there was a time when a dark spirit of death passed over homes and would stop and kill any firstborn in that house, if the house was not covered by the Blood of the Lamb. I told her some people believed this time was a time for the dead to wander about and spirits of evil to wander about. If people put certain things up in their yards or near their homes or did a certain thing a certain way, they’d be somehow protected and the passing evil would not rest on their home or place of residency. I told her by revelation of the word, that evil cannot ward off evil. Only the blood of the lamb can ward off evil spirits or spirits of death. I told her if even in Exodus the death angel came over our home mommy and jazzy would die if we did not have the blood shed for us. Only the shed blood of the lamb could sanctify any house then and now. Only the mark of the shed blood of the Lamb!
Evil cannot ward off evil. Nothing but the blood of Jesus! I told her many do not understand that and they do think they are having fun, getting candy and playing dress up games, but we choose not to participate in that which has an evil root and masks evil as good.
This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you're not on my side, you're the enemy
This is why someone anyone willing would receive the Holy Spirit, so that their life would be clearly marked for God’s spirit and they would be used by God for God activity and there’d be no question of any other allegiances, ever! If there’s no God activity what kind of activity is there?
There’s NO neutral ground!
If we are THE light of the world, then we must make stances and declarations that show us as that light with no compromises to darkness or its subtle evil works.
Do we know about or know personally the very character of God Our Father? If we are willing to display it and go against the worldly flow, we show forth His power in oneness with Him. There is another father, ya know?
Daily Repetitive Verse(s) -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.
Luke 11:1-54
Ask for What You Need
1One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, "Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
2So he said, "When you pray, say, Father, Reveal who you are. Set the world right.3Keep us alive with three square meals.4Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil."
5Then he said, "Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. 6 An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don't have a thing on hand.' 7"The friend answers from his bed, "Don't bother me. The door's locked; my children are all down for the night; I can't get up to give you anything.' 8"But let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you need.
9"Here's what I'm saying: Ask and you'll get, Seek and you'll find; Knock and the door will open.
10"Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we're in. 11If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? 12If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? 13As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing--you're at least decent to your own children. And don't you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?"
No Neutral Ground
14Jesus delivered a man from a demon that had kept him speechless. The demon gone, the man started talking a blue streak, taking the crowd by complete surprise. 15But some from the crowd were cynical. "Black magic," they said. "Some devil trick he's pulled from his sleeve." 16Others were skeptical, waiting around for him to prove himself with a spectacular miracle.
17Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, "Any country in civil war for very long is wasted. A constantly squabbling family falls to pieces. 18If Satan cancels Satan, is there any Satan left? You accuse me of ganging up with the Devil, the prince of demons, to cast out demons, 19but if you're slinging devil mud at me, calling me a devil who kicks out devils, doesn't the same mud stick to your own exorcists? 20But if it's God's finger I'm pointing that sends the demons on their way, then God's kingdom is here for sure.
21"When a strong man, armed to the teeth, stands guard in his front yard, his property is safe and sound. 22But what if a stronger man comes along with superior weapons? Then he's beaten at his own game, the arsenal that gave him such confidence hauled off, and his precious possessions plundered.
23"This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you're not on my side, you're the enemy; if you're not helping, you're making things worse.
24"When a corrupting spirit is expelled from someone, it drifts along through the desert looking for an oasis, some unsuspecting soul it can bedevil. When it doesn't find anyone, it says, "I'll go back to my old haunt.' 25On return, it finds the person swept and dusted, but vacant. 26It then runs out and rounds up seven other spirits dirtier than itself and they all move in, whooping it up. That person ends up far worse than if he'd never gotten cleaned up in the first place."
27While he was saying these things, some woman lifted her voice above the murmur of the crowd: "Blessed the womb that carried you, and the breasts at which you nursed!"
28Jesus commented, "Even more blessed are those who hear God's Word and guard it with their lives!"
Keep Your Eyes Open
29As the crowd swelled, he took a fresh tack: "The mood of this age is all wrong. Everybody's looking for proof, but you're looking for the wrong kind. All you're looking for is something to titillate your curiosity, satisfy your lust for miracles. But the only proof you're going to get is the Jonah-proof given to the Ninevites, which looks like no proof at all. 30What Jonah was to Nineveh, the Son of Man is to this age.
31"On Judgment Day the Ninevites will stand up and give evidence that will condemn this generation, because when Jonah preached to them they changed their lives. A far greater preacher than Jonah is here, and you squabble about "proofs.' 32On Judgment Day the Queen of Sheba will come forward and bring evidence that condemns this generation, because she traveled from a far corner of the earth to listen to wise Solomon. Wisdom far greater than Solomon's is right in front of you, and you quibble over "evidence.'
33"No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It's put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they're going. 34Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. 35Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don't get musty and murky. 36Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room."
Frauds!
37When he finished that talk, a Pharisee asked him to dinner. He entered his house and sat right down at the table. 38The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn't wash up before the meal. 39But the Master said to him, "I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. 40Stupid Pharisees! Didn't the One who made the outside also make the inside? 41Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor; then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands.
