tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91782987334259240922024-03-13T03:18:52.015-07:00The Love of GodRebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-76348677620522506402012-07-27T09:56:00.000-07:002017-01-03T12:42:08.174-08:00Called to speak out<div style="text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Called to speak out...</span></i><br />
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<i><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be - (Psalm 139:14-15, NIV).</span>
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My grandson Zachary born 12 weeks early along with his twin brother Luke. They both suffer from cerebral palsy.<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "lucida grande" , "tahoma" , "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Zach and Luke</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have not written a post here for awhile, I have not been able to blog like I had planned, it just takes time I haven't had.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But the Lord spoke to me this morning and put it on my heart to write this post. It concerns a topic I would rather not address because of it's controversial nature and it is laced with much pain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Because I have been praying lately to be faithful in whatever the Lord asks of me, I am writing this post.</span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">My Utmost for His Highest</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> by Oswald Chambers. On October tenth, he wrote, “All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately. ...Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up…God will never reveal more truth about himself until you have obeyed what you already know."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I want to be faithful to the calling I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I would like to start out by saying there isn't a problem, situation or need in our lives that you won't find a solution to in the Word of God. The Bible addresses every need known to mankind. If I have a question I go to the word and pray, if it is a crisis I get on my knees. I spend time with God to know His heart, so when problems rise I know what to do. It is in the inner work that gets you through the trials that come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>I must realize that my obedience even in the smallest detail of life has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it” (O. Chambers June 15). “If I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God” (O. Chambers November 2).</i></span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">It is with that knowledge of who God is that I must stand and be counted even when it is not the popular choice. It has become a popular thought today not to have a strong opinion on any given subject... live and let live, of course unless you are an unborn fetus.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I am not here to discuss the issues, I have heard them on both sides and everyone thinks they have the right answer. I am only looking at this subject in the light of scripture, as I do in every detail of my life. I do not consider myself to be a political person, I am not involved with any specific party. But I do have strong convictions based on the Holy Spirit in me and I do stand on those convictions. If you do not believe in something and stand on those beliefs then you will be swayed in all directions and become a double minded person.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>James 1:8 </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I do want to add that I was involved with the pro-life movement when Roe vs Wade was before the supreme court and I did march in protest to try and overturn the decision... that was back a few years! I just want to be upfront here and lay before you where I am coming from.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I do want to add a few facts based on independent studies</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">• Nearly half of all pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these end in abortion.[1]</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">• About half of American women will have an unintended pregnancy, [2] and nearly one-third will have an abortion, by age 45.[3]</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">• Some 1.21 million abortions were performed in 2008, down from 1.31 million abortions in 2000.[4]</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #4a3527; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">It’s estimated that around one million abortions take place annually and more than 49 million abortions have been performed in the U.S. since 1973 (based on accumulative data from the two primary sources of U.S. abortion statistics – Centers for Disease Control and Alan Guttmacher Institute).</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;">As you can see the most dangerous place to be is </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">intrauterine.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Abortion is an ugly scourge that is defiling this nation. And we as a society will and are suffering the consequences. I am not here to judge anyone. I understand the deception. I understand the circumstances that lead to abortion and my heart goes out to those that have made this choice. Given the same circumstances I dare say I might have done the same and made the same choices. I only know God is a God of love and forgiveness and my sin is no less than anyone else. The bible teaches, </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The God I know is bigger then abortion, the God I know takes away the sin of the world... yes, I said the world that includes the concept of sin. </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am not here to </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">condemn those that have committed any sin, David was the apple of God's eye and he committed murder so that he could take another mans wife. God loves you just as you are but He wants you to make good choices. Choices that will not have years of harmful affects on your life. Abortion is a bad choice, two wrongs do not make a right and eventually your bad choice in life will have to be dealt with. We are all responsible for our actions.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Taking the very life you have given life to will have a tole to pay</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">eventually, even though you might be able to reason it out in your mind today. When we make bad choices they have consequences and sometimes we don't realize the impact of those choices until years later.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">It stays in us on a cellular level, it stays in our </span> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">subconscious and in our heart, the only way to rid sin is </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">through the inner work of Jesus Christ. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">As a society to allow babies to be killed on a daily basis just baffles my mind. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I think of all those potential little wonders cut down before they could take their first breath, all the artists, teachers, scientists and doctors that might have had the answer in their DNA to cure cancer or maybe to paint another Mona Lisa. I had a vision of all these babies dancing around the throne of God and climbing on the lap of Jesus... so loved, so cared for. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">I think of all the mother's who made this choice and missed out on the blessing and love that these children would have brought them, it is heartbreaking.</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; text-align: start;">Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou </i><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee Jer. 1</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">You see it started this morning</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> when I started reading the comments on a facebook entry (680), on a picture of a 12 week fetus. There was a great debate on whether this is a 12 week fetus or 15 week, which in my mind what difference does it make!!! What is the difference if the child has formed fingernails yet or not before he or she is killed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Some of the comments haunt my soul, a generation brought up with the knowledge that the law says it is acceptable to kill. The cold calculating comments of young girls that rationalize taking a human life because "you can't afford a child or there are too many people in the world anyway."</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is the attitude of a society that makes it easier and easier to rationalize sin. It hardens the heart and we all will be at the mercy of what we have allowed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hebrews 3:10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sin doesn't enter our hearts with one big swoop but little by little, the breaking down of our thoughts. The allowing of one small disobedience of God's law to the next until it seems normal. When you first smell a stench it is offensive but if you stay in it after awhile you cannot smell it. The same with sin. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I do not preach on the law normally, Jesus came to fulfill the law because we could not keep it. It is only through Christ and what He did for us on the cross that we are able to stand blameless before the throne of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He gave us one law to keep through His grace and that is first to love the Lord your God and then to one another as He loved us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>John 3:16</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not be lost but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is through love that I come to you today to admonish you</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> to choose love. To also extend love to those that are hurting and to those that have made bad choices. God's grace is sufficient for you, it covers all our selfish acts. No matter what you have done or think God loves you and knows your name, He is forever calling to you to come into a relationship with him through Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I don't know why God called me to write on this subject today but I trust the spirit of God to speak to you through my inadequacy and touch your heart with love and healing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I would be glad to discuss any questions further that you might have through my email</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">alxfreedom@aol.com </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Please know God loves you and so do I</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Blessings</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span></div>
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Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-52533504687415629052012-03-24T20:16:00.001-07:002012-03-24T20:19:07.439-07:00Spirit of the Mind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Hello</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am starting a series of teachings my father had put together. He had such a gift from the Lord and was faithful to the Holy Spirit by listening and delving into the scriptures. He dug into the Greek to find the original meaning of words that are often mistranslated from the Hebrew to the Greek to English, especially in the King James version.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I hope this message clears up any questions you might be struggling with in this area. If this presents any questions I would be glad to help clarify by email.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have added and taken away from the original message, as it was taped and often the way we talk doesn't always translate well to writing. I hope this message sinks into your understanding by His Spirit and gives you a little more insight on what God did for us through His son Jesus Christ.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Ephesians 4:22 </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; </span><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29296" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: top;">23</sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> to be made new in the attitude of your minds; </span><sup class="versenum" id="en-NIV-29297" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; vertical-align: top;">24</sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In the beginning of that paragraph Paul says you should not live any longer as the gentiles or the nations walk. As Christians God expects us to walk in a different way than the world around us. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Because it says, "they live in the futility of their minds."</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We have been made new through the work of Jesus Christ in the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you are regenerated by the Holy Spirit,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>that is different then the baptism of the Holy Spirit.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, is the life of God implanted within us and that life is </span>incorruptible<span style="font-family: inherit;">, it has no death in it, it cannot die.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">People sometimes have an argument that you can loose your salvation, that is an exposure of our </span>ignorance's<span style="font-family: inherit;"> on what it's all about.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Because salvation is not something that is given to us, what is given to us </span><u style="font-family: inherit;">in</u><span style="font-family: inherit;"> salvation is a new life. It is a union with God Himself, a spiritual union with God Himself where He puts His life within us and that's what it means to be born again. To be born again </span>doesn't mean it's to change your way of living. To be born again means you have received spiritual life. You have been born from above, that is what it really says in John 3... we are born from above more than again. Being born from above is being born again in the spirit--being born spiritually. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And Jesus made it clear it is a spiritual birth He is talking about or a begotten of God in a spiritual way. So if we understand that really, it is foolish to say "that we can loose our salvation".</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Salvation is not something dependent on anything that we do!</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Salvation</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">is dependent on the work of God, who has </span>unilaterally with Himself and His son (and the son was God manifested in the flesh).</b> So without any help from the world or you or me or anyone, God did on behalf of the human race in Christ all that He requires of the human race. He died for the sins of the human race and He raised the human race with Christ into newness of life...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> And then<span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">this is the </span>importation<span style="font-family: inherit;"> of that work that Jesus did in a general way and legally for humanity that comes to individuals, one at a time. And that work is what Jesus referred to as being born from above or being born again. The whole world isn't born again but there are those in the world who Christ died for and redeemed and reconciled to God that </span>received<span style="font-family: inherit;"> that single touch from God called being born again or born from above. It is the </span>importation of the life of God into you the believer. Just as when you have a child as a human being, it is the life of the father and the mother that is imparted into the life of the child. So when you are born of God it is the same thing. It is the life of God the father that is imparted in the object of His purpose at that particular time, so that not everyone comes into the experience of being begotten except one at a time.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">In history we see in the book of Acts at the day of Pentecost three thousand were saved but they weren't all converted and received Christ that day, the next day some more were added. We find eventually in the early chapters of Acts where there were five thousand. It says daily they were added to the church, such as were being saved, that is a present tense.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The first step of being saved is to be born from above, you have to get the life from God before anything can be saved. What does it mean to be saved? It means to be delivered from your sins and from your old self, your old ways, your old ideas and your old habits into the new life in God. And you haven't been saved until that new life of God is manifested into your flesh. So it isn't really accurate to say I was saved in 1966 or whenever, it was started for you then. You were being saved and you are being saved today because you are being renewed by the Holy Spirit as we cooperate with Him in the life that He gave us. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now the work of God is dependent upon our cooperation in us after He has begotten us. Now you don't do anything to be begotten, anymore than your son or daughter did to get born. It's not the act of the child to bring them into the world, it was the act of the father and mother. You didn't do anything to get born again either. You were begotten not by the will of man, not by the will of the flesh but by the will of God. God alone begot you sovereignly. And if He hadn't done that you would still be in your old self, the old self of Adam and you would not be living in the realm of the Spirit.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">That is a gift from God - He does it! It is His work!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now after He puts His life into you, then He starts child training you and now you start having a responsibility for Him and the first responsibility is one of <i>faith</i>... Where you begin to believe what He says and what His way is and what is best for you. Not what you think but what He thinks. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">That is faith.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Faith is your way of thinking, faith is your attitude, faith is your openness to God. That is all a part of faith, it is not just a simple believing, a mental acceptance of what God said. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is the recognition that what He has for you is better than</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">anything you have for yourself. That His will is best for you, better than your own ideas of what is good. It is all apart of this concept called faith. And this occurs in the realm of the Spirit, in the realm of mind.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> Now until you have been born of God your mind is set into the ways of the world, you have a mindset or attitude concerning the things of the flesh. When you are born again from God there is a change in your mindedness. There is a change in your mind. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now the mind is a part of spirit. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Your mind and memory is perfect. We often say, oh I have a bad memory. No you don't. There is nothing in your life that isn't in your memory but it is another matter to recall it to consciousness. In the realm of your spirit and your mind you haven't forgotten anything but the brain is an instrument of recollection of what happens of your spirit into your consciousness. Your brain is involved in bringing things in your spirit into conscious existence in you. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">That is, the brain is the intermediatory between the flesh and the spirit in you. It is the mechanism that is utilized in the creation of the human being to bring what is in the spirit into your conscious realm. Your daily life, your flesh. Now that is the reason some of us Christians continue to walk in the flesh instead of the spirit even though we are made new. We haven't quite got the grasp to be spiritually minded. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">To be spiritually minded means that I walk after the Spirit.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> How do you walk in the Spirit? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The superficial answer is when you walk in the Spirit you are not sinning and living under the appetites of the lower nature. That is not really what it is talking about when it says to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. When </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">you are walking in the flesh it basically means you are walking in the energy of your ability as a human being. Do you see the difference? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">When you're walking in the Spirit you are not walking in your ability but walking in who you are in the Spirit and that is Christ in you the hope of glory. You are a new creation by the work of God and to walk in that means you have to be spiritually minded. Your mind has to be centered on that which is true of you in spirit and that is as I said, mind is a part of spirit, it is not total spirit but is a part of that which is spirit. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I am not talking about the brain when I say mind. We tend to think of the brain when we say mind but that is not your real mind. Your brain is the mechanical instrument of recollection of what is in your spirit/mind. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Your mind is a wonderful thing, it is complete in everybody. But in this world where there is sickness and imperfection many times the mind is affected in a physical way, so that what is in the spirit of that person cannot be expressed in the flesh. So therefore we cannot walk after the mindedness of the Spirit. We are a complex creation but we are not only spirit right now, we are also flesh. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The soul is the combination of the two.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> The soul is the combination of flesh and spirit. The soul is the expression of the spirit in your flesh. It is what makes your flesh move and act and live. And what God is after in this day and this short time we are here is the renewing of our soul or the restoration of our soul into that kind of a life that God wants us to live in the flesh which comes from the spirit. So that if you are walking after the spirit you are minding the things of the spirit and you are trying to believe and accept and recognize and reckon upon that which you are spiritually, not the energy of yourself and the flesh and the ability as a human. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Human beings have wonderful abilities, some people are almost supernatural in what they can do. But it is a problem when you are so capable and talented in your own because you don't need God. The whole philosophy of this present day is that we can do anything we want to if we set our mind to it. There is some truth in that but there are things you cannot do as far as God is concerned. There is that self deception that I can do anything on my own. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">We are a God unto ourselves. Our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. To walk after the flesh or our own ability does not lead to a better life, temporarily maybe for some but not as far as humanity is concerned. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">If we walk in our own energy the consequence to that is sin. As far as God is concerned you cannot please him in the flesh, no matter how righteous or capable you are.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">He wants to develop this life that He has put within us, so that it expresses itself in the flesh. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">So our problem is our mind. Our mind is a facility of spirit. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">So you must be open to the things of the spirit with your mind. You have to be minded--there are several words in the Greek that are used for this thing mind. They are translated in the King James as mind but they have nothing to do with the mind. They are so translated in the King James version such as, </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>set your affections on things above</i>, </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">the word there is not affections at all... it is to be minded or to have an attitude, to have a choice. Affections to us is feelings but the word is actually soul, </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>set your soul on things above, not on things of the earth. </i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The word that is more often and more corporately used is <i>voo's </i>in the Greek. <i>Voo's </i>is the intellect, the mind -- it is the word that is used in Eph. 4. We are to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Notice the expression not mind but spirit of our mind. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The mind is the faculty of the spirit. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is that which extends from our spirit into our consciousness and to be renewed in the spirit of the mind. This means I am to be renewed, that my mind is to be spiritually centered in what the spirit is. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Now, I don't know what the spirit is... you can't feel it. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">You don't feel it in the spirit, if you feel it then it has gotten into the soul or your consciousness. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Your soul is your feelings, it is the seat of your affections. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The spirit is our unconscious - if you are unconscious you cannot feel anything, so your soul is your feelings. If you feel it, it no longer is spiritual and has come into the realm of consciousness. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>What we are in spirit is what God says is our reality. </b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The spirit is another word for reality, the reality of things or the truth of things. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Truth and reality are synonymous terms in the scriptures. