Jesus Christ. He is the initiator and designer of my faith but also the closer, the finisher; the one who has obligated Himself to bring to completion that which He began in my heart.
I rest greatly in that. Really I am along for the ride once I have agreed with His verdict upon my soul, which is that I can choose life or death, or, that is, to remain in the death into which I was once born.
My goal then has been to do all I can to not resist the Spirit, who is transforming me, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, into the one He created me to be…second born, born of the Spirit now and not just born in the flesh.
Though My servant fall 7 Times, He will stand. For I will make him stand.
I rest in that, but something else is at work in me because of that word from God. I want to be an easy subject. I want God to smile when He thinks of me and not groan because I am so rebellious and difficult…slow to see and slow to just run hard after Him.
I wonder sometimes if part of His agony over fallen creation, might be that which He couldn’t give because we were just so resistant to Him.
In the end when the flesh has perished and we are complete and perfectly remade, living with Him in eternity, I want to make sure that nothing I did to resist Him affected anything He wanted to give to me but couldn’t.
The good thing is that this is not based on my performance or skill or special ability or talent. It is only dependent upon my heart. Will I submit to Him or constantly go my own way, causing God to have to constant put a bridle in my mouth and tighten up the reins. How exhausting that must be for Him.
How do we do this? It’s so simple: Here’s what Jesus said: “Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, this is fulfilling all the law and the prophets”. Ha! How awesome is God! What a teacher He is!
My word to anyone who says to that “But how do I do that? Is this: Read the Word and do it. That’s it. Then let Him cleanse me, transform me and use me according to His glorious will. That’s when I can know perfect fellowship with Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe and the very author and finisher of my faith.
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When I first got saved, I remember reading Romans 7 and understanding it just as Paul meant it. At that point my reading of the Word was exclusively with myself and the Holy Spirit guiding me in understanding. I would find out much later that the established church of our day was locked into an entirely different meaning of Romans 7, and this understanding was universally excepted and still is, and in my opinion, wreaks havoc. I have since found that almost every Bible teacher teaches here what he or she has been taught, rather than teaching what is there. And almost every believer accepts what these teachers have taught them, rather than letting the Word reveal itself to the heart through serious study.
I remember in a Bible study some years later presenting the possibility to a group that Paul was saying something completely different. It was NOT well received. Many years later I remember reading the complete works of Oswald Chambers and found that he taught it exactly as I understood it. I believe that without the proper understanding of Romans 7, the Christian walk can be confusing.
I think that extreme calvanism has played a part in this distortion. I agree with someone who once said, stay away from isms… they are always man made. If we read WAY back, we find that Chambers was right. And I mean way back to Polycarp, John’s student, Turtulian, Iraneus (sp?) St. John of the Cross, St. Bernard of Clairveux (whom Calvin loved to quote, and Spurgeon and almost every other fabulous, Spirit led teacher of the Word) and so many others. I could list many.
I don’t see that Paul is telling the believer that he will always do what he does not want to do. This is a relatively contemporary concept that was absent until maybe Calvanism, I’m not entirely sure of the timing.
I would like to point out just a couple of things to hopefully show that we might need to look at Romans 7 in a new light…the light of the Holy Spirit, who teaches perfectly His own thoughts, His own truth.
We see that Paul has let us know here in Romans (this is one of my favorite books) that this is his gospel. He says it. If John is the gospel according to John, then Romans is the gospel according to Paul. Paul was given the task of unpacking the gospel. Jesus stated it, Paul explained what was stated.
Paul knows he is getting into very complex territory here. But he has seen something that he must communicate to his brethren. It is why he was born, and his love for the Lord and the Lord’s people insists that he do it. So, Paul establishes himself as one having the authority to teach such things. He even says, “I magnify my office” (that is the office of apostle…someone who has seen the Lord and is sent with a message) in order to hopefully open ears to what he has to say. Romans is the gospel. It is the story of the fall of man, the death of God in the flesh to atone for that fall, and the salvation of God’s precious creation, mankind exclusively and only by grace through faith and NOTHING else. Paul is speaking with the authority given him by God and he has to make this authority known, so we will “listen up”.
Now, Peter tells us that some things in the Word of God are HARD to understand. This is maybe one of the hardest. But it is critical to understand it. I would like to make just a couple of points very briefly to maybe spark the thought of the possibility that Paul is indeed saying something far different than what the contemporary church ( maybe the last several hundred years?) has thought.
In Chapter 6 we see that he has built his point up to a crescendo of sorts. He explains that the one redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, should live no longer in sin. He needs to be dead to sin. In chapter 7 we see Paul explain who he was BEFORE Jesus got hold of him. He says that before salvation he has one nature, after salvation, two natures (we know these to be the old and the new man). The two war against each other. But he says up until a point only (we will look at this point); that all the new man wants to do, he doesn’t do (the good things) and all that the new man doesn’t want to do, he does.
But then he finishes up this lengthy thought with this: “who shall save me from this body of death!” Then he answers himself…Christ Jesus!
