Good morning all. I have a thought to pose to anyone who is interested today. I just want to lay out the facts about easter and Passover. Easter was not celebrated in the church of the apostles. They kept the Passover. It wasn’t until 3rd century that a schism in the church created a complicated season called easter…never ordered by God.There were some in the church who hated Jews so they made up a whole series of events using 40 days and all sorts of other days so that the celebration of the resurrection of Christ would never fall on Passover. Isn’t it strange that we would not celebrate the resurrection of Christ on the exact day He was crucified…the 14th of Nissan, then being resurrected on the 17th of Nissan? Instead, for almost 2000 years, the church celebrates His resurrection on a pagan holiday that was started to worship the goddess of fertility…hence the bunnies and eggs, and celebration of spring. But we let the actual day go by unnoticed. I think Satan laughs at this. We are not required to keep any day or any feast whatsoever but what a joy it is to celebrate Passover. Paul did in Acts, as did the rest of the church. The entire meal teaches His death burial resurrection ascension and return in Glory. How many Jews would come to Christ is they could share their Passover with Christians who could show them Christ in ever step of it. “Who will go for us?” Chuck Missler has a very understandable time line showing us that the “Last Supper” so to speak, was a Passover held on Passover. The Jewish day is reckoned from sundown to sundown. He shows us how He had to be in the earth 3 days AND nights, because He said He would be. That means He could not have been crucified on Friday but Thursday. It goes by unnoticed by anyone. So sad. I’ll search my emails to find the list and pass that on. Now here is where I risk pushing the envelope a bit far but I am going to take the risk based on the fact that it is what the Bible says therefore I am just repeating it for edification and wisdom. It is so often painful to step higher in God’s truth…so here goes: All through the Word we see that idol worship is brought in by women, not men. It is also maintained and tightly held by women and not men. Ecclessiates tells us a truth that I read when I first started following Jesus and instead of getting angry at it, I resolved not to be one of these…a silly woman. Not my words, God’s. “I have found one man in a thousand who is wise, and not even a single woman. ” This doesn’t have to be. This is of course hyperbole in order to emphasize a critical truth…there are many wise women…aren’t there???? I haven’t run into a single man who is perturbed by this truth, and is not ready to drop the pagan celebration without another thought. It is always the women. We see many noble women in the word. They all follow God regardless of the cost. I want to see that in our day. Yet I don’t see a single woman leading in this way, nor do I see a man leading who will cross the women to do it. Women hold to traditions of men very strongly because of the sentiment that is attached. Here is one area where we can do the reverse of what Eve did, we can not take to the fruit, even though it looks delicious and is pleasant. Anyway, this will be the 5th or so Passover my family has celebrated. It is a wonderful thing to do and done on the day He was crucified, looking forward to the 17th when He rose. I hope you all will try it. There are increasing numbers of the body who do know this and a few are speaking out but not strongly enough. They do not want to upset the apple cart…but that is my specialty. But I do it with fervent love for the body and for no other reason. It takes a bit of craziness to do it. “Here I am Lord, send me”. So many want to be sent of the Lord but we never see that His sending is easy or pleasant at first. It is always to puncture an illusion first. I believe there is a element of His glory that has been withheld because of many reasons but the two largest are our clinging to Christmas and Easter. I long for the day when they are history..if only. Very much love and peace! Passover begins on the 15th at sundown. In my house the sun sets brilliantly through the windows to the west as we begin our Passover meal, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. It is a magnificent event. I pray you each will know it!God bless!Cheryl
To know and follow hard after You. Psalm 63:8.
This is what it look s like to know God and to follow HARD after Him: Rock solid assurance in Him in all things, and persecution.
Be prepared to hear things like this slung your way or slipped in very smoothly by those who may or may not even know they are slinging them… high minded, proud, self righteous, legalistic, intellectual, difficult, judgemental, and so on…
But Jesus said if you love me men will hate you and persecute you. Why would we expect anything else. They hated Him first.
Oh that this generation of believers would truly seek You instead of seeking themselves and the best version of themselves they can imagine.
There is a famine in the church today of the word of God. Few know it or care to. Instead we see man worship all around.
Have mercy Lord on Your church and open hearts to Your word I pray. In the great name of Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.