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Truth and reality as far as you are concerned is that which you are in the unconscious realm and that unconscious realm is another word for spirit. It is interesting that modern psychology have been able to detect that there is more to us that is unconscious than conscious. In fact they estimate only 10% of our abilities. That isn't much, just imagine what a human could do if you could tap into more than ten percent of who and what you are in your unconscious state. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">At one time man had almost 100% of who and what he was. There was a curtain drawn across that when man sinned. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">That curtain is called the flesh. The flesh is a curtain that keeps us from seeing into the Holy of Holy's. In Israel the tabernacle had a curtain separating the Holy of Holy's, so that you could not see into it or go there. It was in the Holy of Holy's that God dwelt. Only once a year the high priest could go in and he had to be sprinkled with the blood before he went in. Even then they weren't sure about him because if he wasn't right before God he could die so they tied a rope around his ankle in case they had to get him out. So the Holiest place is where God dwells and you weren't allowed in there. Now in the New Testament we are told we can come boldly to the Holiest of all, not by the blood of bulls and goats but by the blood of Jesus Christ and only through Him. So through the blood of Jesus Christ you can come boldly into the living presence of God without being afraid. That is the gift of God that comes to us through the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of the human race. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Anyone can come into the presence of God but only through the faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. God wants us to live in his presence, so He is at work making us spiritual beings by implanting</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">the life of God in us. Now the life of God within can stand the life of God in His presence. When you come into the presence of God through the blood of Jesus and the life of God within, you will never be rejected. And that is what God wants us to understand and to reckon upon and to walk after. That is what it is partially to be spiritually minded. That is what it means to accept the reality of what we are in spirit and to develop an attitude. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the Greek that is translated as mind or minded, that is really more attitude than an activity of the mind. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">What is attitude? To have an attitude means I have a bias of mindedness. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Such as in computers, they have a default setting and if you get lost in a program you can click into the default and it will take you back to the original settings. The original attitude the computer was set to. And so in humanity it has this same thing. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">We train our mindedness along certain paths and avenues and develop certain attitudes. We are to have an attitude towards spiritual mindedness. To be spiritual minded is to have a spiritual attitude. To think of everything in terms of reality and reality is what God says it is. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I can't feel it. That is the problem we have, if we could just feel it we could believe it. But we are not yet freed from the flesh, the veil is still there and we are not able to look into our own hearts and spirit. We are not able to see the reality of our existence. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> But John says that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. For we will see Him as He is. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Because we see Him as He is, we see Him as He is in us. So when He appears we will be like Him it says. We will be absolutely for the first time the reality of who and what we are. So today we have to accept the reality of what God has declared to us and it all begins after God puts His life within us... the ability to think spiritually is given to us then. Now until we have received the life of God in us we are not able to think spiritually. The natural man the scriptures say, does not receive or understand or grasp the things of the spirit of God. But God has put His Spirit within us so that what is in His heart might be in our heart as well. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">So this is the warfare we are walking in, to receive the reality of who we are and the mind has to be in control. You have to be minded after the Spirit.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">So such is our struggle between what God says and what we see or what our true reality is. It takes practice and knowing the word. I urge you to read who you are in Christ, so that when past "tapes" play in your brain of what you've been told that is contrary and you accepted that as truth, you can arm yourself with the truth, the reality of what God says. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I know this post is long and maybe somewhat confusing to some. But I urge you to seek God for His wisdom and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal understanding in areas of your life you need spiritual growth.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Blessings</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span></div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-90680988879350950752012-01-26T16:41:00.000-08:002012-01-26T16:42:57.429-08:00Art Through God<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><span style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">I had the pleasure of speaking to the Batavia Women's Club this week. My message is simple but it is my passion. Here is a sample of what the beautiful women of Batavia heard.</span> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-__HuN1ew-h0/TyHxFTqsjjI/AAAAAAAAK0E/Z-hOciKFXng/s1600/IMG_1556.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-__HuN1ew-h0/TyHxFTqsjjI/AAAAAAAAK0E/Z-hOciKFXng/s400/IMG_1556.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">As an artist I have a vision…</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have a message and inspiration, to encourage others to make art that glorifies the Lord. To create art that is sophisticated and collectible by the community in general and not just sold to Christian book stores. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">For the past 18 years I have owned boutique shops in Geneva, Glen Ellyn and the surrounding area. I have been involved in different aspects of retail and design. My focus has always been on Vintage décor and has evolved throughout the years but always continued to be a creative outlet.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Throughout the years I have enjoyed being published in several magazines and on HGTV . I am still involved in that aspect with my home today. Romantic Country has just published their spring issue that has a feature of my home, I also have up coming features in <i>Romantic Homes</i> and my artwork in two Stampington magazines. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I believe my path has been designed by God. I trust him to direct it in whatever I pursue. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">My last shop Vintage Living focused more on art and workshops. It was featured in the magazine </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Where Women Create</i> which opened up new doors for my artwork. I found a way of bringing my art to life through God. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The word <b>Vintage </b>is defined as<i> “a season’s produce of grapes, wine of high quality from the year of a person’s work, a superior harvest, classic mature. </i>I want my work to reflect that image, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">God’s image.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I have always had a love of Vintage. I use mostly vintage in my artwork. I am mostly a mixed media artist although I do paint some. I am all over the board as far as my art. I enjoy learning new techniques and trying different outlets for my creativity. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I love to re-purpose, in my décor, in my style, in my artwork… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">My life is Re-purposed. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">God has a purpose in all of our lives and he has now re-purposed mine to tell his story through my art. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">I closed my shop and I am now doing workshops and shows.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> In my workshops I want a place where women are taught the back-story to making their art… that they don’t have to make "religious art" or have a cross in their artwork to reflect God in their art. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The story behind the art is what is reflected in the art… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">the story behind my art is the fruit of the Holy Spirit…love, joy, peace, kindness…Spirit filled work. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> As my good friend KC Willis said,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">"If the work encourages and edifies with its message and beauty, this is Spirit filled work, then we can step into art and beyond it into a place where our back story plays a part in keeping hope and love alive in a world that needs it so desperately". </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Not only is my art a reflection of God’s goodness and love for me but it changes me as I make the art. As one student of mine once said, "it changes the way I think!"</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The creative process is fashioned after the author of all creation, God is a creative God and we were made in his image. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">We are a creative people. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">My creative self dwells deep within me and when I create, new inspiration springs up and spills out. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I discover new things within me that has been hidden. </span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">So much of our talents we believe, come from our genetics and from our nurturing while growing up, we give our parents credit and rightly so but I believe our Heavenly father had more of a hand in it. In Ephesians one it says, He designed us before the foundations of the earth. God gave us a creative nature as is like our creator. I believe we all are creative in some form weather we recognize our gift or not. As a creative being we all have a need to create no matter what it is. That gift you possess is to fulfill one purpose…</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is to glorify God. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is giving back what He has given us, that glorifies Him.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">What I create is my passion and I give that up as a sacrifice to the Lord, a love gift. He then uses that gift to glorify himself. I trust him to do His work through me to see His love spread to others. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The purpose or back story is that many might know the Love of God through the work of my hands, that I may be a reflection of Him and not me.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Col 3:23 And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men.</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some of my art today that I am showing you has a February theme… Love is.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">This work tells of what love is and the back story is the author of love, God. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">He not only loves, He is love.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">God loves us and pursues us, just as a love on Valentines day would do. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Simon Tugwell once said, <i>“So long as we imagine it is we who have to look for God, we must often lose heart, But it is the other way about. He is looking for us”. </i></span><br />
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</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">He pursues us everyday with a beautiful sunset, a morning glory growing through the crack in a sidewalk, a favorite song on the radio. He is pursuing you like a love-struck beau… pay attention and enjoy His advances as He pursues you today.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Draw me, we will run after thee; the king has brought forth me into his chambers; we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine, the upright love thee.</i> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>He brought me to His banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. </i></span>Sol.1:4, 2:4</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Blessings, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span></div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-82970518092193245182011-11-07T10:21:00.000-08:002011-11-07T11:06:27.840-08:00Under His Wing...<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Hello</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This morning tucked up in my <strike>attic</strike> <strike>prayer</strike> study room I was reading and praising God for the glorious morning. Sitting at my desk, I can look out and see the morning sun reflect off all the trees lined up and down our street. There is a peaceful contentment that floods my soul and a sense of wonderment at God's creative handy work. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I love meeting God here, it is "our" place. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ywcrgREputg/TrgRLGxM7eI/AAAAAAAAJPE/fjhTz502Hu8/s1600/IMG_8378.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ywcrgREputg/TrgRLGxM7eI/AAAAAAAAJPE/fjhTz502Hu8/s640/IMG_8378.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dF5cIwyZI2c/TrgSezLpjvI/AAAAAAAAJPg/NNIBCI4yDyk/s1600/IMG_8385.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dF5cIwyZI2c/TrgSezLpjvI/AAAAAAAAJPg/NNIBCI4yDyk/s640/IMG_8385.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Do you make daddy-daughter dates? </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hmh-fmNAr4w/TrgROSlwFaI/AAAAAAAAJPU/d0PybzF1LpY/s1600/IMG_8392.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hmh-fmNAr4w/TrgROSlwFaI/AAAAAAAAJPU/d0PybzF1LpY/s640/IMG_8392.JPG" width="480" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As I was reading the Psalm's and praising God for His goodness and mercy to me, Psalm 91 came to mind. Now, I know this Psalm very well as it has a special meaning to me. </span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I opened the bible to read it again. It always blesses me. This Psalm has been my peace when times were not. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3Dwz74Q-r4c/TrgSg6w9c7I/AAAAAAAAJPo/BbcMAmgdTZg/s1600/IMG_8390.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3Dwz74Q-r4c/TrgSg6w9c7I/AAAAAAAAJPo/BbcMAmgdTZg/s640/IMG_8390.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A couple of years ago, when the shop was doing very poorly and I was being hit with bouts of vertigo, I was in the back studio pouring my heart out to God reading Psalms 91. It was a time in the wilderness for me but it changed my heart. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">One evening, as I was laying in bed wrestling with the events of the day, the Holy Spirit layed Psalms 91 very strongly on my heart. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I could see the wing of God and hear him calling to me. I climbed up and nestled into His glorious feathers and rested under His wing and that night I slept well. Since then, when the stresses of life march before me at night, I climb up into that safe and peaceful place. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It is much better than counting sheep! </span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This spring I drove out to Washington to do the Farm Chicks show with my daughter. I loaded up the SUV and headed northwest. It was going to be a roadtrip with the Lord! I had all my inspirational cd's and music, I was expecting a wonderful time with the Lord.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It was a great trip the first day through Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. I marveled at the beautiful farmland with all its new growth, as though the Lord laid out beautiful patterns of giant quilt patches in luscious shades of green. I laughed with the Lord at the calves jumping and playing together and the beautiful lambs feeding on their mama's. Such sights to delight and to praise God for. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The second day I hit Wyoming, it is a huge state with not much to look at until you hit the mountains. When I started climbing I hit some bad weather, just rain and wind. There was snow in the ditches but none on the road, I was thankful for this. As I was traveling down this seemly deserted road that would never end, my eyesight started to blur. I had been having trouble with a cataract on my left eye and needed it removed badly but I had been putting off the surgery for a better time... I depended on my right eye completely. This was my right eye that had become blotchy and I could not see, only if I looked away and back at the road again and then only for a few seconds. I had been listening to an inspirational tape and I began to cry out to the Lord... help!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> What is going on here! I can't stop here in the middle of no where...</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I started praying in the spirit against whatever was attacking me and thanking God for the victory of healing here... right now! I had been praying and driving for about 15 minutes while the CD was still playing. It was getting slowly better to see when I heard the speaker on the Cd quote Psalm 91, I started praising God for his protection under His wing! As I drove into this small town somewhere in Wyoming my eyesight was totally restored. As I sat waiting at a red light, I noticed something floating down... a beautiful white fluffy feather had landed on the hood of my car. I quickly looked up but saw nothing... but I knew where it came from.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Do you know what God responds to? </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">Faith</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Where does faith come from?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Faith comes by hearing the word of God. He responds to His own word mixed with faith. Oh he hears all of our prayers, even the begging but what pleases God?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Without faith we can not please God.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I did not tell you this instance of my trip to have you marvel and say what a miracle. As a child of God we are to walk in His problem solving grace every minute. We are to expect the solution, that is faith. Life is full of problems but what is a problem? It is the opportunity to see God work! This world would be nothing without problems, without a problem there would be no solutions. If we didn't have a problem for let's say faster travel there would be no airplanes or cars... if we didn't have a problem for communication there would be no telephones or heaven forbid no computers...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Without problems how would God multiply our faith?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> I could have looked at the road trip as,<i> here I am having a good time on the road and God let me loose my eye sight, why God... I was trying to please you and all I got was trouble.</i> But with that attitude I would have not seen the glory of the Lord and in return my faith multiplied. Years from now, will I remember the pretty sights of that trip or will I remember the feather... you see God multiplies our faith from problem to problem or from faith to faith. We turn the word problem into opportunity.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Opportunity to see God work. When we read the word we begin to know God and understand the way He works. With understanding we know the natural laws of things. To know the laws of our land we live in makes it much easier to function, we know what side of the road to drive on and what a red light is... without this knowledge it can be dangerous. We could not walk through life with confidence and or faith in the knowledge that when the red light turns green we will be able to safely continue. The same principle applies to Kingdom living. There are certain laws set in motion by God and He does not change, if He did nothing would be stable. It is a learning process, through His word. He is good and He will lead you at your own pace. If you get off track, He will set your path straight. But learning the laws of the land are up to you and when you bind them on your heart you begin to walk in that confidence of faith.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This summer when I had the tent and studio problems, you might have read on my other blog. I got so focused on the problems and trying to solve it all in my timing and not just letting go and giving it to God. I can get my mind set on a doing something the way I want it done. With frustration I finally threw up my arms one day and just gave it all to Him, instead of pushing things into place. How easy it was just to trust. As I was running from the studio to the house taking two steps at a time, telling God how sorry I was for dethroning Him and doing things my way... I looked down and what was on the step in front of me?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Blessings</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span><br />
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</span></div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-11784799882831716402011-10-18T14:40:00.000-07:002011-10-18T19:34:17.302-07:00Preparation for Christmas<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It is kind of early for Christmas, you say. Well, actually it is late for me and in truth a lot of you have probably already been working on Christmas for months now. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So, I am in my new, cleaned up, redone studio getting out all my Christmas goodies - to get inspired, so I can make something new and wonderful. Oh, there are the old standbys, the usual things I make stars, angels, stockings... So I put on the Christmas music to get into the mood and as I prepared to work, my thoughts were not on creating... but what will bless the people that will buy this. What will my hands make to glorify the Lord this Christmas. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As I sat this song started to play...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Mary did you know, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">your baby boy would someday walk on water, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mary did you know,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">that your baby boy would someday save our sons and daughters,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This child that you delivered will soon deliver you.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mary did you know,</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man and</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">will calm a storm with his hand,</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Did you know that you baby boy has walked where angels trod.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When you kissed your little baby</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Then you kissed the face of God.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mary did you know,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">the blind will see - the deaf will hear - the dead will live - the lame will leap - the dumb will speak</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The praises of the lamb.</span><br />
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<div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mary did you know,</span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">that your baby boy is Lord of all creation</span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">and will one day rule the Nations.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Did you know that your baby boy </span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">was Heaven's perfect lamb</span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This sleeping child you're holding is the great</span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>I AM</b></span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I started to cry... for the first time I saw this from a mother's heart, the same heart as of the Father. </span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For it is a mother's heart that is the faint image of the Father's heart.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">How much he loved the world to give his only son. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I don't know if Mary understood completely but I do know the Father did. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">God of all creation to lie helpless in his mother's mortal arms and know that he will be the sacrifice for all.</span><br />