Now let’s glance at what Christ Jesus does for him, or enables him to do. Because it is OUR doing IN Him. He won’t do it for us. If we wait around for Him to do it, it’ll never get done. He mentions a couple of things that are important to look at. He mentions his mind and that it is captive by sin.
Skip to Romans 12. Paul is telling us that we MUST be transformed by the RENEWING of our mind (this is the mind of Christ, by the way). We will see in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that it is done by taking every thought captive that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and making it obey Christ.
Maybe next, we will show how the mind of Christ is developed and not given at salvation. This is explained in 1 Cor. 1-3, very clearly…we have not understood it today.
So, in Romans 7, Paul says the mind is captive (this is the believer, but the still carnal believer), in 2 Corin. he says we must then take captive our thoughts and MAKE them obey Christ. Paul says in Romans 7 that his mind is what is captive. In Romans 12, he insists that we must be transformed by RENEWING our mind.
In Romans 12, Paul says if we will do this, and it is done by offering ourselves as a LIVING sacrifice on God’s altar, we WILL be a pure and holy sacrifice unto God.
Now, Paul gives us a critical picture here of the altar of God. Remember that only a lamb with no spot is allowed on the altar. So, a believer who is still hanging on to sin and self rule, is filled with spots and CANNOT get on God’s altar. He is indeed covered in the blood but his spots remain in a current sense until he dies to self rule. (He who saves his life will lose it, he who loses his life will save it…) “Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God and His RIGHTEOUSNESS…” Why is the believer told to seek His righteousness? God finds us, we don’t find him. A critical truth is hidden here.
We are not discussing salvation here, this is a foregone conclusion. We are discussing maturity, holiness, blamelessness. The newly saved believer is blameless in a future sense, yes. That is because Jesus completes every work He begins. But Paul is beseeching (fervently pleading or begging) BELIEVERS, not unbelievers, to present themselves holy by renewing their minds, so they CAN be placed on His altar. If Paul were referring to the lost here, he would be preaching a works gospel. But he is speaking only to the saved, the indwelt. The unsaved CANNOT renew their minds. And the saved, evidently need to do something here.
Now, in order to present ourselves pure and holy to God, a death MUST occur. Jesus stated it, remember, now Paul explains it here. Jesus already was the dying Lamb, the slain Lamb. But we are also sheep. Because He already died on that altar, we don’t have to literally die…that would accomplish nothing. But we must have a death. It is death to sin. When we are dead to sin, there is NOW and now only no spot IN thee. Paul says we now can offer ourselves as a LIVING sacrifice on His altar. The sacrifice is death to the old man.
When trying to reconcile when this spotlessness happens in an actual sense, we have to look at the entire word to discern it. We also are wise to keep this truth in mind, and it is mentioned right here in Romans, of course. The Holy Spirit speaks of things which are not, as though they were. Why? Because if it will one day be, it already IS to Him. God lives in and speaks from the eternal now.
I will submit that God does not call a new believer, or a rebellious believer, spotless, who is still not yet walking by the Spirit. He will one day be spotless, this is inevitable. But until he has died to self and sin and God has declared it so (death frees us from sin Rom. 6:7), this is either actual physical death or death to our own will that comes against God, he walks in the flesh…always fighting the flesh, until it also is made holy. A believer’s rebellion is the only obstacle to this death. He is ruled by his soul still which is filled with me, myself and I and all I feel and want and touch and taste, etc. The soul and body are fleshly until they are made spiritual. This is the believer. His spirit is infused with God. But the soul and body are still under the control of the old man…he is a divided house, double-minded. But Jesus is away building us a house, right? This is it!
Remember Jesus saying two things to the woman caught in adultery: He expressed her salvation because she simply looked to Him (remember the pole in the desert), “Woman, neither do I condemn you” and her sanctification,or maturity, or death to self rule, “Now, go sin no more”.
People will rise only to the heights they believe are possible. But the authority of the Word of God overwhelmingly says and demands even, that we can and must be done with sin. God does not require of us what He has not equipped us for. But the Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer is all that is needed to walk in His fullness. But self must step aside first, and allow single-minded devotion and obedience to God to reign in his heart. Freedom is known at this point. The deliverance from this body of death Paul mentioned, is for here and now and not just then and there. Remember that in 1 Corinthians 3, we see believers arriving in Heaven having sent nothing ahead of them. Some will have sent much fruit, and some will have sent none. Both are saved, both in Heaven forever. The one barely saved, thinks he cannot here and now die to sin.
If every believer is dead to sin at salvation, and literally has to die to nothing (calvanism), then why are there believers in Heaven who barely got there? Jesus said believers must abide in Him to produce fruit ( fruit being a complex concept and not just good deeds). Some believers will arrive in Heaven having no fruit whatsoever. They were their own masters, living in the soulish flesh, ruled by emotions and refusing to submit to God, exercising their own will above God’s. How is a believer who always fights sin and the flesh free? He isn’t yet. He will be in Heaven, but what he doesn’t know because Satan has hid this from him, is that he CAN be free now. Not free TO sin, but free FROM sin.
