Ya, know what? You don’t HAVE to read this today. If you’re too busy I totally understand. Have a great day anyway. I love you, Lena (just a messenger of God).
Who is the sent messenger of God in your life? Be careful, it could be so obvious that you just might miss it. Messengers are those that God uses in our lives to prepare us for a final judgment day. That could be anyone from a preacher to an in-law!
Seriously. The less regard we give to the voice of God in any form He deems, the less we will have the grace to truly hear His voice. Our prayer should be, “However You deem best to speak to me about anything, Lord, do it Your way , in any way You will to.”
We look for Him to come in a visible form, we look for Him to “appear” to us personally. All the while He has shown up in many a form even up until this time, yet we may not have esteemed or recognized Him!
This is serious, because if we cannot recognize Him speaking to us in our in-law or boss or spouse, etc. we may not know Him when He does come and appear, and because we chose not to listen in the form He chose to speak, He may have to say to us, “I did not know you, for you never listened to Me when I sent messengers to prepare the way for Me to really come to You. See I could not come to you in a visible form until you believed in Me invisibly, for I am truly known as I Am by faith, only by faith. Faith brings out of the invisible realm that which appears. Light be and light was!”
Who will be able to endure or stand or face Him, when He comes? Those who believe in Him, those who follow His voice faithfully, those who are becoming as He is, those who see and live eternally. Their treasures are not of the earth, they go after what and who He treasures, that is what they live for. Fire will come and purify or test all that has been done, only the eternal and lasting works, deeds, truths, and lives will be kept in the “end”.
At that time every person and every deed done will come into the burning of His great light. Better to be exposed and tried severely now than face an eternal judgment then. Every person sent to us here as a messenger is of the grace of God, especially if they are hard taskmasters, for they prepare us for that day if our spirits are open to receive their correction and in humility give of our lives for their souls.
Those who step on others for their own gain or popularity or exaltation, causing others to serve them, will be severely judged. The bottom line is they did not fear Him enough to serve and love Him His way. They had other gods before Him, the god of self was the biggest one.
Rather than condemning those who treat us wrongly now, we ought to be praying for their souls to be saved, for we will not be able to bear it when we see what they get, if we did not pray to God for mercy on them.
Scorning decrees and failing to obey God has a very heavy sentence. We all feel so much grace, that we excuse ourselves into the exercise of our free wills as we desire to be directed. The deal is, God will allow us to choose our own ways. Do you understand what that means? That means I can choose to be eternally separated from God and He’ll go ahead and allow me to make that choice! I can walk away from His presence now, disobey His will, any and everyday and He will allow me to! The only way to be made right again, is to turn from the ways I feel are right, to turn my will around, and re-follow His, His way. That’s the only way home.
The biggest deception is that I think I’m ok living my own way. I still feel loved by and drawn by God, so I excuse death invitations as options.
Have I given my whole life to God and His work in the earth?
Really, how often do I join in with the activities of a church body in order to become equipped to do ministry in my home, church and community? Of the meetings I attend or assemble in, how much of what I hear taught do I take home for further study, so that I make sure I understood what was presented in order to make a plan to do what was taught as soon as possible? When was the last time I asked the ones teaching me what they meant or to explain it further so I could really apply it to my home life, my life on the job, and in all of my earthly relationships?
Do I debate the words given me through others by God? Do I always question what is served me on the spiritual platters at church services?
When was the last time I asked anyone at church what I could become a part of there, and how I can serve the house in the vision God has given them to carry out into our community? Or do I just decide on my own what ministry I’d like to do and go out and do it alone without any initiation from the body? What practical help do I give at my church? Like housework kind of stuff? When asked to do something, do I stay till the end and do the best I can above my own abilities? Or do I let other do it and stay to make sure it’s done, I mean It IS their job, right? I have other things I have to do.
Remember God will let me be excused, he won’t make me stay, neither will the messenger who asked me to help. I can do whatever I want and give as much as I can, or decide to.
Do I go serve in soup kitchens, but won’t serve in the nursery? Or do I serve in the nursery, but make my family serve me at home?
We’re talking about giving up of our whole lives to God here. Not a part, but a whole.
When was the last time I told anyone in my family or church where I am planning to go, or what I am planning to do and why? Being open to and ready to hear correction and maybe even alter or change my plans?
Do I just make plans and check in with people about it, to let them know, or am I willing to let them speak into my life of a better way to do something? Do my leaders find out where I am after I’ve gone there, or when I come back? Do they hear of my plans second hand? If they do you have no relationship, no communion with them at all. You are your own person an entity entirely to yourself. When I live that way, I’m living for myself, I am my own master, and I have no fear of God. This is the bottom line. Hard as it may be to hear, it will save your soul, if you are wiling to change.
WHAT does this have to do with tithes and offerings? Aren’t we talking about money here?
WHAT are we offering money for? Why money anyway, and why does God seem to want to get in to my pocketbook, isn’t that my stash? I mean I work hard for it and I’ve spent my life and time to get it, and it is the reward for the hard labor I do and time I am away from my family….
Aha, Yes, there we go, we’re THERE now.
Where?
Right where we can really talk about the tithe and offerings!
If God cannot talk to you about money, what can He talk to you about? Money is all about life and how we choose to spend it. If God touching your money offends you, maybe you have not given your life over to Him yet.
Salvation does not happen by just saying some magical prayers. Nope it is evidenced by the confessed actions of our new lifestyle. We make huge changes which speak of a new citizenship, a new governor, surrender to God. Salvation comes through surrender to God, in all areas of life! He gave His life, so I give mine in return, as a visible proof of my faith. I respond to the work I believe was done on the cross for me. If I do not change I do not believe!
It is definitely a test of your true faith in Him. Be made aware, this IS a test! A test to see if you put your money in the same place you put the confession of your faith. We say, “Jesus, You are Lord”, do we show it by giving of the very core of our life’s work, by offering God only a mere requested portion of what already belongs to Him?
The tithe is given by faith. It never adds up, ever, never has, never will. Don’t try to add it up, just give it. How much is it? 10 %. That’s it. The tithe is 10%, given to your local church. Anything else is an offering. You give to United Way or send money to missions, those are not a part of the 10%. They are above and beyond that, and are called - offerings.
When we give a tithe we are telling God and our community, that we trust who we do not see with what we do not see. We fear God enough to honor Him and obey Him and give Him what represents a hard earned life’s reward. What we could keep to ourselves, we choose to give over to His management, however He deems it to be used. Once we give it, it is gone, we do not need to know even how it is used, for it is not a bargaining tool, it is a gift of life, it is an action of faith in Him, not in the men here who received it.
Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. Luke 17:33
Whenever we do not, or will not tithe, we say we cannot trust God. We will find that we cannot make ends meet, and what we do make gets poured into pockets with holes. Nothing ever adds up then either. In fact it is all consuming, being consumed, for we are consumers by nature, and we’ve not given our lives to God.
We are Not trying God on for size, to see if His ways will workout for us. Man, we are following after His ways forever. Once we are joined to Him, it is for life here and life eternally. Thank God. I wouldn’t want to spend eternity with anyone else.
Those who feared the Lord act this way, live this way, whether things are working well for them or not, they give their life to and for Him, even if pain or temporary suffering enter in. remember the enemy hates those who look like God!
He’s not going down without a fight. His goal is to steal your souls right out of God’s heart. If he can keep you trying God out for size, and them deceive you about God’s character or love or power or whatever, he may have you where he wants you, but if you give your whole life over to God by faith, no matter what the earthly outcome, he can’t touch your soul. There is one who can touch the body but CANNOT have the soul! If the souls really and truly decides.
God does not need to perform for me at all, ever, but He does. Isn’t THAT amazing? The principles of His word activated by me and made alive and becoming one with me, enact blessing, automatically.
Yes He IS!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Malachi 3 Today's Daily Bread Reading
The Coming Day of Judgment
“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
2 “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. 3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. 4 Then once more the Lord will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past.
5 “At that time I will put you on trial. I am eager to witness against all sorcerers and adulterers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
A Call to Repentance
6 “I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. 7 Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
“But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’
8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!
“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’
“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 11 Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease.[a] Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
13 “You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord.
“But you say, ‘What do you mean? What have we said against you?’
14 “You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? 15 From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.’”
The Lord’s Promise of Mercy
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name.
17 “They will be my people,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. 18 Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
Footnotes:
Malachi 3:11 Hebrew from the devourer.
“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
2 “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. 3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. 4 Then once more the Lord will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past.
5 “At that time I will put you on trial. I am eager to witness against all sorcerers and adulterers and liars. I will speak against those who cheat employees of their wages, who oppress widows and orphans, or who deprive the foreigners living among you of justice, for these people do not fear me,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
A Call to Repentance
6 “I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. 7 Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
“But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’
8 “Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me!
“But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’
“You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. 9 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 11 Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease.[a] Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 12 “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
13 “You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord.
“But you say, ‘What do you mean? What have we said against you?’
14 “You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? 15 From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.’”
The Lord’s Promise of Mercy
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name.
17 “They will be my people,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. 18 Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”
Footnotes:
Malachi 3:11 Hebrew from the devourer.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Lena's Journalin' to Genesis 28 More of Him, Less of Jacob (me)
Caanan actually means “lowlands”. I’ve recently listened to a CD series by John Bevere called “Affabel”. (A must listen to audio series – Stems from the Book “Driven By Eternity”. The audio series is a Great gift idea!) In Affabel, the “lowlands” are the place where worldliness prevailed, and where judgment would come. Apply that concept as you read Gen 28 and you’ll read the context differently.
So a Christian parent may say to their child of promise, “Do not marry a worldly person”, meaning don’t join your life on earth with a person who’s main interests are about being in the world and of the world, a person who is materialistic, seeking after the temporary things that will bind them to a wrong eternal focus, a person who has allegiances with satan and not God, a person who may never change their ideas to conform to God’s and therefore may even pull you into their culture that is of the ungodly sort, which will lead you to an eternal doom.
God has a promise awaiting fulfillment in each one of us. The ability for the promise to be had by us was given us freely with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Now it is our responsibility to take a hold of the promises God has set out for us and apply their benefits to our own lives by a series of right choices. Adam and Eve had a choice, and so do we, each and everyday!
The freewill of man is the free part of all of the gifts of God, we can choose right, if we want to. We are also free to choose what is wrong. How do we know what to choose? We study for it, as though it is a test for life. We go from one obedience in God, to another. If He says something like, honor your parent, we obey that. If our parent shows us a way of obedience and teaches it to us, then we should follow them. If they are wrong, they stand before God for leading us wrongly or mistakedly. God is great enough to help steer and correct them. If we obeyed, we are blessed, even if we went a wrong way. God is great enough to correct us, redeem us out of the consequences of mistaken pathways. We obeyed God in honoring our parents and we are not “in trouble” over it. If we disobey the basic word of God, that is when we’ll find we are held responsible.
Jacob obeyed his father, Esau did not. One would be blessed, the other cursed. We each have a Jacob and an Esau inside of us. The choices laid before us each day are ours. Blessing or cursing, obedience or rebellion. They are both our freewill choices. Today.
Obedience is blessed and multiplication from God comes to those who choose obedient actions.
Looking up the words and names in the context of scriptures brings out a whole world of understandings. Go here and click on some of the numbers by the words inside of the verses and see what happens! A whole new world of understanding will come to you as you become a student of God’s word each day. http://www.studylight.org/desk/?l=en&query=gen+28§ion=2&translation=str&oq=%2520hearing&new=1
Jacob’s father Isaac sent him into a field (think - off to pursue a career “field”). It was time for Jacob to grow from being a boy inside of his fatehr’s house to becoming a man of God. This journey would take Jacob to places of choices with the intent to slay Jacob. No, not to kill him, but yes, to change him, and grow him up.
Bethuel means, “God destroys” or “man’s end”! WHAT does THAT mean? More of Him, and less of me and my opinions about everything. His father sent him to a place where he’d have an opportunity to become a man of God, from a boy. He’d become a husband and a father. Notice how long it took for him.
How long it takes is all up to us, and is in direct proportion to the stubbornness or yielding tendency and discipline of the freewill. We can take the 11 day journey or the 40 year one, it is up to us. BUT know in this day, God needs us to obey now and we cannot afford 40 years of wanderings!
God has a dream for each and every one of us. He offers it to us in the form of a promise. Each promise is an offer to us from God. He shows us what could happen with us if we are willing to follow Him thus and so. When a parent follows God, they get a hold of that same dream and pass it along to their kids. It is the blessing of God for the child who is becoming a son or daughter to begin to see that dream also. That is generational blessing/vision passed on.
Jacob had a dream. His dream was a heavenly vision. God had a dream, Isaac had a dream, now Jacob was dreaming! That’s the will of God. (when I say “dream” I mean seeing a vision of what we are doing here that is both for and with God to further His kingdom on the earth).
The Lord wants to bring the ways of heaven to earth using our lives to do it. We are the living breathing stairway to bringing heaven on earth. That will take the willingness of a people who will obey Him, do His will and be who He is here, now. That does not just happen, people must make it happen.