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<div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That morning I was reading Psalm 22.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Jesus quoted the psalms quite often but it is this Psalm that poured out of his soul when he hung on the cross. It is a slight window into what Jesus was thinking and feeling.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"My God, my God why have you abandoned me?"</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This will take ages in heaven for us to understand, the depth of what happened here. That the Father, whom Jesus was one with, turned His back and could not look upon His son because he became sin. He took the burden of every person here on earth, every sick twisted sinful nature and every hideous disease and became that so it could die once and for all. So we could have that same relationship with the heavenly father that Jesus had. That we would become joint heirs of the Kingdom of God with Christ - Sons. Because of what Christ did on the cross.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Psalms 22 goes on in a prophetic manner to describe the gruesome details of what Jesus was going through.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs, evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. My enemies stare at me and gloat. They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint."</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The great shame is too hard to put into words, at any time he could have called down the heavens and not endured this for us... for me.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> I cannot comprehend this kind of love... </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">the majesty of leaving the right hand of God to come and become sin. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But the Psalm doesn't end there...</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus went from "Why have you abandoned me?" to " I will praise you in the great assembly. I will fulfill my vows in the presence of those who worship you. What starts with the rejection of Christ ends with the joyous worship of the whole earth. His passion was to do the will of his father, no matter the pain, for the greater glory that would come. He knew this Psalm and it erupted out of his heart in hope as he died for the sins of the world.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Verse 27</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him. All the families of the nations will bow down before him.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I have been smitten by his love...</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">as I sit in my studio, knowing that I can come boldly before the throne of God because of the blood that was shed for me.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> That my heavenly father cares for me and everything I do, </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">even sitting here making Christmas stars...</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">it is more than I can ever imagine. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">How do I accept such a gift, this pure gift of love. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I cannot in myself.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It is only Christ in me that can do any good thing. The wonderful part about this, is Christ did return to the right hand of God and in doing that he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. To help us know the father. To help us glorify the father. To do the work in us and through us.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So today with the help of the Holy Spirit I do what the Lord has put in front of me,</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Christmas...</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> and as I work I bless each and every stitch and pray for the person that will receive this small piece of Christmas. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Made with love from the father, knowing in part what Christmas is. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Today I am overshadowed by His mighty love...</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span></span><br />
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</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P0WIJw8JVeU" width="420"></iframe></div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-81615846720623439022011-08-16T15:25:00.000-07:002011-08-16T15:55:28.253-07:00My Creative Place<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My Creative place...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">is not only my studio but it is the place in me where my talents and desires dwell.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SxqyCXbbsvc/TkrtQmZl49I/AAAAAAAAIuc/17MwH958xkE/s1600/IMG_7302.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SxqyCXbbsvc/TkrtQmZl49I/AAAAAAAAIuc/17MwH958xkE/s640/IMG_7302.JPG" width="360" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> It is deep within me and very much apart of me, it is a part of who I am, it is a part of my DNA. So much of our talents we believe come from genetics and our nurturing while growing up. Some of that dictates what our talent is... such as singing, dance or some other art form. Usually we give our parents the credit, which is rightly so, but what about our father our Heavenly Father. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The father who designed our DNA before the earth was ever formed, before the foundations of the earth, He knew you. <i>Eph. 1:4</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Some may not have had the nurturing to develop their talents or they are not even aware of the talent that lies dormant within themselves. Some may have what we call natural talent but just do not have the desire. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I have heard many times from people, "I am not creative or I am not artistic". I think they just have not found their talent or creativity or they do not recognize their talent as a creative form. No matter what it might be such as writing or mathematics or teaching or... </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I believe we are a creative people formed after a creative God. He made us in His likeness and He is the author of all creation. I believe we have a need to create no matter what it is and it is for one purpose...</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VdblSoIbv1U/TkrtAERdGPI/AAAAAAAAIuY/pwYl8i7SbJ8/s1600/web+049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VdblSoIbv1U/TkrtAERdGPI/AAAAAAAAIuY/pwYl8i7SbJ8/s640/web+049.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">it is to glorify God.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That gift or talent, God has given to every person and it is our responsibility to nurture it and let it grow and multiply through faith. As we trust God and reach beyond our comfort zone our faith grows and that is pleasing to the Lord.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> He is there nurturing you by His Holy Spirit and putting that desire in your heart. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Your passion is your talent, your passion is your ministry. It comes from the Holy Spirit and it pleases God when we walk in that which He has given us in faith. It is giving back to Him what He has given us, it is glorifying God. And that is the only reason we are here on this earth...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So as I am painting my studio and preparing it for the work of my hands, I am blessing every corner and brush stroke to the glory of God. I praise and sing unto the Lord in that room and I pray for all that goes out of that room whether it be a sachet or a painting. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2vU0qXSUrys/Tkrs_hHhdYI/AAAAAAAAIuQ/EfB72v0e4z8/s1600/wwblog+078.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2vU0qXSUrys/Tkrs_hHhdYI/AAAAAAAAIuQ/EfB72v0e4z8/s640/wwblog+078.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I create for one purpose and that is that many might know the Love of God through the work of my hands, that I might glorify the Father. And while I am doing this, I pray that my relationship with Him will increase so that I might know Him in a new way, an intimate way. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">You see your art doesn't have to have angels or crosses on it to be a reflection of the Holy Spirit... </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">it comes from your inner being and through faith goes out to minister -</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> it is up to God to do the rest. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And whatever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men Col. 3:23</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. Eccl. 2:24</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Eph. 2:10</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Rev. 4:11</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. I Cor. 10:31</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Proverbs 16:3</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: And establish Thou the work of our hands upon us; Yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it. Ps. 90:17</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might - do it while thou art able, and have time to do it. Eccl 9:10</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work. II The. 2:17</span><br />
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</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Blessings</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-74488182776891495052011-08-05T09:50:00.000-07:002011-08-09T06:26:32.583-07:00Speaking in Virginia<div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I had the extreme honor of speaking to 200 women at the Prince of </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Peace Luncheon in Virginia this spring.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> It was such a pleasure to meet so many beautiful women of God, I was truly blessed by this experience. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I have been asked to post some of the message that I brought to the luncheon, so here it is.</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DGkTe_n3YfY/TjwXU0TdieI/AAAAAAAAImQ/lt45Xy1MXPo/s1600/IMG_5311.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DGkTe_n3YfY/TjwXU0TdieI/AAAAAAAAImQ/lt45Xy1MXPo/s640/IMG_5311.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If someone asked you right now, today,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> who are you? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What would your answer be? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I have been asked in various interviews, who is Rebecca Ersfeld?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> I have been told by writers that it is a very difficult question for people to answer and to take my time. I needed no time at all, because I know exactly who I am.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--X2X7nNnxsI/TjwXHGf69LI/AAAAAAAAIl8/Hh0N9oWXqqI/s1600/IMG_5296.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--X2X7nNnxsI/TjwXHGf69LI/AAAAAAAAIl8/Hh0N9oWXqqI/s640/IMG_5296.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I am a woman who loves the Heavenly Father and I am after his heart. All that I do comes from that statement. I am a child of the Living God through Jesus Christ.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I grew up in a loving home with parents who loved the Lord, I do not remember a time when I didn’t have a relationship with my Lord and Savior. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My father was a graphic artist and my mother was a housewife. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We attended the Lutheran Free church and we were very active in it. When I was going into my teen years, my father got his degree and stepped out in faith to start his own church. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My mother has been a reflection of love and faithfulness and still is my mentor.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My father is now gone from this earth but continues to be an inspiration to my spiritual life and my artistic endeavors. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I did not choose an easy road for myself. Life happens. My father always said I was rebellious… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I was.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> But God has turned that into a free spirit. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Our greatest strengths very often can also be our greatest weakness and a stumbling block, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Very often we use our strengths or gifts in our own strength, instead of depending on God.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The bible says we can do NOTHING without Christ. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We need to depend on Him in all things.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Not only when we are weak but when things are going good too. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When you are in your element… doing those things that come easy - do you leave God out of it. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Or do you say to the Lord, Thank you Father for it is well with my soul… teach me your ways God, I want to go further in you. I don’t want to depend on me… even when I think I know it all.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It has taken me a few years to learn that. I’m still learning that! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I like to take something and run with it. I’ve always got that next best thing stewing in my thoughts. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">God gave me a creative mind but it can be my worst enemy if I don’t give it over to God.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> I like to keep moving and have 50 irons in the fire. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Many times I get ahead of myself and God.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Do you ever do that? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Did you know that God is never in a hurry. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He never pushes the panic button. He has His own timing and it usually is timed to the last second… it strengthens our faith which works patience in us. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Another word for patience is endurance… staying power.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> To keep the faith and endure your walk with Christ. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Every woman here today has God’s calling on her life… no matter where you came from, who you are today, what you have or haven’t done. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">God is calling you to a walk with him. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Our journey begins with accepting the calling of the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He calls us and what we choose to do with that calling is up to us. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In John 3 Jesus told Nicodemus except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What is the Kingdom of God? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Is it up in heaven and some day we will go there to sit on a cloud and play a harp… NO! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Kingdom of God is where the King is!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> The Kingdom of God goes with us. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Kingdom of God is here on earth, it dwells in us through the very spirit of God that He puts in us. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> We bring the Kingdom of God to earth, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">we as women of God have the Kingdom in us and where ever we go, the world should know that the kingdom of heaven was here! That’s what Jesus did and we are called to that same walk. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus said, in John the works he did you shall do also, and greater works shall you do. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Where ever Jesus walked, people saw the Kingdom of Heaven, through his works. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When Jesus spoke it was pertaining to the Kingdom of Heaven, in you. He was talking to you, the beautiful woman who loves the Lord.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">II Cor. 4:7 refers to us as clay vessels or pots, made to hold the spirit of God. The clay pot comes in all shapes and sizes, some beautiful some very utilitarian, but all for one purpose, to hold something. Because it isn’t all about the vessel, is it? It is all about what the vessel holds. It is all about knowing what is inside us and walking in that spirit. Do you look in the mirror and just see the clay pot all dirty and maybe a little too round…</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Or do you see the beautiful woman of God that you are. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The vessel that holds the living spirit of God!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The next time you look into a mirror, you say… </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">you lovely woman of God!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> I am a precious vessel… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In Romans it says, that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us, and gives us life eternal. If you believe in Christ and ask him to dwell in you, you are an eternal being. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">You bring the Kingdom of heaven with you, where ever you go. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">God calls us to a Kingdom walk through His Spirit, He gives us the power to walk in victory here on earth. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now does that mean we never fail? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No! But it does mean we have the power in Christ that when we do fail, he can use that for good. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He can turn it around and use it for his glory. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And why is that… because he loves you. He wants to reveal himself to you in ways you haven’t even dreamed of… and many times when we fail it gives God a chance to show us what He can do. I don't even call it failure... I call it a learning process... when we go through adversities or challenges it is the chance to see God in our lives. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He loves you with an everlasting love, beloved. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He sees you as the beautiful person you are in the spirit. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">You see, the spirit in you is the pure image of Christ and that is what God sees when he looks at you. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">You are a woman of God, you are loved by God. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We need to start looking with our spiritual eyes, that is our reality. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Christ walked in the reality of the kingdom of heaven … </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He brought down heaven here on earth… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">this is important now… he was not subject to the laws of this earth. He totally relied on the Father in heaven, which gave Him power on earth through the Kingdom of Heaven. He brought down the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and walked in it through the father and the laws of heaven.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He has called us to walk in that same manner. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He sees through the mess we make of our lives and loves us just the way we are.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I love the story of the Samaritan woman at the well… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus knew her… he cared for her… he ministered to her without judgment.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The pure Jew of that time hated the mixed race of the Samaritans they didn’t want anything to do with them, they even had an alternate route to go around the city even though it was longer. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus saw the need and it didn’t matter what foolish religious prejudice men had created. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus had a mission to talk to the woman at the well. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now she was there in the middle of the day to avoid the other women, it was the custom to draw water in the morning and evening. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">She had 3 strikes against her… She was a woman, a Samaritan woman and a Samaritan woman with a bad reputation. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Even the Samaritan women wouldn’t have any thing to do with her, let alone a Jewish man. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But Jesus cared for her, and God had a calling on her life. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He saw her with his spiritual eyes and looked into the heart and need of the woman. He didn’t go by the laws of this earth, he relied on the reality of the kingdom. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That day, the woman at the well was changed for life. She was seeking things that couldn’t satisfy but Jesus gave her living water that welled up in her and flowed over to spread the word that Christ has something better and many came into the kingdom that day because of that first woman evangelist! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I can relate to this woman, for one she has dealt with 5 husbands, I have dealt with 3… and yet God chose me, before all my bad choices, God saw me perfected, He loved me just as I was.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As a woman of God my roles have changed throughout the years, just as God is ever changing but yet the same. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">He has blessed me with 6 children and 8 grandchildren. I will always have that role but I have now been promoted to administration rather than assembly line.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> I now have time to develop more of my artistic desires. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Not that art hasn’t always been a part of my life. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It is intertwined in who I am. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">God gifted me with certain desires and talents as he does for all of us. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There were different times in my life where that talent was used in different ways. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">At times it was more utilitarian, like making and designing clothes for my girls or for relaxation and therapy after a hectic day. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But it always came from my heart which was inspired by the Holy Spirit, because that is who I am. After my children left it came to the forefront and I turned my talents into a business. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For the past 20 years I have been involved in different aspects of retail and design. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My shops were focused on antiques and décor but they always were a creative outlet. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Throughout the years I have enjoyed being published in several different magazines and HGTV. I am still involved in that aspect with my home today. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My last shop Vintage Living, where I met Connie focused more on art and workshops. It was exactly what I wanted in a shop. It had all the makings of what I thought a shop should be.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I found a way of bringing my art to life and putting the focus on God and art. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Lord gave me this verse for the shop, it was John 15, I am the vine ye are the branches, he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That whole 15th chapter spoke to my heart and I began to hang on to that word. Vintage Living came forth and produced fruit in me to pass on to others. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The word Vintage is defined as “ a season’s produce of grapes, wine of high quality from the year of a person’s work, a superior harvest… classic mature.” </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I want to be that mature work that the Lord speaks of… a Vintage woman of God!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Vintage Living is now closed because the Lord has brought me into another season of work. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My art and workshops now focus on the journey God has for me and how we can glorify God through our art by telling our story through art. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This has not been an easy journey, but it has been a good one. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It is well with my soul… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">God brought me to a place where I can lay down my work, it can die so God can live. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I don’t want it, if it isn’t the Lord’s. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Everything that I have is his… My house, my car, my garden, my children, my art… it is all his! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">My hands… are his! The work of my hands are his… did you know there are over 1600 references to hands in the bible. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Lord is concerned with what your hands are doing! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established… Proverbs.16:3</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Do you think when you are doing the laundry or washing dishes, that it isn’t important. How many tasks do you do a day that you think are not important. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When is the art of your life not important? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When do you get to be happy? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Is it only when you are in the studio, or when you think you are doing something great. Am I only happy when I am creating or talking with my friends or family? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If it is so, then I am not a very happy person most of the time. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When, as a women, is it good with your soul? </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I have news for you lovely women of God… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">it is all about the journey. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">It is all about the details of life that make the tapestry of art that we call life. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If we allow the Holy Spirit to design every detail of our life, then we are able to say… </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">it is good with my soul - dear Lord! </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If God is in the details of your life, it is all important.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I hope you get a glimpse today of just how much God loves you, just the way you are and in every detail of your journey he wants to be there. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As you are washing the dishes or washing your hair, he even knows how many you have on your head.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Do you think he is not interested? He is waiting for you all the day long, He loves you. He calls to you. He loves you with an everlasting love. Commit your journey to Him and He will direct your paths into a journey you couldn‘t even imagine.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gAuvt4abxYs/TjwXRXudrEI/AAAAAAAAImM/YXhWXppsuJc/s1600/IMG_5304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gAuvt4abxYs/TjwXRXudrEI/AAAAAAAAImM/YXhWXppsuJc/s640/IMG_5304.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A special thank you to Connie for giving me the chance to express what God has laid on my heart. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Blessings</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span></div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-48018794705984656942010-02-01T08:59:00.000-08:002010-02-01T09:09:46.603-08:00THE GOSPEL<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DaU4yqp1i44/S2cIKaH8U3I/AAAAAAAACM8/FNJwbe9BoSo/s1600-h/XX9Z000Z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" kt="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DaU4yqp1i44/S2cIKaH8U3I/AAAAAAAACM8/FNJwbe9BoSo/s640/XX9Z000Z.jpg" width="422" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">THE GOSPEL</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">ALMOST 2,000 years ago, a message came into the world that completely changed it. The world has not been the same since. This message created a special body of people whose principal purpose is to continue proclaiming that message. This special body of people is the church, and the message came to be known as THE GOSPEL. Through the centuries this gospel has varied often and considerably. Sometimes it seemed to lose its original content completely, but at those times God moved to restore it - at least in part.<br />