42"I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God's love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.
43"You're hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You love sitting at the head table at church dinners, love preening yourselves in the radiance of public flattery. 44Frauds! You're just like unmarked graves: People walk over that nice, grassy surface, never suspecting the rot and corruption that is six feet under."
45One of the religion scholars spoke up: "Teacher, do you realize that in saying these things you're insulting us?"
46He said, "Yes, and I can be even more explicit. You're hopeless, you religion scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift even a finger to help.
47"You're hopeless! You build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed. 48The tombs you build are monuments to your murdering ancestors more than to the murdered prophets. 49That accounts for God's Wisdom saying, "I will send them prophets and apostles, but they'll kill them and run them off.' 50What it means is that every drop of righteous blood ever spilled from the time earth began until now,. 51from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was struck down between altar and sanctuary, is on your heads. Yes, it's on the bill of this generation and this generation will pay.
52"You're hopeless, you religion scholars! You took the key of knowledge, but instead of unlocking doors, you locked them. You won't go in yourself, and won't let anyone else in either."
53As soon as Jesus left the table, the religion scholars and Pharisees went into a rage. They went over and over everything he said, 54plotting how they could trap him in something from his own mouth.
Copyright Statement: THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
I feel so sad when believers have been deceived by God’s very enemy into thinking if they ask God for something God already wants them to have, that they might actually get a demon spirit or something!
Or that they are too unworthy to get what they are asking for, such as healing or pain relief.
God is such a gentleman in nature. He gives the best gifts of all! Healing IS God’s gift. Being filled with God’s spirit is a good thing.
People have been deceived into thinking that if they ask for God’s spirit, they’ll somehow be possessed by a devil who will throw them about and control them.
God is a free-will God, HE GAVE humans free-wills, even let then choose to refuse Him if they want to! Why would the God who allows people to choose, take and possess and control you? Man, I get so sad when I see people missing out on the best gift of all, the reception of God himself and all of the supernatural help he gives to our human spirits!
Prayer is our direct connection to our father, the one who loves us. Every unanswered prayer is not because God does not will it to happen. I love how this scripture tells us to persist in those prayers. Sometimes we need to see how much we really want something, the more we ask, the more it is weighed out for us to consider all of the cost involved in getting what we ask for. Also if the enemy would lie to us telling us that we don’t really want God’s very own personal helper to come live inside of us, then how many of our prayers do you think he wants to come true? Especially God centered ones? If we decide to agree with something God says about us or our world, why would that just be so easy to get? The enemy sends angelic help to thwart the plans and will of God. If the will of God was always accomplished for us automatically we’d just love and serve God with a whole heart and the enemies of god would be defeated completely! Add a little test of faith and commitment and we find how solid we really are in agreeing with God’s will and desire.
Everything worth something has a price tag on it. Truly.
This part is gonna hit on a note of controversy, but I’m gonna write it anyway, because it is truth and love is truth and is willing to declare truth even to its own hurt or even at the chance of risking a reputation…..
My little 6 year old asked me today if Halloween is the devil’s B-day or something? She wanted to know why people put skeletons, jack-o-lanterns and other creatures of darkness as decorations in their yard at this time of year? She had told me two weeks ago (in September), that she does not want to go to our local Wal Mart until after Halloween!
Today as we were passing houses on the way home from church, she brought up the subject again. Without knowing that this was today’s scripture I used it, explaining how there was a time people thought that demon spirits went about looking for places to rest, and that even in the Bible there was a time when a dark spirit of death passed over homes and would stop and kill any firstborn in that house, if the house was not covered by the Blood of the Lamb. I told her some people believed this time was a time for the dead to wander about and spirits of evil to wander about. If people put certain things up in their yards or near their homes or did a certain thing a certain way, they’d be somehow protected and the passing evil would not rest on their home or place of residency. I told her by revelation of the word, that evil cannot ward off evil. Only the blood of the lamb can ward off evil spirits or spirits of death. I told her if even in Exodus the death angel came over our home mommy and jazzy would die if we did not have the blood shed for us. Only the shed blood of the lamb could sanctify any house then and now. Only the mark of the shed blood of the Lamb!
Evil cannot ward off evil. Nothing but the blood of Jesus! I told her many do not understand that and they do think they are having fun, getting candy and playing dress up games, but we choose not to participate in that which has an evil root and masks evil as good.
This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you're not on my side, you're the enemy
This is why someone anyone willing would receive the Holy Spirit, so that their life would be clearly marked for God’s spirit and they would be used by God for God activity and there’d be no question of any other allegiances, ever! If there’s no God activity what kind of activity is there?
There’s NO neutral ground!
If we are THE light of the world, then we must make stances and declarations that show us as that light with no compromises to darkness or its subtle evil works.
Do we know about or know personally the very character of God Our Father? If we are willing to display it and go against the worldly flow, we show forth His power in oneness with Him. There is another father, ya know?
Daily Repetitive Verse(s) -
John 17:15 I'm not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one.
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