Category: guidance

Majesty of God – part 2
Christianity · Devotional · free · guidance · lent · no longer lost · power of God

Majesty of God – part 2

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Revelation 5:13-14 NIV‬
[13] Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” [14] The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Revelation really brings together the Majesty of both Jesus and God being one. In Revelation the elders give praise and worship to God and Jesus in the exact same way. Now, we must remember that John is trying to make all he is seeing understandable to those who have not seen them because things were so amazing and frightening that they were beyond human description.
The Majesty of Jesus is very important. We treat Him like our best friend, and He is, but we also then tend to forget that He is Holy. He is equal with God. He is king. Only the Lamb could open the scroll. His glory so great that John feared he would die simply by looking upon Him. So many do the, when I get to Heaven all my sins will be read and Jesus will walk up, put an arm around my shoulders and say ‘it’s all good’ and take me to Heaven, thing. But Jesus isn’t opening the doors to a rave, He’s opening the doors to the most holy place. Yes, if you have accepted Him your sins are forgiven, but that doesn’t mean that you can keep on sining. It also doesn’t mean that Jesus is going to stand there, fist bump you and wave you through. There will be a trial. We will stand before the seat of judgment. God will call out all we are accused of and the devil will stand there like the prosecuting attorney laying out all our failures and sins and mistakes. If we do not have Jesus, then that’s it, we’re sentenced to life in the eternal fire.
Yet. If Jesus is our defense then He will walk up to the throne and show God His hands, feet and side, and say, “this one I’ve paid for.”
We are payed for by His grace.
Jesus Himself never used the word grace, He is the grace. Without Him there is no hope. With Him there is always reason to hope. But people get so caught in the crevice of grace setting us free that they act like deserve the grace, they act like Jesus is our concierge bringing us what we are owed. We get to he place where we treat Him like a servant.
He is Holy. He is worshiped by creatures we cam only imagine, and the way to be with Him is narrow. You have to throw this life away. To die to yourself every day. And that is hard, and it’s not fun. And there are days it will feel unfair. But in the face of Heaven. In the face of being released from our punishment, then isn’t it all worth it. We are saved because of His grace, grace we don’t deserve and can’t buy or earn. Grace that changes us to want to be more like Him and to leave our old selves behind for the new life Christ offers. Grace that makes it so when we fail we haven’t lost God. Grace that makes it so when the devil is calling for our blood because of our sins and failures Jesus claims us out of his hands because we are now His. It was my sin that held Him to the cross, it was His love that made Him choose to stay until it was accomplished. You don’t have to accept Him, but someday we will all see God, who do you want as your advocate? Because if you only lived for yourself, then the only one to defend you is you. Nothing you have done will ever be good enough to pay for your faults. Only the blood of Jesus washed across you, cleansing your failures, not covering them up, but washing them away, will be enough to pay your Ransom.

Majesty of God part 1
Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · guidance · holy spirit · Jesus · lent · power of God · searching

Majesty of God part 1

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‭1. Majesty of God

.Hebrews 1:3-4 ESV‬
[3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [4] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

He is the exact imprint of His nature. Its nice to almost imagine the though they are three separate beings, if God and the Holy Spirit had physical forms, they and Jesus would all have same finger print. Though that is totally unbiblical and simply imagery. However, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three separate parts of one being. Think of them like a plant. A plant has leaves, roots, and stock, all have a different function, yet all are part of the same plant. I know the Trinity is confusing and part of the reason people want to down play parts of it and up play other parts, but you cannot have Jesus without God, or God without The Holy Spirit, or vise versa on all accounts. I say this, because we miss the fact that Jesus sat down at God’s right hand. That HE upholds the universe. That HE is greater than the angels, because Jesus is God and God is Jesus. I know it sounds like too much to understand. But a god you can fully understand is not God. If you can understand all about Him then He isn’t greater than your understanding. And if He isn’t greater than your understanding then why do you need Him?
That’s why people who say they won’t believe in Jesus because of the things about Him they don’t understand drive me nuts.
Simply put. If you went to university and knew everything your professor said without him needing to teach you and help you, then why would you be there at all? Please don’t say because you need the piece of paper that says you graduated.
If you know all your teacher knows then his isn’t fit to he your teacher. If you understand all about God and all He is and all He knows, then you can’t rely on Him. God is infinite However, we will never out learn Him. We can never fully understand Him, because He is greater than us. That’s the whole point.
People have always craved knowledge. Look at the garden. Eve went for the tree of knowledge, and learned nothing but shame and suffering, because you can’t know all God knows and understand all He understands, so the bit you can grasp will become tainted if The Holy Spirit does not guide you. See, three parts, equal power, all needed.
If Jesus was not equal with God them His death could not have saved us. If He was just man then we are still guilty of all our sins. But He is God and because of that, of we accept Him as our savior, then we are saved.