This message known as THE GOSPEL is much more than a message; it is a body of truth which contains the Living Word of God. From its beginning, it has come to man in two ways - through the teaching of man and by revelation of God. I will refer to these two ways as the taught gospel and the revealed gospel. Unfortunately, these two are not always synonymous. We see the difference illustrated in the understandings of Peter and Paul. The gospel preached by Peter was largely colored by his Jewish traditional understanding of scripture and Old Testament law. Even though God began to reveal His glorious gospel to him upon the Joppa rooftop, Peter seemed unable to rise above the understanding he had into the fuller divine revelation. He remained the apostle to the circumcision and preached an interim gospel, that is, his gospel served as a bridge between the Old Testament understanding of God and the New Testament revelation. In contrast, Paul as a zealous student of Jewish theology, was undoubtedly more deeply inoculated with the same tradition and learning as Peter, yet through the grace of God, he was able to receive the heavenly revelation. According to his own words, he became the first man to fully understand and preach the revealed gospel. "But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1:11,12). Alas, though he imparted the pure gospel, it soon became polluted with tradition and human understanding. Even in his own lifetime, what he preached was under constant attack by others within the church. Repeatedly he wrote to defend what he jealously called "my gospel" (Romans 16:25, 2 Timothy 2:8). </span></div><div><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">DILUTION OF THE GOSPEL</span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">The resistance Paul experienced and the historical record of the church since, expose the human inability to contain such wondrous glory as the revealed gospel unveils. Passing from generation to generation, it is soiled with human understanding and is changed into something more logical to human reason. The revealed gospel becomes the taught gospel, reverting to something similar to Peter’s "interim gospel" which was heavily influenced by the Jerusalem church in which James was dominant. James gave the gospel a heavy mixture of Old Testament law and Peter seemed unduly intimidated by him. Notice how Paul confronts Peter at Antioch. (Read Galatians 2:11-15). It is ironic that Gentile Christianity named its grandest monument, a basilica in Rome, after the apostle to the circumcision rather than after its own divinely appointed apostle. Is this not a subtle indication of which gospel gained the ascendancy and popularity?<br />
But there remains a certain vitality even in a polluted gospel. Only rarely, as during the dark ages, was its power almost destroyed. Happily, the smallest remnant of truth contains enough of the potent seed of life to bring man into the Kingdom of God. Most Christians have been made alive through less than a wholesome gospel, as is apparent in the manifold splintered church. Each fragment preaches its variegation of the gospel and yet born again believers may be found in most, if not all, of the splinters. What is called gospel preaching is most often a checkered kaleidoscope of blatant legalism mixed with multi-hued shades of grace. In fact, most traditions consider good gospel preaching to be a "proper balance of law and grace". Gospel has come to be a name for a body of teaching with little regard for what the word actually means, that is, glad tidings or good news.<br />
The law has never been good news. Paul asserts that law and grace are totally incompatible - absolutely contradictory. You may hold one or the other, but you cannot hold both at the same time. It is difficult to comprehend how the intelligent theological mind can nurture such contradiction as "a proper balance of law and grace". In practically all of his letters, the Apostle Paul rejects the law as a power to save or give life. On the contrary, he says it kills. Those who preach the formula mixture are alternately ministering life, then death to their followers. </span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT</span> </div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the true gospel. He is faithful in His work of leading every Christian into all truth and so He alone is able to purify the taught gospel. As we have already observed, life is usually given through the taught gospel, but the purified understanding of the true gospel can only come by revelation from God. In other words, the gospel, which we have been taught, must pass through a process of revelation by the Holy Spirit so that it may be purified and become the revealed gospel to our hearts. Nevertheless, it does not follow that man has no part in bringing the revealed gospel. God has commissioned him to do so but man is only the preacher - God is the Revealer. Unless the messenger has allowed the gospel to be purified to his own heart and is careful to minister under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit so that the gospel he teaches is truly the revealed gospel, he perpetuates a taught gospel which may be tainted with human wisdom and the traditions of men.<br />
Unfortunately, most Christians find it difficult to let go of their taught gospel when confronted with the revealed gospel. So often they are too deep1y steeped in traditional understanding to receive correction from the Holy Spirit. This is the historical error of established religion.<br />
God works from within, through the spirit into the heart. Man works from without, through the senses and mind. I John 2:20 teaches that the anointing of God’s Spirit causes us to know "all things", and again in chapter 2:27, that same anointing is said to teach us so that we "need not that any man teach" us. Why<br />
then is it that one of Christ’s gifts to His church is teachers? There may be many answers to this question not the least of which is that God would have His people excel in fellowship and unity. These qualities are best nourished in an exchange of gifts in mutual need. But there is another reason, which is a principal found throughout God’s dealings with man. It is that of the double witness. Jesus used it often in His teaching with the words, "Verily, verily", and Paul enunciates it in 2 Corinthians 13:1, "... In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." God has sent two great revealers of truth into the earth - the Holy Spirit and the scriptures - if one or the other is ignored by truth seekers, error results. So we see that the process of bringing truth to man has a two part composition. Indeed, we "know all" as John says, but we are not aware or conscious of this knowledge because God puts His revelation into the spirit (which is the unconscious self). It is therefore necessary to be "made conscious" of that which we know "unconsciously". God brings this about through anointed, human teachers, who present the truth from the outside through the senses and mind. When the truth is thus presented and received, there is a union of that which God has put into the spirit with that which He brings through the anointed teaching, and the hearer experiences a "conscious knowing" of the truth. Some call this the witness of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, if we are sincere in doing the will of God, we shall know if the doctrine we are hearing is of God. (John 7:17).<br />
But the witness of the spirit is not possible if we reject what we hear before it can be examined by the inner man, It is always difficult to allow what is revealed in the heart by God’s Spirit to conquer what is entrenched in the man-taught mind, but unless we do, conflict between the heart and mind results in frustration - and more seriously, the Holy Spirit is hindered in bringing the truth of God to us. Of course, it was never intended that human teachers should be in conflict with what God puts in the spirit, rather, it is God’s plan that man should be a co-worker with Him. This grand plan, however, has many adversaries. Human beings find it easier to lean upon those who can be seen rather than upon Him whom they cannot see. Fear holds many in traditional teachings, even when they suspect grave error. Often they are warned that to believe other than what "Mother Church" teaches will lead to destruction - even eternal torment in the hands of an angry God. Not less than these is the strong ambition to receive honor from our peers, "How can ye believe, who receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" (John 5:44). Every prophet of God has had to overcome such obstacles in order to receive and preach God’s message, and it is no less traumatic for the average Christian to accept the Holy Spirit’s revelation of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ today. God is looking for bold warriors of truth who will courageously hear and trust His voice within and dare to believe the outer witness of the inspired scriptures. A limited gospel can only yield a limited salvation. The glorious and powerful salvation prophesied to take place in the last days can only be produced through a pure, Holy Spirit-revealed gospel. </span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">RELIGIOUS AUTHORITARIANISM </span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">The children of God need to learn how to hear and receive from their Heavenly Father. All truth must come from Him. Instead, Christians are trained to hear truth from their leaders only. They are actually taught that only those in authority can be trusted to hear accurately from God. Each convert is pressed into the standard mold. As Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell (Gehenna) than yourselves." (Matt. 23:15). Leaders of religious systems have changed little since Jesus’ day. They still tend to feel all truth must come through them. Rather than trust the Holy Spirit to keep doctrine pure, they seem to feel a God-given commission to restrict and control what is taught and believed among people. Indeed, elders or shepherds of the local church are given responsibility to teach and keep the way of truth, but this is strictly a local charge, that is, to the flock given to their care, and with this charge are given checks and balances to protect the flock from authoritarian abuse. It does not extend to other flocks or churches, as in the structure of religious systems, and it emphatically does not include authority to use force or intimidation. Church history is a sad witness to the heinous extremes religious systems will resort to when combating new teaching - true or false. The only weapon allowed by the Holy Spirit in this charge is teaching the word of truth. Certainly, error is a persistent presence in the church, but so long as freedom of spirit is nourished, God will quickly raise up corrective teaching when necessary.<br />
Every God-sent revival has eventually fallen under human control. Heaven-sent seasons of refreshing have always come through and to the grass roots, never through the established religious system. In these divine moves, God always sets people free from religious authoritarianism. Unfortunately, it invariably follows that the newfound freedom is abused. This seems to be an inevitable stage in learning to walk under grace in liberty. As in the making of new wine, the new work of God appears frothy and full of ferment and those who were used as leaders in the new move become concerned with the abuses. Failing in understanding and faith that God will correct aberrations and bring discipline, these leaders often invoke the false doctrine of delegated authority, as did those before them. Taking authority, they name themselves the vicars of Christ and exercise lordship over God’s inheritance. Thus a priesthood is established which draws a firm line between leaders (elders) and people.<br />
In God’s order, leaders are commissioned to help people into direct personal contact with their God - not become a chain of command! The elder who does his job best is the one who works himself out of a job by teaching the younger Christians to become intimately acquainted with their Heavenly Father. Thus, in the eyes of the younger he becomes what he really is - an elder brother in the family of God. However, the human heart somehow prefers to be indispensable and so tends to rise to a place between God and man. The result is that truth is encapsulated in authoritarianism and frozen into the framework of creeds and traditions. The Holy Spirit as the active revelator of truth is quenched and ironically, the very heresy which the leaders sought to prevent is established by themselves. Living truth is replaced by tradition. Schism is inevitable as the leaders who appointed themselves overlords disagree, each drawing disciples after himself (just as Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:30). Each fragment then establishes its own seminary and bible school in order to perpetuate its own particular dogma. All other views are rigorously guarded against and only those who are duly indoctrinated are authorized to teach the accepted truths. Every proselyte is trained to reject any new thought as if it were<br />
satanic, and if he should embrace new truth, he is anathematized and cast out as a heretic. So goes the historic metamorphosis of changing living truth into dead orthodoxy. </span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">THE GOSPEL AND JESUS CHRIST</span> </div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">In Romans 1:16, Paul boldly declares that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation but elsewhere he preaches Jesus Christ as the Savior of man. It must be then, that the gospel and Jesus Christ are intrinsically related. The Apostle John agrees with this premise when he tells us that the Word was made flesh and was named Jesus. Jesus also enforces this thought, declaring Himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life, The Word, which comes to us in the gospel, is not merely a word then, but it is really a PERSON. It is a Person Who gives life, not a mere word or truth. "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." (John 5:39-40). Salvation, after all, is deliverance from death in all its various forms, and death can only be overcome or eliminated by making the dead alive - hence, salvation must be the impartation of God’s life for He alone has life and immortality. . . SALVATION IS OF THE LORD. (I Timothy 6:16, Jonah 2:9).<br />
When the gospel is preached it becomes the vehicle of life, since it actually carries in and with it the Person of Jesus Christ. It is He Who brings us to God (John 17:2). It is in Him that God has chosen to meet man (I Timothy 2:5). Through Him God will bring all creation into Himself (Ephesians 1:10, Colossians 1:20). It is the purpose of God to make every man alive through this Christ (I Corinthians 15:20-26), therefore Jesus said, "preach the gospel to every creature". Paul emphasizes the importance of preaching the gospel in Romans 10:14, ". . . and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?". So then, Jesus is the Word Who comes to us in the gospel, consequently, error in gospel preaching comes perilously close to presenting a false or distorted Christ! </span></div><div><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">THE SEED OF LIFE</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"></span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Knowing the power in the gospel, Paul encouraged the Philippians to hold forth the word of life. All life springs from seed, each seed yielding after its kind. I Peter 1:23 teaches that we "are born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever". In His parable of the sower, Jesus revealed "the seed is the word of God". God or the Son is pictured as the husbandman or farmer. A farmer sows seed according to his will. He prepares the soil and he plants the seed. No life is possible until he plants the seed. In the human family, no life comes into being until the father plants his seed in the prepared womb. This obvious and basic principle of life is forgotten in our present day theology. Though Jesus taught that spiritual birth is like human birth, somehow, we are told by today’s preachers that we are responsible to bring ourselves into life. Evangelists often quote the words of Jesus to Nicodemus as a command: "You must be born again", they thunder! Indeed we must! But is it possible for the spiritually dead to do anything to produce spiritual life? In the context of John 3, it is clear that GOD ALONE has the ability to produce spiritual children through spiritual birth, for we must be "born of God" just as we were born of Adam. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"></span><br />
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">THE NEW BIRTH</span> </div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">Nicodemus was quite willing to do something to be born again but Jesus gave him no formula. Instead, He likened the mystery of spiritual birth to the uncertain ways of the wind. Clearly, He intended His words to teach that the creation of life is totally in the hand of God and totally subject to His will. Inspired by the same Spirit, James wrote, "Of HIS OWN WILL begat He us with the word of truth" (James 1:10). The Apostle John emphasizes, those who believe in Jesus, "…were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but OF GOD", (John 1:13). In light of these clear statements, how is it possible for men to teach that the human will can have anything to do with being born again? No, it is clear, God must make us alive or we abide in death, as many scriptures teach. We are blind and dead to God and His Kingdom and to all that is spiritually of God until He in His mercy begets His life in us. The life of God must first be imparted before a man can receive Jesus or any spiritual gift of God. "But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned" (I Corinthians 2:14). Faith in Jesus is the RESULT of the new birth. We believe in Him BECAUSE we are born again not IN ORDER to be born again. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." (I Corinthians 12:3)</span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">It is possible to have life and not know it. John teaches that believing in Jesus is evidence that the life of God has been imparted, "These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (I John 5:13). So if you are believing in Jesus you may be sure that God has already given you life. This should be great comfort for those who are always battling the demon of doubt in order to find assurance of life. Faith is a gift, given in and with the life of God that comes to us in the gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus taught no other way to receive life than as a sovereign gift of God. Notice John 6:37, "All that the Father giveth unto me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." And in John 6:44, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him . . .", and again in John 6:65, "And he said, therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." In this work the Father and the Son are in harmony, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you . . ." (John 15:16). </span></div><br />
<div><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">THE HUMAN WILL</span> </div><br />
<div><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">But what of the human will in all of this? Is man not able to choose? Is he not commanded to choose God and believe? Indeed, man has a will - he was created with one. But to say that he has a free will and is able to do as he wishes is contrary to scripture, "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." (2Timothy 2:25-26). "And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness" (literally, "lies in the wicked one", I John 5:19). Again in Romans 3:10-18, God declares the natural state of man as totally helpless and depraved. There is NOT ONE righteous, there is NOT ONE that seeks after God among all mankind. Truly, man has a will but he uses it, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, only to say NO to God. He cannot do otherwise, for man is in bondage to the god of this age and has taken on his rebellious nature. The fact is clear, ALL MEN WILL NOT. it is only God’s gracious will that brings mankind to Him. FREE will can only begin with the new birth. As we have read in 2 Timothy 2:25, God alone can set man free unto repentance (change of mind and will). Jesus said, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:36).<br />
Unless God shows favor through imparting His life, the will man has can only be used against himself. This is what it means to be a sinner. Only those born again can begin to choose to do the will of God and even these need the help of God to do so, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Obviously, the much talked of "free will" is true only within the parameters of God’s will. He, as sovereign God, has the final say. Any attempt to venture beyond His permissive will only leads to His judgments. In the final analysis, the Christian life is one of learning to use our will in such a way that it conforms to His will. This is child-training. Every child of God is being trained.<br />
Until the natural man has been freed by the power of God and given His life, he cannot begin to use his bound will as a child of God can. The popular notion that the human will can overrule or frustrate God’s will is one of the gravest errors in modern thinking. Such an idea is foreign to the scriptures. God is not a limited sovereign. He is ABSOLUTELY sovereign. Neither can it be found in scripture that He voluntarily gives up His sovereignty out of respect for the will of any of His creatures. Indeed He does respect the will He has given His creation but He is in no way controlled by such respect. When necessary, He produces a change in the choices of any creature He pleases in order to produce His will. Even after rebellious will does its worst, the results reveal that God’s will was finally done. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the supreme example. The Apostle Paul was not seeking to worship Jesus Christ when he was converted on the Damascas road, neither did Jeremiah in his mother’s womb, choose to be a prophet or man of God. Likewise, Nebucadnezzar did not choose to recognize the sovereignty of the Most High God until he ate grass with the oxen under the chastening hand of God. Satan, the greatest rebel among God’s creatures, can only do his worst within the bounds of God’s permission, as is witnessed in the first two chapters of Job. From Genesis to Revelation God is shown to be in absolute control, though it appears from our viewpoint that we control our own destinies and He is subject to us. Eventually, with Nebucadnezzar, all creation will confess, "… mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" (Daniel 4:34-35).</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">GOD’S DECLARED PURPOSE</span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">God’s declared purpose from the beginning was to produce children in His image, that is, sons of God, "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26). Contrary to common belief, Adam was not the ultimate fulfillment of that declaration. He was only the beginning, or phase one, of creating a son of God. Jesus is the firstborn of what God purposed for Adam and all of his offspring. "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of EVERY creature" (Colossians 1:15). This "Last Adam" is what God had in mind when He declared His intention in Genesis. The first Adam was merely a living soul; the Last Adam is a life-giving spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45). "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (I Corinthians 15:49). The man of dust is a necessary first step in producing the man from heaven. He must return to dust and be made alive by the power of God in order to bear the image of heaven. Death is not an accident but a preplanned step in the process of creating sons of God. </span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">GOD’S GUARANTEE TO ADAM’S RACE</span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">How many steps or phases are necessary to complete God’s work is only known to the Creator, but surely a new phase begins when we are born of God. As Jesus instructed Nicodemus, man must be born of flesh and Spirit. Man must be spiritually begotten in order to become a child of God Who is Spirit. Only those who are the children of God are seriously trained by their Heavenly Father. They are known by Him in a special way and are purged and disciplined into maturity, that is, to become partakers of His nature (Hebrews 12). All the children of the first Adam shall be transformed into the image of the Last Adam, though not in this age. Today there is an election of a privileged few, a remnant, a firstfruit that is chosen through grace to be born of God. These are older brothers, the first born, who will have the responsibility of nurturing future brothers not yet born.<br />
The church is not the end of God’s purpose but a means to the end. Terms such as "church of the first born" in Hebrews 12:23 and the definitive word of James 1:18, "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of FIRSTFRUITS OF HIS CREATURES", make it unmistakably clear that there are more of God’s creatures to come even after the church has reached its full stature and complement. The pattern of harvest, as established in the Old Testament, begins with firstfruits, then the main harvest, and finally the gleaning of the fields by the needy and destitute, assuring that not one kernel would be lost.<br />
