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Friday, November 27, 2015

Quiet Prayer and Bible Study

ot 3 things in the Tuesday night quiet time of prayer. 1) Since I have been having trouble “responding” in the right way to my wife lately. I just simply asked Him, “You always responded right, how did You do it? I felt His response was, I was not “responding or reacting” I was simply letting the life of God flow through Me. Mercy flows from the heart of God. I don't need any amount of changing of outward acts, I need to die and let Him live. Galatians 2:20
  1. Rev. 3:21 Behold I stand at the door and knock... the church, and the individual does not open the door because we know that it is going to cost us our life. Fear keeps us captive because we don't know who we are, where we are, why we are?
  2. The gifts and call of God are irrevocable because they are not based on performance. They were not earned by performance and they will not be taken away based on performance.

Wed. I sat down for Bible Study with Pastor Dave, Luke and Elijah Psalm 102 The first few verses make it very clear that this is about a desperate man, a desperate people. Verse 10 is an amazing turning point due to the fact that the person/people are able to SEE that it is God who has lovingly and redemptivly not punitively judged them and put them into this position. “I deserve this.” God will work this for my good. I trust You God. Are all amazing statements that flow from this desperate place. BUT I KNOW THAT THE TIME WILL COME WHEN I WILL SEE YOUR COMPASSION BECAUSE YOU ARE COMPASSION. Verse 13 When is this compassion released this powerful life changing compassion? Verse 14 When God sees that His compassion has been “worked into the heart of His bride and they are now reaching out to and loving the Jew with the same love He has” that is the ultimate fulfillment but when we individually consider the suffering of others more important than our life then His life can flow through us. God has an ultimate plan, revealed in Isaiah 60:21 ““Then all your people will be righteous;
They will possess the land forever,
The branch of My planting,
The work of My hands,
That I may be glorified. “ The nation of Israel will be a kingdom of priests and a light unto the world for 1,000 years. WE get to play a part in that, if we are willing to
“come and die”.  

Thursday, November 26, 2015

The desperate beauty of the new covenant!

"A lesson from the prophetic realm… 
Hope, substantial hope, undeniable hope is the primary prophetic focus and idiom, because the prophet is sent to speak to a people, which God has chosen on the basis of an eternal covenant and on the foundation of an irrevocable and ongoing redemptive operation – in Christ Jesus, 
Eze 36:23-28, Hebr 7:25, 1 Pet 1:5"
Ezekiel 36:23-28    I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” declares the Lord God, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. 24 For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.28 You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.

Wow is that good stuff or what!  So after Israel fails to keep the covenant God says I will give you a new heart/ a new spirit, My Spirit!!!!  that will be able to keep covenant!  You will live in the land and no longer be kicked out.

Hebrews 7:25   "Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."
This "new covenant" made with Israel and Judah, is something that we individuals and the body of Christ get to experience the joy of, but it is their amazing national covenant! 
 Jer. 31:2,3  Thus says the Lord,
“The people who survived the sword
Found grace in the wilderness—
Israel, when it went to find its rest.”
The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying,
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness."

and this
 Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

So all this talk of chastisement is from a redemptive and not a punitive stand point.  From a God whose heart is Mercy, whose Glory is mercy.  

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Let us reason together, the "spirit" of talk radio is evil

This meme from Lysa Tyekeurst was posted on FB
 
"When I set out to prove I’m right, it always leads to conflict escalation. When I set out to improve the relationship, it leads to conflict resolution."
 
my response
 
At my last Christian gathering at the Hazelfon Federal Correctional Institute this statement was made by a brother who has been in prison since the 90's "You don't have to agree with a brother, but you must understand them." I blame talk radio with its rudeness and bullying by the host for at least part of the problem that has made every disagreement into a struggle to prove "why I am right and you are wrong" instead of, "I want to hear what you say, and truly understand where you are coming from, because I care about you more than the issue at hand."

Sunday, November 22, 2015

The futurity of Daniel's 70th week

Most of the American church does not know that their "denomination" believes that Daniel 9:24-27 is done and over with.  This rather long post (pages from a book) by Robert Gundry, tears down that argument.  Again, over 60 % of the people in the USA belong to churches which believe a lie and most of them do not know it.