Good morning! Hope you had a blessed day in Him yesterday. Let’s get straight to the two very hard scriptures in 1 John to illustrate to us what “sin” is. Here are resources to study if you like: go to any good study tool that will dig into the original manuscript translations. I like bluetterbible.com. Type in sin and search. Go straight to first John and look at the different words used in every scripture that in our Eng. translations just render “sin”. We will look at two but there are 10 or more. Use that tool in conjunction with a good complete, expository dictionary like Vines, or any other good one. Click on your verse, go to the right and click C for concordance, use that to get a foundation and then look up sin in Vine’s. For instance, love is really 4 different words in Hebrew and Greek but the English translation uses 1. This allows for confusion because according to God, love comes in 4 different kinds and it alters meaning if we use them right.
For example: agape is one love that is of God and only possessed by the indwelt, saved, and is used when we are told to love our enemy, our brother , etc. phileo is another kind that is a brotherly human love dependent upon my feelings and likes and how someone treats me. It is present in all people. Everyone phileos those whom they like and those who please them. But only the born again have the ability to agape (love) my enemy. Agape is not a feeling but an action based on the love of God flowing through me, even to my enemy. This is how a believer CAN love his neighbor as himself. It is agape from the throne of Grace now in my heart. Agape is described in 1 Corinthians 13. It is patient, kind, it is not proud or rude, it doesn’t envy or boast. It always believes the best, not the worst. It always protects, helps, trusts. And so on. Agape never fails. It is perfected love that John and every other writer in the Bible speaks of.
When Jesus sums up the mature, fully given over and obedient believer, He says this: They agape the Lord with all their heart soul mind and strength AND agape their neighbors as themselves. Period. This is ALL the law and the prophets and it is what happens in our hearts when we walk in His fullness through surrender to Him (Obedience, which is faith and righteousness). It is perfected love, perfected faith.
1 John 3:9 says this: “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin (hamartia); for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin (hamartano) because he is born of God.” actual rendering: “Whosoever is born of God does not (act from a heart driven by the root of sin); for His seed remains in him: and he cannot (wander from the righteous path in an ongoing, continual way that is a way of life for him), because he is born of God.”
can we see? John is saying that a truly saved person cannot decidedly sin continually as a way of his character and lifestyle if he really has been born again (saved, or having the seed of Christ in his heart). If we move down to 5:18 we see the qualifying of this verse. How is this so in verse 3:9? because if he has been born of God, he keeps himself.
These are the two main verses but if you really want to dig deep, study each one in this single book. You will get more and more light as you study. But use a complete tool. That is critical. If you don’t it is like trying to make spaghetti sauce without garlic!!! Our English translations provide a good overview but that is all. Dig and you’ll find. This is the pearl of great price by the way, the treasure hidden in a field. Sell all you have to buy it. The knowledge of God leads to righteousness. The pearl is the Mind of Christ found once we enter the Kingdom of God. Search that too and see if it is so.
Here are a couple more, and this is really looked into a lot in Crucified for anyone who is interested. I am skimming what I examine there. 1 John 3:6 says that anyone who abides in Him, sins (hamartano) not. This refers to the mature, sanctified. It ties into Psalm 91 where we see that the one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High ABIDES under the shadow of the Almighty. Abiding as mentioned in John 15 refers to the same thing. So John is telling us that the mature believer does not continually wander from the righteous path, only rendered sin in the English. Are you feeling freer yet???
Here is another, maybe even more critical verse that I have yet to hear a single teacher, preacher get right. 1 John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin (hamartia), we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
correct rendering: “If we say we have no ( inborn source in the heart to rebel against God, as our natural inclination without Christ, that needs a Savior), then we lie and do not practice the truth.”
Aha! In other words, If a man says he is not in need of a Savior because he is pretty good afterall, that he was not born wicked with a natural tendency to rebel against God, but was born good, that he is not wicked, maybe a blank slate as pop psychology would have it…HE LIES! How is he lying? Romans 1 and 2 tell us clearly! EVERY human created knows there is a God (and if he searches he will find Christ, who is very God of very God) and also has the law of God on his heart because God put it upon every single solitary heart created, so man is without excuse, by seeing the things that are made, knowing that a holy God made them. AND…he knows that he breaks that law. Period. If he says he doesn’t and is basically pretty good..he is a liar.
Now all teachers teach this verse as follows and it is so wrong!!! Most if not all teach it as if it said, no one can say they are done with sin or that it is not in their lives because they are liars if they do!
NO! That is not what John said. He said the former. If a man says he has no sin in his heart that needs a Savior, he is a liar. A mature sold-out believer walking in agape can say, I am done with sin…dead to it. He is not a liar.