The body – part 6
Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · Love · power of God

The body – part 6

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‭‭Luke 24:3 NIV‬‬
[3] but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
This. This right here. They entered the tomb but did not find the body of Jesus. Why? Because He had risen. Jesus rose as He said He would.
Have you ever lost something?  You know you put it right there. Yet when you go back it’s gone.
The deciples knew they had left Jesus’s body in that tomb. They knew that it took a good four, strong men to roll the stone away. Yet, there the stone was, and there Jesus was not.
It must have taken a long time for the deciples to wrap their heads around that one. He was there. Now He wasn’t. The ladies had told them that there was an angel (mistaken for a gardener) who told them that Jesus had risen as He said He would and to go tell the others, but to accept that. To look and go. Huh, he really isn’t here. You know where you left Him, He was in a safe place right? No way He could go missing. But now He’s gone.
I know I’m making this a little funny. But I can just see the perplexed looks on the faces of Peter and John. I can see them stare at the tomb, then each other, then back at the tomb.
The crucifixion was so horrible that they were still raw. Nothing could cleanse that pain. And then Jesus’s body dissappears. They saw Him dead. They mourned Him. They were still mourning. Now. How do they recall Christ’s words and joy in His return? First. They must have been so very confused.
Then Jesus comes and shows Himself. We have the upper room, we have the road to Damascus, we have several places Jesus appeared to show, “Yes I am alive.”
Then just as the deciples got their feet under them, Jesus ascends to Heaven. Never again in this world would they touch Him or laugh with Him. But God.
Jesus sent His Holy Spirit do the deciples and now we, can know Him better and serve Him through His own Spirit.
The body is gone guys. I know people still search for it, wanting to find it, wanting to prove that it’s still there. But as the angel said, “He is not here, He has risen. Just. As. He. Said. He. Would.”

As we end this series I want us to remember the journey. Because we followed part of Jesus’s journey. We are always walking slowly on a path following the cross. Because, of we aim for the cross, if we aim for Jesus. We get all we have ever dreamed of, simply by having Him.

The body- part 5
Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent

The body- part 5

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‭‭2 Corinthians 4:10 NIV‬‬
[10] We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

We don’t think of carrying death around in our bodies. If we do have death in us then we usually show signs. Drawn and pasty skin. Black circles under our eyes. Thin hair, a limp. It takes the form of many physical reactions. Disease always does. I think of my close friend who had liver disease. He was always sickly, skinny and couldn’t put on any weight. It was a result of his disease. I think of others I know who have diseases and you can sometimes see it in her eyes and the way she moves that she’s having a bad day with it.
Disease doesn’t always mean death, I’m just using it as an example.
Carrying the death of Christ in our bodies is very different. It’s a death that brings life.
But like the death of the human body, of the death of Christ is in us then we should show signs. We try a little harder than others, we care for others even if we want to hate them. We speak the Bible, we pray, we forgive, we show patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control. We live as reflections of love, when we don’t feel it. Joy, when we think it’s escaped us. And peace, when the world is entropy. If we live in the death of Christ there will be signs. Our whole purpose is that others may see Jesus in us and aim to be like Him themselves.

The body- part 4
Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent

The body- part 4

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1 Corinthians 27
[27] Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

A body is a crazy machine.
If man makes an automaton it has several intricate parts to make it functional, and even then it can generally do one thing, maybe two.
The human body is far more complicated then anything any of us could make. Now think of each of us as we are. Break down I’m your mind the human system, not just the foot bone connects to the ankle bone song, think about the cells, the enzymes, the tubes, the oragns, the electric currents. All of it needs to function together, with some parts, if something isn’t doing its job or can’t, other parts step up and take the load.
That’s the body of Christ. We each have a specific job. We are individually important for the whole system to work. And in some cases, when one of us falls down, others step up to help us carry the load. No part of us is useless. All of us is valued. We can serve God and go forward in faith. Each of us in our own way. Our pathway might look very different from those around us, but that is our function. God made us who we are and able to do what we can do for a reason. We are the body of Christ.