The very fact that one is born of Adam guarantees that one will also be born of God. First the flesh, the earthy, then the spirit, the heavenly. First the man of earth, then the man of heaven. Thus Paul so confidently declared, "AS we have borne the image of the earthy, we SHALL ALSO bear the image of the heavenly" (I Corinthians 15:49). He could not more forcibly present<br />
God’s guarantee that the very fact you exist as a human being is proof and assurance that one day you will bear the image of God’s heavenly Adam, Jesus Christ. God always finishes the work He begins, including that of making man in His own image which He began in the Garden of Eden.<br />
THE LAST ADAM is not an idle poetic expression that Paul used referring to Jesus. As the context of his words show, he intended to establish the fact that just as we all sprang from Adam the first man, and therefore bear his image, so in the very same way, the Last Adam is the first spiritual man who shall be the father of all spiritual offspring. The first Adam was the first of the old and earthy creation; the Last Adam is the first of the new and heavenly, or spiritual creation. In Romans 5, the inevitability of bearing the image of the Man from Heaven is underscored. It is inescapable that everyone who is born of Adam will bear Adam’s sinful likeness. It is likewise inescapable that all who are born of the Last Adam shall bear His holy image. Jesus is the firstborn of the new creation just as Adam was the firstborn of the old creation. But thank God, the old is passing away and the NEW has come! The work of Jesus far surpasses the work of Adam. What Adam did unto death, Jesus much more accomplished unto life. Adam fathered death to every one of his children and in the very same way Jesus, the Last Adam, fathers life to every one of the race. It is necessary to be born of the flesh in order to be born of the Spirit. Jesus does not bring into existence a totally new race of beings when He fathers children in life, rather He puts His life into the husk of Adam’s fleshly offspring. As Jesus instructed Nicodemus, mankind must be born of the flesh AND of the Spirit. It is not possible to be born of the Spirit unless one is first born of the flesh. The flesh is as the chaff or husk that holds the grain. Without it there would be no fruit but it is discarded when its purpose is fulfilled. Jesus, the Last Adam, makes alive all who died in the first Adam. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Corinthians 15:22).</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">THE NECESSITY OF EVIL</span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">The all-loving God, who watches over His creation and is unlimited in knowledge and power, would have prevented the "tragedy" in Eden had it not been useful to His benevolent purpose. Instead, He allowed the stage to be set, knowing full well what His creature would do. The New Testament reveals that every event was carefully planned before God ever put His hand to clay - everything, including God becoming flesh and the death and resurrection of Christ for the redemption and restoration of mankind - all was planned before the foundation of the world, as is clearly stated in several scriptures such as Matthew 25:34, "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world". Ephesians 1:4, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love"; Hebrews 4:3, "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." I Peter 1:20, "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you"; Revelation 13:8, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."<br />
Evil, as a necessary presence in the purposes of God, does not seem logical to the human mind. But I would ask, "How does one go about producing a son of God?" Admittedly, we do not have even a theory. We must, by faith, accept the wisdom of God on the subject. "For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God, For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." (Romans 8:19-21). Apparently, death (vanity) in all its workings - pain, suffering, heartache and all the other works of Satan - is an essential in the complex process of creating man in the image of God. Satan is really a finishing tool in the hands of God, existing for His purposes. "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy." (Isaiah 54:16). "I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I, the Lord, do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7). Many scriptures teach us that God uses evil to produce good, from the testimony and example of Job into clear New Testament passages such as Romans 5:3, "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience;" or James 1:2-4, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into various trials".<br />
God’s immediate observation after Adam fell by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not one of despair: "Behold, the MAN IS BECOME AS ONE OF US, to know good and evil . . ." With these words, God signaled the beginning of phase two in His declared purpose of making man in His own image. It is necessary for man to know good and evil to become like God. But lest he be fixed in this stage of work, God drove him from the tree of life and consigned him to death. Death is the ultimate knowledge of evil and it concludes phase two. Each and every one of Adam’s offspring must pass through this process, therefore, man is still today in phase two. For nearly 6,000 years he has been in God’s kindergarten, learning good and evil.</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">JESUS, THE SAVIOR</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">There is no question that the scriptures reveal Jesus Christ as the Savior. But what does He save from? The average preacher today says the obvious answer is, "Jesus saves from eternal hell fire." Few preach more than that. Some add that He also saves from sin and others add that He saves from sickness as well. Most all preach that His ability to save is modified by and limited to the human response. In other words, Jesus offers to save IF the human race is willing. How this harmonizes with the many scriptures, which declare no human being, is in himself willing to do the will of God, they never explain. Such a gospel only presents the POSSIBILITY of salvation. Any offer of salvation limited by conditions leaves no hope for a deceived and wayward world. But let us return to our question, "What does Jesus save from?" Is it really so obvious in the scripture that the goal of Jesus’ salvation is to save from eternal hell fire? Once the glaring<br />
errors of translation in the King James Bible are corrected, we will be hard pressed to find a single text in the sacred record which clearly makes such a statement. At best one would be able to say that some verses might imply such but there must be stronger reasons than implication to justify the overwhelming assumption by today’s preachers that the most basic truth of scripture is that Jesus saves from eternal hell fire. What IS unmistakably taught was first made known to Joseph by the angel appearing in a dream, "He shall save His people from their sins". Later, John the Baptist introduced Jesus as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world". The writer of Hebrews speaks much of Jesus and salvation from sin, summarizing in 9:26, "But now once, in the end of the ages, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." The Apostle John rejoices, "And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."<br />
As the Savior from sin, Jesus becomes the Savior from every other evil thing. When sin is put away, death has no power ("the sting of death is sin", 1 Corinthians 15:56), thus Jesus saves from death, and so one day, "there shall be no more death" (Revelation 21:4). And here we find the goal of Christ’s salvation: to save mankind from DEATH! Through His death on the cross, through the shedding of His blood, through the offering of His body, through the giving of His life, Jesus saved us from sin in order to SAVE US FROM DEATH! This was not done for the Christian only, but as John said, for the WORLD also. He tasted death for EVERY man, (Hebrews 2:9). The Lamb took away the sin of the WORLD and His blood was the propitiation for the sins of the WORLD. God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son. Consequently, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). Obviously, if there is no more death in God’s creation, it must be that all creatures are alive. Death can only be destroyed by making ALL alive. This applies to death in any definition (including annihilation, which is just another word for death). So long as ONE person abides in ANY death state, death will not have been destroyed. Death is death - whether it be the first death, the second death or whatever death. THERE SHALL BE NO MORE DEATH!</span></div><br />
<br />
<div>TRANSLATION ERRORS</div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">No translation of the original Greek text is perfect. Translators are mere men and often succumb to fears and the pressure of opinion when doing their work. Our popular English Bible carries the name of an earthly monarch and so bears mute testimony to the influence the English King had over the translators. His directive to "do nothing that will disturb the tranquility of the church", appears to have been taken very seriously by the translators since they often chose to interpret certain Greek words to support then-current church doctrine and practice, rather than render a faithful and consistent translation of the original. I will not presume to correct the King James Bible, but certain errors are so obvious and glaring to even the "unlearned" of our day, that I feel I must call attention to them. These errors sometimes spawn false ideas and doctrines. For example, when I first became a Christian, it was not uncommon for believers to expect the end of the world. This misconception was based upon the words of Jesus in Matthew 28:20, as translated in the King James bible, "Lo, 1 am with you always, even unto the end of the world". Preachers would appear on street corners proclaiming the end of the world, and frequently, some group would leave all they possessed to prepare for the expected cataclysm. Modern translators discovered that Jesus actually said, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the AGE". This correction has been made in most modern versions, consequently, few expect the "end of the world" today.</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">DIABOLICAL GENIUS</span></div><br />
<br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;">I must confess to the admiration I feel for the absolute brilliance of Satan’s cunning and strategy. He has effectively polluted the entire fountain of truth from which Christians drink by causing confusion in the meaning of a single word. It does not seem that this single word could be so important as to produce such calamitous results but it is just here that we see the utter genius of our adversary. Perhaps no other word in scripture, erroneously translated, could cause such widespread confusion and distortion of truth. The division between Christians, especially the Arminian and Calvinist theologies, has its roots in the misunderstanding of this word. Practically all Christian doctrine is affected: the purposes of God, the nature of God, judgment, eschatology, Christ’s victory and His work on the cross, man’s destiny, grace, election, salvation, security of the believer, the place and purpose of the church - and the list goes on - to say nothing of its effects upon our concept of the very God we worship and the way we treat one another as Christians and the world at large. We have already referred to one error caused by this distortion in the previous paragraph. That word in the original Greek is the noun AION and its adjective AIONIOS. Our English words EON and EONIAN are taken from the Greek words.<br />
The words AION and AIONIOS occur 199 times in the New Testament scriptures. They are translated in the King James Version as follows: AION - ages 2, course 1, world 40, ever 72, never 7, evermore 4, eternal 2. AIONIOS - everlasting 25, eternal 42, world 3, ever 1. That the same word can mean "forever" and "world" may come as a surprise to most people. Or how a word which, in its scripture context, is said to have a beginning and an end can be translated with "eternal" and "forever", words that convey the thought of no beginning and no end, may indeed be a mystery to thinking minds. AION has a beginning, as in 1 Corinthians 2:7, "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world (aion) unto our glory", and 2 Timothy 1:9, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world (aion) began", and an end, as in Hebrews 9:26, "For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world (aion, plural form) hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself", and I Corinthians 10:11, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world (aion) are come", and Matthew 24:3, "And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (aion)?"<br />
Obviously, a word, which is said to have a beginning and end, is a word, which communicates the thought of time, NOT timelessness. An age or eon is a period of time of indefinite duration. It has a beginning and it has an end. The scriptures speak of the past eons, the present eon and future eons, indicating a minimum of five eons. It is not possible to have more than one eternity, therefore, it is senseless to speak of eternity in the plural. Perhaps one might think of this present period of time as an interruption in eternity so that we might speak of the eternity before and the continuation of eternity in the future, but it is impossible to compound eternity as the KJV does (as in "forever and ever"). This error comes about through ignoring one of the most basic rules of grammar, which is, an adjective cannot have greater meaning or force than the noun from which it is derived. Weekly cannot mean more than week, yearly cannot mean more than year, and the Greek adjective AIONIOS cannot mean more than its noun AION. Keeping this rule of grammar in mind, it requires no great grammatical genius to see that AIONIOS cannot be given the value of endlessness when its noun is said to have a beginning and ending, as the above scriptures clearly state. But this subject requires a separate work to deal with it properly. I encourage you to search it out for yourself through a study of scripture with your concordance and the many fine works available as study aids. I would only add this word of caution when using study helps. Though all lexicons, with which I am familiar, give the meaning of AION as "age", many go on to interpret its use in various passages, confirming the KJV errors.</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">HELL IN THE KJV</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: medium;">In the KJV three Greek words are rendered with the same English word "hell", they are GEHENNA, HADES and TARTARUS. Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, is a geographical location bordering Jerusalem on the south and west. It became an abomination to the Jews because of the idolatry practiced there by the Israelites, which included causing their children to pass through the fire to the pagan god Molech at the high place of Tophet. Because of the detestable history, it became the place where the city discarded its waste and rubbish. A fire burned continually, consuming the waste, and worms fed on carrion. Obviously, it had special meaning to the Jews, so Jesus pointed to it as a type of rejection from his kingdom and the most serious judgment. There is no more basis to translate Gehenna with the English "hell" than there would be to translate the Kidron valley, which lies next to it, hell. It is an obvious "interpretation" and not a "translation" as it should be. "Gehenna" appears 12 times in the New Testament as follows: Matthew 5:22, "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell (gehenna) fire." Matthew 5:29, "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell (gehenna)." Matthew 5:30, "And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell (gehenna)." Matthew 18:9, "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell (gehenna) fire." Matthew 23:15. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell (gehenna) than yourselves." Matthew 23:33, "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell (gehenna)?" Mark 9:43, "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell (gehenna), into the fire that never shall be quenched:" Mark 9:45, "And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell (gehenna), into the fire that never shall be quenched:" Mark 9:47, "And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell (gehenna) fire:" Luke 12:5, "But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell (gehenna); yea, I say unto you, Fear him." James 3:6, "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell (gehenna)." Matthew 10:28, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (gehenna)".<br />
HADES is also translated with the English "hell", and it is the only word which should be so translated. The Hebrew counterpart is SHEOL, and both words simply mean the unseen state or the hidden place. Early English used the word hell in such a way, for a farmer would "hell" his potatoes. In the scripture, it is understood to be the abode of the dead (not necessarily a place of judgment or torment). It may be found in<br />
I Corinthians 15:55, where it is in controversy as to its original appearance in the Greek, Here the KJV translates it "grave". Otherwise, it is used 10 times as follows: Matthew 11:23, "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell (hades): for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. Matthew 16:18, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell (hades) shall not prevail against it." Luke 10:15, "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell (hades)." Luke 16:23, "And in hell (hades) he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." Acts 2:27, "Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (hades), neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Acts 2:31, "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell (hades), neither his flesh did see corruption." Revelation 1:18, "1 am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell (hades) and of death." Revelation 6:8, "And I looked, and behold a pale horse:<br />
and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell (hades) followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." Revelation 20:13, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (hades) delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works." Revelation 20:14, "And death and hell (hades) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death."<br />
TARTARUS, the third word translated "hell" is used only once and is found in 2 Peter 2:4, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (tartarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;". The text clearly indicates it is a prison for fallen angels. In Greek mythology it is a place of darkness as far below hades as earth is below heaven, with a river of fire encircling it. Zeus imprisoned the Titans there. Could this have been a source of inspiration for the traditional Christian idea of hell? The medieval poet, Dante, certainly drew from the Greek myth in his imaginary journey through hell. If Christian theologians were not directly influenced by Greek mythology, they surely were by the great Italian poet, for even to this day the Christian concept of hell is almost identical to his descriptions of the "Inferno".</span></div><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
ETERNAL TORMENT?</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">According to the passage in Luke 16:23, the rich man was tormented in hades, so there may be an aspect of judgment there, It should be noted that many scholars take this account as a parable (directed at the Jewish nation), since it is part of an assortment of parables given by Jesus. However, taken literally there is nothing in the passage that can substantiate modern interpretations of it. First of all, Lazarus finds himself comforted, not because he trusted Christ for salvation, but because he suffered upon the earth. Likewise, the rich man suffered because he had all of his comfort upon the earth, not because he rejected Christ. Secondly, the rich man was not fixed in his depravation but rather improved in character, for he became concerned about those still upon the earth, a marked contrast to his lack of interest in others while in his luxury. It is interesting that the Greek word translated "torment" comes from a word meaning "to examine by trial". Thirdly, nothing is said of eternal torment, only that it was beyond Abraham or Lazarus to help in any way. Nothing is impossible for God. Since God has promised an end to death and hades, it cannot be that the rich man was fixed in an eternal state. Hosea 13:14, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave (sheol); I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave (sheol), I will be thy destruction; repentance shall be hidden from mine eyes (i.e. God will not change His promise)." Sheol is the Hebrew for hades, and is in other places translated "hell" in the KJV. In no uncertain terms, God promises to put an END TO HELL!<br />
Why else would Jesus announce that He has the keys to death and hades if not to encourage humanity? Revelation 1:18, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell (hades) and of death." He earned possession of those keys by overcoming death. What would the Savior of the world do with such keys but to release those held in the captivity which He conquered? He came to do the Father’s will and in Revelation 20:14 we find the fulfillment of the Hosea promise, "And death and hell (hades) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Death and hades, as they exist today, will no longer be. The language here is obviously symbolic, for one cannot speak of death as a "place" of substance and self existence which may be moved about. Neither can the dead be removed from it as from a geographical location. Death is a state of being, and people can only be removed from death by making them alive. Hades could be either a state of being or a place in which the dead are kept, however, it can no longer exist when the dead are made alive.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">JUDGMENT OR TORMENT?</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">But before the end of death and hades, all in that state are brought to judgment, Revelation 20:13, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (hades) delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works." The doctrine of eternal torment is not found in scripture but the teaching of judgment certainly is. But why judgment? Is it a matter of God’s vengeance only? The scripture suggests that God’s judgments are desirable but not necessarily enjoyable. It is never pleasant to be judged, but the fruit of judgment is desirable. Correction produces righteousness which yields the fruit of the Spirit, therefore, while the chastening is unpleasant, the results are a blessing. David rejoiced in the judgments of God because he saw them as a blessing, "... the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold:<br />
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." (Psalms 19:9-10). Out of love for His creatures, God chastens, corrects and punishes. He judges His creatures for their own good as any good father should. Hebrews 12:5-11, "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." I am aware of the distinctive references to "sons" in this scripture, but please also note the more general reference to "Father of spirits". Whatever else may be seen in this passage, surely the principle of God’s loving heart in judgment is revealed. Does He not also love the world? Yes indeed, for it is there that His love begins to work. He loved it so much that Jesus died for it and bought it with His blood so that He might convert it into "sons". Remember, He is no respecter of persons, what He out of love does for one He does for all but each in His own order and time. As the "Father of spirits" He is the Father of all and He is the Father of spirits before He is the Father of "sons". Only sons can become like their Father in chastening but all benefit from judgment. Isaiah 26:9, ". . . for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Matthew 12:20, "A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench. till he send forth judgment unto victory."</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">GOD’S LOVE IN JUDGMENT</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">Since the essence of God is love, everything He does must be beneficial to something. Love cannot exist in a vacuum. Though His judgments be ever so severe, they must ultimately work for the good of the recipients. Long before God revealed His love in Jesus Christ, Job knew this, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. . ." (Job 13:15). Did not Jesus teach us to love and do good to even our enemies? And while He admonished us to be perfect even as our Heavenly Father, would our Father be less than we are expected to be? Can love pour out vengeance for its own gratification or judge to satisfy its own sense of justice? The high standards of the Kingdom of Heaven set forth in the Sermon on the Mount are surely practiced by the God and King of that Kingdom if the subjects are required to live by them. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect". (Matthew 5:43-48). But we must not understand the Kingdom of God to be a system of rules and laws for it is a LIFE - a life of LOVE. which is the very LIFE OF GOD Himself. And that is precisely why we "must be born again or we cannot see the Kingdom of God". All in the Kingdom of God must have the same life that He is in order to be true citizens. In reality, Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is a revelation of God’s nature and life. Therefore, since we now know who God is and what He is like through the manifestation of Himself in Jesus Christ, how is it possible to conclude that His judgments are terminally destructive? No, the result of His judgments must ultimately be profitable and beneficial to the one being punished. "For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them …" (Luke 9:56).</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">THE LAKE OF FIRE</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">It is often assumed that the lake of fire, hell and the second death are all one and the same. Casual bible teaching has left many of us with such an impression, however, scripture clearly makes a distinction. First of all, hell cannot be the lake of fire for hell is cast into the lake of fire. Secondly, it is the EVENTS which are described as taking place in the lake of fire which are referred to as the second death. The second death is the pronounced judgment and the lake of fire is the instrument of judgment. Twice in Revelation, the second death is referred to in connection with the lake of fire and in two other passages we find the second death mentioned without reference to the lake of fire, verses 2:11 and 20:6. But what is it? It is found 5 times only in the book of Revelation, as follows: Revelation 19:20, ‘And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Revelation 20:10, ‘And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." Revelation 20:14, "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Revelation 20:15, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Revelation 21:8, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."<br />