This is usually where the journey of the elimination of self life comes about. We see God’s dream and we decide if we can see ourselves in it. Then we decide what part of it we can or cannot do. About that time, we take a fork in the road and begin to take the long way around, for in the dream God showed us what He can do. He wasn’t looking at our limitations. He was showing us His abilities and asking us if we believe He is able even to work in us His good pleasure. The question was, “Will YOU, allow Me to use you to do this thing? Will YOU want and do what I want to do? Will you trust and believe me to give You the ability to do My will? Will you?”
The question is, “Are you willing to change and be changed to fit into My dream?” says the Lord! “Are you willing to go My way and be as Me? Please, I beg of you, don’t turn back on the road of self sufficiency, even in serving Me. Take my highway, I’ll be with you there. Yeah there will be obstacles, but nothing at all is impossible with Me, I can remove any rock I so deem, or I’ll at least throw you a rope!”
The initial acceptance of and then the walking out of obedience’s to God’s words and visions and dreams takes courage, faith and obedience every step of the way. It is not enough to see it; one must do something very actively to bring heaven’s visions into manifest form in the earth.
Self-centeredness will never take us where we need to go. Humility will raise us up to see and be where we need to be. I yield my own ways to His ways.
When Jacob rose from seeing the vision of God, he was not yet changed. He wasn’t quite ready for the change yet, or not yet ready to make the changes yet. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready for the necessary change that’d have to be made to put him inside of the dream. Is that where we are at with God?
Jacob responded. Wow that was a nice Encounter with the Lord, ewwy gooey feely wow, but he kept his identity and began to declare what God would do for him! God was asking Jacob to become someone different for the kingdom. Jacob gave God a tithe, almost hoping that’d satisfy God a bit for now, until he decided he was ready to go all the way.
God knows when we are ready. We do not have the luxury to say yeah or nay. Our answers have to be yes Lord, all else, is sin for if we hesitate and reason we do not believe Him.
The tithe God wanted was 1-0 % 1 = ALL of God and 0 = none of Jacob. It was a tithe of His life, his self life laid down. The money can be a symbol of that, or it can be another religious exercise. It should be given and is required to be given, but what is given represents what is truly given, a life, all of it!
God said, “thank you Jacob for your money, but where are you going, what are you doing (about bringing My kingdom to earth) today?”
By the way, “Jacob” means “deceived”, in the book of James in the NT (“James” is the same name as “Jacob”) it says,
James 1:22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
God wanted and wants to change “Jacob’s” name!
So a Christian parent may say to their child of promise, “Do not marry a worldly person”, meaning don’t join your life on earth with a person who’s main interests are about being in the world and of the world, a person who is materialistic, seeking after the temporary things that will bind them to a wrong eternal focus, a person who has allegiances with satan and not God, a person who may never change their ideas to conform to God’s and therefore may even pull you into their culture that is of the ungodly sort, which will lead you to an eternal doom.
God has a promise awaiting fulfillment in each one of us. The ability for the promise to be had by us was given us freely with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Now it is our responsibility to take a hold of the promises God has set out for us and apply their benefits to our own lives by a series of right choices. Adam and Eve had a choice, and so do we, each and everyday!
The freewill of man is the free part of all of the gifts of God, we can choose right, if we want to. We are also free to choose what is wrong. How do we know what to choose? We study for it, as though it is a test for life. We go from one obedience in God, to another. If He says something like, honor your parent, we obey that. If our parent shows us a way of obedience and teaches it to us, then we should follow them. If they are wrong, they stand before God for leading us wrongly or mistakedly. God is great enough to help steer and correct them. If we obeyed, we are blessed, even if we went a wrong way. God is great enough to correct us, redeem us out of the consequences of mistaken pathways. We obeyed God in honoring our parents and we are not “in trouble” over it. If we disobey the basic word of God, that is when we’ll find we are held responsible.
Jacob obeyed his father, Esau did not. One would be blessed, the other cursed. We each have a Jacob and an Esau inside of us. The choices laid before us each day are ours. Blessing or cursing, obedience or rebellion. They are both our freewill choices. Today.
Obedience is blessed and multiplication from God comes to those who choose obedient actions.
Looking up the words and names in the context of scriptures brings out a whole world of understandings. Go here and click on some of the numbers by the words inside of the verses and see what happens! A whole new world of understanding will come to you as you become a student of God’s word each day. http://www.studylight.org/desk/?l=en&query=gen+28§ion=2&translation=str&oq=%2520hearing&new=1
Jacob’s father Isaac sent him into a field (think - off to pursue a career “field”). It was time for Jacob to grow from being a boy inside of his fatehr’s house to becoming a man of God. This journey would take Jacob to places of choices with the intent to slay Jacob. No, not to kill him, but yes, to change him, and grow him up.
Bethuel means, “God destroys” or “man’s end”! WHAT does THAT mean? More of Him, and less of me and my opinions about everything. His father sent him to a place where he’d have an opportunity to become a man of God, from a boy. He’d become a husband and a father. Notice how long it took for him.
How long it takes is all up to us, and is in direct proportion to the stubbornness or yielding tendency and discipline of the freewill. We can take the 11 day journey or the 40 year one, it is up to us. BUT know in this day, God needs us to obey now and we cannot afford 40 years of wanderings!
God has a dream for each and every one of us. He offers it to us in the form of a promise. Each promise is an offer to us from God. He shows us what could happen with us if we are willing to follow Him thus and so. When a parent follows God, they get a hold of that same dream and pass it along to their kids. It is the blessing of God for the child who is becoming a son or daughter to begin to see that dream also. That is generational blessing/vision passed on.
Jacob had a dream. His dream was a heavenly vision. God had a dream, Isaac had a dream, now Jacob was dreaming! That’s the will of God. (when I say “dream” I mean seeing a vision of what we are doing here that is both for and with God to further His kingdom on the earth).
The Lord wants to bring the ways of heaven to earth using our lives to do it. We are the living breathing stairway to bringing heaven on earth. That will take the willingness of a people who will obey Him, do His will and be who He is here, now. That does not just happen, people must make it happen.
This is usually where the journey of the elimination of self life comes about. We see God’s dream and we decide if we can see ourselves in it. Then we decide what part of it we can or cannot do. About that time, we take a fork in the road and begin to take the long way around, for in the dream God showed us what He can do. He wasn’t looking at our limitations. He was showing us His abilities and asking us if we believe He is able even to work in us His good pleasure. The question was, “Will YOU, allow Me to use you to do this thing? Will YOU want and do what I want to do? Will you trust and believe me to give You the ability to do My will? Will you?”
The question is, “Are you willing to change and be changed to fit into My dream?” says the Lord! “Are you willing to go My way and be as Me? Please, I beg of you, don’t turn back on the road of self sufficiency, even in serving Me. Take my highway, I’ll be with you there. Yeah there will be obstacles, but nothing at all is impossible with Me, I can remove any rock I so deem, or I’ll at least throw you a rope!”
The initial acceptance of and then the walking out of obedience’s to God’s words and visions and dreams takes courage, faith and obedience every step of the way. It is not enough to see it; one must do something very actively to bring heaven’s visions into manifest form in the earth.
Self-centeredness will never take us where we need to go. Humility will raise us up to see and be where we need to be. I yield my own ways to His ways.
When Jacob rose from seeing the vision of God, he was not yet changed. He wasn’t quite ready for the change yet, or not yet ready to make the changes yet. Maybe he wasn’t quite ready for the necessary change that’d have to be made to put him inside of the dream. Is that where we are at with God?
Jacob responded. Wow that was a nice Encounter with the Lord, ewwy gooey feely wow, but he kept his identity and began to declare what God would do for him! God was asking Jacob to become someone different for the kingdom. Jacob gave God a tithe, almost hoping that’d satisfy God a bit for now, until he decided he was ready to go all the way.
God knows when we are ready. We do not have the luxury to say yeah or nay. Our answers have to be yes Lord, all else, is sin for if we hesitate and reason we do not believe Him.
The tithe God wanted was 1-0 % 1 = ALL of God and 0 = none of Jacob. It was a tithe of His life, his self life laid down. The money can be a symbol of that, or it can be another religious exercise. It should be given and is required to be given, but what is given represents what is truly given, a life, all of it!
God said, “thank you Jacob for your money, but where are you going, what are you doing (about bringing My kingdom to earth) today?”
By the way, “Jacob” means “deceived”, in the book of James in the NT (“James” is the same name as “Jacob”) it says,
James 1:22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
God wanted and wants to change “Jacob’s” name!
Genesis 28 Today's Daily Bread
1 So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, “You must not marry any of these Canaanite women. 2 Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban’s daughters. 3 May God Almighty[a] bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants multiply and become many nations! 4 May God pass on to you and your descendants[b] the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where you are now living as a foreigner, for God gave this land to Abraham.”
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother’s brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
6 Esau knew that his father, Isaac, had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” 7 He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 It was now very clear to Esau that his father did not like the local Canaanite women. 9 So Esau visited his uncle Ishmael’s family and married one of Ishmael’s daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife’s name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son.
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. 12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.
13 At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, “I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. 15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 17 But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
18 The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. 19 He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although the name of the nearby village was Luz.
20 Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, 21 and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the LORD will certainly be my God. 22 And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”
Footnotes:
a. Genesis 28:3 Hebrew El-Shaddai.
b. Genesis 28:4 Hebrew seed; also in 28:13, 14.
5 So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother’s brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
6 Esau knew that his father, Isaac, had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” 7 He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram. 8 It was now very clear to Esau that his father did not like the local Canaanite women. 9 So Esau visited his uncle Ishmael’s family and married one of Ishmael’s daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife’s name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son.
Jacob’s Dream at Bethel
10 Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. 11 At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. 12 As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.
13 At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, “I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. 15 What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”
16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” 17 But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
18 The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. 19 He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although the name of the nearby village was Luz.
20 Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, 21 and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the LORD will certainly be my God. 22 And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”
Footnotes:
a. Genesis 28:3 Hebrew El-Shaddai.
b. Genesis 28:4 Hebrew seed; also in 28:13, 14.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Lena's Journalin' for Today to Genesis 14 Who possess you?
Know that every word of God is Divinely inspired, every word has meaning. I’m going to use Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon to retell this story using the meanings of the names given…
War broke out in a time of darkness, a time of worldliness. People were self serving, had set up their own kingdoms and were not serving The King of the Universe. (Sound familiar?) They could’ve gone one of two ways, the Way of The King (Jesus) or the way of man (Babylon), it was up to them. Either way would be somewhat hard, one from living out consequences, the other had a price to pay, it was a road laden with obstacles. One would have to be willing to go through it (more warfare) to get there, for they had gone so far from it, it would take a decisive action to take the righteous way again.
One Way, is The Way of eternal life. It is THE WAY of the Lord. Those who would choose it with their free wills, those who would extend themselves to it, who would spend their inheritances on it, would be rewarded now and later on. To be on this road and stay on this road would take discipline, they’d come under the leading of God’s Spirit, His chastening would be their guide.
Those who would choose this narrow way, need to know who and what they will come against along The Way. In knowing and still being willing the price would be paid, the ticket bought.
They would come up against The son of evil, iniquity, burning (eternal consummation), mistreatments, manipulations and merchandising. They’ll incur change, a change of name (from natural Adam to Spiritual Jesus) because of lack of familiarity they’ll feel very unsure of it regularly, for its call to change takes one into unfamiliar territory. Yet going this Way will beautify them, though they won’t see that right away. When they do begin to see it, pride will offer itself to them, asking them to gloat in the newfound beauty, as though they created and authored it. To choose to give the glory of this beauty to others, to another will seem so insignificant, at least here and now. One will wonder why they ever choose to go this way, they may feel confused by what they do not see.
They took this journey for about 12 years, they tried its course for a pretty good amount of time, yet were tired, weary of working for the master of Harvest. They were tired of bringing in His sheaves for Him, His way. Some rebelled, would rather go they way they thought best on their own right.
Those who stayed with Him up to this point began to slay giants. In slaying giants, they began to be healed from all sorts of ailments and diseases. For those who endure to the end, will overcome. Too bad the others waited this long to turn away, when the promises were only one giant away.
Those who stayed this distance were again at a “crossroads”, they still had choices, go on, stay, or turn back! Some saw something beyond them, they saw God moving in the spirit realm, they had to go on. Those who did not see, would not see, would not go on.
In this new place, this new level of faith, there would be opportunity to be terrorized by fear of the unknown and of the known. If they could go there by faith, they’d become one with Him, whom they served and loved enough to come this far. The following had to be by faith in the unseen God, who had unseen enemies destined to be fought by those who would become His army.
Only those in agreement with Him, who had become one with Him, would be able to go up as victors in this place.
There would be a lot more than personal giants to conquer. There would be demons to bring down out of places of power, to expose to His light. Self sacrifices would need to be made in order to conquer here, for there is no authority given to the self seeking lot, ever.
In the very same place would be the offer to serve a Holy God or a lying god. In the same place would be offers to worship Him who sits on the throne of my heart and of he who wants that place. In the very same place could be holiness and righteousness and truth, but also sin, unrighteous works and deception. Only when one is tested and proven here will there be found a real and a true faith in whomever faith is in.
Division will define allegiances.
What is this battle about? It is the battle of the seed, the holy seed. The Holy seed is the word of God alive in people. The kings want to steal the seed and all of the potential of it being able to be planted or grow in any of the people we influence. Every seed that grows can bring forth fruit and in that fruit is more seed. One person has the potential of being a nation. If they can take one, they can have the many.