The body – part 1
Christianity · Devotional · free · guidance · lent

The body – part 1

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‭‭Hebrews 10:20 NIV‬‬
[20] by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
Earlier I mentioned the part of this verse that speaks of us being able to enter the Most Holy Place through Jesus’s blood, here the author speaks of a living way being opened through the curtain by Jesus’s body. In the time of Jesus, and beginning in the days of Moses, there was curtain. This curtain was used as a veil to separate the outside world from the Holy Place of God. Only certain people could enter past the veil. Only certain people got to talk with God. It was a privilege and an honor. It still is even if we don’t view it as such anymore.
When Jesus died the sky went dark, there was a loud Crack like thunder, and the veil was torn. Suddenly we were able to cross the threshold into God’s court. Any of us. All of us. Can now stand before the living God. Because of His blood we are able to enter God’s holy place, because of Hos body was can cross past the curtain into God’s sanctuary.
This makes me think of the scene from BenHur. If you haven’t already, I recommend reading the book. The only movie that didn’t miss the important stuff was the one with Charleston Heston. And even that doesn’t match the book. Anyway.  There is that moment in Ben Hur when Jesus dies and Judah Ben Hur’s sister and mother, who had come to see Jesus to be healed from leprosy but hadn’t gotten there before the cross, they have to hide in a cave because a massive storm sets in after Jesus gives up His spirit. The wind pounds and the rain soaks them and they feel things in that moment can’t get worse. Then the look at each other and see that they are both healed. Jesus died so that even if we can’t see Him and touch Him physically, we can still he healed. Healed from more than our leprosy, healed from more than our blindness. Now we are healed from our sins and are reconciled to God. Because He was beaten, buried and rose, we can enter into God’s presence and talk to Him as to a friend. We were worthy of punishment, but Jesus gave His body so that we could be unworthy of grace and still receive it. This is the body we enter through.

The blood part 5
Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · no longer lost · power of God · searching · The Bible

The blood part 5

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1 John 1:7 NIV‬‬
[7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we walk in the light.
That word IF makes a big difference. If. We have heard it said that Jesus died so we are all saved. But that is almost too broad of a statement. What the fact is, we have the chance to be saved by coming to Him and turning our lives over to Him. We are not simply saved because Jesus died. That sounds wrong, I know, but people talk as though they are saved but have never accepted Jesus as their savior. They have never taken the time to say, “Jesus. I know I am a sinner, but I know that through your death on the cross I have been set free. Please come into my life and change me to be like you. Forgive me for my sins and set me free from them. I want you Jesus. Thank you for loving me.”
Something similar. We have to ask Jesus to come into our lives. It’s not an, “ya, I believe in Jesus so I’m saved” thing. We need to ask Him to come and forgive us for our sins and to come into our hearts and minds. Only then are we saved. After that we must work to live in the light. You may say, “we don’t get to Heaven through works, only through grace.”
Okay. Let us open that one up.
No works will ever be enough to make us worthy of God, only His grace us enough for us to be pardoned unto Him. However, once we are reconciled to God we need to live accordingly. You say, “that sounds a lot like the Law instead of Jesus.” Yes. Because Jesus Himself said that He did not come to demolish the Law. The rituals and the things that were cultural instead of Biblical He did speak against, yet the rules pf the Bible still apply. If anything, Jesus made things even more strict, please reference the sermon on the mount where now holding hatred to your brother is the same as killing him. Ya, that’s definitely easier than simply not killing him no matter how you feel. It’s a narrow path that leads to Heaven. Living in sync with the scripture is hard and sometimes is certainly not fun. Please recall that in the OT we were permitted to hate our enemies and now we can’t. Jesus didn’t throw away the Law, but He also knew that we couldn’t make it on the Law alone, we needed a savior. We were going to screw up. We do everyday. That’s why we need God’s grace. But once we are accepted into Jesus’s family through His blood, then we need to live as children of the light. You can’t reach Heaven by simply being a good person, you need to have accepted Jesus. But you also can’t be truly part of God’s family if you live as a bad person.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light. But we only get to the light through the blood of Christ.

The blood, part 2
Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · Love · power of God · still fighting · The Bible