Paul exhorts us that we had better kill sin in our hearts. “How can you who are dead to sin (hamartia) live any longer in it?” How can you, who have died to operating from a corrupt character in a continual and inherently rooted way, continue in it?
The answer is that it is impossible and the subsequent verses in 1 John drive that home. God says if that is present in a man, then he has not been saved.
Now hamartano is different. It is an ignorant type of provoked sin that does not happen as a pattern but is isolated. There is no quilt here, thereby no “sin” as we understand it.
Jesus said, “If you had been blind, there would be no sin, but since you say ‘I see’, your sin remains”.
A person who “sins” hamartano, occasionally in a way that is foreign, isolated, and unknowing, is without guilt, blameless. He has done it as an isolated, provoked, ignorant, knee jerk reaction to a temptation. It has nothing to do with his faith, that is in tact. “Anything that is not if faith is sin.”
Wow. I want to go into OT teaching of sin shown to us as leprosy. It solidifies just what we learned but will make it even clearer.
Now an immature believer will continually hamartano when provoked. “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on ME”. They have not the agape to stop it yet. Their love has not been perfected in Christ Jesus (1 John 9, 10, 11 & 4:12). That is why they may re-visit weak areas again and again with no victory or overcoming. AND it is all because of resistance to obey God and for no other reason. There are no excuses but willful refusal to obey. They remain this way if they choose and arrive in Heaven having never produced fruit as we see in 1 Corinthians.
I wanted to get to James and Abraham and righteousness but that will wait til next time. But know this and search it til then: righteousness (actual and not the imputed or positional) isalways sought, labored over, earned!!! and only the indwelt can find it or DO it.
Agape in Christ and till next time, have a great day!C
Today at 5:06 AM Beware of the false teaching in the church today concerning generational curses. Satan has implemented this false doctrine to detract the individual from the truth that personal sin is our problem and not a generational curse. Satan’s newest campaign against the word of God is to remove the notion of sin entirely. He is even promoting a sinless gospel. “Just come to Christ because He does good things and is wise”. But we are to come to Christ in repentance of sin, in order to receive the gift of salvation. Ezekiel 18:1-20 is critical. God says that there is a lying teaching that says a father eats sour grapes and his son’s teeth are set on edge. He says it is a lie. He goes into great detail to say, “the soul that sins, it shall die.” In other words, each man is responsible for HIS sin, not his father’s. God even reiterates it by explaining that a son who sees his father committing sin, sees that it is bad, determines to not do what his father did, he shall live, meaning not be guilty and therefore not suffer the consequences of his father’s sin. We can suffer for someone else’s sin (if my brother is in prison for his sin, I suffer because I love him, etc.) in a way, but we do not suffer the consequences of something we did not do. Proponents of this teaching will cite the Lord warning that He will visit punishment to the fourth generation. But the difference is that this was a judgment and not a curse. We cannot pray God’s determined judgment away. This generational curse teaching says that there can be a sin of generations gone by that can wreak havoc in a life connected to that family. They say in order to remove the trouble, you have to break the curse. This is found nowhere in the Bible and is nothing more than WITCHCRAFT and SUPERSTITION. We can teach our children to do as we do and they learn by example, but this is not a curse. We can suffer as children from a sinful home but Jesus comes in and changes everything if we let Him. Salvation brings newness, not the imagined breaking of some curse. God goes to great lengths to explain that each man is responsible for his own sin. A man reaps what HE sows, not what his father sowed.