So they took a family member, a member of a family of a believer. How can that be left alone? The righteous will arise and go after the treasure, the life, the soul.
This was a battle of heaven and of earth, of the ability of heaven to be brought and wrought in earth. There were those engrossed in sin, in iniquity, in darkness, who would attempt to pull others into their allegiance, and those who sought to save.
They come after people many times in the form of taking their possessions, all they live for, all that identifies them. In this way they seek for their soul. The division here would be of what is of utmost importance. When the rubber meats the road, what means the most- people, or things?
Can the enemy have you by way of your things? Can he grab a hold of you and in your fight to not let the things go, can he have you and the seed in you? Can he take your family members by causing you to attend more to the obtaining of things for the family, all the while he is stealing them out from under your nose? What is really important to us is shown in how we live. Don’t go off to work harder and harder for your family and lose them to the appetites of the world (Babylonian kingdoms, Babylonian kings).
When the believer, a true father of faith, one who is truly after the souls of men, heard that even one of his household may be taken, he pursued him towards the judgment (meaning he prayed and fought for his soul as an example and a witness until the day he’d die naturally). With all he had ability-wise, with all His strength and might, with what he’d gained for himself, he went after this soul.
Souls are THE most important thing to our Father, and so should also be the most important possession for us. Abram was a man who knew the Father and His Son, by the Spirit.
He risked all to pursue this soul, even to the laying down of his own life. He would not allow hidden works to destroy this soul, this potential kingdom family member. He would give His life for this one, even if it were only one (remembering inside of one is many). He’d pursue them, even if it meant lay down his own life, like to being nailed on a tree. He’d have to make a trade, a life for a life. Sacrifice would be the only way for a return to be made. There’d have to be an exchange.
He’d have to stand before God. He’d have to stand before the judge of men, the accuser of brethren (thus Lot Abram’s brother) for Lot’s soul. He’d have to stand before the heavenly and the earthly kings and be tried as true.
Abram (father of many nations of peoples) had taken back what was his, and had to account for it before heaven and before hell, as we all do for everything we are given or take back.
He choose, with His freewill, to give portions to God. He chose to give honor, glory and praise to God Most High, in the presence of His enemies, he choose to give God what was due God.
He would not give up what was his to account for, to have more money, or for more possessions. Greed was a giant he’d already eaten. His success was not about what, but who, he had.
How is it Abram already gave to God, lifting his hand up to The Most High before this day? He always had. It was proven by His life and in His heart was found no deceit. His desire was the Lord’s desire, all the way. This is/was proven in the giving of the tithe and the choice of who to eat and drink for and with.
The enemy uses money and the accumulation of stuff to try to entice people, but he is really interested in the people’s souls. So is God! Who the money enslaves is who’s the souls belong to. Be careful, one cannot serve God and mammon. In serving mammon, we serve cannot serve The Most High God. We can have mammon, but mammon cannot have us. People must be the most important possession a in visible demonstration, in our daily lives.
War broke out in a time of darkness, a time of worldliness. People were self serving, had set up their own kingdoms and were not serving The King of the Universe. (Sound familiar?) They could’ve gone one of two ways, the Way of The King (Jesus) or the way of man (Babylon), it was up to them. Either way would be somewhat hard, one from living out consequences, the other had a price to pay, it was a road laden with obstacles. One would have to be willing to go through it (more warfare) to get there, for they had gone so far from it, it would take a decisive action to take the righteous way again.
One Way, is The Way of eternal life. It is THE WAY of the Lord. Those who would choose it with their free wills, those who would extend themselves to it, who would spend their inheritances on it, would be rewarded now and later on. To be on this road and stay on this road would take discipline, they’d come under the leading of God’s Spirit, His chastening would be their guide.
Those who would choose this narrow way, need to know who and what they will come against along The Way. In knowing and still being willing the price would be paid, the ticket bought.
They would come up against The son of evil, iniquity, burning (eternal consummation), mistreatments, manipulations and merchandising. They’ll incur change, a change of name (from natural Adam to Spiritual Jesus) because of lack of familiarity they’ll feel very unsure of it regularly, for its call to change takes one into unfamiliar territory. Yet going this Way will beautify them, though they won’t see that right away. When they do begin to see it, pride will offer itself to them, asking them to gloat in the newfound beauty, as though they created and authored it. To choose to give the glory of this beauty to others, to another will seem so insignificant, at least here and now. One will wonder why they ever choose to go this way, they may feel confused by what they do not see.
They took this journey for about 12 years, they tried its course for a pretty good amount of time, yet were tired, weary of working for the master of Harvest. They were tired of bringing in His sheaves for Him, His way. Some rebelled, would rather go they way they thought best on their own right.
Those who stayed with Him up to this point began to slay giants. In slaying giants, they began to be healed from all sorts of ailments and diseases. For those who endure to the end, will overcome. Too bad the others waited this long to turn away, when the promises were only one giant away.
Those who stayed this distance were again at a “crossroads”, they still had choices, go on, stay, or turn back! Some saw something beyond them, they saw God moving in the spirit realm, they had to go on. Those who did not see, would not see, would not go on.
In this new place, this new level of faith, there would be opportunity to be terrorized by fear of the unknown and of the known. If they could go there by faith, they’d become one with Him, whom they served and loved enough to come this far. The following had to be by faith in the unseen God, who had unseen enemies destined to be fought by those who would become His army.
Only those in agreement with Him, who had become one with Him, would be able to go up as victors in this place.
There would be a lot more than personal giants to conquer. There would be demons to bring down out of places of power, to expose to His light. Self sacrifices would need to be made in order to conquer here, for there is no authority given to the self seeking lot, ever.
In the very same place would be the offer to serve a Holy God or a lying god. In the same place would be offers to worship Him who sits on the throne of my heart and of he who wants that place. In the very same place could be holiness and righteousness and truth, but also sin, unrighteous works and deception. Only when one is tested and proven here will there be found a real and a true faith in whomever faith is in.
Division will define allegiances.
What is this battle about? It is the battle of the seed, the holy seed. The Holy seed is the word of God alive in people. The kings want to steal the seed and all of the potential of it being able to be planted or grow in any of the people we influence. Every seed that grows can bring forth fruit and in that fruit is more seed. One person has the potential of being a nation. If they can take one, they can have the many.
So they took a family member, a member of a family of a believer. How can that be left alone? The righteous will arise and go after the treasure, the life, the soul.
This was a battle of heaven and of earth, of the ability of heaven to be brought and wrought in earth. There were those engrossed in sin, in iniquity, in darkness, who would attempt to pull others into their allegiance, and those who sought to save.
They come after people many times in the form of taking their possessions, all they live for, all that identifies them. In this way they seek for their soul. The division here would be of what is of utmost importance. When the rubber meats the road, what means the most- people, or things?
Can the enemy have you by way of your things? Can he grab a hold of you and in your fight to not let the things go, can he have you and the seed in you? Can he take your family members by causing you to attend more to the obtaining of things for the family, all the while he is stealing them out from under your nose? What is really important to us is shown in how we live. Don’t go off to work harder and harder for your family and lose them to the appetites of the world (Babylonian kingdoms, Babylonian kings).
When the believer, a true father of faith, one who is truly after the souls of men, heard that even one of his household may be taken, he pursued him towards the judgment (meaning he prayed and fought for his soul as an example and a witness until the day he’d die naturally). With all he had ability-wise, with all His strength and might, with what he’d gained for himself, he went after this soul.
Souls are THE most important thing to our Father, and so should also be the most important possession for us. Abram was a man who knew the Father and His Son, by the Spirit.
He risked all to pursue this soul, even to the laying down of his own life. He would not allow hidden works to destroy this soul, this potential kingdom family member. He would give His life for this one, even if it were only one (remembering inside of one is many). He’d pursue them, even if it meant lay down his own life, like to being nailed on a tree. He’d have to make a trade, a life for a life. Sacrifice would be the only way for a return to be made. There’d have to be an exchange.
He’d have to stand before God. He’d have to stand before the judge of men, the accuser of brethren (thus Lot Abram’s brother) for Lot’s soul. He’d have to stand before the heavenly and the earthly kings and be tried as true.
Abram (father of many nations of peoples) had taken back what was his, and had to account for it before heaven and before hell, as we all do for everything we are given or take back.
He choose, with His freewill, to give portions to God. He chose to give honor, glory and praise to God Most High, in the presence of His enemies, he choose to give God what was due God.
He would not give up what was his to account for, to have more money, or for more possessions. Greed was a giant he’d already eaten. His success was not about what, but who, he had.
How is it Abram already gave to God, lifting his hand up to The Most High before this day? He always had. It was proven by His life and in His heart was found no deceit. His desire was the Lord’s desire, all the way. This is/was proven in the giving of the tithe and the choice of who to eat and drink for and with.
The enemy uses money and the accumulation of stuff to try to entice people, but he is really interested in the people’s souls. So is God! Who the money enslaves is who’s the souls belong to. Be careful, one cannot serve God and mammon. In serving mammon, we serve cannot serve The Most High God. We can have mammon, but mammon cannot have us. People must be the most important possession a in visible demonstration, in our daily lives.
Genesis 14 Today's Daily Bread Reading
Abram Rescues Lot
1 About this time war broke out in the region. King Amraphel of Babylonia,[a] King Arioch of Ellasar, King Kedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim 2 fought against King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (also called Zoar).
3 This second group of kings joined forces in Siddim Valley (that is, the valley of the Dead Sea[b]). 4 For twelve years they had been subject to King Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled against him.
5 One year later Kedorlaomer and his allies arrived and defeated the Rephaites at Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites at Ham, the Emites at Shaveh-kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites at Mount Seir, as far as El-paran at the edge of the wilderness. 7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (now called Kadesh) and conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar.
8 Then the rebel kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (also called Zoar) prepared for battle in the valley of the Dead Sea.[c] 9 They fought against King Kedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Babylonia, and King Arioch of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 As it happened, the valley of the Dead Sea was filled with tar pits. And as the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into the tar pits, while the rest escaped into the mountains. 11 The victorious invaders then plundered Sodom and Gomorrah and headed for home, taking with them all the spoils of war and the food supplies. 12 They also captured Lot—Abram’s nephew who lived in Sodom—and carried off everything he owned.
13 But one of Lot’s men escaped and reported everything to Abram the Hebrew, who was living near the oak grove belonging to Mamre the Amorite. Mamre and his relatives, Eshcol and Aner, were Abram’s allies.
14 When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men who had been born into his household. Then he pursued Kedorlaomer’s army until he caught up with them at Dan. 15 There he divided his men and attacked during the night. Kedorlaomer’s army fled, but Abram chased them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 Abram recovered all the goods that had been taken, and he brought back his nephew Lot with his possessions and all the women and other captives.
Melchizedek Blesses Abram
17 After Abram returned from his victory over Kedorlaomer and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
18 And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High,[d] brought Abram some bread and wine. 19 Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And blessed be God Most High,
who has defeated your enemies for you.”
Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.
21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give back my people who were captured. But you may keep for yourself all the goods you have recovered.”
22 Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I solemnly swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take so much as a single thread or sandal thong from what belongs to you. Otherwise you might say, ‘I am the one who made Abram rich.’ 24 I will accept only what my young warriors have already eaten, and I request that you give a fair share of the goods to my allies—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre.”
Footnotes:
Genesis 14:1 Hebrew Shinar; also in 14:9.
Genesis 14:3 Hebrew Salt Sea.
Genesis 14:8 Hebrew Siddim Valley (see 14:3); also in 14:10.
Genesis 14:18 Hebrew El-Elyon; also in 14:19, 20, 22.
1 About this time war broke out in the region. King Amraphel of Babylonia,[a] King Arioch of Ellasar, King Kedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim 2 fought against King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (also called Zoar).
3 This second group of kings joined forces in Siddim Valley (that is, the valley of the Dead Sea[b]). 4 For twelve years they had been subject to King Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled against him.
5 One year later Kedorlaomer and his allies arrived and defeated the Rephaites at Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites at Ham, the Emites at Shaveh-kiriathaim, 6 and the Horites at Mount Seir, as far as El-paran at the edge of the wilderness. 7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (now called Kadesh) and conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar.
8 Then the rebel kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (also called Zoar) prepared for battle in the valley of the Dead Sea.[c] 9 They fought against King Kedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Babylonia, and King Arioch of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10 As it happened, the valley of the Dead Sea was filled with tar pits. And as the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into the tar pits, while the rest escaped into the mountains. 11 The victorious invaders then plundered Sodom and Gomorrah and headed for home, taking with them all the spoils of war and the food supplies. 12 They also captured Lot—Abram’s nephew who lived in Sodom—and carried off everything he owned.
13 But one of Lot’s men escaped and reported everything to Abram the Hebrew, who was living near the oak grove belonging to Mamre the Amorite. Mamre and his relatives, Eshcol and Aner, were Abram’s allies.
14 When Abram heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men who had been born into his household. Then he pursued Kedorlaomer’s army until he caught up with them at Dan. 15 There he divided his men and attacked during the night. Kedorlaomer’s army fled, but Abram chased them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 Abram recovered all the goods that had been taken, and he brought back his nephew Lot with his possessions and all the women and other captives.