Jesus will not look at them and say like He says to the Bride, there is no spot IN you, until they are freed from the body by actual death. But we can be free from the body of sin and death now, if we will allow our spirits to penetrate the soul and then the body. Jesus spoke of it in John 17, when He asked that each believer be one (body, soul and spirit agreeing, not a divided house, but single minded) and then hidden with Christ in God. In this instance, Jesus is NOT asking for the unity of the whole church, but the unity of each individual believer…He says sanctified, one in Him.
Now Satan has been very clever. He knows what the Holy Spirit is up to in every generation. He works his deception accordingly. The holiness doctrine is one that surfaces to confuse every time the Spirit decides to resurface this topic to His beloved church. The holiness doctrine teaches that we must obsess over outward things like speech, possessions OR the lack of them, what we eat, where we go etc., who we see, how often we attend church, how active we are in the many, many busy activities that are present today in the church but were absent in the first church…it goes on and on. It is binding, restrictive, of the flesh and has no resemblance to God Himself.
True holiness is rare and free and pure and simple and sweet and clean and lovely.
The fruit of the Spirit is all these things, and guess what…against these lovely things, there is no law!!!
I hope that sparks some consideration and maybe a new look at Romans 7.
The Lord bless you and keep you today!
Love,
Cheryl
Faith in its infancy is always taking. It’s center of thought and being is self and all that self needs to thrive. It’s main focus is on how much God loves me. This is a necessary and good stage but one that God longs for every believer to leave behind in order to take possession of a higher love. The lofty place or room, so to speak, where all I know is how much I love God. In order to enter into this knowledge the former must first be known, that God LOVES me.
If someone has truly come in through the Gate, the love of God for the believer has flooded his heart, the Holy Spirit bearing witness to this truth. This believer will rapidly begin to discern that there is something yet higher than knowing God’s love for me. And that is that I LOVE GOD!!!!! Remember that we love God because He first loved us.
This is pictured so well in Song of Songs. The bride is seen upon her bed, all snuggled in for the evening, basking in her new found romance with the Lover of her soul. She KNOWS that God really loves her. She is beside herself with deep joys. Yet strangely, when her very Beloved comes to her door to call her out, she doesn’t want to get up. She is comfortable and even lazy, having been lavished with the love of her Beloved, God Himself. She says that she has already taken off her robe and gotten settled, why does He want her to rise up? There is a closed door between them still. He is trying to open it but she must come to turn the knob.
Then, something in her heart realizes that there is something better than reclining in the glory of His love. She jumps up and runs to the door to get to Him…but alas, He has departed. He removed Himself from her for a moment to force her growth into a mature, consummated relationship with her Beloved.
She now will go through whatever it takes to get to Him. She is in the darkness of night searching, beaten by the guards (killing the flesh in her) but she takes no notice of it.
All she knows now is that she is consumed by the love in HER heart FOR God.
Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive. And it is indeed. It is also more blessed to love than to be loved. This is what God wants us to learn.
Let’s look again at Song of Songs. We can see a truth that is incomprehensible to us unless we have entered into the higher love that is God centered and not me centered… that is knowing that I LOVE GOD now instead of just focusing on the fact that He loves me.
It is God Himself pictured here in the Beloved who asks the Bride to turn her eyes from Him because He cannot bear her beauty anymore. He cannot bear her beauty anymore because she has become JUST like Him! She is all lovely and all beauty exactly like her Husband, Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom. She no longer takes and takes and takes satisfying the insatiable longing to be filled up with the love of God. She is filled to overflowing and perpetually overflowing. She now only gives. Just like Him!!!!
This is a sweetness that only God knows. He would rather love than to receive it. This is seen in the atonement. The beauty is this: once a believer has risen to this love, he now loves others whether they love him or not (love your enemy). And it is most glorious to do it. This love isn’t dependent upon how others treat me or how they behave or anything. This love is God’s love pouring through me.
So truly this is the perfecting of the believer ( “Leaving the elementary things of Christ behind now and moving on to perfection…that is, Christ likeness”), and Jesus said it so concisely, which is always His way. That is that I now DO love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind (that is, body, soul and spirit because we are also a trinity, made in His image), AND I am now able to love my neighbor as myself.
Thank You Lord,
Be blessed today,
Cheryl
Why was Jesus born in a stall?
Why were shepherds the first to see Him?
Why in Bethlehem?
It was more than because these are humble things; infinitely more. It is thought that Bethlehem was where Passover lambs were born. And who would be the first to see the lambs born but shepherds? and where are little lambs born? Not in an inn, but in a stall.
The word of God is packed with patterns that tell the gospel truth. These are amazing ones. Now here are some other questions? Should a Christian celebrate Christmas? Well, let’s look at its history and more importantly, the scriptures, to get an answer.
The incarnate birth of Jesus is told and prophesied of through out God’s word. So if we are studiers of His word, His precious birth will enter our hearts and minds in a celebratory way all year long. This is what I think God has in mind. A seasonal or yearly or even a days event is not only not seen anywhere in the word, but it is hidden forever…unknowable. Why does the God who reveals secrets rather than keep secrets, hide this? Maybe for the same reason He hid Moses’ burial place. Because men are bent toward idol worship and fall so easily into it. He knew the church would worship an event, a season, a day and miss the glory of His incarnation entirely…and they have.