On the Futurity of the Seventieth Week
Robert H. Gundry
To those who regard the seventieth week of Daniel as already fulfilled, the debate whether the Church will be raptured before, during, or after the seventieth week seems pointless. They explain Daniel 9:24-27 as follows: the finishing of the transgression, ending of sin, making atonement for iniquity, bringing in of everlasting righteousness, sealing up of vision and prophecy, and anointing of the most holy place (v.24) all refer to Christ and to His redemptive work in the first advent. The sixty-ninth week expired when Jesus was anointed with the Spirit at His baptism (v. 25). The cutting off of the anointed one "after" the sixty-two weeks (added to the first seven, making sixty-nine in toto, v. 26a) refers to Christ's crucifixion and occurred in the middle of the seventieth week. Verse 26b describes the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus in A.D. 70. The end of the seventieth week, being undefined, either expired three and one-half years after the crucifixion or extended by divine grace until A.D. 70. The making of a firm covenant (or confirming or causing to prevail of a covenant, v. 27a) refers to Christ's securing the benefits of the Abrahamic covenant of grace during His earthly ministry. (The subject of the verse according to this view is not "the prince who is to come," but another prince, "the Messiah.") The causing of the sacrifice and oblation to cease (v.27) has to do with the abrogation of animal sacrifices by Christ's self-sacrifice. In verse 27b there appears another reference to the destruction of Jerusalem.
The opposite view regards the seventieth week as a future prelude to the restoration of the kingdom to Israel at Jesus' return. The seventieth week will begin when the Antichrist confirms a covenant with the Jews, a covenant he will later break by stopping sacrifices in the temple and by setting up the abomination of desolation,
The weaknesses in the historical view and the advantages of the futurist view are these:
The seventy weeks have to do with the Jews. We cannot spiritualize the phrase "your people" (v. 24) into a spiritual Israel inclusive of the Gentiles without doing violence to the plain sense of the passage. For example, the destruction of Jerusalem, spoken of prominently in the prophecy, deals with Israel the nation. And yet, since in the seventy weeks the goals listed in verse twenty-four were to be accomplished, the seventy weeks cannot have entirely elapsed, for the finishing of Israel's transgression, the purging of her iniquity, and the bringing in of her everlasting righteousness have not reached completion. Paul writes of these as still in the future for Israel (Rom. 11:25-27).
It is doubtful that "the most holy" which is anointed refers to Christ, for nowhere in the OT does this expression refer to a person––hence the translation, "the most holy place" (NASB).
The extension of the sixty-ninth week to the Messiah does not necessarily fix the termination of the sixty-ninth week at the baptismal anointing of the Messiah.
If the cutting off of the Messiah occurred in the middle of the seventieth week, it is very strange that the cutting off is said to be "after" the sixty-nine weeks (figuring the sum of the seven and the sixty-two weeks). Much more naturally the text would have read "during" or "in the midst of" the seventieth week, as it does in verse twenty-seven concerning the stoppage of the sacrifices. The only adequate explanation for this unusual turn of expression is that the seventieth week did not follow on the heels of the sixty-ninth, but that an interval separates the two. The crucifixion then comes shortly "after" the sixty-ninth but not within the seventieth because of an intervening gap. The possibility of a gap between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth weeks is established by the well-accepted OT phenomenon of prophetic perspective, in which gaps such as that between the first and second advents were not perceived.
For the seventieth week to expire at an indefinite time some years after the culmination has been reached is highly anti-climactic especially in view of the impressive goals laid out. The remaining years after the crucifixion become superfluous, with little intent, purpose, or meaning.
If the alternative of extending the seventieth week to A.D. 70 be taken, it seems far more strained to stretch the week five or six times beyond the usual length of seven years than to retain the normal length with a hiatus between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth weeks.
Christ did not make or confirm a covenant for one week. He established the new covenant forever.
Payne argues that a covenant by the Antichrist with the Jews would be a new––i.e., previously nonexistent––covenant. But the expression "cause to prevail" implies that the covenant already exists and therefore refers to the covenant of grace. "Thus Christ could announce at the last supper, 'This is my blood of the testament,'... For Matthew 26:28 does not say, according to the oldest manuscripts, 'the new testament,'..."[Payne, 150, 151]. Pace Payne, the accounts in Luke 22:20 and 1 Corinthians 11:25 do use the term "new covenant" and the writer to the Hebrews twice quotes Jeremiah 31 (cf. 33) concerning the "new covenant" effected by Christ's sacrificial death. Therefore we cannot accept the argument that the expression "cause to prevail" rules out a covenant made by the Antichrist, because historicists themselves apply the phrase to a previously nonexistent covenant, the one inaugurated by Jesus' death. Besides, it is more natural to understand that a covenant is "put in force" when it is first made.
The redemptive work of Christ rendered the animal sacrifices obsolete, but did not "put a Stop" to them. They did not cease being offered until A.D. 70 at the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple under Roman violence (cf. Heb. 8:4).