Melchizedek Blesses Abram
17 After Abram returned from his victory over Kedorlaomer and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
18 And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High,[d] brought Abram some bread and wine. 19 Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And blessed be God Most High,
who has defeated your enemies for you.”
Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.
21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give back my people who were captured. But you may keep for yourself all the goods you have recovered.”
22 Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I solemnly swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take so much as a single thread or sandal thong from what belongs to you. Otherwise you might say, ‘I am the one who made Abram rich.’ 24 I will accept only what my young warriors have already eaten, and I request that you give a fair share of the goods to my allies—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre.”
Footnotes:
Genesis 14:1 Hebrew Shinar; also in 14:9.
Genesis 14:3 Hebrew Salt Sea.
Genesis 14:8 Hebrew Siddim Valley (see 14:3); also in 14:10.
Genesis 14:18 Hebrew El-Elyon; also in 14:19, 20, 22.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Lena's Journalin' To Proverbs 9
Do you know that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom.
Wisdom is an action word. It is the practical application of knowledge.
The Holy Spirit does the word of God in the earth. He teaches us and tells us of the words of God for us to also do/apply in earth.
Wisdom, builds rather than tears down.
Wisdom prepares the way for others to eat what has been given by the Lord. It serves others and invites others to be welcomed in an atmosphere where change can easily occur.
Wisdom teaches the ways of the Lord, which are contrary to our natural minds’ ways, and those who heed its words carry out the instruction through practical application of good judgments.
Eat the food I have fixed. That means someone else initiated the instruction and commanded the actions and I follow through on their word. It is very hard for an independent and free American to move on someone else’s initiatives, to “eat” someone else’s liking, or selection.
Mockers are those who shake their heads, yeah yeah as someone speaks and instructs, but they go away taking every instruction as an opinion and an option and do what they would anyway. It is mockery to nod, and then go do differently, as though you paid your respects to at least listen to the speaker. It is not respect to listen to a speaker with no intent to do what is said. If that is the case, it’d be better to not hear his words, especially not nod at them. He’ll misunderstand that you are with him and your walk will be a betrayal to Him.
On the other hand, wise sons are looking for the instruction of fathers. They cannot wait to be led to further changes. They listen with intent to do His will and plan. They go from wisdom to wisdom in constant application of the words, knowing there is only one way to the Father, His way. They choose to go that way straight one, rather than every which way and a round about way, and a loop-way, which takes so very long.
They know the signs of the times, for the days are evil and way to short to mess with a self serving lifestyle. They must recieve all they can to become what He needs to save His world.
Wisdom is an action word. It is the practical application of knowledge.
The Holy Spirit does the word of God in the earth. He teaches us and tells us of the words of God for us to also do/apply in earth.
Wisdom, builds rather than tears down.
Wisdom prepares the way for others to eat what has been given by the Lord. It serves others and invites others to be welcomed in an atmosphere where change can easily occur.
Wisdom teaches the ways of the Lord, which are contrary to our natural minds’ ways, and those who heed its words carry out the instruction through practical application of good judgments.
Eat the food I have fixed. That means someone else initiated the instruction and commanded the actions and I follow through on their word. It is very hard for an independent and free American to move on someone else’s initiatives, to “eat” someone else’s liking, or selection.
Mockers are those who shake their heads, yeah yeah as someone speaks and instructs, but they go away taking every instruction as an opinion and an option and do what they would anyway. It is mockery to nod, and then go do differently, as though you paid your respects to at least listen to the speaker. It is not respect to listen to a speaker with no intent to do what is said. If that is the case, it’d be better to not hear his words, especially not nod at them. He’ll misunderstand that you are with him and your walk will be a betrayal to Him.
On the other hand, wise sons are looking for the instruction of fathers. They cannot wait to be led to further changes. They listen with intent to do His will and plan. They go from wisdom to wisdom in constant application of the words, knowing there is only one way to the Father, His way. They choose to go that way straight one, rather than every which way and a round about way, and a loop-way, which takes so very long.
They know the signs of the times, for the days are evil and way to short to mess with a self serving lifestyle. They must recieve all they can to become what He needs to save His world.
Proverbs 9 Today's Daily Bread
1 Wisdom has built her house;
she has carved its seven columns.
2 She has prepared a great banquet,
mixed the wines, and set the table.
3 She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come.
She calls out from the heights overlooking the city.
4 “Come in with me,” she urges the simple.
To those who lack good judgment, she says,
5 “Come, eat my food,
and drink the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live;
learn to use good judgment.”
7 Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return.
Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.
8 So don’t bother correcting mockers;
they will only hate you.
But correct the wise,
and they will love you.
9 Instruct the wise,
and they will be even wiser.
Teach the righteous,
and they will learn even more.
10 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom.
Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.
11 Wisdom will multiply your days
and add years to your life.
12 If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit.
If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.
Folly Calls for a Hearing
13 The woman named Folly is brash.
She is ignorant and doesn’t know it.
14 She sits in her doorway
on the heights overlooking the city.
15 She calls out to men going by
who are minding their own business.
16 “Come in with me,” she urges the simple.
To those who lack good judgment, she says,
17 “Stolen water is refreshing;
food eaten in secret tastes the best!”
18 But little do they know that the dead are there.
Her guests are in the depths of the grave.[a]
Footnotes:
Proverbs 9:18 Hebrew in Sheol.
she has carved its seven columns.
2 She has prepared a great banquet,
mixed the wines, and set the table.
3 She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come.
She calls out from the heights overlooking the city.
4 “Come in with me,” she urges the simple.
To those who lack good judgment, she says,
5 “Come, eat my food,
and drink the wine I have mixed.
6 Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live;
learn to use good judgment.”
7 Anyone who rebukes a mocker will get an insult in return.
Anyone who corrects the wicked will get hurt.
8 So don’t bother correcting mockers;
they will only hate you.
But correct the wise,
and they will love you.
9 Instruct the wise,
and they will be even wiser.
Teach the righteous,
and they will learn even more.
10 Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom.
Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.
11 Wisdom will multiply your days
and add years to your life.
12 If you become wise, you will be the one to benefit.
If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer.
Folly Calls for a Hearing
13 The woman named Folly is brash.
She is ignorant and doesn’t know it.
14 She sits in her doorway
on the heights overlooking the city.
15 She calls out to men going by
who are minding their own business.
16 “Come in with me,” she urges the simple.
To those who lack good judgment, she says,
17 “Stolen water is refreshing;
food eaten in secret tastes the best!”
18 But little do they know that the dead are there.
Her guests are in the depths of the grave.[a]
Footnotes:
Proverbs 9:18 Hebrew in Sheol.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Lena's Journalin' to 1 Cor 13
In my women's Bible Study Home Group, we read the same scriptures many times in different translationsto bring the word to our human understanding. This usually does something like confuse our natural minds, which can be good. Everyone needs a good shaking off of the religious couch often. We get so familiar with scriptures and memorize them without knowing them personally.
Today I have published 1 Cor 13 in a few different versions, especially the love portions of the scripture. Let your natural minds be confounded and eternally affected by the opening up of God's Word today.
As I read this a few weeks ago I realized that I was reading it as beautiful poetry that had rythm and rhyme to it. I loved it's ideal but had excused myself from believeing it was God's word to me personally, a word for me to do no matter what, a word I would someday account for the excuses I'd made to opt out of it. Do you know that to every word of God we are held accountable, whether we want to give account or don't care to? We will give account to God, may as well study it and make changes now.
I saw I was making the word fit into my life, rather than forcing my life to change to be conformed to His word.
Be kind, to whom? Everyone. When? All the time! Even if they don't deserve it. Especially when they do not deserve it. Just as He loved and drew us with that unconditional love, when we did not deserve it, so give His love to others freely, and be sure and demonstrate it this way....
1 Cor 13:3-7 The Message Version
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
1 Cor 13:4-8 Amplified Version4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([a]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
Footnotes:
a.1 Corinthians 13:8 G. Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon.
1 Cor 13:4-8 New Life Version
4 Love does not give up. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love does not put itself up as being important. Love has no pride.
5 Love does not do the wrong thing. Love never thinks of itself. Love does not get angry. Love does not remember the suffering that comes from being hurt by someone. 6 Love is not happy with sin. Love is happy with the truth. 7 Love takes everything that comes without giving up. Love believes all things. Love hopes for all things. Love keeps on in all things.
8 Love never comes to an end. The gift of speaking God's Word will come to an end. The gift of speaking in special sounds will be stopped. The gift of understanding will come to an end.
Today I have published 1 Cor 13 in a few different versions, especially the love portions of the scripture. Let your natural minds be confounded and eternally affected by the opening up of God's Word today.
As I read this a few weeks ago I realized that I was reading it as beautiful poetry that had rythm and rhyme to it. I loved it's ideal but had excused myself from believeing it was God's word to me personally, a word for me to do no matter what, a word I would someday account for the excuses I'd made to opt out of it. Do you know that to every word of God we are held accountable, whether we want to give account or don't care to? We will give account to God, may as well study it and make changes now.
I saw I was making the word fit into my life, rather than forcing my life to change to be conformed to His word.
Be kind, to whom? Everyone. When? All the time! Even if they don't deserve it. Especially when they do not deserve it. Just as He loved and drew us with that unconditional love, when we did not deserve it, so give His love to others freely, and be sure and demonstrate it this way....
1 Cor 13:3-7 The Message Version
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
1 Cor 13:4-8 Amplified Version4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([a]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
Footnotes:
a.1 Corinthians 13:8 G. Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon.
1 Cor 13:4-8 New Life Version
4 Love does not give up. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love does not put itself up as being important. Love has no pride.
5 Love does not do the wrong thing. Love never thinks of itself. Love does not get angry. Love does not remember the suffering that comes from being hurt by someone. 6 Love is not happy with sin. Love is happy with the truth. 7 Love takes everything that comes without giving up. Love believes all things. Love hopes for all things. Love keeps on in all things.
8 Love never comes to an end. The gift of speaking God's Word will come to an end. The gift of speaking in special sounds will be stopped. The gift of understanding will come to an end.
1 Corinthians 13 Today's Daily Bread
1 Corinthians 13 New Living Translation
Love Is the Greatest
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes:
a. 1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts read sacrificed my body to be burned.
b. 1 Corinthians 13:8 Or in tongues.
c. 1 Corinthians 13:12 Greek see face to face.
Love Is the Greatest
1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Footnotes:
a. 1 Corinthians 13:3 Some manuscripts read sacrificed my body to be burned.
b. 1 Corinthians 13:8 Or in tongues.
c. 1 Corinthians 13:12 Greek see face to face.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Lena's Journalin' to 1 COR 12 R U a "Mary" or a "Zacharias"?
Paul is addressing congregations and behavior within the meetings of the congregations.
Why do we as Christians congregate/assemble?
Hebrews 10:23-25 states some why’s, Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.
There are some awesome words to consider, inside of this text. “Let us hold tightly to the hope…God can be trusted, encourage, love, be good to, don’t neglect meeting together, again encourage and warn…”
God IS always faithful. That being the absolute, what needs to be considered every time we read scripture? Are we faithful, and full of faith? How will we become faithful, full of faith, and do those things commanded of each of us inside of His word? How does a human person, who is weak by nature and (culturally speaking) lives mostly for their selves (by default), become faith-filled, and demonstrate their loyalty to God? Then how do they remain that way, once they catch the heavenly vision?
They assemble with those who know their destiny in Christ as a counter-culture. They submit their lives to the assembly and become a part of it, as they would a natural family. They take on the responsibility of being a spiritual family member, each one bringing something to give to the whole. They are faithful to Be there, no matter what the culture calls out to them and tries to schedule for them.
Within the assembly there are natural guidelines that will allow an orderly array of spirit life and spiritual encouragement to be all we can be in Christ.
This is what Paul speaks of and instructs us in here.
When we assemble, we are a demonstration of who He is to us, piece by piece. I demonstrate a portion of His Spirit, and so do you, so does our brother, sister, father, mother. We all come together and what each of us adds to any given meeting assembly is a representation of Him. I cannot manifest Him alone, but with you, we can, and we do!
This may mean even my personality gifted me by God with certain tendencies adds to our gathering; it can also mean that on any given time I also could manifest a part of Him that only He could help me be at that time. The point is we all do, we are a willing, yielded demonstration of Him! My true heartfelt desire is the same as His, that no matter which aspect of His character I’m available to be used in today, tomorrow or whenever, I have an extreme desire and an availability to yield to His workings and manifest presence in me.
Today, when I assemble, with my family, my Bible Study Group, at work or at church service, I desire that the best gift be manifest, the one most needed for today would come through me, as needed. I stay cleaned out, as an open conduit, for at any instance He may desire to use me.
The Spirit of God is as water. He will go the pathway of least resistance. If I resist, He won’t use me. I can pray all I want, “Lord, use me”, but unless I believe and yield to His use, it will not happen. If I refuse His promptings, He’ll find someone who will receive Him willingly.
Resistance is like sludge in a pipe. Unbelief is like sand in the pipe, doubt is like hair in a drain, the water does not flow.
Our faith in Him must be without question. We act in faith, even when we do not understand. When a person does that, The Spirit of God reveals Himself with understanding.