Good morning! I just wanted to share something lovely I found last night while reading King Saul’s story. One of my favorite verses is in the Psalms. David expresses that he is following hard after God. There is a beautiful song “To know and follow hard after You”….one of my favorites. Well, this thought is self explanatory and very descriptive. It pictures a heart sold-out completely to God, in every thought and action and inclination of heart. I love how the Holy Spirit uses concepts like this one. It is even more fascinating when He uses them consistently . It is very fun, and revealing of His heart, to find a concept repeated elsewhere in the word. It intensifies the meaning and our understanding of the heart of what is being said. There is always some similitude, or picture, idiom, that is being expressed when He does this. Look at this one: I only know of one other place in the word where this thought, this sentence, this same arrangement of words is used. Interestingly, it is in a battle scene in 1 Samuel 14:22. The picture is of men of Israel (Hebrews who were at one time on the side of the Philistines) allying themselves with King Saul because they loved Jonathan, his son…a mighty warrior, and man of God. It says that they joined Jonathan and “followed hard” after the Philistines. Now picture what this means: It means they were 1-relentless, 2-the Philistines couldn’t shake them. 3- they were on the Philistines heals, 4- they were grabbing hold of them by violence, 5- not taking defeat as an option, 6- If the Philistines were to look behind them what would they have seen? Capture, overcoming, seizing. 7- The end is a pursuer, who will not settle for anything but seizure of that which is pursued. We see this in a parable too. There is a king. A woman has a request. She is so doggedly determined that she won’t leave the king alone but pesters him till he is so weary of her she gets what she went in for. This concept has nothing to do with the getting of anything but Christ Himself. I love how God uses exaggerated parables to really communicate a point. Of course He wants us to “pester” Him. It is not possible to “pester” God. He desires it. It is seen also when the woman with an issue of bleeding for 12 years grabs hold of His garment and there is an appearance of “pestering” Christ. He is showing many things here with this woman. One is that she had the right idea out of everyone there. It was a set up. He wanted it to happen exactly as it did to show the others that this is how He is “got” so to speak. Just grab hold and don’t let go!!! What did He say when she did? Tim, Garrett and I were discussing this a few days ago. I felt power go from Me. Did we get that? I felt power go from Me. Then all He could say was that He marveled at her faith. She didn’t even want to be seen or recognized. She just wanted His life. What a perfect picture of the violent grabbing hold of God. This is how to get hold of Christ, after He has got hold of you. Seize Him. Follow hard after Him and do not give up. “With all thy getting” get Him…(Wisdom…which is Christ). Nothing can beat the King James in so many instances. The following hard is another way to say, get with all thy getting. This is the overcoming life in Christ. Get Him with all thy getting. We see this concept first when the Passover was instituted. The Israelites were to kill the Lamb and eat it. But listen to this: They were to eat all of it…leaving nothing till morning! Jesus said if you do not eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no part in Me! This is not just referring to communion. This is a visceral picture of consuming Christ for life, the overcoming life in Him. It is following hard after Jesus. It is grabbing hold of His heals and refusing to let go. Again…eat His flesh and drink His blood! Jesus is to be consumed. Remember that the Kingdom of God permits violence…and violent men take it by force. The Christian walk is nowhere seen as a passive one. It is aggressively holy. It is aggressively hard. It is aggressively passionate. Aggressively determined. Aggressively believing God. Aggressively seeking out His Mind, His heart, His ways. It is therefore, aggressively satisfying!!! And nothing else but this is. Here is where the believer is transformed into the overcomer…in the relentless getting and consuming of Christ! God by You!Pass it on!Love,C
Forgiveness?
It seems that there are conflicting sentiments in the body of believers about the all-important and life-giving truth of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the very heart of God. If that is true then it ought to be the very heart of the believer too. We see this all through out the word.Forgiveness is freeing and nurturing and spiritual food for the forgiver even more than for the one who receives so much by being forgiven. And we all need forgiveness, right?
It is the unique quality of followers of Christ. The parable of the wicked servant is a picture of who we do not want to be. The servant was forgiven tremendous debt by his master. He was over joyed but when it came time for him to pass on that forgiveness to his debtors, he would not. This is what made him the most despicable of servants. He was a taker and not a giver…a hypocrite.
But is there occasion where a believer is not to forgive? Is there something that must happen first in order for the one who needs forgiveness to be forgiven? Yes!
” Take heed to yourselves. If your brother trespasses against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:3) “And if he trespasses against you 7 times a day, and 7 times a day turns again to you and says I repent, you shall forgive him” (Luke 17:4).
So there is a qualification for forgiving others. They must repent. Now is there anything wrong with forgiving even if they do not repent? Of course not! Forgiveness brings joy and peace and is the heart of God. But is there occasion to retain one’s sin against him? Yes. But the aim is so the person WILL repent. It is not to exact vengeance. God says vengeance is His and not ours. He repays.
So Jesus sent His disciples out and breathed on them to receive the Holy Spirit. Then look ” Whose soever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins you retain they are retained” (John 20:23).
Now this is an example of the obligation of believers to act as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. The reason for retaining ones sins against them (and we have the authority to do it if we are disciples of Christ…not just believers but disciples (mature and fruit bearing believers). Why? It is in order to help other believers caught up in sinful ways to grow and change; to repent and become more like Christ. It is exactly what a good parent would do for the child he loves who has been disobedient and refuses to admit it and correct it. The parent who provides no consequences for sin and bad behavior will encourage the child in the bad behavior. This is exactly what we see here. What happens to the child whose parent never corrected rightly? The world will correct him and then it is a very painful thing to watch. The world is not so loving as the parent. Best for correction to be done in-house.