We also know that Jesus is God. He is the Son of God but we know that He is Creator God, the Great I AM…He says so Himself (…because you don’t believe that I AM, you will die in your sins…) John 8:24). God had no beginning. Hebrews 6:20-7:1-3 says that Jesus was made our great High Priest after the order of Melchisadec who was King of Righteousness, King of Salem (Jerusalem) and King of Peace, had no mother or father and no descent, having no beginning and no end… who remains priest continually. God goes out of His way to help us to have in the forefront of our minds that Jesus had no beginning; He has always been.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:15-16 that now after Jesus has ascended back into His place of glory from eternity past, that because He died and rose again, we know Him after the flesh no longer.
I know that God is trying to pull the tentacles of Christmas out of the church, because it is an idol and a deterrent to deep knowledge of Christ. I also know that when a generation is so steeped in idol worship, it takes a generation to get it out. Very few will have a ready ear to hear God’s instruction on leading in such a way. Of the few who do hear, even fewer of them will have the strength to do it. It comes with tremendous backlash.
However, I have seen that nearly all of God’s great works, and even His ways in general, are only seen clearly way after the fact. It is in the looking back that we can see God’s hand all along. Only when something big is accomplished for the Kingdom can we stop, look back and say, I SEE!
So it is with getting the word out about this pagan holiday. One of the fears as a grand parent is this: But you are depriving your children/grandchildren of the sweet joy of the season, of the fun of gifts and anticipation, etc. he will have to look at his peers and see that he does not get to join in…
But the short-sightedness of man is seen here best. Do we ever stop to think on these lines: Maybe the fact that he misses all those things, makes him able to see infinitely higher spiritual things, that others can’t see, who have settled for a cheap counterfeit to true joy. Maybe just maybe he will be the new generation where the corruption of such a thing as Christmas is not an issue.
I am that stop-gap in my generations. It stops here, because I have heard from God. I’ll be the anvil upon which the blows of God’s refining hammer come crashing down…helping in some way the Lord form His beloved church into the very image of God.
Just a simple investigation into every single aspect of this holiday will reveal what it is.
What wonderful thing will the Lord reveal when the idol of such a pagan season is gone forever from the church?
A follow up on the love of God as Paul expounds upon it in Romans:
Romans 1-3 is critical to understand when studying the heart of God. In 2 and 3, Paul is explaining how God’s truth is written on man’s heart. God’s desire is that man’s heart be pure, like His. Then he will automatically keep His Word. It is that simple.
Paul explains that man’s tendencies are to keep the letter of the law (word) and entirely miss the heart of it. He says physical circumcision or uncircumcision mean nothing. In other words, what is done externally may mean nothing. It is what is on the heart (what God sees on the heart) that matters, and what truly guides outward things.
Paul explains this in the best terms he can (as a man). He is teaching very high spiritual truth and only has human language to express it. Its like trying to build a mansion using pebbles. He is asking the reader to come up higher with him and to not stumble on the limited language (don’t strain the gnat and swallow a camel). He wants us to let the word linger in the mouth and the scent of it to come up through the nose and the sense of smell, savoring what is really there. He is warning us not to gulp it down and miss the heart entirely….focusing on the letter and missing the heart.
Now Paul says that man tends to look to man to establish what righteousness is. He does this by using his highest understanding. But it is not high enough, so he falls short of true understanding.
In other words, a man may understand that God’s word has forbidden vengeance. But he looks at God and sees that God, even in the midst of mercy, often excersizes vengeance. Paul explains this apparent conundrum so well.
He says that man is tempted to look at harsh things in the word (I could list thousands), and say that God’s word is of no effect then. It doesn’t make sense (so he reorganizes it so that it makes sense to him). This always leads to cutting out the harsh things and grasping the soft things.
But Paul answers, “God forbid! Let God be true and every man a liar.” This is critical. Paul is establishing that only God establishes what is good, true, holy, pure, just, love. We don’t.
A believer who has not ascended here still determines truth by his human reasoning—which always leads to legalism, then liberalism. This believer is bound by many false doctrines, all man-made. He thinks he is free. He cannot think as God thinks yet. If it is the love doctrine, he is bound by all that is human love. This love doesn’t involve the heart. It obsesses over outward things—appearances, words, deeds, rules, etc.
But God is a consuming fire. He told Israel, the love of His heart, that He was the One Who wounded them with the wounds of a cruel enemy because of their sin. God’s love purifies. Man’s love is impotent, with no power to transform. It disappears like a vapor.
The man who has entered into agape, is truly free. He is bound by nothing, except his all consuming love for God (In all the world there is none but Thee oh God!).
This love for God inadvertently rules him, lures him by its sweetness, to do the perfect will of God. There is no regulating or compelling. It is the very air they breathe. He would rather die than to offend the Lover of his soul.