I’ve noticed that the religious heart must know why first, before any action is even considered. That is not faith. Faith is what pleases God.
His word is not awaiting our opinions to be validated. His word is not up for debate, that we can see if it is believable. We do not weigh the word, the word weighs us to see if we’ll conform and be available to carry His glory.
A tender heart, receives the word with meekness, which is able to save the soul. We have a lot of souls needing “saved” (minds, wills and emotions), because they have never yielded to “blind” faith in Him.
It must be sad for God, when a Bible Study or gathering is planned and the people who come, come with a fine tooth comb to comb through His words for debate-sake rather than coming to simply receive whatever the Lord has prepared for the tables of the hearts that day, whether we understand it or not.
I think of a scenario of a “Mary” compared to a “Zacharias”.
“Mary” may have headed to the “Bible Study” saying, “Lord, I want You to know You can say whatever You want, and do whatever You will in me. Lord, please use my live by teaching me Your ways, I know I don’t know Your ways well enough yet and need to learn so much more, I can hardly wait to go tonight and hear more through whoever You have appointed at the study group tonight, so that I may be able to apply more truth to my life…I pray that I’m so refreshed tonight that I can go home and go over some of my notes and enhance what I’ve heard so I can get it deeper in my soul that I won’t forget it. Help me be faithful to the responsibility You’ve called me to in keeping Your words. I know that the enemy will be after stealing whatever the teacher teaches us tonight, so I’ll want to guard the word and hide it in my heart that I’ll be able to stay pure before You Lord.
I’m so thankful for the ones who teach us the word, I know they struggle with stuff in their own lives. I want to pray they will be strengthened and be able to overcome evil. Lord help make them stronger over comer’s. Father, I thank you for helping them to be on course and hit the target, at least of my heart, tonight! Use them Lord in a mighty way, that my life will be affected and changed. I pray they will have a reward for their service to us tonight, in Jesus name. I know they can mix a bit of self in the words they give us sometimes, we all have weaknesses, but Lord, I thank You for helping us know what is what and to forgive them for being weak in their humanness like we are, and help them grow as well as us, as they feed us. Lord help us to not hold them to an unreachable standard in our own eyes, but to always stay focused on You.”
“Zacharias” may have headed to the same meeting saying in His head, “I hope this meeting isn’t too long. I hope it is only 1 hour, like they suggested. Ya know they should start doing what the paper says to do. I’ll be glad when I’m on my way back home today and I can just rest in front of the TV in my own home for a bit. Ya know, I do work hard and I get stressed out, and I do like to be where I’m more comfortable. Man that almost makes me feel like not going, Ya know, I really don’t like being around people anyway, they can be so unnerving, but I love God, so I’m gonna go even though people can get under my skin.
I wonder what the teacher is gonna teach? Man he’s starting to bother me too. I’m not even sure that what he is saying is very accurate, in fact I may have to go home afterwards and search out how to prove whatever he’s said tonight is not correct. Ya know, he has been wrong oftentimes before. This guy is staring to expire with me, I may have to do that instead of watching TV tonight. I may get so stirred up that I have to do a word study and send him another e-mail. I hope and pray he receives it well.
Man! Now I’m glad I am going, this guy probably needs someone like me to put him in His place and reveal how unqualified he is anyway. I could do this study class thing better than he does, I’ve at least been coming to this church for many more years than he has, ya know. I wonder when the leaders are gonna recognize who I am, and how much I know about all this stuff? Maybe if I come more often I can get an inroad somehow. It’s a bout time. Man. Now that’s bugging me, how come every time I start to help out somewhere, they find another place to “let me” help out? I’m wondering if there may be something wrong with this organization as a whole. God help us!
“Lord, I pray for these people, that they’d get a revelation of who they really need to help them, maybe even this leader tonight shouldn’t be in this place, I mean did You see how they treated their own wife and kids? They really don’t deserve to lead this study group. I mean I will not be responsible to follow them down a path blindly. In fact I’ve got my eyes wide open tonight and am gonna discern which of their words are at work in their own life and which are just puffs of air. Ya know, you have to be wise and weigh out these things! Thank You, Lord for helping me see all I need to see, so I won’t stumble over their lives tonight, In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Ok, well I’m here, so I’d better make sure I’ve got my full armor on before I go in…”
Why do we as Christians congregate/assemble?
Hebrews 10:23-25 states some why’s, Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near.
There are some awesome words to consider, inside of this text. “Let us hold tightly to the hope…God can be trusted, encourage, love, be good to, don’t neglect meeting together, again encourage and warn…”
God IS always faithful. That being the absolute, what needs to be considered every time we read scripture? Are we faithful, and full of faith? How will we become faithful, full of faith, and do those things commanded of each of us inside of His word? How does a human person, who is weak by nature and (culturally speaking) lives mostly for their selves (by default), become faith-filled, and demonstrate their loyalty to God? Then how do they remain that way, once they catch the heavenly vision?
They assemble with those who know their destiny in Christ as a counter-culture. They submit their lives to the assembly and become a part of it, as they would a natural family. They take on the responsibility of being a spiritual family member, each one bringing something to give to the whole. They are faithful to Be there, no matter what the culture calls out to them and tries to schedule for them.
Within the assembly there are natural guidelines that will allow an orderly array of spirit life and spiritual encouragement to be all we can be in Christ.
This is what Paul speaks of and instructs us in here.
When we assemble, we are a demonstration of who He is to us, piece by piece. I demonstrate a portion of His Spirit, and so do you, so does our brother, sister, father, mother. We all come together and what each of us adds to any given meeting assembly is a representation of Him. I cannot manifest Him alone, but with you, we can, and we do!
This may mean even my personality gifted me by God with certain tendencies adds to our gathering; it can also mean that on any given time I also could manifest a part of Him that only He could help me be at that time. The point is we all do, we are a willing, yielded demonstration of Him! My true heartfelt desire is the same as His, that no matter which aspect of His character I’m available to be used in today, tomorrow or whenever, I have an extreme desire and an availability to yield to His workings and manifest presence in me.
Today, when I assemble, with my family, my Bible Study Group, at work or at church service, I desire that the best gift be manifest, the one most needed for today would come through me, as needed. I stay cleaned out, as an open conduit, for at any instance He may desire to use me.
The Spirit of God is as water. He will go the pathway of least resistance. If I resist, He won’t use me. I can pray all I want, “Lord, use me”, but unless I believe and yield to His use, it will not happen. If I refuse His promptings, He’ll find someone who will receive Him willingly.
Resistance is like sludge in a pipe. Unbelief is like sand in the pipe, doubt is like hair in a drain, the water does not flow.
Our faith in Him must be without question. We act in faith, even when we do not understand. When a person does that, The Spirit of God reveals Himself with understanding.
I’ve noticed that the religious heart must know why first, before any action is even considered. That is not faith. Faith is what pleases God.
His word is not awaiting our opinions to be validated. His word is not up for debate, that we can see if it is believable. We do not weigh the word, the word weighs us to see if we’ll conform and be available to carry His glory.
A tender heart, receives the word with meekness, which is able to save the soul. We have a lot of souls needing “saved” (minds, wills and emotions), because they have never yielded to “blind” faith in Him.
It must be sad for God, when a Bible Study or gathering is planned and the people who come, come with a fine tooth comb to comb through His words for debate-sake rather than coming to simply receive whatever the Lord has prepared for the tables of the hearts that day, whether we understand it or not.
I think of a scenario of a “Mary” compared to a “Zacharias”.
“Mary” may have headed to the “Bible Study” saying, “Lord, I want You to know You can say whatever You want, and do whatever You will in me. Lord, please use my live by teaching me Your ways, I know I don’t know Your ways well enough yet and need to learn so much more, I can hardly wait to go tonight and hear more through whoever You have appointed at the study group tonight, so that I may be able to apply more truth to my life…I pray that I’m so refreshed tonight that I can go home and go over some of my notes and enhance what I’ve heard so I can get it deeper in my soul that I won’t forget it. Help me be faithful to the responsibility You’ve called me to in keeping Your words. I know that the enemy will be after stealing whatever the teacher teaches us tonight, so I’ll want to guard the word and hide it in my heart that I’ll be able to stay pure before You Lord.
I’m so thankful for the ones who teach us the word, I know they struggle with stuff in their own lives. I want to pray they will be strengthened and be able to overcome evil. Lord help make them stronger over comer’s. Father, I thank you for helping them to be on course and hit the target, at least of my heart, tonight! Use them Lord in a mighty way, that my life will be affected and changed. I pray they will have a reward for their service to us tonight, in Jesus name. I know they can mix a bit of self in the words they give us sometimes, we all have weaknesses, but Lord, I thank You for helping us know what is what and to forgive them for being weak in their humanness like we are, and help them grow as well as us, as they feed us. Lord help us to not hold them to an unreachable standard in our own eyes, but to always stay focused on You.”
“Zacharias” may have headed to the same meeting saying in His head, “I hope this meeting isn’t too long. I hope it is only 1 hour, like they suggested. Ya know they should start doing what the paper says to do. I’ll be glad when I’m on my way back home today and I can just rest in front of the TV in my own home for a bit. Ya know, I do work hard and I get stressed out, and I do like to be where I’m more comfortable. Man that almost makes me feel like not going, Ya know, I really don’t like being around people anyway, they can be so unnerving, but I love God, so I’m gonna go even though people can get under my skin.
I wonder what the teacher is gonna teach? Man he’s starting to bother me too. I’m not even sure that what he is saying is very accurate, in fact I may have to go home afterwards and search out how to prove whatever he’s said tonight is not correct. Ya know, he has been wrong oftentimes before. This guy is staring to expire with me, I may have to do that instead of watching TV tonight. I may get so stirred up that I have to do a word study and send him another e-mail. I hope and pray he receives it well.
Man! Now I’m glad I am going, this guy probably needs someone like me to put him in His place and reveal how unqualified he is anyway. I could do this study class thing better than he does, I’ve at least been coming to this church for many more years than he has, ya know. I wonder when the leaders are gonna recognize who I am, and how much I know about all this stuff? Maybe if I come more often I can get an inroad somehow. It’s a bout time. Man. Now that’s bugging me, how come every time I start to help out somewhere, they find another place to “let me” help out? I’m wondering if there may be something wrong with this organization as a whole. God help us!
“Lord, I pray for these people, that they’d get a revelation of who they really need to help them, maybe even this leader tonight shouldn’t be in this place, I mean did You see how they treated their own wife and kids? They really don’t deserve to lead this study group. I mean I will not be responsible to follow them down a path blindly. In fact I’ve got my eyes wide open tonight and am gonna discern which of their words are at work in their own life and which are just puffs of air. Ya know, you have to be wise and weigh out these things! Thank You, Lord for helping me see all I need to see, so I won’t stumble over their lives tonight, In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Ok, well I’m here, so I’d better make sure I’ve got my full armor on before I go in…”
1 Corinthians 12 Today's daily Bread
Spiritual Gifts
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters,[a] regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice[b]; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.[c] 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages,[d] while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
One Body with Many Parts
12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,[e] some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.[f]
14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, 24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. 28 Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church:
first are apostles,
second are prophets,
third are teachers,
then those who do miracles,
those who have the gift of healing,
those who can help others,
those who have the gift of leadership,
those who speak in unknown languages.
29 Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? 30 Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! 31 So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.
But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.
Footnotes:
1 Corinthians 12:1 Greek brothers.
1 Corinthians 12:8 Or gives a word of wisdom.
1 Corinthians 12:8 Or gives a word of knowledge.
1 Corinthians 12:10 Or in various tongues; also in 12:28, 30.
1 Corinthians 12:13 Greek some are Greeks.
1 Corinthians 12:13 Greek we were all given one Spirit to drink.
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters,[a] regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice[b]; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.[c] 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages,[d] while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
One Body with Many Parts
12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,[e] some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.[f]
14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, 24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. 28 Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church:
first are apostles,
second are prophets,
third are teachers,
then those who do miracles,
those who have the gift of healing,
those who can help others,
those who have the gift of leadership,
those who speak in unknown languages.
29 Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? 30 Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! 31 So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.
But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.
Footnotes:
1 Corinthians 12:1 Greek brothers.
1 Corinthians 12:8 Or gives a word of wisdom.
1 Corinthians 12:8 Or gives a word of knowledge.
1 Corinthians 12:10 Or in various tongues; also in 12:28, 30.
1 Corinthians 12:13 Greek some are Greeks.
1 Corinthians 12:13 Greek we were all given one Spirit to drink.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Lena's Journalin' To John 16 Today
Every word inside of the Bible are words from God to give us faith that we will keep all the way to the end. Any and every battle we engage in or are thrust into willingly or unwillingly is about this – Faith. Whether we keep it or give it away. Everyday is a new day for that same decision in every area of life.
Do I keep my faith in God in this area, or do I give in to temptations that lead me against God’s word and will, or do I forsake my faith in the ability of My Father in me to overcome in this area?
Everyday, death and life, life and death are the choices laid before us, everyday.
One gage of whether we trust God at His word and will receive the only part of Him who is still with us now on earth in our day, is the Spirit. We believe and receive the Holy Spirit by faith, not by coincidences or by chance. We don’t receive Him in fear or because He won some contest in our souls, ones where we have weighed Him out among other offers brought our way. We believe and receive Him by faith or not. We believed and received Christ by faith, this is the only way with God. Faith is the way to Christ, God the Father and His Spirit’s involvement in our life’s situations.
