Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,humble and mounted on a donkey,on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
One way to find the truth is to look at what Satan and the world hates. They hate the humble. They hate and mock those that live in the right. They hate Christ.
So it shouldn't be any surprise that a savior coming humbly is mocked by the world. The world loves the arrogant. The world loves the proud. So the world puts them up above the rest of us.
And yet the world is still self hating. And with glee rips apart those they had lifted up and throws them broken upon the ground. Only to replace them with the next arrogant and proud man.
Christ came humbly to show us how to live. So reject the world's way and follow Christ's example.
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
I love the visualization of God melting down my soul, my very being.
Through the fire of hard times, His Word, and whatever He brings into my path I see Him working at the forge. Melting me down again and again. Slowing burning off the impurities until all that is left is what is best for His design.
My sins are cast far from me. He no longer holds them against me for Christ has born the punishment. But, I don't get keep those impurities within my soul. They must be removed for we must be forged for His purpose.
So again and again you will be melted down.
Praise the LORD.
When You Lie Down ... Revelation 20-22
Chapter 20 in mp3 Chapter 21 in mp3 Chapter 22 in mp3 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place. And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
And behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
I remember sitting with my oldest son when he asked the LORD into his heart. It was a wonderful moment and a wonderful memory. As Christians we are the temple of the Spirit of God.
Think about that for a second.
This isn't figurative or symbolic. The Holy Spirit lives within you. Every action you have ... the LORD is right there with you and within you.
Use that thought as you live your life and walk the path God leads you on.
And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The Lord Is There.
Now, as you go about your day to day stuff. Can it be said of you "The LORD Is There"? The name Christian is a label. A label that I can't really claim on my own. It is to be "Christ-Like".
And, being like Christ is not really something I can declare for myself. It can only be seen by my actions. Yes my faith in Christ is how I am saved. But only by what I do can people see the Spirit of God within me.
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.
O how I love the times that I truly spend with God. When I can hear His voice and feel His hand.
God gives us a new heart. One that is not stone and callused from the pain and hate of this life. But, one that is new and tender. One that cries with those in pain and reaches out to help. One that leaps for joy when salvation comes to those that hate us.
What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge’?
One thing I try to instil within my children is to accept consequences. When you do wrong you make it right and you take the punishment. You don't put it off and you don't pass on the blame.
Today we as a nation are doing a terrible evil.
We are passing on the consequences of our evil and selfish actions upon our children and our grandchildren. As fathers we must take the responsibility of what we have done wrong. It is better to financially suffer ourselves than to bail out our foolish actions of spending what we do not have and taking from those coming behind.
A nation that lives in debt is raping the future of its children.
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
I was thinking about this passage of James and the tie between faith and works ...
Our lives are like a great ocean. We sit upon it in our sail boats waiting to go somewhere. The sail that each of us has is our faith. The wind that drives our boat is the Grace of God. With no faith we keep our sails tied up and don't catch the wind of God's Grace. We may rock the boat a bit as we stomp around, but this is a sail boat not a row boat, so we go nowhere.
We can cry out to other people in their boats: "Look at my great sailing ship and how far I can go!" But, if your sails are still tied up you aren't going anywhere.
Untie your sail and watch the Grace of God fill it and suddenly you begin to move. Soon your little ship is making great waves that the dolphins jump and play in. And the wake behind you trails out forever; spreading and touching many other ships. Sometimes giving them a little push in the right direction. And sometimes rocking them and letting them know something is wrong with having tied up sails.
The wake of your boat is your actions for God.
If you are moving with God you must be creating a wake.
If you see no wake ... it is because your ship isn't moving.
So it is with faith. We are saved by the Grace of God and faith alone. But, your faith will make wakes as your move through life. Someone can profess the LORD. But if their ship is just rocking in place ... their sails are still tied up.
