Ready or Not Here He…Might Come

jesus-callingWords are important, especially Scriptural words. The words we use to translate the original words into our language can both hurt and help what God’s trying to say to us. One such word is, church.
I can only speak from an English speaker’s point of view. This word, church, has done a lot of damage as well as good throughout the world. The word comes from two words that mean to be called out from one place to another. In Ephesians 5:22-33, the Spirit calls Jesus’ wife, the church. Jesus is doing the calling. He is calling those who say, “Yes” to His marriage proposal out of the world to Himself.
He is calling us to listen to and follow Him everyday everywhere. He is calling us to move away from our worlds to be nearer to and like Him. One day, He will finally call us out of this world to be with Him in heaven or home. This can either be through physical death or through a loud shout from heaven (1 Thess. 5:16).
I believe this latter event is prophesied in the 5th of 7 Feasts listed in Leviticus 23. There’s an article in the Article section that covers this. When will this happen? I have no clue. But I do know the day is spelled out in the Feast of Shouts/Trumpets. And if it’s this year, it will be September 4th Israeli time.
Ready or not, here He comes…maybe. Hopefully, we’ll be meeting Him and each other in the air this coming Wednesday. If not, let’s continually get closer to Jesus by responding to His call to be near and like Him. The world needs to see believers listening to the call of Jesus to be more and more like Him rather than like them.
“Set Free Nowww”

More Than One Way to Wash

washJesus makes us clean. He removes our stains. He takes away our blemishes. He makes it so we can enter the very presence of God where all that we’re looking for in life is found.
He does this by washing us. Some Christians will say He only does this through the written Word of God. They are sure to quote Ephesians 5:26 that states He cleanses us “by the washing with water through the word.” The question is, “Is this only the written Word?” The passage is talking about Jesus. Is He not the Word (Jn. 1:1)? Yes. Is He not also called the Word of God (Rev. 19:13)? He is.
Jesus will cleanse us by using both the written Word of God and Himself directly. This is a crucial point for believers to understand. Not everything that sets apart from the Source of life is sin. A quick study of Leviticus 12:1-5 shows that some unclean people, those who were not allowed in the Tabernacle/Presence of God, hadn’t sinned. In this case, the unclean person was a woman who had given birth. Having children is not sin!
Not everything that can hurt our relationship with Jesus is directly classified as sin in the written Word of God. Therefore, we need to develop our ability to listen to and follow Jesus, the Word and the Word of God, everyday everywhere. We can be okay as far as Scripture is concerned; but at the same time be hurting our relationship with Jesus. If want a closer walk with Jesus, we must learn from Him directly as well as from the written Word of God.
Keep picking up and using your biblical tools each day. You’ll get better at listening to Jesus in His Word and in your heart.
“S”et Free Nowww

The Long Winding Road

twist and turnThe creek we discovered yesterday didn’t head down hill in a straight line! It took a zig-zag course as it progressed towards the lake below. As I examined the stream, you could see that rocks, fallen trees, and metal posts forced the stream to change directions as it descended from its source.
Our walks with Jesus will not be a straight line to perfection either. We will face obstacles – both manmade and natural – along our path to see the Spirit exchange our temporary fallen character with Jesus’ eternal victorious life. Some of these zig-zags are caused by our failure to listen and follow Jesus. Will I let my failure form a dam on the stream, causing stagnate undrinkable water? Or will I learn from that failure to keep moving downhill towards the fresh water? I call this the fail-forward principle. We fail forward or in this case, downhill.
How I wish being like Jesus were a straight line, but that’s simply not reality this side of heaven! Stop wasting time beating yourself up. It only causes stagnate water. When you fail, run to Jesus. Get His forgiveness. Ask Him to help you process your failure using His FREEdom process. And start exercising the truth next time in His power. You will taste His sweet victory as you do.
Set “FREE” Nowww

Gotta Hear it First!

hear the creekAs Jan and I were walking and talking yesterday, she all of a sudden said, “Stop. Do you hear it?” We’d been looking for a creek we knew had to be feeding this particular grove of Aspen trees. Yet, we hadn’t seen it. We continued down the dirt road when all of a sudden, she heard it. We were having a wonderful conversation and with the crunch of our steps, I didn’t.
We left the path and sure enough. There it was running quickly down the hill toward a lake. Sometimes you have to hear it before you see it. It’s the same with our walks with Jesus. It’s going to take hearing and believing before you see it. We want the facts, the truth, and then we’ll decide whether we will believe it or not.
This doesn’t work when it comes to defeating your drugs of choice. If you want off the sin-confession-sin cycle, if you want to stop repeating those sinful behaviors that are destroying your life, it’s going to take hearing from Jesus, trusting His way will change your life, exercising the truth and then and only then will you see the change come (Jn. 8:31-32). Your victory hinges on you grabbing this truth and putting it into your shield faith: hearing comes before seeing. What truth is Jesus asking you to exercise trusting Him for the results? Go head. Exercise. You will see freedom!
S“E”t Free Nowww

God’s Prophetical Time-Line As Seen Through The Lens of the 7 Jewish Feasts of Leviticus 23

7 feastsThe Feast of Trumpets?

Many of my friends ask, “Why do you as a Gentile pastor celebrate/teach the 7 Jewish Feasts?” My standard answer to them is found in Romans 15:4, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. ” Continue reading