The man who has not risen to agape yet, is still bound by sin. He may have been forgiven, cleansed, but sin still binds him. He has an appearance of holiness (don’t touch, don’t taste, don’t this or that). But it is just that…an appearance. He is just like the Pharisee or the religious. He obsesses over things God never showed any interest in, tries to bind others according to this man made doctrine, but breaks every law he has himself set. He is first a legalist and then a liberal. The love of God eludes him. This is why Jesus said of them, “do what they say, just don’t do what they do.” He said they were white washed sepulchers filled with dead men’s bones. He was ruthless with these people who distorted God’s heart. How is the legalist a liberal? He is because he has first bound himself and others by so many rules and regulations that in order to prove to himself and others that he is not a legalist, he becomes visibly liberal.
Now here is where it gets even more complicated, but not beyond our understanding. Paul in chapter 3 describes the world (not the redeemed). He says there is none righteous, they are deceitful, full of cursing and bitterness, full of destruction and misery they have no fear of God. This is what the law gets them, and the ones bound by the laws of false doctrines.
Paul goes on to explain well here how the law (don’t this and that), is useful to show how mankind is sinful and in need of a Savior. He wraps it up that this Savior comes only by grace through faith in Christ Jesus! Paul expressed earlier that the prophets constantly and tirelessly taught the gospel of Christ. He reiterates that in Romans 3:21.
He ends chapter three by returning to how a man is saved. He is saved by faith in this Jesus who taught and teaches us to preach, repentance for the remission of sins, by and through His blood!
Where there is a believer who is ever holding the power of the cross and the resurrection in his heart, there is a free believer, bound by no man made doctrine, absorbed in the true love of God and equipped to pour that same love out to others according to the power that works within him. Where there is a believer who forgets the simplicity of the cross, he binds himself and others with all manner of regulation, falls for every wind of strange doctrine, sets rules and limits that are not in accordance with the simple word of God and lives a life without His peace, filled with very high highs and very low lows. There is no healthy steadiness about him.
Where true agape and peace are evident, then “Behold, the Kingdom of God is suddenly upon us”, and all of a sudden, all things are possible.
The Lord bless you and keep you!
Love,
Cheryl
Here is a wonderful truth that we see throughout all of the Lord’s teachings and the rest of the entire word. It is a consistent truth that is exhibited so well in one incident recorded in Acts. As I was reading this morning I was compelled to share it.
We know that Bible prophecy declares that as time goes on awaiting the return of the Lord, the world declines becoming more ungodly and the “church” follows suit (as in the days of Noah). God is always gathering His own but in the midst of that, tares settle in with the wheat, or, birds lodge in the branches of the mustard tree, and there is a woman working leaven (always means sin and deception) into the lump of bread (the lump of bread being the church).
One of the most prevalent ways this is done especially today is through a gradual dismantling of the true gospel. The only gospel that saves. Paul’s dealings with Felix in Acts exemplifies this truth.
Today, in general, it is unsavory to speak of the sin nature of man and his need for repentance leading to salvation. Instead, teachers are overwhelmingly assuming that a softer truth will serve us better and more gently reach the lost. But it is a theme found nowhere in the word of God, but everywhere in our churches today.
Most think we can love people into the Kingdom of God. That we can reach the lost by telling them how much God loves them. Here is why this doesn’t work:
Jesus told the disciples to “go and preach repentance for the remission of sins”. He never said that we should go and love others into the Kingdom. The love of God is only known to the repentant. The true love of God first preaches repentance and the remission of sins, but always in the most loving and lovely way. The loveliness of Paul’s dealings with Felix is a perfect example. It is not soft…but lovely. Where this truth is absent, so is the love of God absent. God loves the world , yes, so much so that He gave His only begotten Son to die. But in order to truly enter in to that love, sin has to be gotten out of the way. In other words, sin must be dealt with in order to know God’s love. So the first order of business when reaching the lost is to deal with and express our sin nature and the remedy for it. Only then can the love of God be poured forth by His Spirit into the heart of the redeemed! Look at the parable of the man trying to get into the wedding without a wedding garment. He has come in another way! He has not addressed sin and been covered by His blood!
I’m fascinated by Paul’s parallel life to Jesus’ (which the word says should also be ours). It’s fun to study it. Well, when he was taken to stand before Felix to plead his innocence, look what he said. Can we see that a primary reason that the Holy Spirit sent Paul to Felix was in order to save that which is lost, and then to spend the rest of his life writing the epistles, expounding , unpacking the gospel? but Felix declined the invitation. Paul didn’t butter Felix up at all. He immediately gave him the gospel, Felix trembled and sent Paul away.
The scriptures say that Paul spoke of the resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. Then later he reasoned with Felix in these areas and in this order, 1-of righteousness, 2-of temperance (self-control) and 3- of the judgement to come. Felix trembled and refused. In other words, the Holy Spirit brought conviction of sin which made him tremble, but there was no repentance. God goes to everyone, even when He knows they are not His…they are not sheep because they do not hear His voice. But He gives all the choice.