Now elsewhere in the Bible it simply says that if we do not forgive then we will not be forgiven. But we have to put that in context with the whole word on the subject. When we do we see that this obviously is referring to one with a spirit of unforgiveness and that even when the offender is sorry and repents, they still won’t forgive. And forgiving someone does not necessarily mean buddy buddy friendship now. It just means that we have remitted the sin against them in our hearts and really do hope and long for their mending.
Now the reason this authority is given to the mature, or spiritual believer only (you can do your research on that and will see this conclusion in the word) is because the immature believer will assert his own interests and not God’s. He will probably act vengefully and this has NOT been given to man. Only God can do that in all holiness.
But to retain an offender’s sin against them (if we are spiritual in Christ…the immature do not have that ability, God won’t hear it) is a very beneficial thing for the offender. We can actually see the hand of God pressing down upon the offender with Fatherly discipline and it is a result of the prayers and petitions of the disciples who would die for the sheep if it were necessary…but at the moment must retain their sin against them for their own good.
May we all get to the point where forgiveness is something so welled up inside of us that it is a burden when we know that the forgiveness we long to give is not right at the moment . May we be so forgiving that the abundance of it in our hearts has to be restrained in some rare and unusual circumstances…all for the lifting up and purifying of the church, the body of Christ.
Food for thoughtLove in Him,C
Hey again everyone. I have a brief thought I’d like to share about apparent discrepancies found especially in the Gospels. There are so many but I thought I’d expound upon one in particular and in doing that show a pattern for thought concerning all the others. They are all so explainable. If we have read much in the Word we know that there are differences in the account of the thieves on the cross in the Gospels. Luke is the only Gospel account that shows us the one thief who came to Christ while he was on a cross beside Him. The other accounts leave that out. They just say, they reviled him. End of story. But this is no contradiction. You may have heard what seemed to be far-flung attempts at reconciling these things and your spirit said, uh uh. But the answer is so simple. Matthew and Mark give accounts of what they knew. This means that at first, both thieves expressed disdain for Christ and doubted Him, reviling Him. This is what they recorded and they are correct in the recording of it. So we know at the beginning both reviled Him. We can be correct in an account of something yet incomplete. This is the case here. Luke comes along and has a peculiar role. Read the entry to Luke and you will see how very delicate he is in laying out the account in perfect order and completeness. Luke is the only gentile writer among the 4 Gospel accounts. He and Ruth are the only gentile writers of the entire Bible and this is by design. The 4 Gospels are represented through out the entire Bible in hidden ways. If we look at the tribes of Israel in the dessert setting up camp in the exact order they were instructed to do, at an aerial view we would see the shape of the cross. At the head of one camp there is a symbol that delineates that camp and it is a Lion (Matthew who reveals Christ as the Lion of the tribe of Judah). At another point, the symbol given is an ox (Mark, who reveals Christ as the Suffering Servant). The third is an eagle (John strictly reveals the majesty of Christ, Christ as Yahweh, Jehovah God). And the forth is a man (Luke reveals Jesus as fully God yet fully man, the humanity of Christ, that He came to save all men and not just Israel…this may be why He had a gentile write it!!!). Now this same pattern is seen to some extent in Daniel’s vision, Ezekiel’s vision and John’s. Ezekiel very beautifully says that the creatures with the 4 faces are not creatures at all (some have missed this and think these are cherubim, but they are not). He clearly says that the weird “creatures” he sees are simply the “APPEARANCE of the LIKENESS of the GLORY of God…in case anyone is tempted to misunderstand what is seen. God is Spirit so Ezekiel is miraculously given a visual representation of the likeness of the glory of God! And it is a foreshadowing of the 4 Gospels or the 4 roles of Christ. The image moves in all directions in an instant (God’s omnipresence). It has eyes all around (His all knowing) etc. All this is to show how perfect the Gospels are even in their seeming imperfections! Here is an example of how the Holy Spirit has written the Word; for we are told that men under His guidance have written it. Just think of how we are told in the gospels that Jesus baptized. This is to convey a thought. But then shortly after that the statement is clarified. It says, well actually it was His disciples who did the baptizing but still it was the Lord’s doing. We can choke on the letter of the Word if we hang on the dissection of it rather than breathing in the truth of it and tasting the Word as truth and for truth. Another example is this: We are told that the Lord said He was so fed up with Israel that He was going to wipe her out for good. Then in the next few sentences it is clarified for us and it says, but He won’t totally destroy her, for there is a remnant. God is passionate and speaks just as we do, or we speak just as He does, for we were made in His image. Also, the Bible interprets itself. So where we see an apparent contradiction, if we know well the rest of the scriptures, all is interpreted flawlessly for us. The Word is perfect. I’ll leave you with a really cool thought about the “creatures” in Ezek. with the 4 faces that represent the 4 Gospels. Notice that they move up and down like an elevator moves. Ezekiel is known for his attempts to describe things in his vision that will be in the last days that in his time were not invented (possible nuclear weapons, etc.). Why then wouldn’t he be describing an elevator of sorts? In Jacobs day, he saw a ladder extending into the Heavens. Jesus tells us that Jacobs vision was of Himself. He said, I was the ladder in Jacobs dream. So warp forwards thousands of years and now the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God has all the attributes of a modern ladder…an elevator!!!! Just a crazy thought. God is so much fun and so hilarious! God bless, Godspeed and God’s love!