Jesus was only on earth for a time as we are. He was a demonstration of One who depended upon God’s Spirit to lead Him and equip Him to do more and more of the Father’s will. He showed us THE WAY. He left us with THE WAY.
If we choose our own way, we can actually have it! God honors us (who do not deserve it, for it is His character to give honor to the will) and He lets us choose who and what we desire to choose, or not choose. If we do, it has to be by faith in the words Jesus spoke and left with us.
What can we bear? The weight of glory? Ours or His? There is a difference in the weight carried. Jesus said the Spirit will guide us into all truth, He’ll not speak of His own will, but will tell us what He’s heard from Jesus and the Father. Even the Holy Spirit is in orderly array. He does not speak His own thoughts or opinions out. He is an exact representation of the Father and Jesus just as Jesus modeled an exact representation of the Father.
Who do we represent exactly? We should represent the Father, Son & Spirit, but how can one do that if they do not know or are not yet known by the other? Well, we have some work to do, huh? Relational work, by faith. Is all that belongs to you, also your Father’s?
We have received Jesus, but He is not truly revealed to us except by the work of the Spirit. We may have started out with Jesus, but has our personal relationship developed and changed and grown since we met Him? How quickly does it grow? Do you know the rate of growth in the spirit has nothing to do with how “old” we are?
We can grow fast or slow. A person could be in the kingdom 3 years and be a Paul, or be in the kingdom 40 years, still a babe on milk. The growth time is up to us. How much do we feed ourselves spiritually? How often do we eat naturally?
It is based on obedience’s. The more obedience’s, the more growth. It is based on repentance. The more repentance and change, the more we grow. The motivator of extreme growth is love and passion. Passion drives us to repent, obey, and manifest change- quickly. The quicker, the better that He might be greater glorified in and through us; through our manifested change. That the world may know Him and see Him alive and at work in us!
This is how and when asking, we receive, anything we ask for.
Do I keep my faith in God in this area, or do I give in to temptations that lead me against God’s word and will, or do I forsake my faith in the ability of My Father in me to overcome in this area?
Everyday, death and life, life and death are the choices laid before us, everyday.
One gage of whether we trust God at His word and will receive the only part of Him who is still with us now on earth in our day, is the Spirit. We believe and receive the Holy Spirit by faith, not by coincidences or by chance. We don’t receive Him in fear or because He won some contest in our souls, ones where we have weighed Him out among other offers brought our way. We believe and receive Him by faith or not. We believed and received Christ by faith, this is the only way with God. Faith is the way to Christ, God the Father and His Spirit’s involvement in our life’s situations.
Jesus was only on earth for a time as we are. He was a demonstration of One who depended upon God’s Spirit to lead Him and equip Him to do more and more of the Father’s will. He showed us THE WAY. He left us with THE WAY.
If we choose our own way, we can actually have it! God honors us (who do not deserve it, for it is His character to give honor to the will) and He lets us choose who and what we desire to choose, or not choose. If we do, it has to be by faith in the words Jesus spoke and left with us.
What can we bear? The weight of glory? Ours or His? There is a difference in the weight carried. Jesus said the Spirit will guide us into all truth, He’ll not speak of His own will, but will tell us what He’s heard from Jesus and the Father. Even the Holy Spirit is in orderly array. He does not speak His own thoughts or opinions out. He is an exact representation of the Father and Jesus just as Jesus modeled an exact representation of the Father.
Who do we represent exactly? We should represent the Father, Son & Spirit, but how can one do that if they do not know or are not yet known by the other? Well, we have some work to do, huh? Relational work, by faith. Is all that belongs to you, also your Father’s?
We have received Jesus, but He is not truly revealed to us except by the work of the Spirit. We may have started out with Jesus, but has our personal relationship developed and changed and grown since we met Him? How quickly does it grow? Do you know the rate of growth in the spirit has nothing to do with how “old” we are?
We can grow fast or slow. A person could be in the kingdom 3 years and be a Paul, or be in the kingdom 40 years, still a babe on milk. The growth time is up to us. How much do we feed ourselves spiritually? How often do we eat naturally?
It is based on obedience’s. The more obedience’s, the more growth. It is based on repentance. The more repentance and change, the more we grow. The motivator of extreme growth is love and passion. Passion drives us to repent, obey, and manifest change- quickly. The quicker, the better that He might be greater glorified in and through us; through our manifested change. That the world may know Him and see Him alive and at work in us!
This is how and when asking, we receive, anything we ask for.
John 16 Today
John 16
“I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith. 2 For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God. 3 This is because they have never known the Father or me. 4 Yes, I’m telling you these things now, so that when they happen, you will remember my warning. I didn’t tell you earlier because I was going to be with you for a while longer.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
5 “But now I am going away to the One who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. 6 Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. 7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate[a] won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. 10 Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. 11 Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.
12 “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’
Sadness Will Be Turned to Joy
16 “In a little while you won’t see me anymore. But a little while after that, you will see me again.”
17 Some of the disciples asked each other, “What does he mean when he says, ‘In a little while you won’t see me, but then you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father’? 18 And what does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand.”
19 Jesus realized they wanted to ask him about it, so he said, “Are you asking yourselves what I meant? I said in a little while you won’t see me, but a little while after that you will see me again. 20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. 21 It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world. 22 So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy. 23 At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. 24 You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.
25 “I have spoken of these matters in figures of speech, but soon I will stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father. 26 Then you will ask in my name. I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, 27 for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.[b] 28 Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father.”
29 Then his disciples said, “At last you are speaking plainly and not figuratively. 30 Now we understand that you know everything, and there’s no need to question you. From this we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus asked, “Do you finally believe? 32 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
Footnotes:
John 16:7 Or Comforter, or Encourager, or Counselor. Greek reads Paraclete.
John 16:27 Some manuscripts read from the Father
“I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith. 2 For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God. 3 This is because they have never known the Father or me. 4 Yes, I’m telling you these things now, so that when they happen, you will remember my warning. I didn’t tell you earlier because I was going to be with you for a while longer.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
5 “But now I am going away to the One who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. 6 Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. 7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate[a] won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. 10 Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. 11 Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.
12 “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’
Sadness Will Be Turned to Joy
16 “In a little while you won’t see me anymore. But a little while after that, you will see me again.”
17 Some of the disciples asked each other, “What does he mean when he says, ‘In a little while you won’t see me, but then you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father’? 18 And what does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand.”
19 Jesus realized they wanted to ask him about it, so he said, “Are you asking yourselves what I meant? I said in a little while you won’t see me, but a little while after that you will see me again. 20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. 21 It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world. 22 So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy. 23 At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. 24 You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.
25 “I have spoken of these matters in figures of speech, but soon I will stop speaking figuratively and will tell you plainly all about the Father. 26 Then you will ask in my name. I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, 27 for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.[b] 28 Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father.”
29 Then his disciples said, “At last you are speaking plainly and not figuratively. 30 Now we understand that you know everything, and there’s no need to question you. From this we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus asked, “Do you finally believe? 32 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
Footnotes:
John 16:7 Or Comforter, or Encourager, or Counselor. Greek reads Paraclete.
John 16:27 Some manuscripts read from the Father
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Lena's Discipleship Journalin' to John 15 Today
Fruit and worldly success are not at all the same.
Fruit is God’s measure or standard of behavioral character. According to the world’s standard, you could actually have success and not have fruit at all. God is the Mater of the whole universe, of those who acknowledge Him, and of those who do not. He is Lord of All.
One day we all will stand before Him in a time and a place of judgment and the standard He raises to compare us to, will be His word, His truth. It is the same standard He is raising for us right now. In fact, now is when it counts that we measure our lives to it and make the necessary adjustments. We will leave our own standards of living at “the door”, we won’t be able to bring them in. They may have felt like an excuse to us before, but that measure will mean piddly nothing, on this day.
If they will mean piddly nothing on that day it’d behoove us to bring them into their proper perspective now and adjust our lifestyles and thoughts to His. This is why He gave us His word to study, that we may properly exemplify it, and lead others to follow its example.
Vine = Source of supply.
That is not only stating supply for provision. It is stating source of measure, supply of all we need to become as He is. He could say it like this, “I am the true measure, the true standard to live by…My Father is the standard maker, the One who created the standard we live by… Everyone who lives by his own standard and is unable, through it, to become the Word in living color is not of the Vine, or living by the standard, and they have not trusted the One who gives all they really need to live by it.”
Those who say the standard of measure or rule is impossible to live by, do not yet know Him. What they are doing is piddly nothing. They are living for self and that will never last. Yes, it may last for a time, but when the time is over, sadly, it is gone forever.
Remain? Yes, remain!
If not, it is not, made alive.
Death cannot be in heaven. If the life you thought was yours to live is self-centeredness, it is death, it and you will be no more.
Why is my life so hard, why do bad/sad things happen? Why doesn’t anything go the way I want?
Are these questions you ask of Him?
Here are the answers. Living for life, according to His defined design =’s life. Life breeds life! Amen.
If/when we live, as He has deemed, we are plugged into the Vine, who is our source of supply. We are blessed with its abundant blessing. What you ask, according to the will of God, will be done.
Remain, obey. Obey, remain…
I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. You are my friends if you obey Me.
Remain, Obey, Love, serve, befriend God, ask, come willingly under command, on purpose.
Live for this (above)! This IS life abundantly.
You are not trying to be popular or loved by the world!
You, as a Christian, live to please God and love men. There is nothing else to live for. All else is death, temporary, and will burn up and away.
I am sending (have now sent) HELP.
Man was not meant to be alone. God sent help for us. Help for us to remain, obey, love, come under command, be friend God, please God, and ask hard/impossible things. We are not alone, as long as we stay, we’ll never be alone in this.
Produce, fruit. Fruit of the Spirit-life in us. Re-produced as we exemplify Him.
Fruit is God’s measure or standard of behavioral character. According to the world’s standard, you could actually have success and not have fruit at all. God is the Mater of the whole universe, of those who acknowledge Him, and of those who do not. He is Lord of All.
One day we all will stand before Him in a time and a place of judgment and the standard He raises to compare us to, will be His word, His truth. It is the same standard He is raising for us right now. In fact, now is when it counts that we measure our lives to it and make the necessary adjustments. We will leave our own standards of living at “the door”, we won’t be able to bring them in. They may have felt like an excuse to us before, but that measure will mean piddly nothing, on this day.
If they will mean piddly nothing on that day it’d behoove us to bring them into their proper perspective now and adjust our lifestyles and thoughts to His. This is why He gave us His word to study, that we may properly exemplify it, and lead others to follow its example.
Vine = Source of supply.
That is not only stating supply for provision. It is stating source of measure, supply of all we need to become as He is. He could say it like this, “I am the true measure, the true standard to live by…My Father is the standard maker, the One who created the standard we live by… Everyone who lives by his own standard and is unable, through it, to become the Word in living color is not of the Vine, or living by the standard, and they have not trusted the One who gives all they really need to live by it.”
Those who say the standard of measure or rule is impossible to live by, do not yet know Him. What they are doing is piddly nothing. They are living for self and that will never last. Yes, it may last for a time, but when the time is over, sadly, it is gone forever.
Remain? Yes, remain!
If not, it is not, made alive.
Death cannot be in heaven. If the life you thought was yours to live is self-centeredness, it is death, it and you will be no more.
Why is my life so hard, why do bad/sad things happen? Why doesn’t anything go the way I want?
Are these questions you ask of Him?
Here are the answers. Living for life, according to His defined design =’s life. Life breeds life! Amen.
If/when we live, as He has deemed, we are plugged into the Vine, who is our source of supply. We are blessed with its abundant blessing. What you ask, according to the will of God, will be done.
Remain, obey. Obey, remain…
I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. You are my friends if you obey Me.
Remain, Obey, Love, serve, befriend God, ask, come willingly under command, on purpose.
Live for this (above)! This IS life abundantly.
You are not trying to be popular or loved by the world!
You, as a Christian, live to please God and love men. There is nothing else to live for. All else is death, temporary, and will burn up and away.
I am sending (have now sent) HELP.
Man was not meant to be alone. God sent help for us. Help for us to remain, obey, love, come under command, be friend God, please God, and ask hard/impossible things. We are not alone, as long as we stay, we’ll never be alone in this.
Produce, fruit. Fruit of the Spirit-life in us. Re-produced as we exemplify Him.
John 15 Today
Jesus, the True Vine
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.
5"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! 8My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father.
9"I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. 13And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. 14You are my friends if you obey me. 15I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn't confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16You didn't choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17I command you to love each other.
The World's Hatred
18"When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you. 19The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you. 20Do you remember what I told you? 'A servant is not greater than the master.' Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you! 21The people of the world will hate you because you belong to me, for they don't know God who sent me. 22They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23Anyone who hates me hates my Father, too. 24If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be counted guilty. But as it is, they saw all that I did and yet hated both of us—me and my Father. 25This has fulfilled what the Scriptures said: 'They hated me without cause.' F72
26"But I will send you the Counselor F73 —the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me. 27And you must also tell others about me because you have been with me from the beginning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTES:
F72: Pss 35:19; 69:4.