The word tells us that every conscience knows it is a sinner (Romans 1-2). The word says that if a man says he has not sinned he makes Him a liar (1 John); so every heart created has the knowledge that he is a sinner and in need of salvation…which causes him to want a remedy.
If we as a church come to the lost and say that there is another way into the Kingdom, over the wall, or in any other way, then the lost heart knows it is not true. He knows first and foremost that he is a sinner and needs a remedy. Lavishing love upon him won’t do it. We must lead them in through the Gate, that is Jesus. He is the only way in.
Jesus warned us of this. He showed us that deceivers will bring softer, more palatable “truths” to the world. He said, “Don’t think I came to bring peace, but a sword and fire, and how I wish it were already kindled!” We are to love peace and to be peaceable ourselves, but if we expect peace here, we are expecting something Jesus said will not come, until He returns. The false church is teaching that by being peaceful and loving, we will usher in the Kingdom and save all men. Jesus taught the opposite and was ruthless to those religious leaders who muddled God’s truth. He said there will be no peace until He comes and brings it. We cannot usher in world peace and salvation (the zealots thought this and were wrong). This is a Kingdom now doctrine and is priming many to follow antichrist. The appetites are being primed for exactly what antichrist will offer. It is a great deception, and all because of a misunderstanding and muddling of last day prophecy. Remember that Israel (as a nation) did not know prophecy either. That is why they missed Christ’s appearance.
Interestingly, in Revelation, those who will fall for anti-christ will be the very ones who are just looking for peace. They like soft things, only pleasant things. The church’s sins parallel Israel’s in astounding ways. The Israelites who refused to listen to Jeremiah and the other prophets, who were exhorting them to repent and go into Babylon, just wanted peace! Don’t give us this conviction stuff. They followed false gods, one’s that did not mention sin or anything harsh. But they were false. And they hated Jeremiah because he had hard truth to save them. The false prophets were teaching “peace, peace, when there was no peace”. Why? the scriptures say they were deceptive and light, preaching peace when there was no peace, because they wanted to be liked…approved of by man. Isaiah calls them dumb dogs that cannot bark to warn. Now the Word says that it is the Holy Spirit who spoke through Isaiah and the rest, so the Holy Spirit is calling the false peace prophets dumb dogs!
His kindness leads to repentance, but I can’t think of anything kinder than being willing to be placed in prison in the mire, like Jeremiah, like Paul, and hated by the brethren, in order to just lead them in the way of truth.
1 Thessalonians 5 explains how in the last days those who will be found asleep, those who will be deceived, those who will be overtaken as a thief overtakes unaware, are the very ones who are looking for and expecting peace and safety and all good things. Jesus said, I did not come to bring it. Here is our warning.
Jesus is gathering His flock, yes. He is transforming the redeemed into His image, yes. But is He bringing world peace and safety, no, absolutely no. Look at the warning of the giant, abnormal tree that was supposed to be a bush (mustard tree parable). It refers to the last day church that is huge but unnaturally huge. And it has birds, meaning wickedness and deception, lodging in it, being sheltered in it. Jesus said the way is narrow and FEW find it. Revelation shows us that the historic church and last day church, true church, is very small.
The amazing thing is that those who are trying to live the Christian life and have come into the Kingdom, so to speak, by another way, maybe through the false love doctrine, don’t know peace. They don’t know love. Peace and the love of God, agape, only belong to the redeemed and to no one else. The redeemed have been born again and possess the Holy Spirit within, Who is very peace and love Himself! God is love.
Bring the lost through the Gate (Jesus) and they will be flooded with the knowledge of this peace and overwhelmed with His love. Bring them in through softer ways and they will be forever groping for this elusive thing called the love of God. This is why church after church after church is abandoning the Word and its hard yet loved filled truth of deliverance and redemption. They just want peace, at all costs. But it never comes apart from repentance for the remission of sins. Where the word is absent, license sets in. Where license sets in, so do all manner of unclean things. Where there is a church that has lodged all unclean things, calling them holy because it “keeps the peace”, there is no deliverance. True freedom and deliverance come from a love relationship with the Bridegroom. But we must be the Bride of Christ to know this love.
If these things are evident to you and press you, I hope you’ll pass it on if you are so led. The Lord bless you,
In His love,
Cheryl
One more bit of wonder. As I thought of Mary’s song, I thought of the wonder in her heart over her selection to be the chosen of God. Then my mind went to the scripture where a woman in the crowd around Jesus as He was teaching yelled out, “Blessed is the woman who bore You…!
Jesus’ response is astounding in light of Mary’s chosenness. He quickly corrected saying, “Rather, blessed are all who love Me, for all who do My will are my mother, brother, sister, etc.
Aren’t we then, who have the seed of Christ in us, in our heart, blessed just like Mary!
Jesus said it.
Here is a neat pattern in the word. Think of the body of the believer being the temple of the Holy Spirit. We all know that the Temple and it’s pattern and implements and very existence for that matter is a picture of the heart of man redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Now think of the parables and exhortations in the New Testament where we are advised to “come up to a higher room”. We are given this idiom as a picture of going higher with God in the knowledge of God or, of growing spiritually; ie. becoming more like Christ.