Hey again everyone. I have a brief thought I’d like to share about apparent discrepancies found especially in the Gospels. There are so many but I thought I’d expound upon one in particular and in doing that show a pattern for thought concerning all the others. They are all so explainable. If we have read much in the Word we know that there are differences in the account of the thieves on the cross in the Gospels. Luke is the only Gospel account that shows us the one thief who came to Christ while he was on a cross beside Him. The other accounts leave that out. They just say, they reviled him. End of story. But this is no contradiction. You may have heard what seemed to be far-flung attempts at reconciling these things and your spirit said, uh uh. But the answer is so simple. Matthew and Mark give accounts of what they knew. This means that at first, both thieves expressed disdain for Christ and doubted Him, reviling Him. This is what they recorded and they are correct in the recording of it. So we know at the beginning both reviled Him. We can be correct in an account of something yet incomplete. This is the case here. Luke comes along and has a peculiar role. Read the entry to Luke and you will see how very delicate he is in laying out the account in perfect order and completeness. Luke is the only gentile writer among the 4 Gospel accounts. He and Ruth are the only gentile writers of the entire Bible and this is by design. The 4 Gospels are represented through out the entire Bible in hidden ways. If we look at the tribes of Israel in the dessert setting up camp in the exact order they were instructed to do, at an aerial view we would see the shape of the cross. At the head of one camp there is a symbol that delineates that camp and it is a Lion (Matthew who reveals Christ as the Lion of the tribe of Judah). At another point, the symbol given is an ox (Mark, who reveals Christ as the Suffering Servant). The third is an eagle (John strictly reveals the majesty of Christ, Christ as Yahweh, Jehovah God). And the forth is a man (Luke reveals Jesus as fully God yet fully man, the humanity of Christ, that He came to save all men and not just Israel…this may be why He had a gentile write it!!!). Now this same pattern is seen to some extent in Daniel’s vision, Ezekiel’s vision and John’s. Ezekiel very beautifully says that the creatures with the 4 faces are not creatures at all (some have missed this and think these are cherubim, but they are not). He clearly says that the weird “creatures” he sees are simply the “APPEARANCE of the LIKENESS of the GLORY of God…in case anyone is tempted to misunderstand what is seen. God is Spirit so Ezekiel is miraculously given a visual representation of the likeness of the glory of God! And it is a foreshadowing of the 4 Gospels or the 4 roles of Christ. The image moves in all directions in an instant (God’s omnipresence). It has eyes all around (His all knowing) etc. All this is to show how perfect the Gospels are even in their seeming imperfections! Here is an example of how the Holy Spirit has written the Word; for we are told that men under His guidance have written it. Just think of how we are told in the gospels that Jesus baptized. This is to convey a thought. But then shortly after that the statement is clarified. It says, well actually it was His disciples who did the baptizing but still it was the Lord’s doing. We can choke on the letter of the Word if we hang on the dissection of it rather than breathing in the truth of it and tasting the Word as truth and for truth. Another example is this: We are told that the Lord said He was so fed up with Israel that He was going to wipe her out for good. Then in the next few sentences it is clarified for us and it says, but He won’t totally destroy her, for there is a remnant. God is passionate and speaks just as we do, or we speak just as He does, for we were made in His image. Also, the Bible interprets itself. So where we see an apparent contradiction, if we know well the rest of the scriptures, all is interpreted flawlessly for us. The Word is perfect. I’ll leave you with a really cool thought about the “creatures” in Ezek. with the 4 faces that represent the 4 Gospels. Notice that they move up and down like an elevator moves. Ezekiel is known for his attempts to describe things in his vision that will be in the last days that in his time were not invented (possible nuclear weapons, etc.). Why then wouldn’t he be describing an elevator of sorts? In Jacobs day, he saw a ladder extending into the Heavens. Jesus tells us that Jacobs vision was of Himself. He said, I was the ladder in Jacobs dream. So warp forwards thousands of years and now the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God has all the attributes of a modern ladder…an elevator!!!! Just a crazy thought. God is so much fun and so hilarious! God bless, Godspeed and God’s love!