Are we to understand this as a literal lake of fire? Caution must be exercised when accepting anything in the book of Revelation literally for in the very first verse John tells us that the things shown to him were "signified", that is, they were "signed" to him by the angel. What follows makes it clear that symbols are the rule in Revelation. While some things may indeed be taken literally, most of what is written cannot. Chapter 20, in which we find the most frequent use of the second death and the lake of fire, is rich with symbolism. Abstract phenomenon such as death and hell are treated as substance and cast into the lake of fire. This should probably warn us not to literalize the account, for if death and hell are symbolically cast into the lake of fire, it may be that the lake also is a symbol. Clearly, it is symbolic of the severest judgment. Jesus undoubtedly had this judgment in mind when He chose Gehenna as a type. While all of His teaching on Gehenna was symbolic, couching spiritual realities in physical terms, He emphatically warned of the gravity of this judgment in the strongest language possible. We must in no way diminish the seriousness of His warnings but neither must we read into them the heinous and hopeless things so often heard.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">THE SECOND DEATH</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">Revelation 2:11, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death". Revelation 20:6, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years". The special promise of deliverance from the second death pledged to the faithful who have their part in the first resurrection, is reminiscent of the "better resurrection" sought by the saints of Hebrews 11:35 and Paul’s striving for the "out from among the dead resurrection" of Philippians 3:11. This resurrection leads to reigning with Christ for 1000 years while the rest of the dead remain in their graves for the same 1000 years (Revelation 20:5). The implication of verse 6 seems to be that those not raised in the first resurrection are hurt by the second death. In this case, being left in death for the 1000 years would be part of the second death. Judgment for sin was first pronounced in the Garden of Eden, "You shall surely die", and ever since all sinners die once. Death is always the judgment for sin. Romans 6:23, "... the wages of sin is DEATH". The second death is a further or second judgment for sin. All in Hades are brought out to be judged but not necessarily all are sentenced to the second death, only those whose names are not written in the book of life (vs. 20:15).</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">WHAT IS FIRE?</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">The elements of the lake of fire are fire and brimstone. Throughout the scripture, as in life, fire is a purifying agent. It consumes the consumable, leaving purity in its wake, converting material substance into energy (spirit). It is referred to as a refiner of gold, trials of various kinds, judgment and even to God Himself, Hebrews 12:29 "For our God is a consuming fire."<br />
I Corinthians 3:13, "Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is." There are far too many references to list here. I suggest you do a word study with a concordance to acquaint yourself with the many applications. Suffice it to say, fire is usually connected with God in some way. Elijah proved the one true God through the control of it. He considered the true God to be the only one who could manifest supernatural fire. I Kings 18:24, "And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answereth by fire, let him be God. Several times in the first chapter of 2 Kings, he proves he is a man of God by calling down fire from heaven. Satan’s false prophet deceives the world in Revelation 13:13 by apparently duplicating this miracle, proving that Satan himself acknowledges fire to be heaven’s domain.<br />
Is it divine design or mere coincidence that fire and brimstone are mentioned as the essence of the lake of fire? Brimstone is the old English name for sulfur, an element which was traditionally considered a purifying agent and is still used in the science of healing today. The Greek word for it is THEION, which is the neuter form of the word for God, THEOS, the masculine form. Is this also a coincidence, or is this book of signs telling us that the lake of fire is somehow symbolic of God and His purifying and chastening love? Our God, the Consuming Fire manifested in purifying Brimstone (chastening love).<br />
The Love of God is tender Fire,<br />
Destined to consume<br />
The dross of sin and wrong desire<br />
That drives man to doom.<br />
Lest we be confused again by the KJV translation of AIONIOS, we must remind ourselves that the book of Revelation is set in the fabric of time, not eternity. Remember "forever and ever" literally translated is "into the ages of the ages", indicating a set of ages that are significant among the ages. All falls within the profile of Ephesians 3:11 in which we are told that God is working out an intention in the ages (literally translated), "according to the PURPOSE OF THE AGES, which he made in Christ Jesus our Lord". These are the same ages (not worlds) He made by the Son referred to in Hebrews 1:2, And again in the eleventh chapter where we through faith "understand the ages (not worlds) were FRAMED by the word of God". So God has a definite purpose for the ages. Through Jesus Christ He made them and appointed Jesus to be the executor of that purpose. But the wonder is greater for God has made Christ head of His body, the church, through which and together with, this work is done! Everything that happens within these ages is working out the wonderful purposes of God! No wonder our Apostle Paul exalts, "Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all<br />
ages, world without end (literally: into all the generations of the age of the ages). Amen. Ephesians 3:21.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">DOES "ALL" MEAN ALL?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">ALL: Every one of; The whole of; entire, complete; the greatest possible; every. This is the definition from the World Book Dictionary. The Greek word, PAS, carries the same force of meaning. Following are a number of verses which use this word: Luke 2:10, "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL people." John 12:32, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL men unto me." Acts 3:21, "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of ALL things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of ALL his holy prophets since the world began." Romans 5:18, "Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon ALL men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon ALL men unto justification of life." Romans 11:32, "For God hath concluded them ALL in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon ALL."<br />
I Corinthians 15:22-28, "For as in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down ALL rule and ALL authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put ALL enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put ALL things under his feet. But when he saith, ALL things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put ALL things under him. And when ALL things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put ALL things under him, that God may be ALL in ALL." 2 Corinthians 5:15, "And that he died for ALL, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." Ephesians 1:10, "That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one ALL things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:" Ephesians 1:21-23, "Far above ALL principality; and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put ALL things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over ALL things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth ALL in ALL." Ephesians 4:10, "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above ALL heavens, that he might fill ALL things." Philippians 3:21, "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue ALL things unto himself." Colossians 1:16-20, "For by him were ALL things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: ALL things were created by him, and for him: And he is before ALL things, and by him ALL things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in ALL things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should ALL fullness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile ALL things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." 1 Timothy 2:4-6, "Who will have ALL men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for ALL, to be testified in due time." 1 Timothy 4:10, "For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of ALL men, specially of those that believe."<br />
In addition to the word ALL the KJV also sometimes uses the word EVERY when translating the Greek word PAS. It is most important to note that whenever the phrase ALL THINGS appears, the original has only the word ALL. "Things" was added by the translators to distinguish the neuter gender of the Greek. Without getting into Greek grammar, suffice it to say that many Greek words have a suffix which gives the basic word the masculine, feminine or neuter gender, therefore, ALL THINGS indicates that the gender of ALL is neuter. This distinction in no way changes the force of the translation but to our modern concept of the meaning of THINGS we are inclined to think of inanimate objects rather than living beings and so lose the force of what the scripture actually conveys. The meaning of the Greek PAS in the neuter gender is simply every man, every woman and everything. I believe the content of the verse becomes clearer to our English mind if we ignore "things" when reading these passages.<br />
It is tempting to launch a running commentary on these pungent and wonderful verses but it would be redundant to do so. It requires only a careful reading with special cognizance and recognition of the full meaning of the word ALL to see the glory of God’s plan for humanity revealed in these verses. Hopefully, these verses will inspire a more complete study on your own. The Colossians passage alone, quoted above, should convince anyone that God has good things in store for all, especially verse 20, where the universal nature of God’s redemptive work is underscored: "… reconcile all things … whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven". The word "reconcile" means to change from one state to another, so this is not only an optional legal reconciliation but a declaration that God will CHANGE His creatures as well. Jesus made peace through the blood of the cross but God did not stop there for through Jesus He will also CHANGE the ALL! Obviously, this does not all happen at the same time. There is a long and complicated process in view but in the end God will have fulfilled His purposes. He will be all IN all. ALL will come to Him but not all at once. When the gospel was preached in Antioch in Pisidia those who were "ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48), but these were not the only ones so ordained. Others came later for "the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region". Every man in his own order (1 Corinthians 15:23). The thought of order is, as in the ranks of a marching army.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">THE GLORIOUS FINALE</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">"Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, That at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, And that EVERY tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father."<br />
(PhiIippians 2:9-11). These verses speak of the final change and restoration of all of God’s creatures through the redemptive and priestly work of Jesus just before He submits everything to The Father. Why our translators thought it necessary to insert the word "things" in this passage is a mystery. It only serves to muddy the waters. The obvious reference is to "beings" rather than "things". Peace, harmony and happiness in God’s universe can only be when all His creatures acknowledge the universal headship of Jesus Christ. And this is the glorious promise in the great Gospel of our God. Every creature will enjoy the wonders of their God in absolute and pure love out of submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. It borders blasphemy to suggest that this acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord is a forced confession. How could such a condition produce a perfect kingdom based upon love? And how could such a condition possibly be "to the glory of God, the Father"? Mohammed Ali was one of the greatest boxers of all time. If he were to take a little boy by the neck and force him to admit Ali is greater, it would be no glory to him. All men would consider such a forced confession to be a disgrace to him - and yet there are those who would tell us that this passage declares a forced admission of Lordship and call it a glory to God! Only blind dogma can arrive at such a conclusion. NO, love never fails and force never wins and the love of God will conquer ALL!<br />
Underlying everything we have said is the concept of GOVERNMENT. That is what all this is really about. The message Jesus preached during His earthly ministry was the announcement of God’s government, that is, THE KINGDOM OF GOD or THE KINGDOM OF THE HEAVENS. Many have wondered what the difference is between the two. The answer is none. The terms are used interchangeably. The Kingdom of God tells us whose it is and The Kingdom of the Heavens tells us where it comes from. According to Daniel the Prophet, it is the final Kingdom upon the earth and it comes from heaven, in the last days when the Roman empire has been revived. In fact, all of that area revealed by Nebucadnezzar’s image will be in power and prominence again in the days when the God of Heaven sets up His Kingdom upon the earth. In Daniel’s vision, it comes from Heaven striking the STANDING image on its toes, displacing the entire image and growing to fill the entire earth. Revelation refers to that event in 11:15, "... The kingdoms of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever (into the ages of the ages)."<br />
Israel rejected Jesus as King because they expected the visible Kingdom when Messiah comes. They did not realize the nature of The Kingdom or the foundation of love it would be based upon. According to their history, God always moved in their behalf by violently destroying their enemies. When Jesus came announcing the Kingdom and teaching love as the Kingdom basis, it was totally unlike their history. They expected to rule the world by force under a powerful Messiah. Indeed, the first 1,000 years of Christ’s reign will have an element of force, for He shall rule (Greek says "shepherd") the nations with a rod of iron. Contrary to popular myth, this millennium is not yet the perfect time upon earth. Some of the ills of this age remain though good and evil will be in inverse proportions. Righteousness will prevail and every unrighteous deed will be swiftly dealt with, but it ends in rebellion, which brings further judgment. It remains for the age or ages to follow to produce the perfect government by perfecting love in all of God’s creatures. It all makes sense, does it not? Jesus announced the Kingdom of God when He was upon earth, but it did not appear. Nevertheless, it began with John the Baptist, though unseen, for it must begin by changing the spirit of man. The kind of Kingdom God had in mind could not come until there was a way for pure hearts to be given, The Lamb must be slain to provide the foundation for God’s intervention into human will so His Holy Spirit could be given in order to begin His Kingdom on the INSIDE of His creatures. After finishing this vital work, Jesus went away to await the visible Kingdom, in the meantime, the Holy Spirit is quietly at work bringing to pass the Kingdom and preparing a governmental force to aid in the world government of God’s Christ. Those who have been chosen and are faithful in the little, will be chosen to share the glorious work in the reign of Jesus.<br />
The best government is the least government. In the ultimate and perfectly free society there can be no governmental control or restrictions. In this present evil age such lack of government would be disastrous and therefore perfect freedom in this age is only an impossible dream. Love does no harm to its neighbor. If all beings were perfected in love, no controls would be necessary. This is what we see as the result of Christ’s reign. When He has destroyed all enemies and changed all hearts and all of God’s creatures have God’s nature, His authority and power will no longer be necessary. At that time He will abdicate, turning the Kingdom over to God the Father. The earliest government known to man was a patriarchy. The last government will also be a patriarchy with our Heavenly Father at the head. The final society will be a family bound together in love, each seeking only to do good to each other.<br />
The basic and abiding GOSPEL is the good news of God’s reign upon earth. It is the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. Paul’s Gospel, which I have named the REVEALED GOSPEL contains that gospel and gives us the good news of HOW it will be done. This GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM will be restored to the church in the last days, so it can be preached in all the world, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matthew 24:14). So now we await the promised return of our King to set up His visible Kingdom, replacing the present imperfect governments of man with THE KINGDOM OF GOD!<br />
EVEN SO COME, LORD JESUS!</span></div><br />
<div><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></div>By Dr. Bert Bauman<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I understand there is a lot of reading in these posts, and that the content can be a totally a new view point or revelation to the scriptures, especially if you have not studied from the original Greek. I pray only for your understanding through the knowledge of the Holy Spirit and that these posts be unlifting and a blessing by His Spirit. Again if you would like more literature or CDs on the subjects of these posts I would be glad to send them to you free of charge.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I pray that this only brings you closer to the knowledge of the Father and His love for you. Again I would appreciate any comments or questions you might have.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Blessings</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span><br />
<div> </div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-84182876243117873882010-01-30T09:27:00.000-08:002010-01-31T07:23:16.150-08:00A Little Leaven<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DaU4yqp1i44/S2RrljhFtjI/AAAAAAAACMM/tdvtUsWobkw/s1600-h/thumbnailCAJPLJS4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kt="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DaU4yqp1i44/S2RrljhFtjI/AAAAAAAACMM/tdvtUsWobkw/s320/thumbnailCAJPLJS4.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Little Leaven</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: large;">For we in the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but faith working through love. Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him who calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. (Galatians 5:5-9)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Apostle Paul had a burden on his heart. His great concern was that the Gospel of Jesus Christ be preserved pure for future generations. As he warns in his letter to the Galatians, even just a little leaven leavens the whole lump. This leaven to which Paul refers is the leaven of works. When it is mixed with the Gospel it acts just as yeast does — starting very subtly, invisibly permeating the entire lump of dough. A Gospel so leavened has been perverted from Good News to Bad News.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This leaven of works — of self-attainment before the Lord — comes in various forms, but always amounts to the same thing, our "old man" seeking to boast before God about something. We try to gain merit before God, to be heard, or to he accepted by him on the basis of something we do in the physical — rather than coming before God by faith, on the basis he alone has prepared for us: the blood of Jesus Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Faith itself has become leavened in the Church today, with the result that many Christians display an attitude that boasts: "I have believed, and therefore I am saved." This may seem to be a harmless boast. but declaring our salvation to be a result of our believing is an adulteration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ... "by grace are ye saved." It is not by faith but by grace that we are saved, through Jesus Christ. Faith is simply an attitude of rest in what God has already freely given. Through the death of his son, Jesus Christ, we receive life. This life of God is given by grace and received by faith. It is not of works, lest any man should boast" — no, not even the work of faith. Yet by coming to a place where we pride ourselves in the mere fact of our faith, we allow ourselves to feel superior to others: we, at least, have believed, while those others, presumably, do not have enough sense to do the same. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yoke of Bondage</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Paul saw this leavening process at work in the church at Galatia. "Stand fast," he admonished them, "in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." This yoke of bondage consists of mixing Old Testament works of law with faith — and it destroys the efficacy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For I testify again to every, man that if he is circumcised he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are justified by the law: you have fallen from grace."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The only way we can fall from grace in the New Testament is by trying to add something to what God has already done. This is not what we usually hear preached, but it is nonetheless what Paul taught. Many Christians believe that they fall from grace if they fall into sin, but this is not supported by New Testament teaching. Paul says that if, by your works, you try to add to or improve on your righteousness before God, then you have fallen from grace. Grace has, in such case, become of no effect to you. You have ceased resting in what God has done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We must be very careful not to leaven the new with the old when we take something from the Old Testament and apply it to ourselves under the New Testament. For example, circumcision was clearly commanded in the Old Testament, therefore some early believers insisted that circumcision was a prerequisite to becoming a Christian: you must become a Jew before you can become a Christian. Not so, argued Paul: "It is by grace you are saved." lie would not allow the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be compromised. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Afflict Your Souls"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fasting, too, is a practice taken from the Old Testament which is often interpreted to be a command for New Testament Christians. However, in only one place in the Pentateuch can fasting be inferred by way of command — and then only obliquely. The words fast and fasting do not appear in verb or noun form in any of the first five books of the Bible. In Lev. 16:29 the Lord gives Moses instructions that on the Day of Atonement "Ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Afflict your souls" is a rather ambiguous term, somewhat open to speculation, The Jews observed this command by not eating on the Day of Atonement, but they also did other things besides not eating. For example, they may have worn sackcloth, as they often did on other occasions of mourning — for that is what the Day of Atonement was: a time of mourning for their sins by abusing themselves, not enjoying themselves, not doing their own pleasure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I am not convinced that fasting was indeed a command given in the Law. However, all the Law —implied or otherwise — is fulfilled, according to Paul, in this: that you love your neighbor as yourself. This is the summation of all that God is after, and the fulfillment of every Old Testament command.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That which is brought over into the New Testament from the Old can create a hybrid of unscriptural and contradictory doctrine: saved by grace through law, or earning grace through works. "Free lunch!" we entice. "Please pay when served." Christianity, instead of being a blessing and a joy, becomes a burden and a curse—proclaiming a confusing mixture of "truth," of questionable "good" news — and all for lack of heeding the Apostle Paul’s simple warning, "a little leaven leavens the whole lump."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Why Do Ye . . . Fast Not?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Proponents of New Testament fasting often point to Matthew 9:14 as substantiation for their teaching. Jesus was asked why John’s disciples fast while he and his own disciples did not. Jesus’ reply was to ask, while the Bridegroom is with them, how can they fast, how can they mourn? But the time for mourning is when the Bridegroom is taken away. And certainly, during that bleak time after the crucifixion, when the high hopes of the disciples were dashed to the ground by the seeming defeat of their Lord; certainly this time was, if not a time of fasting, unarguably a time of mourning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But we as Spirit-filled Christians know in a very real sense how much better it is that Jesus, as he declared to his disciples, "go away". For in going away, he came again, and is living today not only with a few, but in many. We have his promise that he will never leave us, that he will be with us even to the end of the age.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is, therefore, no need for us to fast as such, no reason for us to mourn because Jesus is with us still — and we have no reason to abuse ourselves for our sins, because Christ has died for them. He has taken the full penalty for our sins upon himself. He has done our mourning for us. Over and over again we are admonished to delight ourselves in the Lord, "rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!" Jesus has done it all . . . we can add nothing. He is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and our redemption. Praise the Lord!