F73: Or Comforter, or Encourager, or Advocate. Greek Paraclete.
1"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me.
5"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! 8My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father.
9"I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. 13And here is how to measure it—the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. 14You are my friends if you obey me. 15I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn't confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16You didn't choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17I command you to love each other.
The World's Hatred
18"When the world hates you, remember it hated me before it hated you. 19The world would love you if you belonged to it, but you don't. I chose you to come out of the world, and so it hates you. 20Do you remember what I told you? 'A servant is not greater than the master.' Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you! 21The people of the world will hate you because you belong to me, for they don't know God who sent me. 22They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23Anyone who hates me hates my Father, too. 24If I hadn't done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be counted guilty. But as it is, they saw all that I did and yet hated both of us—me and my Father. 25This has fulfilled what the Scriptures said: 'They hated me without cause.' F72
26"But I will send you the Counselor F73 —the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me. 27And you must also tell others about me because you have been with me from the beginning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTES:
F72: Pss 35:19; 69:4.
F73: Or Comforter, or Encourager, or Advocate. Greek Paraclete.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Lena's Journalin' to John 14 If you (all) love Me...
Don’t worry, (about what the JW’s have said), there is plenty of room in My Father’s house, if It were not so, I would have told you.
There is room for whoever wants to go and be there with Him. It is known of who wants to be there, by those who stay with Him here, all the way to their end. They cross from life here through death to life there.
Gone is the untruth that there are only so many that are predetermined to go. Now I did not say God does not know the # of those of us who will stay to the end and choose faith in Him up to that day. God knows all. Therefore there is a number, He knows of, but it is not because He chose a number and it shuts out the possibilities or responsibilities for responding to Him on our end.
The only “reason” the number is finite, is He knows all, the end from the beginning. He knows who will choose. He made us free-wills and it is up to us to choose Him. He’s already chosen each and every human ever alive to believe in and receive His Son’s precious eternal sacrifice. It is available to whosoever will believe (Jn 3:16).
You know the Way.
He is the Way, the only Way.
Yet there are always highways that seem ok to men, they could get there (to Him) on a more adventurous highway, where one can see more sights, and take a bit of a longer way around (that’s for sure). They think that there are many ways to end up in the same place. But beware, His way is the Way and all other roads may lead to destruction.
When Jesus said choose the narrow way, He was saying the way I’ve chosen for you to travel on in this life, the Way that keeps you in Me and leads you to life eternally, that Narrow Way, is laden with obstacles, and very few will actually choose That One Way. They like their own ideas about which way to go too much. They like what seems easy, what seems right in their own eyes.
We’ve got to wake up and see that His way is THE Way! We need to violently forsake our own ways, on purpose.
We’ve got to come under a raised standard and stay there at all costs (to us); No matter what. We must discipline our souls to stay on The Way that leads to life eternal, and go all the way that way, telling ourselves there is NO other option. Our society lays out far too many options! We opt out for every thing and stay the distance for nothing. Not realizing what we are following is self deception and lies.
Going our own ways and following our own ideas and plans will NOT work out. In fact we may actually miss our train (or bus or plane or boat…)!
Give me, give me, more, more, more, is the hook of our culture and time. It is a deception. Do not follow it, for it will lead you straight to hell.
There is a people who have seen Him and known the Father through seeing Him, they believe He is more than enough. They are ready to do it and see it His way. They know He is more than they could ever fathom, and are satisfied to do it His way always. Never looking for another way around the dictates of His revealed will.
He says, love Me, with ALL your heart, mind, will, emotions and body, and so they do. There are no buts, no exemptions, no excuses, no asterisks.
He also added, love others as much as you love yourself; and they do, no matter what. These change who they are, to love self more righteously that they may love others more. They know without a relationship with the Father there’s no way to decide to love without conditions. But the mandate calls them to love anyway, especially to their own hurt and the alteration of their character before God. No one deserves their “love”, just as they did not deserve His, but He gave it anyway. They realize that everything inside of the relationship with the Father will be willingly expressed towards people. If there’s no demonstration of love and change with people, the “love” spoken, is merely words and holds no weight. No weight at all. There is no faith, no faith at all, for faith must be worked out and proven sure with men.
Love, obeys Him, and others as an expression of Him.
“If you love Me -obey My commandments, AND I will ask the Father to send you Help”, in The Comforter, Encourager, Counselor, Paraclete (One called to the side of man, to come alongside and help), the Advocate.
He (described within these characteristics of the Godhead) will never leave those who love and obey Me. He will live with, and later be inside of humans. Those who accept My commandments and obey them, are the ones who love Me, because they accept and obey My commands, My Father will love them, and I will love them and reveal Myself to each of them (who have accepted and obeyed My commandments).
This makes His love sound conditional, doesn’t it? Yes it does, and is. There are many definitions of love. The unconditional love of God came and died that men may have an offer to accept Him. The acceptance lies with each human, if we do not accept Him, we have no relationship with Him, the love of God drew us, and still draws us, but because we have not reciprocated it, it never develops into greater meaning on a personal level.
The disciples asked what we are all thinking. Why revealed to only a few? Jesus answers, it is up to us. How many is up to each of us. He did all He did, the move is ours to make. We do not have to. Yes, if we do not we perish, but we can willingly chose to perish!
God gave us a freewill and will not take it away, controlling our lives and making us robots. The messes we experience in life are direct results of the choosing of our own ways! Any distance we feel relationally with God has to do with what we’ve chosen above the relationship we could have in Him. Choices, choices; everyday. Death and life, life and death; choices everyday.
Do I choose love today? It is only shown in obedience. What has He already asked you to do? Go back there. If ever there is a breech, you’ll find it there, both in spiritual and natural relationships. When we do not do what God or someone else says, we make a breech. The repair needs to be where the breech started.
If we won’t do what He says, He has noting further to say to us. If we make an excuse in what He’s said to us, or if we ask for another road to travel on, He will let us go travel it alone, without Him. If we wonder where He is, we must go back to where He commanded us in the first place and repent for choosing our own ways, repent; and make changes back at that spot of requested obedience. There is no other way except His way. He will not speak again to someone who did not listen way back when, not until repentance comes. He is so respectful of our wills, and will allow us to choose our own ways if we so desire to. He won’t infringe upon us His will. If we do not listen with a will to do His good pleasure, He’ll let us go on and do it our way. He won’t even talk about it, for He doesn’t argue. As soon as we begin to argue, He’s done. He lets us win, even if we are wrong. He is LOVE.
Jesus “said”, “Watch me. I’m gonna show you how to obey. I’m gonna show you what love does. It lays down its own rights and dies. It will not speak in its own defense, even when right. It hurts for the good of others. It endures pain and sorrow that someone else may be freed. It obeys God even to death on a cross. It bears whatever God has asked it to bear…. Look, I’ll show you, what love does! Watch Me.”
Obedience is patient and kind. Obedience is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Obedience does not demand its own way. Obedience is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. Obedience does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Obedience never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
If you Love Me (Jesus), obey Me!
If you Obey Me, (you) love me!
There is room for whoever wants to go and be there with Him. It is known of who wants to be there, by those who stay with Him here, all the way to their end. They cross from life here through death to life there.
Gone is the untruth that there are only so many that are predetermined to go. Now I did not say God does not know the # of those of us who will stay to the end and choose faith in Him up to that day. God knows all. Therefore there is a number, He knows of, but it is not because He chose a number and it shuts out the possibilities or responsibilities for responding to Him on our end.
The only “reason” the number is finite, is He knows all, the end from the beginning. He knows who will choose. He made us free-wills and it is up to us to choose Him. He’s already chosen each and every human ever alive to believe in and receive His Son’s precious eternal sacrifice. It is available to whosoever will believe (Jn 3:16).
You know the Way.
He is the Way, the only Way.
Yet there are always highways that seem ok to men, they could get there (to Him) on a more adventurous highway, where one can see more sights, and take a bit of a longer way around (that’s for sure). They think that there are many ways to end up in the same place. But beware, His way is the Way and all other roads may lead to destruction.
When Jesus said choose the narrow way, He was saying the way I’ve chosen for you to travel on in this life, the Way that keeps you in Me and leads you to life eternally, that Narrow Way, is laden with obstacles, and very few will actually choose That One Way. They like their own ideas about which way to go too much. They like what seems easy, what seems right in their own eyes.
We’ve got to wake up and see that His way is THE Way! We need to violently forsake our own ways, on purpose.
We’ve got to come under a raised standard and stay there at all costs (to us); No matter what. We must discipline our souls to stay on The Way that leads to life eternal, and go all the way that way, telling ourselves there is NO other option. Our society lays out far too many options! We opt out for every thing and stay the distance for nothing. Not realizing what we are following is self deception and lies.
Going our own ways and following our own ideas and plans will NOT work out. In fact we may actually miss our train (or bus or plane or boat…)!
Give me, give me, more, more, more, is the hook of our culture and time. It is a deception. Do not follow it, for it will lead you straight to hell.
There is a people who have seen Him and known the Father through seeing Him, they believe He is more than enough. They are ready to do it and see it His way. They know He is more than they could ever fathom, and are satisfied to do it His way always. Never looking for another way around the dictates of His revealed will.
He says, love Me, with ALL your heart, mind, will, emotions and body, and so they do. There are no buts, no exemptions, no excuses, no asterisks.
He also added, love others as much as you love yourself; and they do, no matter what. These change who they are, to love self more righteously that they may love others more. They know without a relationship with the Father there’s no way to decide to love without conditions. But the mandate calls them to love anyway, especially to their own hurt and the alteration of their character before God. No one deserves their “love”, just as they did not deserve His, but He gave it anyway. They realize that everything inside of the relationship with the Father will be willingly expressed towards people. If there’s no demonstration of love and change with people, the “love” spoken, is merely words and holds no weight. No weight at all. There is no faith, no faith at all, for faith must be worked out and proven sure with men.
Love, obeys Him, and others as an expression of Him.
“If you love Me -obey My commandments, AND I will ask the Father to send you Help”, in The Comforter, Encourager, Counselor, Paraclete (One called to the side of man, to come alongside and help), the Advocate.
He (described within these characteristics of the Godhead) will never leave those who love and obey Me. He will live with, and later be inside of humans. Those who accept My commandments and obey them, are the ones who love Me, because they accept and obey My commands, My Father will love them, and I will love them and reveal Myself to each of them (who have accepted and obeyed My commandments).
This makes His love sound conditional, doesn’t it? Yes it does, and is. There are many definitions of love. The unconditional love of God came and died that men may have an offer to accept Him. The acceptance lies with each human, if we do not accept Him, we have no relationship with Him, the love of God drew us, and still draws us, but because we have not reciprocated it, it never develops into greater meaning on a personal level.
The disciples asked what we are all thinking. Why revealed to only a few? Jesus answers, it is up to us. How many is up to each of us. He did all He did, the move is ours to make. We do not have to. Yes, if we do not we perish, but we can willingly chose to perish!
God gave us a freewill and will not take it away, controlling our lives and making us robots. The messes we experience in life are direct results of the choosing of our own ways! Any distance we feel relationally with God has to do with what we’ve chosen above the relationship we could have in Him. Choices, choices; everyday. Death and life, life and death; choices everyday.
Do I choose love today? It is only shown in obedience. What has He already asked you to do? Go back there. If ever there is a breech, you’ll find it there, both in spiritual and natural relationships. When we do not do what God or someone else says, we make a breech. The repair needs to be where the breech started.
If we won’t do what He says, He has noting further to say to us. If we make an excuse in what He’s said to us, or if we ask for another road to travel on, He will let us go travel it alone, without Him. If we wonder where He is, we must go back to where He commanded us in the first place and repent for choosing our own ways, repent; and make changes back at that spot of requested obedience. There is no other way except His way. He will not speak again to someone who did not listen way back when, not until repentance comes. He is so respectful of our wills, and will allow us to choose our own ways if we so desire to. He won’t infringe upon us His will. If we do not listen with a will to do His good pleasure, He’ll let us go on and do it our way. He won’t even talk about it, for He doesn’t argue. As soon as we begin to argue, He’s done. He lets us win, even if we are wrong. He is LOVE.
Jesus “said”, “Watch me. I’m gonna show you how to obey. I’m gonna show you what love does. It lays down its own rights and dies. It will not speak in its own defense, even when right. It hurts for the good of others. It endures pain and sorrow that someone else may be freed. It obeys God even to death on a cross. It bears whatever God has asked it to bear…. Look, I’ll show you, what love does! Watch Me.”
Obedience is patient and kind. Obedience is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Obedience does not demand its own way. Obedience is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. Obedience does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Obedience never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
If you Love Me (Jesus), obey Me!
If you Obey Me, (you) love me!
John 14 Today Happy Valentines to You!
John 14
Jesus, the Way to the Father
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.[a] If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.[c] From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.
12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, obey[d] my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,[e] who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.[f] 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. 28 Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. 29 I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.
30 “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, 31 but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going.
Footnotes:
John 14:2 Or There are many rooms in my Father’s house.
John 14:2 Or If this were not so, I would have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you. Some manuscripts read If this were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
John 14:7 Some manuscripts read If you have really known me, you will know who my Father is.