Well, if we look at the very clear pattern for the temple in Ezekiel for example, we see that the side rooms, or chambers, were stacked one upon another winding upward.
How amazing is this since we know that these chambers picture the hidden chambers of the heart of man and Jesus’ cleansing work in the heart of the redeemed.
Just thought I’d share.
Love,
C
Hello to all on my email list. I hope I am not intruding on any of you this morning with this message concerning this great light. But it is so good and so uplifting that I felt compelled to send it to all.
This morning as I was reading Mark’s gospel, I came to the glorious “magnificat’. Hope I spelled that right. For those of you who don’t know, it is Mary’s song as she quoted Hannah’s prayer to the LORD when Hannah found out she was to have a child. Mary exalts God when she meets with her cousin Elizabeth, who is also to have a very special child…as is she.
Mary says “for He that is mighty has done to me great things…!”
Many months ago I was asked by someone the meaning of a very obscure scripture. I took it to the Lord because it was also quite obscure to me. The scripture is found in 1 Timothy 2:15. Paul says that a woman shall be saved in childbearing.
Here is what I discovered, and it is so wonderful that I am moved this morning, as we draw near to Resurrection Sunday, to share what I found.
When I read 1 Timothy 2:15, I was taken by the Spirit immediately to two other scriptures. The first was the account of the fall, when Eve was deceived and sin entered the world. We know the Word says that Adam sinned because he was not deceived and chose to disobey God anyway, but keep in mind that it was through Eve that deception came and then sin entered in.
Isn’t it magnificent then that God chose the woman to bring forth the Messiah, the remedy to sin!!! How gracious is He! “Oh God, in wrath remember mercy!”
The second scripture was Jeremiah 31:22, which says: ” the LORD has created a new thing in the earth. A woman shall compass a man…”.
I believe these scriptures are all tied together and speak a glorious truth. Woman shall be saved in childbearing (this is the new thing Jer. was talking about; a woman shall encompass a man). In other words, Messiah shall come from the woman’s womb…this is how woman is saved in childbearing, and not only she but the world.
Woman was the vehicle from which sin entered the world. Isn’t it God’s merciful way then that she would also be the means by which the Savior of the world would enter in!
Hallelujah!!!
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son…A people in darkness have seen a great light…for unto us a child is born” (Isaiah 7-9).
Be blessed,
Cheryl
Jesus, our Passover Lamb
The Passover Feast
1 Corinthians 10: 6&11 “Now these things happened to Israel for our example…”
Leviticus 23:5 “In the fourteenth day of the first month (Abib in Hebrew, Nisan in Babylonian tongue…used during captivity in Babylon) at sunset, is the Lord’s Passover.”
Exodus 12:1-11 “ On the 10th day of Abib (Nisan) you shall select a lamb…one per family.”
“It shall be a male lamb, of the first year, without blemish.”
“You are to keep it up until the 14th day (the 14th of Nisan).”
“In the evening of the 14th day you shall kill the Lamb.”
“Put its blood on the doorposts of the house where it is eaten.”
“Roast the meat, do not braze it. Eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
“ Do not let any of it remain uneaten”. “Whatever is left, burn with fire.”
“In so doing, the angel of death will (pass over) the household.”
“This is the Lord’s Passover.”
His death is our salvation.
The bitter herbs represent the bitterness of slavery to sin, and the bitterness of His necessary death.
Mark 11:1-11 On the 10th of Nisan, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey. The crowd gathered around Him and shouted “Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
They had just selected THE Passover Lamb, whose blood would cover them that believe, delivering them from death. It happened on the 10th of Nisan at the exact same time all of Israel was selecting their lambs for the Passover feast that was coming in 4 days. No one had any idea what they were doing.
Matthew 26:17-21 Jesus tells the disciples to go prepare for the Passover. He sat down with them and ate the Passover meal. He told them to eat and drink all of it, for this was His body and His blood…shed for the remission of sins (vs 27-28).
Jesus never calls this a last supper. He does call it the Passover feast that they should do till He returns. He says HE will not drink of the fruit of the vine until He does it with us in His Father’s Kingdom. The church continued to keep this feast in remembrance of His death and resurrection, on Passover every year.
That night, he would be examined by 6 mock trials. Every one examining Him could find no flaw in Him. Even Pilot said, “I find no guilt in this man”…3 times, he said it.
As these examinations were occurring by the religious leaders (and the Romans, but reluctantly) who would crucify Him, they were also examining all of Israel’s Passover lambs to make sure they had no spot in them. Jesus was found as the Lamb of God, without sin. No one could find any spot in Him.
This is still the 14th of Nisan that began at sunset. He is tried through the night. Then every bit of His flesh is consumed by beating, until He is no longer recognizable as a human (Isaiah 52:14 …many were astonished at you. His appearance and His form, were marred more than any man…meaning beyond the appearance of a human).
Jesus stood before His accusers and would not say a word in self defense. The lambs who were all going to be slain for all the people’s Passover meals were being shorn at the same time. Lambs are silent as they are being shorn, and they stand still, without resistance, as they go to slaughter.