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">New Wine, Old Wineskins</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That’s the Good News of Jesus Christ. But a little leaven leavens the whole lump. We cannot add the old to the new without destroying the new. In Matthew 9:16-17 Jesus illustrates this point vividly. In the Greek text this verse begins with a conjunction which may be translated "on the other hand. So, on the other hand, Jesus declares, you don’t put a new patch on an old garment, or put new wine into old wineskins. If you do, the result is disastrous. It is not only not helpful, it is destructive. Do not mix the old with the new.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Remember that Jesus gave this illustration in response to the question about fasting. We must conclude therefore that fasting in the New Testament sense must not he done in the same way — and most certainly not for the same reasons — as Old Testament fasting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Old Testament people of God believed fasting would help ensure that their words were heard on high. There is no supporting scripture for this practice in the New Testament, or for that matter in the Old Testament either. In fact in the Old Testament, God said this practice was not the way to have your voice heard on high. In Isaiah 58 he asks: "Do I have pleasure in the fact that you abuse your souls, that you afflict your souls, torment your bodies? Do I take pleasure in that? No! That is not the fast that I choose. The fast I choose is that you love your neighbors as yourselves". </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is astonishing to think of the mentality we sometimes ascribe to God: that he, a loving Father, would delight in the torment of his children. These kinds of sacrifices are the sort exacted by pagan gods from their subjects. To think that God enjoys having his children inflict themselves with pain to appease him — or worse still, to get his attention — is a blasphemy. It is wholly unjustifiable in the light of the revelation of himself in His son Jesus Christ. No, this is not the fast God chooses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is a New Testament fast, a fast that God approves of, but it is a fast that must be practiced in the light of the New Testament message. We must not leaven the New Testament with Old Testament bias. The New Covenant of grace and the revelation through Jesus Christ of Gods love for us are today’s new wine. We must not leaven the Gospel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">To Whom is Jesus Speaking?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Much of the confusion that arises from certain instructions and proclamations of Christ in the New Testament can be avoided by remembering that he was not addressing himself to New Testament Christians, but rather to the people of God of that day — as he himself said, "I am not sent but to the children of the house of Israel." Any application of these teachings by Christians should be approached in the understanding of New Testament teaching after the cross — not before it. Remember, the death of Jesus on the cross ushered in a New Covenant. The relationship between God and man has been utterly and eternally altered by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Old Testament prefigured many things which were to come in the New Testament. Old Testament people and believers served as examples to us upon whom the end of the age has come. All Old Testament types, pictures and figures point to a consummate Reality which we know to be Jesus Christ, alive and living in the midst of a people who walk by faith in a united relationship with God. When Jesus walked the earth, this reality was still a future event; when he spoke, he addressed himself to the customs, practices and abuses of that particular day. When we study his teachings we must learn the principles of what he was saying to a literal Old Testament people, and apply the principles to our lives in the light of New Testament revelation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">For example, in Matthew 5:23 he said, "when you bring your gifts to the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go and be reconciled to your brother. Then come and present your gift at the altar". Is he telling us to bring gifts to a literal altar? Of course not, New Testament Christians have no literal altar upon which to present gifts. New Testament Christians are the temple of God. At the time of Jesus, however, it was common practice to offer gifts at the altar of the temple, so the words of Jesus were clearly understandable to the people of that day. The obvious principle is, if you are at odds with someone, first be reconciled and then come before God in a right spirit. Then come with your gifts. To interpret this teaching to mean that we must bring gifts to a literal altar would do violence to the spirit of what Jesus was trying to convey.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">By the same token, when he said, ‘‘When you fast", we must not infer that he teaches us to literally abstain from food. We must remember that his teachings were to a people who lived within the dictates of Old Testament Law and practices to which we died when he was crucified. If we, as New Testament Christians, attempt a literal practice of the teachings of Jesus to Israel, we, like the foolish Galatians, will ultimately put ourselves back under the bondage of the Law from which we are set free. Our faith will be hindered, and we will have fallen from grace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Called To Liberty</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty." Paul writes in Galatians 5;13, "Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself".</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We find it delightful to bask in the grace of God and enjoy our liberty in the Lord, but it is easy to use our liberty for license, to fulfill fleshly desires. God has wrought for us a wonderful salvation by grace to which we can add nothing, and upon which we cannot improve. Yet there are two sides to this salvation: that which theologians call the subjective and objective sides of the Gospel. First of all, there is that which God has given and declared, and secondly, there is that in which we walk. We are told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. The grace of God comes to us as a free gift, but we are warned to watch how we walk in this grace. We must not use grace as an excuse for fleshly conduct — for living for the pleasures of our worldly senses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Bible tells us that we have three enemies in our sojourn through this life. The World, the Flesh and the Devil. They work together as an unholy trinity, warring against the soul in an attempt to destroy Christian men and women. James tells us in Chapter 4, verse 4 that the friendship of the world is the enemy of God. If we align ourselves with worldly philosophies and principles we have gone over to the enemy and have become, in effect, an enemy to God. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," advises the Apostle John, ‘‘If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our Flesh, is our closest enemy — it’s right with us at all times — we can always feel it. We find it much easier to believe the testimony of our feelings than the testimony of the Word of God — quick to despair when our feelings aren’t what we think they should be. Our flesh constantly cries out to be pampered, nursed, nourished and catered to. Paul lists the works of the flesh in Gal 5:19-21, but offers us this hope in verse 16: ‘‘Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.’’ </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">God’s Chosen Fast</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">True fasting is to afflict the soul by putting the body, its passions and appetites under subjection for a constructive purpose. This is Gods chosen fast. It is not to afflict us, but to benefit us: for as we fast from the flesh, we walk after the Spirit, denying ourselves, as Jesus says, and following after him. This New Testament fast is much more difficult than merely going without food. All of hell is behind this flesh of ours, trying to entice us away from spiritual pursuits. All this world is a siren, calling to us, distracting us to turn from righteous endeavors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The chosen fast of God, then, is one which denies our flesh in much more than a strictly literal sense — that of abstaining from food. Fasting for purposes of having our voice heard on high, giving weight to our prayers or forcing God into answering our petitions — just as any work of the Law — avails nothing. The New Testament walk is based solely upon faith in Jesus, resting in his completed work on Calvary, asking in his name, believing his word. Whatever we ask in the name of Jesus, God says he hears. The Bible tells us all things are possible for him who believes. It does not say all things are possible for him who fasts. The blood of Christ is our only plea before God, and we have need of no other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our Spiritual Warfare</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This purpose of God will not be accomplished unless we live in submission to his Spirit within us. How can we bring the enemies of God into subjection to God if we ourselves are not in subjection to his Spirit? And how can we be in submission to the Spirit if we lend ourselves to worldly activities, responding to the caterwauling of our flesh, and in effect, letting Satan rule over us? The blood of Jesus Christ has delivered us from the world, translated us from the worldly into the spiritual. Now the Spirit of God within us seeks to bring that world into submission to God through us. We have indeed become co-workers with him in his plan of redemption.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But although we have been drafted into an army whose battlefield encompasses the whole of creation, the front line is very close to home. It is, in fact, within us. Our immediate struggle is to overcome in ourselves the enemies of World, Flesh and Devil — to bring all things into subjection to Christ. The New Testament fast is a battle stratagem by which we take our worldly passions and nail them to the cross. When we actively trust the life of Jesus within us and walk after what he is in us — so that these passions are kept subject in our bodies and souls — we walk after and prosper in the Spirit. And if we walk in the Spirit, Paul assures us, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The flesh and the spirit are at enmity with each other, they are contrary to each other, and constantly at war, keeping us from doing what we would. But if we are led by the Spirit, Paul writes, we are not under the Law.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The works of the flesh which Paul lists result from the appetites of our lower nature. The first category involves the sexual appetite, a perfectly legitimate appetite given to man by God. But when we walk after the flesh, legitimate appetites can begin to control us. When the sexual appetite has gained control over the life of a believer, the manifestations of that control are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Other works of the flesh that are listed are idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions and heresies. This present age is a day of glory for our appetites of wanting, of "amounting to something" of rebellion. Rebellion, the scriptures say, is as the sin of witchcraft. Yet our society is deep in the throes of a self-centered philosophy that denies God while repeatedly stressing "MY needs, MY wants, MY rights to MY fulfillment." In seeking to satisfy ourselves and to build ourselves up, we find ourselves in strife, jealousy, hatred, in passions of divisions, pitting one against another and in thinking evil about one another.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Spiritual Masquerade</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the Church of today we sometimes see such a work of the flesh parading in the subtle disguise of "discernment" when in reality it is simply criticism in a holy cloak. "Listen, we’d better pray together: I discern (this-or-that) in Brother so-and-so, and it’s just terrible, or in Sister so-and-so: "It’s a spirit I discern, I picked it up in the Spirit. Let’s pray about it." And then we gossip: "Oh, yes, that’s true, because you know what I saw him do?" A fellowship plagued by this sort of operation of "spiritual gifts" will soon be smashed to pieces, rife with wounded victims of this spiritual masquerade. There are many ways to deal with sin in our brothers and sisters, but to announce "I discern", is not one of them. If you discern something in someone, talk to that person privately. You may, after all, be wrong. Satan is cunning. He comes as an angel of light, using the lower appetites to tempt and test us. What seems innocent— or even spiritual — can be a work of flesh disguised, and all the more deadly for its harmless appearance.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: large;">There is a Spirit of Religion in the world today. People delight in being religious — it makes them feel good, so holy, so self-satisfied, so downright superior. Such a religious attitude is little but a field day for the flesh; it is a false spirit. On the other hand, the practice of the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is by faith, and it drives into submission all kinds of feelings that have to do with the flesh. It puts the Word of God — the Will of God — first. We as Christians walk after the Spirit, believing the Word of God, and seeking to do his will. To accomplish this, we must subjugate feelings which are contradictory to God’s declarations and purpose. Such a walk in the Spirit is not easy: it requires our full attention, strength, devotion and energy. It is much easier to take our liberty and abuse it, then camouflage the result with a little rationalization and say we are doing the will of God. It is entirely possible to engage in religious activities and he feeding the flesh through them.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">No Scriptural Basis</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: large;">And it is possible to fast in the Old Testament way and absolutely be feeding the flesh. Such fasting in itself does nothing to edify us spiritually. Contrary to popular teaching, there is no scriptural basis for such belief. The volumes that have been written and taught on the subject are most often exercises of human thought, rationalization and interpretation. .</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Satan, for example, is not against fasting, per se. In fact, many occult practices and heathen religions embrace abstinence from food as a dietary approach to the spirit world. It is commonly known that Spiritualist mediums often weaken their bodies through fasting to facilitate being taken over by spirit control. No, Satan is not against going without food, he teaches it. The belief that going without food deals him a severe blow is sheer deception. The only time Satan flinches and runs is when we put our faith in God, persisting in that faith, and standing in the delegated authority of Jesus’ name.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Neither is fasting a viable means of "getting power," as is so often taught. The Bible says that power comes to us through the Holy Spirit, who indwells us and is released by faith. There are many scriptures that tell us we receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon us, but no such promise is given in regards to fasting. Jesus’ wilderness fast did not empower him rather it was a weakened state in which he was tempted by Satan. There is no evidence in the scripture that Jesus ever voluntarily fasted. The only exception might he his encounter with the woman at the well, at which time he was too full of the joy of doing the will of God — too full of "food that ye know not of" — to eat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">During his life on earth Jesus walked continually in the spirit, and his flesh was in perfect subjection at all times. In Luke 4 we see him being led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where there was no food for him to eat. This does not, in my opinion, constitute a voluntary fast. He had simply given himself up to the works of his Father: he was prepared to do his Father’s will and was expecting to be provided for by him. After forty days (40 is the number of trials in the scriptures), his body was at the point of starvation, the second hunger had set in. Feed yourself, Satan tempted, God obviously isn’t going to. But Jesus wouldn’t succumb: "Man does not live by bread alone," he said. "Listen, Satan, I am walking by faith. l am trusting God to set a table in the wilderness, to meet my needs". And indeed God did so by sending a ministering angel, and vindicating Jesus’ faith.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: large;">After this experience there is nothing recorded in the scriptures to indicate that either Jesus or his disciples fasted, and in fact, Matthew 9:14 confirms this. Jesus taught the disciples a new way, a way untainted by Old Testament leaven.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: large;">A Proper Understanding</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, I am not opposed to going without food, as long as it is done with the understanding of what function such a practice serves in bringing the flesh into subjection. Abstaining from food is a perfectly acceptable means of suppressing your flesh — and can be especially effective if you have problem eating habits. The early Church fasted at times: while waiting on the Lord, while ministering to the Lord, or as they prayed and waited on God to guide them in appointing new elders. It is a legitimate practice to set things aside periodically just to seek the Lord. At such times the focus of our concentration should be on God, and fasting from taking meals, or doing business, or participating in other everyday activities can very well be an accommodation to our faith. That’s walking in the Spirit — that’s the New Testament fast. If you fast in that manner it will be beneficial to you. But if you fast to have your voice heard on high, thinking that your human endeavors can somehow coerce God, you are leavening the Gospel of Jesus Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It Is By Faith</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Church history is filled with the testimony of those who tried to reach God by abusing themselves, or by doing something. None of their endeavors provided peace or rest; only in Jesus did they discover that for which they sought so diligently. Every word of God — every promise of God — finds its fulfillment in the center of Jesus Christ. We lay hold of his promises by faith — not by praying five hours a day, or fasting two days a week, or climbing up St. Peters Cathedral on our knees. We stand by faith. We walk by faith. We grow by faith. We live by faith. It is senseless to mount great campaigns in which we "storm the gates of heaven" for our appeal to he heard, "Who shall ascend into heaven to bring Christ down?" the Scripture says. "The Word is nigh thee".</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is imperative for us to believe Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment of every promise. And the answer to every dilemma. It is a natural inclination to seek for remedies to our quandaries, but we must be cautious to look only to Jesus to provide for us. Faith in this sense waits quietly to receive * it does not cast about in frantic quest. Any attempt on our part to apprehend the promises, favors or gifts of God through human endeavor — through works — puts us in jeopardy of losing what is already established for us. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The New Testament Command</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That we love our neighbor as ourselves is the commandment we as New Testament Christians should strive, with all our strength, to obey. The practice of such Godly love — agape love — brings our flesh into submission more efficiently than any other thing we might do. God’s love always benefits somebody, always works to bring good to somebody. To love in God’s way will cost us something. It will cost us a sacrifice of our own interests in the interests of others. It means giving your time to talk with someone when you’d rather be home watching television. It means going to church services when you don’t feel like it, because your presence is a strength to the assembly. It means encouraging the brethren in the faith, when your own spirits are at such low ebb you would like a little succor for yourself. It means looking for ways in which the goodness of God can flow through you to bless others, knowing that God may accomplish that blessing by requiring you to do something you simply would rather not do. Love, in its highest sense, always means sacrifice for the benefit of someone else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The New Testament Fast</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The New Testament fast is a fast of love. If we keep that fast — really keep it, it means putting our own desires to the cross, seeking the Lord with all our hearts, reaching out to others at the expense of our own creature comforts, and closing our minds to the hiss of the serpent that says SPARE yourself, feel SORRY for yourself. . . Oh aren’t they terrible, they don’t recognize you, nobody’s paying any attention to you... look at what it’s costing you, isn’t it terrible what they expect from you, it’s unfair that you’re expected to do this and that. The hiss of the serpent. That’s the Devil, whispering to you through your flesh, and if you’re not walking in the New Testament fast, you will listen to him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Going without food is only an incidental part of what the Old Testament fast pictured for New Testament Christians. Food itself is not evil, and abstaining from it will not make us more righteous. Our righteousness is the life of Christ, a life into which we are led by the Spirit of God in our daily walk of faith. The great revelation of Martin Luther to the Church was just this, that the just shall live by faith. No other means is given us in this New Testament age of apprehending the promises of God but faith. No other means is given us to please God but faith. Our entire relationship with God is one of faith: our faith in Jesus, and his faithfulness to us. If we try to approach, please or serve or if we try to receive from God on any other basis than that of faith, we are enslaving ourselves in the bondage of works, we are falling from grace . . . and we are defiling the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: large;">A little leaven leavens the whole lump.</span><br />
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By Dr. Bert Bauman<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you so much for stopping by, I appreciate your comments and if you have any questions concerning the teaching here, please ask or email me. I would be more than happy to talk with you. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Blessings</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Rebecca</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-57301169280852525102010-01-27T13:07:00.000-08:002010-01-29T13:48:40.318-08:00Healing of the Soul<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DaU4yqp1i44/S2MnvX4i7OI/AAAAAAAACME/9yJnjWV92ww/s1600-h/jesus_christ.bmp"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432229270357470434" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DaU4yqp1i44/S2MnvX4i7OI/AAAAAAAACME/9yJnjWV92ww/s400/jesus_christ.bmp" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div><span style="font-size: 180%;">HEALING OF THE SOUL</span><br />
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By Dr. Bert Bauman<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">"Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away,<br />
behold, the new has come." 2 Cor. 5:17.<br />
These words are God’s revelation concerning the spiritual reality of one who is born again. Many Christians are discouraged and often fall into deep despair because "the old has passed away" does not seem to be true in their lives. This frustration is possible because they fail to distinguish between soul and spirit. The spirit is the unconscious self and the reality of being. The soul is the conscious self and therefore it is the realm of feelings, emotions and conscious thoughts. It is in the soul that the contradiction with the above scripture is felt. The soul is not renewed — it is in process of being made new through faith. Paul exhorts that we are to be transformed by the renewal of our mind, Romans 12:2. Peter declares that the soul is to be purified through "obedience to the truth". I Peter 1:22. Jesus said, "the truth will set you free". John 8:32. The spirit is new but the soul must be made new. The battle is between the truth and the lie. At the root of every sin, emotional problem or aberration is a lie. No change in feelings or experience is possible without a change in attitude and mind towards the truth — especially as revealed in God’s word.</span><br />
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HEALING OF THE SOUL </span><br />
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FAITH...is to reckon, consider or depend upon what God says over against previous knowledge, experience or feelings. This is done by choice of will, therefore, everyone can believe. Faith is agreeing with God. Positive use of the will (relative to God's word) is faith...negative use is either upon the truth or the lie. God's promise is to work in you to do His will and fortify your positive choice.<br />
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THOUGHTS in your mind may originate from God, yourself or Satan. Thoughts you allow to remain are the thoughts you choose to think. The thoughts you reject are not yours even though they may persist in your mind.<br />
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The thoughts you allow become habits, that is, patterns of thought. . . or<br />
ATTITUDES<br />
In other words, the thoughts you think determine your character and personality.<br />
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EMOTIONS or feelings result from attitude. Emotions must be controlled at the source by choosing to think true thoughts. Feelings can be changed through faith.<br />
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BEHAVIOR or action follows emotion or feelings. Any person is capable of any act when emotions are developed and circumstances are just right for the act.<br />
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LIFE is all that which has to do with the well-being of body, soul and spirit. Love, joy, peace, goodness, patience, self control and physical health. A way of life based upon truth leads to LIFE!<br />
LIFE<br />