Hey family and friends in the Lord. I have a sweet thought to ponder today and to share if I may. This scripture has been explained in so many ways by the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, that is, all of our brethren who are still here, and those who have gone ahead of us who have left an impression upon our hearts concerning the Word, the Logos. “He who blasphemes the Son of God it will be forgiven him. But he who blasphemes the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.” Now, I am certain that we all know what this means because it is very obvious, plus, the Holy Spirit bears witness with ours, if we are His, as to the meaning of it. It means that the one and only thing that will not be forgiven is the rejection of the indwelling presence of God, the Holy Spirit. This is refusing to receive the gift of forgiveness of sin by the slain Lamb of God, Jesus. However, there is more to articulate here if we ponder, and today as I was reading Mark 15 it hit me like a ton of bricks and the sweetness of it is overwhelming. Have you ever asked what God meant, that Jesus can be blasphemed but not the Holy Spirit? It is a good and high question. Again, even though our indwelt spirits know this, it may not be easily articulated as high spiritual truth is often too much for mere words. For instance, we know like we know that this has nothing to do with ugly, angry, faithless outbursts against God, whether we say Jesus or the Holy Spirit. This has nothing to do with what is meant here. Well here are some clumsy words to perhaps savor concerning the idea: Of course all blaspheming the Son of God will be forgiven us, of course! Why? Because He is God in the flesh, the second Person of the Trinity, who in His very roll as the Slain Lamb, the sacrificial Lamb of God, came in order to be blasphemed, spit upon, beaten, bruised, hated, despised of men, regarded as nothing, CRUCIFIED. It’s why He came! He is God, condescending Himself to receive rejection by the very object of all His affection (us), so that we might live. Man has no greater love than this, that He would lay down His life for His friends. Bless Him! One coming to Christ today but slowly or hardly blasphemes Him and it is not held against him. He is beaten by us before we believe yet it is not placed to our account. He came to be the whipping post for all our sin and selfishness and death. The blows to His head, the tearing out of His beard in primal hatred that is seated so deeply in the human heart, He came to receive upon Himself, so He could give His blood to us; forgiveness, life. Now blaspheming the Holy Spirit is not forgivable because the Holy Spirit did not come to be crucified, hated, rejected, despised of men…blasphemed. Ponder that. He came to indwell the heart who has received Christ, which is forgiveness of sin. So until sin is forgiven, the Holy Spirit cannot come to a heart. 1 Corinthians tells us plainly, though we know it spiritually, that Christ is the Spirit of God, so they are one in the same, yet in different rolls as redemption is accomplished. The Holy Spirit is the glorified Christ…He cannot be blasphemed. But the Holy Spirit is the Person of the Godhead, Christ Himself, the Father, Yahweh, Jehovah God, who has been sent now that the Son has ascended, returned to His throne, so that He can tabernacle in the hearts of those who will receive Christ. Before God crucified Himself to pay for our sin, the human heart was unfit for the Holy Spirit. He dwelt among His people, even within them in a certain sense that takes into account that the Lamb was slain before time began. But to tabernacle in the human heart, which was His plan even before creation, He had to clean the heart of man, which God has shown us is desperately wicked and without cure if we do not receive forgiveness of sin by faith in Christ. This is the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost then, to reject His indwelling. Hebrews explains to us how once a man has been enlightened to the truth but then chooses that he does not want this gift, there is no hope for this man. Now where there is life there is hope so this is out of our territory to know. But God sees the heart. This does not mean a man can be saved and then lose his salvation. That is impossible. Hebrews explains that as well when Paul says, “But I speak better of you brethren…” So while we may see someone who rejects Christ and delays rsvp-ing His invitation to “Come to Me”, this is not the blaspheming of the Holy Ghost. Someone who has blasphemed the Holy Ghost has permanently and eternally rejected salvation by faith through grace. How wonderful is God! Love y’all and pass it on if you find it worthy!