“ I was not rebellious, neither did I turn back. I gave My back to the smiters and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I did not hide My face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).
The Book of the Prophet
Isaiah
53
1
Who hath believed our report? Rom. 10.16 and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? Joh. 12.38
2
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4
¶ Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: Mt. 8.17 yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 1 Pet. 2.24
6
All we like sheep have gone astray; 1 Pet. 2.25 we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7
¶ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, Rev. 5.6 and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: Acts 8.32, 33 for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 1 Pet. 2.22
10
¶ Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors: Mk. 15.28 · Lk. 22.37 and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
The sky turned dark for three hours as Jesus was being crucified. “You shall slay the lamb at evening on the 14th day.”
God caused the sky to turn dark while it was mid-day; was this so that the pattern would be perfect? How could Jesus eat the Passover lamb and also BE THE Passover Lamb at the same time? It is because a day according to the Creator occurs from sunset to the following sunset…not sun up to sundown, like our day. So God caused the sun to set at noon that day on the 14th…therefore being evening on the 14th.
The next day, after His death, was the 15th…this begins the feast of unleavened bread. It is a time of purification…getting the sin out of the house (getting the sin out of our selves…our house, body). It is a picture of two things. First it is a picture of Jesus’ sinless body (the unleavened bread) cleansing us from all unrighteousness. His blood, on Passover, covered our guilt for sin. Now, His sinless body is cleansing us from all unrighteousness…getting the leaven, or the sin out of us. This feast goes on for 7 days. This is also pictured in Exodus as the Israelites wondered in the desert eating unleavened bread. God delivered them out of Egypt (out of sin), now He had to get Egypt, (sin ) out of them. Unleavened bread refers to Christ’s sinless body. Jesus tells us that the manna they ate in the wilderness was His body. So their 40 year wondering is a picture of our journey in Christ as He gets the sin out of us, making us like Him. Crossing Jordan, out of the wilderness, represents intimate fellowship with God. The land of milk and honey…not Heaven, but here, in Christ’s fullness. It is also pictured on the last day of the feast of unleavened bread. All the leaven (sin) that was found in the house (our body, our heart) is baked in bread and not eaten but given to God. This pictures the believer handing all our sin in the heart over to God…making way for deep fellowship.
On the 17th of Nisan, 3 days and 3 nights after Passover, Jesus is raised from the dead! He is risen! This begins the feast of firstfruits. The firstfruit offering is the first and best of the harvest. Jesus, on the 17th of Nisan, is raised from the dead, ascends to the Father in Heaven and presents Himself as the firstfruits offering on the very day of firstfruits. It is complete. Sin has been paid for and the first (Jesus) of the resurrection to come (us) has gone to the Father. This is a promise of more to come. The more to come is all who will put their trust in Christ (the full harvest)…we will be raised from the dead also (the resurrection of the dead).
Mary Magdaline was the first to see Jesus as He arose. Why? Because she was there waiting in belief and hope. She could not touch Him until He presented Himself to the Father…He was on His way in His resurrected body. If she had touched Him, she would have contaminated the firstfruit offering. This can only be handled and brought into the Holy of Holies by the High Priest. Jesus is THE High Priest.
The firstfruit offering is waved before the Lord. It is a fellowship offering. This means that the covering and cleansing is complete and now there is a way…
On the 8th day, Jesus could now be touched. His disciples were able to touch His resurrected body.
So the feast of firstfruits on the 17th of Nisan represents His accomplishment and promise to return in glory for His sheep!
He is risen!
We can ask ourselves: With such proof and miraculously timed events, and fulfilled prophecy, how is it that Israel is blinded to this? Jesus said it was because of their unbelief and love of tradition rather than love for His word (Matthew 15). They missed Him when He came.
But how is it that the church does not see this and celebrate it anymore? Let’s go back to the opening of this email. Israel and her path all happened as examples to us, the church.
The Jewish Passover today is so filled with extra things that God never ordered that the gospel is completely hidden to them because of all the traditions they added. Has the church done the same thing with Easter and all its strange traditions and add-ons?
The few Jews who did see Christ when He came, were those the Bible says were waiting for Him, watching for Him. They saw Him when He came. They knew the scriptures, not the man-made traditions. The ones who were busy with the traditions of man (Matthew 15) Jesus says were blind and did not see Him. Jesus says concerning these blind guides, “Leave them alone. They are blind guides, leading blind followers…both will fall into a ditch.”
So how was it possible for none of the religious to see that He was chosen as the Lamb on the 10th, was crucified as the Lamb on the 14th, was raised as the victorious Lamb on the 17th? And to then say…The Messiah has come!!! Fulfilling all the scriptures!
Well, how is it possible for the church to let the 14th go by unnoticed, then the 17th…etc? Instead there is a season Lent, not in the Bible, with all its holy days, not in the Bible and completely incorrect. Is it because the church is busy with her man-made traditions, just like the religious of His day.
Remember that Israel was looking for the Messiah too. But they missed Him.
We need to know the scriptures, watch for His appearing, and be ready when He returns!
God bless!