John 14:15 Other manuscripts read you will obey; still others read you should obey.
John 14:16 Or Comforter, or Encourager, or Counselor. Greek reads Paraclete; also in 14:26.
John 14:17 Some manuscripts read and is in you.
Jesus, the Way to the Father
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.[a] If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.[c] From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.
12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, obey[d] my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,[e] who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.[f] 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. 28 Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. 29 I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.
30 “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, 31 but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going.
Footnotes:
John 14:2 Or There are many rooms in my Father’s house.
John 14:2 Or If this were not so, I would have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you. Some manuscripts read If this were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
John 14:7 Some manuscripts read If you have really known me, you will know who my Father is.
John 14:15 Other manuscripts read you will obey; still others read you should obey.
John 14:16 Or Comforter, or Encourager, or Counselor. Greek reads Paraclete; also in 14:26.
John 14:17 Some manuscripts read and is in you.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Lena's Journalin' to John 4 Today
Whenever you read books, do you find yourself placing your life inside of the stories? This is a good thing to do, for you can learn valuable lessons and make choices without really having to live out the actual experience yourself. This is wisdom to learn from someone else’s life.
When we read of the life of Christ, that’s what we do, we become as Christ, for we call ourselves Christians, right? One’s who are like Christ is/was? One’s who follow Christ (-s pathway)?
If He went somewhere wouldn’t we expect to follow Him there also?
The “somewhere’s” in the Bible are or were actual places, yet the meanings behind the places is so ordained by God’s Spirit as one takes the journey of the Christian walk.
Ever heard of Pilgrim’s Progress? If so, this is what I mean. Every place in scripture has a Divine meaning. Things do not happen in Christ just because. The steps of righteous men are ordered by the Lord, whether the men realize it or not.
“Galilee” has a meaning. Just as every other word and title and name on earth do. The names were given through Adam (man) and divinely inspired by God.
Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee. “Judea” is where “He shall be praised”. “Galilee” is “the circuit or circle” or “rolling away”.
Another place where “rolling away” was mentioned, was in the OT, it was the place of circumcision in Joshua 5. The word used there was “Gilgal”. There is another word in the NT of a place Jesus had to go on to, if He so chose the will of His Father, following all the way through the righteous pathway of purpose. This place was called “Golgotha”. The root word for Gilgal and Golgotha is found in “Galilee” or “rolling away”. It is the place of the circumcision of flesh, rolling away of me, to reveal Him.
If Jesus was led there, shall we not also go? The answer is, yes.
That is/was the goal for each and every human alive on earth, to be a demonstration of Him. There’s no way anyone can be that without a rolling away of who I am, as I am. In order to demonstrate Him, I must be “rolled away”. My self life and opinions must be changed, altered, turned around (as in turn from going in one direction and begin to head in another, making a circle, repenting for going the wrong way, the way of - “its so much about me”.)
“He shall be praised”, when I am changed into His image and likeness. “He shall be praised” when I move out and He moves in. The only way that can happen is through a cutting away, a severing of who I naturally am.
On the way to the rolling away, the grace of God leads us here and there and everywhere to prepare us, show us how, where, when, etc.
On His way to Galilee, He stopped off in Samaria. Samaria means, “stay on watch”, as in “guard and protect, keep, retain, observe, treasure up in the memory, keep covenant and commands to fulfill the vow of, to preserve and reserve, paying heed to”.
He had to go there before He’d die to Himself. So do we. We can’t skip through steps on this journey. How much have we laid the words of truth up? How much of a treasure are they to us? Have we even come to that point in our walk, that we’d be willing to lay our lives down for them?
The will is all powerful in the here and now. It is powerful enough to send people to heaven or hell. Are we wiling to go all the way with the Lord if the way is not our way at all, but it is only His way?
That question must be asked us, or we’ll never get to Gilgal or Galilee or Golgotha, which are all the same place, the place of death, death on a tree, death to self life, the death to the life of me.
He came to Sychar in Samaria. It means, “drunken, intoxicated”. When one is intoxicated, even their very personality is changed, altered. They are different. If they were shy, they become bold. If sad, they can become very happy, if quiet, they may get loud, if intimidated, they become outward; they are altered or changed. This is God’s plan, to alter our person-alities.
He asked a woman, “Can I have a drink (from you)?”
Let’s bring “the woman” in as a symbolism of the church body of believers in the earth.
“Hey, church member, faithful loyal one? Can I drink enough from you to altar me?”
Can the Lord who is thirsty for His will to be done, come to your life and find enough water to satisfy His thirst?
That’s what He was looking for. That’s what He is looking for. We know how much He satisfies us. Time now ask, “Have I satisfied Him lately?” How much and how often do I ask what He’d like to drink, and am I so full of Him that I have more than enough to satisfy Him?
The only way to have anything worth giving Him, would be to be full of Him. Full of His will and desire, full of His Spirit. We have nothing worth feeding Him otherwise. Nothing.
He’s hungry for those who are wiling to go to these places and do His will, by His Spirit, not on their own merits or strength, but those who yield the controls to His spirit.
She had an idea of who God was, but was meeting Him in person for the first time ever. It made her think of worship. What is worship? The giving up of one’s life; that is worship, and that can be done at all times everywhere that there are those who will to do it.
Those who are willing to do it all His way; in that is worship. “Not my way, Lord, Yours, be done!” “How do You want me to do this? I am willing to do it Your way.” That’s Gilgal. That removes the reproach, fills the breeches.
Jesus says to those called disciples, I have food you know nothing about (yet). What was that food? “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. Does yours come from that place as His did? Put yourself in His-story today. Ask the most important questions ever. Those who want to do His will, will reap where others who were just working it out, planted.
The point of all of this is love. Loving God enough to change. Change enough that we’d truly be a witness to win people over to Him. They see and hear you, a changed yielded life, but your life leads them to know Him personally, that they too may be changed in order to effectively do His will.
Jesus did go on to the “rolling away” place. We are to go there too. He went to Cana inside of Galilee. Cana means “reeds”, plants that grow in water. It’s a place where growth occurs. True spiritual growth occurs in water. Water represents the Spirit. If we see growth without the Spirit, it may well be we are strong and knowledgeable, but not necessarily “led”.
Notice even miracles are not necessarily worked out how we’d think they’d be done. What is our walk in Christ based on? Seeing to believe, or believing to see? It is the element faith that pleases God. Faith.
When we read of the life of Christ, that’s what we do, we become as Christ, for we call ourselves Christians, right? One’s who are like Christ is/was? One’s who follow Christ (-s pathway)?
If He went somewhere wouldn’t we expect to follow Him there also?
The “somewhere’s” in the Bible are or were actual places, yet the meanings behind the places is so ordained by God’s Spirit as one takes the journey of the Christian walk.
Ever heard of Pilgrim’s Progress? If so, this is what I mean. Every place in scripture has a Divine meaning. Things do not happen in Christ just because. The steps of righteous men are ordered by the Lord, whether the men realize it or not.
“Galilee” has a meaning. Just as every other word and title and name on earth do. The names were given through Adam (man) and divinely inspired by God.
Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee. “Judea” is where “He shall be praised”. “Galilee” is “the circuit or circle” or “rolling away”.
Another place where “rolling away” was mentioned, was in the OT, it was the place of circumcision in Joshua 5. The word used there was “Gilgal”. There is another word in the NT of a place Jesus had to go on to, if He so chose the will of His Father, following all the way through the righteous pathway of purpose. This place was called “Golgotha”. The root word for Gilgal and Golgotha is found in “Galilee” or “rolling away”. It is the place of the circumcision of flesh, rolling away of me, to reveal Him.
If Jesus was led there, shall we not also go? The answer is, yes.
That is/was the goal for each and every human alive on earth, to be a demonstration of Him. There’s no way anyone can be that without a rolling away of who I am, as I am. In order to demonstrate Him, I must be “rolled away”. My self life and opinions must be changed, altered, turned around (as in turn from going in one direction and begin to head in another, making a circle, repenting for going the wrong way, the way of - “its so much about me”.)
“He shall be praised”, when I am changed into His image and likeness. “He shall be praised” when I move out and He moves in. The only way that can happen is through a cutting away, a severing of who I naturally am.
On the way to the rolling away, the grace of God leads us here and there and everywhere to prepare us, show us how, where, when, etc.
On His way to Galilee, He stopped off in Samaria. Samaria means, “stay on watch”, as in “guard and protect, keep, retain, observe, treasure up in the memory, keep covenant and commands to fulfill the vow of, to preserve and reserve, paying heed to”.
He had to go there before He’d die to Himself. So do we. We can’t skip through steps on this journey. How much have we laid the words of truth up? How much of a treasure are they to us? Have we even come to that point in our walk, that we’d be willing to lay our lives down for them?
The will is all powerful in the here and now. It is powerful enough to send people to heaven or hell. Are we wiling to go all the way with the Lord if the way is not our way at all, but it is only His way?
That question must be asked us, or we’ll never get to Gilgal or Galilee or Golgotha, which are all the same place, the place of death, death on a tree, death to self life, the death to the life of me.
He came to Sychar in Samaria. It means, “drunken, intoxicated”. When one is intoxicated, even their very personality is changed, altered. They are different. If they were shy, they become bold. If sad, they can become very happy, if quiet, they may get loud, if intimidated, they become outward; they are altered or changed. This is God’s plan, to alter our person-alities.
He asked a woman, “Can I have a drink (from you)?”
Let’s bring “the woman” in as a symbolism of the church body of believers in the earth.
“Hey, church member, faithful loyal one? Can I drink enough from you to altar me?”
Can the Lord who is thirsty for His will to be done, come to your life and find enough water to satisfy His thirst?
That’s what He was looking for. That’s what He is looking for. We know how much He satisfies us. Time now ask, “Have I satisfied Him lately?” How much and how often do I ask what He’d like to drink, and am I so full of Him that I have more than enough to satisfy Him?
The only way to have anything worth giving Him, would be to be full of Him. Full of His will and desire, full of His Spirit. We have nothing worth feeding Him otherwise. Nothing.
He’s hungry for those who are wiling to go to these places and do His will, by His Spirit, not on their own merits or strength, but those who yield the controls to His spirit.
She had an idea of who God was, but was meeting Him in person for the first time ever. It made her think of worship. What is worship? The giving up of one’s life; that is worship, and that can be done at all times everywhere that there are those who will to do it.
Those who are willing to do it all His way; in that is worship. “Not my way, Lord, Yours, be done!” “How do You want me to do this? I am willing to do it Your way.” That’s Gilgal. That removes the reproach, fills the breeches.
Jesus says to those called disciples, I have food you know nothing about (yet). What was that food? “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. Does yours come from that place as His did? Put yourself in His-story today. Ask the most important questions ever. Those who want to do His will, will reap where others who were just working it out, planted.
The point of all of this is love. Loving God enough to change. Change enough that we’d truly be a witness to win people over to Him. They see and hear you, a changed yielded life, but your life leads them to know Him personally, that they too may be changed in order to effectively do His will.
Jesus did go on to the “rolling away” place. We are to go there too. He went to Cana inside of Galilee. Cana means “reeds”, plants that grow in water. It’s a place where growth occurs. True spiritual growth occurs in water. Water represents the Spirit. If we see growth without the Spirit, it may well be we are strong and knowledgeable, but not necessarily “led”.
Notice even miracles are not necessarily worked out how we’d think they’d be done. What is our walk in Christ based on? Seeing to believe, or believing to see? It is the element faith that pleases God. Faith.
John 4 Today's Daily Bread
John 4
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
Jesus[a] knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). 3 So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.
4 He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.[b] She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”
13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
16 “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
17 “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,[c] where our ancestors worshiped?”
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus told her, “I AM the Messiah!”[d]
27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” 28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”
33 “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.
34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe[e] for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
43 At the end of the two days, Jesus went on to Galilee. 44 He himself had said that a prophet is not honored in his own hometown. 45 Yet the Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen everything he did there.
46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.
48 Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”
49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”
50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.
51 While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. 52 He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus. 54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea.
Footnotes:
a. John 4:1 Some manuscripts read The Lord.
b. John 4:9 Some manuscripts omit this sentence.
c. John 4:20 Greek on this mountain.
d. John 4:26 Or “The ‘I Am’ is here”; or “I am the Lord”; Greek reads “I am, the one speaking to you.” See Exod 3:14.
e. John 4:35 Greek white.
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
Jesus[a] knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). 3 So he left Judea and returned to Galilee.
4 He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.[b] She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12 And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”
13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
16 “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
17 “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,[c] where our ancestors worshiped?”
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus told her, “I AM the Messiah!”[d]
27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” 28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”
33 “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.
34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe[e] for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
43 At the end of the two days, Jesus went on to Galilee. 44 He himself had said that a prophet is not honored in his own hometown. 45 Yet the Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen everything he did there.
46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.
48 Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”
49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”
50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.
51 While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well. 52 He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus. 54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea.
Footnotes:
a. John 4:1 Some manuscripts read The Lord.
b. John 4:9 Some manuscripts omit this sentence.
c. John 4:20 Greek on this mountain.
d. John 4:26 Or “The ‘I Am’ is here”; or “I am the Lord”; Greek reads “I am, the one speaking to you.” See Exod 3:14.
e. John 4:35 Greek white.
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