The blood, part 2

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Hebrews 9:20-26 NIV‬‬
[20] He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” [21] In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. [22] In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. [23] It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. [24] For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. [25] Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. [26] Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
[28] so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
I wanted to start with this verse because it sums it all up. It sums up the difference it made to have Jesus come, it sums up the way it effected the church and the way things were done, it sums up the importance of the blood being spilled. Billy Graham once said that people want to avoid the cross because they are offended by the blood. It bothers them. Not just because it shows them their sins, but because blood itself is offensive. So people do away with the blood and gore of the cross and try and make it lovely and reverent, where in fact it was gruesome and vile. The only thing that makes the cross anything but horrible and gross is Jesus’s blood on it. This makes me think of the story of the three trees. The one became a small fishing boat, the other the Manger and the last one became the cross. All had big dreams and goals. All thought their drrams had been destroyed by what they had been carved into. All were proven to be of high value because Jesus was part of them. Two had happy connections to Jesus. One had the worst connection possible, and yet it was the most necessary one out of the three. Jesus’s sacrifice is what makes the cross something to love and strive after. If Jesus had died any other way, the cross wouldn’t matter, it’s because HE died on the cross that it is special and valued and important. We are like the cross. Only through Jesus’s blood on us and His Holy Spirit in us are we special and valued. He values us. We who beat Him and mocked Him and killed Him. Only through Him are we worth anything. He is the final sacrifice. His blood is the only thing pure enough to wash us clean. He changed everything, because we just weren’t getting it. The Law had been put there to help us and guide us but we were missing it. We weren’t able to keep up with it, many ignored it, some had contorted it and we needed an answer, someone to give us more than the rules, someone who would make it so we could be forgiven when we fell short of the rules. We needed Jesus. We still do.
‭‭

Feet part 6
Christianity · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent

Feet part 6

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‭‭Psalms 26:12 NIV‬‬
[12] My feet stand on level ground; in the great congregation I will praise the Lord.

Level ground is an interesting expression. It can mean that you stand in righteousness. It can mean you stand in safety. It can mean you stand in place of discernment.
I feel David meant that he stood in safety when he said he stood on level ground. It’s like hiking. During the summer my family and I went to Port Renfrew in BC. My dad, Phallen (my dog) and I hiked down to the beach there. And when I say hiked, I mean there were moments I wished for a guideline to help me get back up the mountain. Phallen was fine, he trudged along like a tropper. But I was bent over trying to keep my balance, the difference between two legs and four I guess. At one point the trail leveled off for a bit. It felt like I had taken lead weights out of my shoes when I hit that level path. I finally could catch my breath. That’s what standing on level ground feels like. Rest. Peace. A weight being lifted. When you stand on level ground you are stable. When Jesus puts you on level ground, you are safe.
And then to stand on that level ground and praise the Lord. You stand in the safety of His presence and have the privilege to praise Him. The Great Congregation sounds like Heaven to me. The congregation of Heavenly hosts singing praises to God, standing in safety in His presence. I love that a warrior like David was also someone who longed to stand and sing praises to God in a Heavenly choir. Not many warriors are depicted like that. Yet, I think of the old stories. Knights riding into battle with a herald going before them, sometimes singing songs of their victories. How would the song of Jesus’s victories have gone?
He evaded Herod’s seekers, men who sought His life.
His family fled in secret, hidden by the night.
He taught at twelve in the Temple and have His mom a fright.
But He knew He must be with His father, and of course He was right.
He called twelve men to join Him when He was fully grown. He was baptized by the baptist and a dove came down from Heaven’s throne.
He healed the sick and cast out demons, He even raised the dead. But the leaders feared His power so they called for His head.
He stood bold before Pilot, no shame was on His face. For He stood there not for His own deeds, but instead for my disgrace.
He was beaten and mocked by those He loved, they spit upon His face.
He carried His cross up the hill of the skull and died in my place.
Three days went by and the tomb stood shut, but there was work happening behind the scenes. Jesus took the keys of death and set the captives free.
Then He appeared before His friends and showed them His hands, feet and side. They were surprised but shouldn’t have been, He had told them He would rise.
Now He waits in Heaven’s throne, for the day He will bring us home.
For now we are His hands and feet, to show this world His love and carry on His deeds. We will preach His word! We will pray for those in need! We will walk in His foot steps! Because we follow where He leads.

I would say a list of accomplishments like that would send His enemies running. But it’s not just some story. He really did all those things and so many more. And He really is coming back for us some day. So for now, let us follow in His footsteps, until at last we see Him face to face again.

Feet part 2
Christmas · Devotional · encouragement · free · guidance · Jesus · lent · Love

Feet part 2

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‭‭John 13:8 NIV‬‬
[8] “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” ‭‭John 13:9 NIV‬‬

Peter thought it beneath Jesus to wash his feet. He did not want the one he knew to be the son of God, their long awaited king, the Messiah, kneeling at his feet and washing them. Jesus knew that Peter meant no offense in his statement but He needed all his deciples to understand that if he did not wash them clean they would have no part in Him. To this day we all must be washed by Jesus to share in His presence and glory. Of course, we mean washed spiritually by His blood. If we are not cleaned by the blood of Christ, if we have not made a statement of Faith and asked Him into our lives, then we are not shareholders in His reward. He must be part of us for us to be part of Him. Like Rev. Dr. L.H.VanBeek once said. His Spirit draws us to Him so He can give His Spirit to us. It’s such a profound thing. And something to be longed for and valued.