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UNBELIEF...is believing a lie, that is, depending upon, reckoning upon or counting upon a lie as though it were true. Whether done in ignorance, under deception or by choice, the results are destructive since this leads to thoughts and reasonings based upon false ideas, and wrong information.<br />
After choosing to believe God in any specific conflict, guard your mind to permit only those thoughts compatible with your choice. Remember all the thoughts in your mind do not come from you. Learn to be selective. Your mind must be renewed.<br />
ATTITUDE, like character, is not easily changed. Your attitude determines your emotional health. Since attitude is developed by thought, it can only be changed by changing thoughts. Whatever is true, just, honorable, pure, lovely, think on these things.<br />
As an emotional being, man tends to be led by his feelings equating feelings with reality, but man is designed to be controlled by his will. What a man chooses to believe is what he really is. "you can't help how you feel" is not true!<br />
It is impossible to change some bad behavior patterns without first correcting the "false truth" from which the behavior springs. Consequently, changed thoughts will lead to new attitudes and a correction of behavior.<br />
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DEATH </span><br />
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DEATH is all that which destroys body, soul and spirit. All anxiety, fear, despair, nervousness and sickness is a form of death.<br />
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While the principles outlined above are helpful to any person who has emotional, physical or mental problems, it would be futile to speak of soul healing in depth unless the spirit of a person has first been made alive. The spirit of man is the essence of man and any true healing must take place from the inside out. Of course, there is only one way to<br />
receive spiritual health and that is to through receiving Life Himself in the person of Jesus Christ as the Gift of God. Most of a person's serious emotional problems dissolve when the spirit receives life through Christ, however, of the problems that persist among Christians , an understanding of the principles outlined above will be most helpful.<br />
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GOD’S THREE PART REDEMPTION</span><br />
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God is at work in three distinct areas of our being as He works out our redemption and restoration. Each of the three areas requires a different working accomplished in three different periods of time — past, present and future. It is important to understand the time elements involved as well as the three parts of our personality. The spirit has been redeemed, (a past work, 2 Cor. 5:17, Col. 3:1-4). The body shall be redeemed (a future work, Rom. 8:23, I Cor. 15:51). The soul is being redeemed now (a present work, Rom. 12,2, Eph. 4:17-23) The redemption and restoration of the whole man is God’s declared purpose Let the faithfulness of God be firmly established first of all — when you receive Christ into your heart, He does come in (Rev. 3:20). He comes in to stay, for He says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you". ( Heb. 13:5). He becomes your true life and your Resident Savior!<br />
God always works from the inside out, from the root to the top, from the seed to the flower, from the hidden to the manifest, from the spirit to the body.<br />
The present work of God, (the restoration of the soul) is the part of our redemption with which we are most concerned in this time How to release the Life which was placed in the unconscious realm of our being (our spirit), into the conscious daily life experience is the problem which leads us into the war between flesh and spirit we all know so well. The battlefield upon which this contest is fought is not the spirit, as is so commonly supposed, rather it is in the soul—the conscious mind with its feelings, emotions, passions, thoughts, ideas, decisions and choices of will. By what he believes, man determines whether the principle of life in Christ or the principle of death will operate in his soul</span><br />
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THE POWER OF THE LIE!</span><br />
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In the first chapter of Romans, God briefly summarizes the sinful condition of man and how he came to that unhappy state. After turning away from God . . . "they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened." The beginning of a sinful life is a darkened mind. How the mind becomes dark is revealed in Romans 1:25, "... because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie . . .. As God is the source of His word which is truth so there is a personality behind the lie. The sad state of the human race began with a lie spoken by someone so long ago. Jesus said that someone was Satan, the father of lies. John 8:44. The most destructive lies are those spoken in direct contradiction to the word of God. "You will not die", said the serpent. God’s word was still fresh in Eve’s ear; "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree lest you die". She had two testimonies to count upon, one the opposite of the other, both could not be true. She chose the wrong one she believed a lie and acted upon it. This unfortunate choice produced its fruit in her life and all of her subsequent problems followed as a result of counting upon that lie. This strategy was perfect and Satan has never changed it. Every problem within you has its source in a lie from the father of lies, therefore, the only effective remedy is faith, that is, trust and God speaks dependence upon the truth as it. Works of righteousness or sacrifices will not bring deliverance so long as one holds to the lie. No amount of prayer or penance will bring victory so long as one continues to depend upon any testimony which is contrary to the word of God.</span></div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9178298733425924092.post-90131820820901338042010-01-26T14:18:00.000-08:002010-01-29T10:20:39.083-08:00<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DaU4yqp1i44/S2Mm3nqnr-I/AAAAAAAACL8/etYyJ_GC7AU/s1600-h/Easter.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5432228312521355234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 302px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DaU4yqp1i44/S2Mm3nqnr-I/AAAAAAAACL8/etYyJ_GC7AU/s400/Easter.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:180%;">HOW TO HAVE FAITH</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The key to receiving help from God is faith. When Christians are asked for a definition of faith, various confusing and nebulous answers are given. You have been called to "walk by faith"; therefore you must have a clear, meaningful understanding of this vital Christian virtue if you are to be successful in your quest for deliverance, victory and soul healing. "And without faith it is impossible to please him". (Hebrews. 11:6). "But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him". (Hebrews. 10:38). "For we walk by faith, not by sight". (2 Cor. 5:7). "All things are possible to him who believes". (Mark 9:23).<br />So then, what is faith? How do I understand it? Is it a feeling, or a mental exercise? "I just can't believe," we often say. By this we mean, "It is not reasonable . . . I cannot accept it intellectually." or "I do not feel the emotion of confidence that this is true." In this subtle way feeling and reason make up our concept of faith. But is it possible for anything made up of these two ingredients to be called faith? If faith depended upon the intellect or reason, those with the highest IQ would be richest in faith.<br />No, faith cannot be either a feeling or a mental exercise since the Word of God often calls upon us to believe in spite of natural abilities or feelings. Faith cannot depend upon reason because reason is exercised upon the foundations of our experience and knowledge (which is often inaccurate) and God presents promises which are beyond natural knowledge or experience.<br />The promises of God are always impossible to the natural mind and therefore unreasonable. Likewise faith cannot depend in any way upon feeling -- not even the feeling of confidence, which is basically an emotion and therefore subject to the instability of all human emotions. Confidence (or assurance) may be the result of faith but it is not faith itself!<br />The hopeless confession "I just can't believe," which is so common to our experience, is the result of our deluded concept of faith. We are deceived into thinking we have no control over our faith when, in reality, we do. We can believe! If it were true that man has no control over his faith, Jesus would not hold him responsible; but, in fact, the heaviest responsibility possible is put upon an individual to believe. His future is at stake in his faith.<br />What then is faith and how can I have it? In John 7:17 Jesus indicates that it all begins with the will. "If any man's will is to do his will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority," According to this teaching, I must will to do the truth, and Jesus promises that if I set my will I shall know the truth. Now, the will is a deliberate choice that is made apart from feelings or intellectual reason. We are not to be ruled by our emotions, ideas or thoughts. God has so made us that we are to be ruled by our choices -- by the will.<br />However frail or infirm the beginning choices may be, the course of life will be changed. A dear middle-aged widow of a medical doctor came to me for help. She was emotionally devastated and had lost all hope in life. To go on seemed futile and purposeless to her and to make matters worse, she appeared to have been stripped of all faith. When I pointed her to Jesus, she could not believe He existed. When I quoted the Bible, she doubted that it was true. When I suggested she simply call upon God, she could not since she was uncertain that He was real. Clearly she needed God, but I could find no place at which to begin to help her. Eventually, however, I led her into making use of her will by making a simple choice. I suggested she choose God by praying this most elementary prayer, "God, if there is a God, help me. And Jesus, if you exist, please come into my life. As best I know how I choose you." Frankly, I held little hope for any immediate results from such feeble faith, but was amazed to see that it was sufficient for her to find God! God became very real to her, and with renewed life she became a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.<br />So faith begins with the will. Realizing that faith begins as a volitional act, it is apparent that God has given to everyone the potential of faith. The positive use of the will, together with all the thought processes and attitudes, which follow, we call faith. The negative use of the will, together with all the thought processes and attitudes that result, we call unbelief.<br />Faith and unbelief are the same power in action -- the difference is simply the direction into which the power is channeled. This obviously makes unbelief as destructive as faith is constructive. This great power lies within everyone and can be used either for or against ones self.<br />The essential difference between the atheist and the saint is in the use of the will. The saint at one time or another was most likely plagued with similar thoughts and ideas as those which come to the atheist, but by setting his will again those thoughts and choosing instead the thoughts and ideas of God, his life is producing the fruits of faith, while the atheist reaps the harvest to which he has set his will. In lesser degrees we are all constantly making similar choices.<br />As every problem arises, we put this power within us into action, either constructively or destructively. We put our faith either in God or in the problem. Let me underscore this in your mind: it is the same force or power at work either for you or against yourself! It all depends upon your choice -- your will. There is no difference in essence between faith and unbelief. They are twins born from the same womb but living opposite lives.<br />In the long journey from Egypt to Canaan, the children of Israel illustrated the truths God wants mankind to know. In Psalm 78 God reveals His displeasure with them because of certain failures on their part, for we read in verses 19 through 22: "They spoke against God saying, Can God spread a table in the wilderness? He smote the rock so that water gushed out and streams overflowed. Can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people? Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel; because they had no faith in God, and did not trust his saving power." Notice especially the last verse, in which the reason for God's displeasure is summarized. Two things are mentioned: "no faith in God" and "did not trust his power." In other words, they did not consider Him to be faithful or able. They were not sure He could do what He said, or if He could, they were not sure He could be trusted to do it. The author of Hebrews when referring to this wilderness experience uses the terms "rebellion," "hardening of heart," "evil, unbelieving hearts", "disobedience." All these terms suggest the use of will in deliberate opposition to God.<br />The Holy Spirit holds up Abraham and Sarah as examples of faith. In Psalm 78 we found God's definition of unbelief: lack of faith (unbelief) is considering God to be unfaithful and unable. God gives us a positive definition of faith in exactly opposite terms in Romans 4:21, where we read that Abraham considered God to be able and in Hebrews 11:11, in which we read that Sarah considered God to be faithful. The Holy Spirit is therefore clearly teaching us with both negative and positive examples that faith is a deliberate choice of one's will to count or reckon upon God to be faithful and able to do what He has promised. This choice of will is to be exercised in the face of the most convincing contrary evidence -- even when that evidence is found in my own feelings or convictions. "Let God be true though every man be false", (Romans. 3:4).<br />Indeed, from two passages in I John it is evident that if we receive any other testimony above the testimony of God, it is the same as calling Him a liar. Do we accept the testimony of our reason or feelings above that which God has declared? If so, we put our feelings and emotions above God and inadvertently call Him a liar. To call anyone a liar is to cast doubt upon the worthiness of his character. We cannot say we trust the character of a friend and at the same time say his word cannot be relied upon. Thus the respect with which we receive the word of a person reveals the measure of our judgment of his character. "Have faith in God," Jesus said. This trust in Him will be manifested in our lives by our believing and reckoning upon His Word.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br />Faith and Fact<br /><br /><br />Faith is only possible when resting upon a fact. It is not possible to believe something is true when in reality it is not. The Word of God is fact, and true faith is simply counting upon a fact. Faith does not make a fact true, but it depends and reckons upon a fact as being true. So often we hold the mistaken idea that we will make a word of God true by believing it. In other words, we try to believe something is true so that it might truly be so. We try to bring it into reality by believing it into existence. The concrete reality of the truth, then, depends upon my faith to create it. This makes faith a work and my faith the center of attention, No wonder we have trouble with faith! God does not call upon us for such mental gymnastics. He simply asks us to count upon a fact and what He has declared is fact whether or not I believe it. Faith, which is conscious of itself, is not faith at all. Faith is conscious only of God and His Word and therefore unconscious of itself. Our attention must be focused away from self-effort unto God and His Word.<br />Counting upon that which is real and true brings us into the benefits of that fact. Doubting its reality keeps us from depending upon it; therefore we do not inherit its benefits. It is as though a rich man made a deposit of $1,000,000 to the account of a poverty stricken man, and then announced that fact to him. If the poor man believes the report and begins to count on the word of the rich man, he will benefit from the rich man's gift. If he does not believe or count upon the good news, he could starve to death even though the $1,000,000 is his in all reality and fact. His believing the announcement does not make the rich man's gift a fact (that is so, regardless), but his believing the rich man's word brings the benefit of the gift, because the poor man would begin to use the money given to him. So it is with the truth of God's Word: I do not have to make it true by believing -- it is true already! It is, in fact, true whether I believe it or not, but I do not benefit from that which is true if I do not count upon it. This is the foundation of all God's dealings with mankind. "In the beginning was the Word." The word of God always comes first. He announces to us what He has already done, and as I count upon His announcement it is manifested to me according as I believe. There are three steps in receiving from God: (1) God makes an announcement (promise). (2) Man counts it to be true and continues to count upon it (faith and patience). (3) God manifests His promise to me (possession).<br /><br /><br />Faith and the Will of God<br /><br /><br />If faith is the choice of my will to reckon or depend upon a declaration of God, it obviously follows that I must have a clear word to count upon. It is impossible to have a clear faith without a clear word of God to depend upon. In other words, I must be absolutely clear as to the will of God in a given matter if I am to have a clear unhindered faith. The Word of God reveals the will of God. If I can find a promise in the Bible which directly applies to my need or a general promise which may be applied in principle, I have a solid foundation upon which to base my faith. Any so-called faith exercised when the will of God is uncertain is only wishful thinking or self-delusion. God warns, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions". (James 4:3).<br />I cannot seriously believe God will do something if there is any doubt that He wants to do it. Thus the first and most important ingredient in the faith which receives solutions to problems is to have the will of God absolutely clear. "And this is the confidence which we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will he hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of Him". (l John 5:14-15). If we ask according to His will, we already have the answer even as we pray and can therefore count upon seeing it. If I have found a word of God which makes clear His will concerning my particular problem, I can ask in full confidence that He heard and consequently I am receiving the answer even as I am praying.<br /><br /><br />Faith and Actions<br /><br /><br />Every step of faith must be followed by an act to manifest the inner faith. "Faith apart from works (actions) is dead" (James 2:26). In many of the Bible accounts of miracle faith, a definite action was required of those who were believing. For example, Moses was commanded to hold his staff over the Red Sea to open it. He struck the rock to obtain water. The Israelites had to look at the brazen serpent, to be healed. The ten lepers were to show themselves to the priest. The hemorrhaging woman touched Christ's garment. If you are trying to believe God for something, what action are you taking to manifest your faith? It may be a foolish act such as Naaman had to do to be cleansed of his leprosy. What you do is not so important as the faith that is made alive through the act. Often this act is simply the confessing with the lips the Word of God.<br /><br /><br />Faith and Words<br /><br /><br /><br />The spoken word has power. Proverbs speaks of the tongue as having the power of life and death. Jesus taught, "Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him", (Mark 11:23). Often people claim to believe God but the confession of their mouth is continually negative and fatalistic. They incessantly overflow with problems. These people can never get free as long as they follow this practice. Whatever faith may be present in their hearts is made ineffective by their words: "For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved", (Romans. 10:10).<br />A man is called right because of the inner faith but he is changed through the confession of his lips. That is, the outward manifestation of the inner life comes as confession to that life is made with the lips. The inner choice of the will must be exercise upon the Word of God, and then that choice must extend to the act of speaking aloud what the will has chosen. The Word of God must find its way to the lips. What a man has chosen to believe becomes established and concrete when he hears himself saying it. Whether or not another human hears him say it is incidental. The important thing is that God and the spirits, good and evil and the man himself hear his testimony. It is easy to speak what we feel, but God wants us to speak what we have chosen to believe.<br />This is the way to change the feelings. As the positive Word of God is declared, my feelings are being changed into that which I am speaking. On the other hand, if I declare my negative feelings, I will more and more feel like the feeling I already have. If I declare what God says over and against my feelings, those feelings will change to harmonize with the word I am believing and declaring. The Psalmist prays, "Set a guard over my mouth. O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips!" Do not allow your own words to destroy the faith of your heart. Speak that which God speaks. Your inward faith and outward word must be in unity. Do not allow the comfort of complaining about your circumstance when, at the same time, you are expecting God to change it. Instead, let your words be positive, in harmony with your expectations.<br /><br /><br />Faith and Patience<br /><br /><br />It may take some time until the answer to my prayer is manifested. In the meantime, I must by choice of my will count upon the clear promise or Word of God and know the answer will become visible to me as Hebrews 11:1 declares. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," or to paraphrase it: "Faith is the substance things hoped for are made of." It is possible that many of the things we pray for do not become manifest to us because we do not stay around to see the answer when it comes. It takes faith and patience to inherit the promise. The word patience here is used in the sense of endurance. I will not receive answers to my prayers unless I believe and continue to believe. This continuing to believe, the Bible calls patience or endurance: "For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised" (Hebrews, 10:36).<br />As we come to God with our needs in prayer, we must remember that His interests extend beyond the mere answering of a petition. We must not lose sight of the eternal purpose of God, which is the redemption of the world. In fulfilling this purpose He deals with each individual in a personal way by building a faith-trust relationship between the individual and Himself. God has already declared that His redemption is complete in fact, and a new creation was brought to reality and into existence in His Son. The hearer of this announcement must allow that word to operate in himself through trusting in the truthfulness of God and therefore counting upon God's declaration. In so doing, the word of God becomes life in the individual, and he receives the benefits of the truth, becoming a partaker of the new creation. Thus God's statement of fact becomes the individual's personal possession and experience. He is therefore in the process of redemption.<br />Faith is not a mere magic genie to produce things for me, but is God's way to reproduce His life in me. The adversities, needs, and problems that come into my life and drive me to God for help are His instruments to form Christ in my personality. These problems set in motion the process of faith. God desires Jesus Christ to be formed in my conscious life; therefore, the answer is often delayed and my faith tested. It is only in the testing of faith that God's redemptive purpose can bear fruit in my life, for if I react properly to the test I will depend upon the indwelling Christ to be my strength to endure. In this way, through trusting His life within me, Christ more and more is formed in my personality. James tells us the testing of faith produces endurance, and Paul, writing to the Romans, instructs us that endurance produces character. James puts it in these words, "For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing", (James 1:3-4).<br />Yes, even in his apparent neglect of our prayers, God reveals His love for us. He wants us to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing! Therefore, "count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials." Note that the apostle wrote "count it all joy". This is a word of faith, for no trial ever feels good or joyful. He does not say feel joyful but count it all joy. We may have this positive faith because through it all our character is being changed into the glorious character and life of Jesus Christ. Faith which does not ultimately produce this new creation, either in myself or someone else, is purposeless and vain. God's primary purpose is to form Christ in the human being; therefore, the highest personal benefit from faith results when it is used in cooperation with God in accomplishing His high purpose.<br />All that I have written here is intended to add to your understanding of the Christian walk after you have had two experiences with God. The first, obviously, is to be born again. It would be ludicrous to speak of living a life before being born. Soul healing begins in the spirit, so the spirit must be made alive by receiving Jesus Christ. The second experience, while not as obvious as the first, is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. God loves us. He is working in us the abundant life and He desires our complete healing in body, soul and spirit. To insure this work, He has not left us to your own resources. Jesus died so that the Holy Spirit could be resident within you. He is your counselor, helper, comforter and guide into all the good things you have in Jesus. He will help you to apply the principles of faith and healing that I have tried to present to you in this booklet.<br />Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you". (John 14:26-26). "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you". (John 16:12-15).<br />"Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Trust Him. You cannot fail because God is on your side!<br />Bert Bauman</span><br /><br />If you have any questions or would like literature on this subject I would be happy to send it to you.<br />I appreciate all your comments and thank you for stopping by.<br />Blessings<br />Rebecca</div>Rebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10278401609888310410noreply@blogger.com4