Do we as believers really understand the beauty of redemption? If we did, would we be more patient and expectant concerning the lost? I think so.
When we look at the fact that ALL mankind needs redeeming, we can be put off. We can feel even disgusted by the fact that God has to redeem so many lost people, sinners…yuck. Ah, but I have seen something else. I think if the church would rightly handle this truth, that all mankind is lost until they are born again, that we would have most softness for the lost world. God does. We should as well.
A newborn baby though innocent of any practical sin is doomed at birth. He was born with a sin nature. He is innocent because he is unable to choose sin yet but filled with the fallen sin nature nonetheless, and therefore destined for Hell.
One of the saddest things I’ve seen in the church, especially the denominational churches where truth has really been lost, is that parents are so eager to save their baby that they baptize them and tell themselves that they are saved or confirm them and force them under duress to claim they are saved.
Have you ever thought of King David and his sin with Bathsheba? He is a great example of what I want to convey. But this is what I want to convey first, then we will look at his sin for a perfect illustration.
What a glorious thing to be born a sinner. Yes, that’s right. We will all see one day. How can I be redeemed if I need no redemption? How can I be died for, and covered in His precious blood, and indwelt with His Holy Spirit, if I were not in need of redemption? How dark in my eyes. How desperately sad. What would I have been then? An angel? Oh please no! Bless God Almighty that I was born lost and needed to be found!!! How else would He have found me if He never had to run after me? How else would I know the ominous beauty of His death, and the all-consuming depth of His love toward me, if my heart were not black to begin with and worse, I had no knowledge of it?
How would I be able to comprehend His jealousy for me if I had not been sought by Him!!!! There would have been none…no comprehension of it! Oh, my sin before I knew Him was great but one day He has promised to put it out of my mind. And in His heart and mind it is already done; so much so, that I believe, that in THAT day, He will have made it so that it never occurred. He can turn the clock back you know!
I am not by any means saying that sin is good. It required the crucifixion of the Chosen One. But I am saying that there is a mystery here. It involves free will. God’s Love is so great that it requires a free willed creation to choose it. That same free willed creation will always and eventually choose revolt. But once that same one chooses repentance and salvation, the picture is clear.
Let a man see his sin so he can delight in salvation. That’s what God did with David. Look: David was raised in a godly home. David had a heart receptive to God. This is why he was chosen to be king. But David never had an opportunity to see his depraved heart, so salvation was only so sweet to him, maybe.
God, in His mercy, allowed David to fall. He fell big. But all you have to do is read the Psalms where he laments in agony over his sin and praises God to the utmost for his salvation. We can see that his heart truly did pant after God. David, like us, had to see how depraved his heart really was, so God allowed it. It is because he saw that he loved God so much. Its the same with us.
Ah, but He grants repentance to whom He will! And what a beautiful thing repentance is! How horrible that the apostate church has robbed poor lost souls of the glorious gift of repentance. The false church lies and says repentance is not necessary unto salvation. How horrible. There is an exquisite euphoria to true repentance. Satan is jealous of it. God has not granted it to him or to those who deny the doctrine of repentance. They have no idea what they are missing.
The thing of course they are missing is salvation but let’s look at what salvation is: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit… they cannot know this. Being saved from the second death, damnation…they are doomed. We cannot know the infusion of God within us, without it.
So when we see friends, family, strangers, lost in their sin, don’t despise them…not yet. God hates the evil doer, so despise is not too strong a word. We are to hate the evil and love the good, just like God does. But hold your judgment. Instead, pray, watch, preach, love, and did I say pray?
Let them see!!! Let them see!!! Had I not seen my lost heart I would have never entered rapturous repentance and then salvation. Don’t be guilty of robbing anyone of that.
God opens a heart to repent unto salvation if that heart is destined for it. That is, if He has seen in His all-knowing way that they will repent…as these are the ones whose eyes are opened. He closes the eyes of the ones who will never repent. He knows who is who. The word says He blinds the ones who are willingly blind and opens the eyes of the ones who are willingly open, and He sees it all in advance but still gives everyone equal opportunity to repent. God longs that none perish but that all would come to the saving knowledge of God in Christ Jesus our savior.
The apostate church today is just prettying up the old, dead man. “Come in and love yourself and be a good citizen and do good works”. “Whatever you do, don’t, don’t, don’t repent of sin unto salvation. If you do, then you will know the secret of God and we can’t have that”. Satan has deceived them.
But if we then have tasted that the Lord is good, lets let others taste as well.
Amen!