Jesus speaks of Daniel's abomination of desolation as signalling the great tribulation, "immediately after" which will come heavenly portents and the second advent. The events in A.D. 70 may be percursive, but they cannot constitute the full and final fulfillment, for Christ did not immediately return. Moreover, to place the complete fulfillment of the seventieth week at A.D. 70 or before severs the obvious connection between Daniel 9, Matthew 24, and Revelation. (Compare "in the middle of the week" [Dan. 9:27], forty-two months and 1,260 days [Rev. 11:2; 12:6; 13:5], and time, times, and half a time [Dan. 12:7; 7:25; Rev. 12:14].) Under the historical view, if the relationship between Daniel and Revelation were retained, Revelation, which was written probably a quarter century after the destruction of Jerusalem, would be history instead of the prophecy it purports to be. (On account of this Payne feels forced to adopt a date for the Apocalypse prior to A.D. 70 [p. 173].)
Syntactically, it is at least as good to make the subject of verse twenty-seven the coming prince, who is the nearer possibility, as it is to make the Messiah, previously mentioned, the subject. The entire passage is not Messianic, as historicists often assert,[E.g., Payne, 151] for verse 26b speaks of another prince, Roman, whose people, the Romans, are to destroy the city and the sanctuary. Immediately after mention of this non-Messianic prince and his destroying people and without indication of a shift in reference, we read that "he" will "make a firm covenant with the many for one week." Although the covenant is to be in force for one week, not till the middle of the week does he put a stop to the sacrifice and grain offering. If the reference were to the covenant by the blood of Christ which outmoded the Mossaic sacrifices, the covenant would have come into force three and one-half years before Jesus shed His blood to put that covenant into effect.
Although the lack of certainty regarding the exact dates of our Lord's ministry demands some reserve, the futuristic view rests on a more exact chronology, best and fully set forth in Sir Robert Anderson's The Coming Prince. Very briefly, it is common ground that the seventy sevens are weeks of years. Anderson reckons a year at 360 days from the equation of 1,260 days with forty-two months (Rev. 12:6, 7, 13, 14; 13:4-7), from the equation of five months with 150 days (Gen. 7:11; 8:4; 7:24; 8:3), and from other evidence of unequal value. By calculating from the only known decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem (Neh. 1:1-11; 2:1-8) sixty-nine weeks of seven 360-day years, we are brought to Palm Sunday, the only time Jesus was publicly acclaimed King, Prince, and Messiah and shortly after which He was cut off.
It is objected that the short years of 360 days with which Anderson works make no provision for leap days and leap years. To make such provision, however, would involve the chronology in abstruse mathematical and astronomical calculations and, more seriously, would push back the beginning of the seventy weeks to a decree regarding the rebuilding of the Temple, not of the city itself. This is a serious difficulty for the historical view. It must take as its point of departure a decree many years prior to the decree for the rebuilding of the city. It is true that the remnant built houses in which to live before Nehemiah's time. But the decree for rebuilding the city with its walls and streets was not issued and the actual reconstruction carried out until the time of Nehemiah, as his midnight ride through rubble and debris gives evidence. It is further objected that the day of the decree in Nehemiah is not given, only the month Nisan. But according to Jewish custom, where the day was not specified, time was reckoned from the first of the month.
The accuracy is so remarkable that the objections seem paltry by comparison. The best answer to the objections is the failure of the historical view to provide an exact and accurate chronology and the resultant substitution of chronologies dealing in wide approximations, with the result that the seventy weeks of years become half-literal and half-symbolic. The futuristic view can be established apart from Anderson's calculations, but they endow the futuristic view with a chronology far superior to chronologies under the historical view.
Finally, the view that the seventieth week will be fulfilled immediately before Jesus' return was held by the early Church, which received its doctrine from the apostles themselves. See the eschatological sections m. Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Lactantius, and others which are noted in the chapter "Historical Confirmation." Payne calls patristic futurists "exceptions."[Pp. 149,150] The fact is that in the early Church these very writers had by far the most to say about eschatology.
The Church and the Tribulation. Robert H. Gundry. Zondervan Publishing House. 1973. Pages 188-193.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Forgiveness

A question posed on Facebook  "Can/will God forgive us if we can't/don't forgive others?"
My first response
 "Whose Spirit is indwelling the truly born again Christian? So if you are choosing not to forgive, it calls into question what seed you have growing within you. Corrie Ten Boom forgave the Nazi torturers who saw to the death of her sister. This could only be an issue in an age where you can be a "Christian" by saying a prayer and agreeing with a set of statements. Jesus IS THE LIFE that you now live, He is the only 'not guilty' person ever to walk the earth and He forgave His executioners. "I can't forgive." is a sentence a Christian cannot say.

Her followup question
  "Ok...here's something to ponder. The thief on the cross asked Jesus to remember him and Jesus told him "Today you will be with me in paradise". Yet I doubt the thief even gave thought to forgiving all those in his life, let alone his executioners. (Just digging for more conversation...)"

My response
So the thief was a gift to Jesus Christ and the righteousness of Christ, faith in who He is is all there is when it comes to getting to heaven, the gratitude of the thief for the mercy shown to him at that point would have erased any "withholding of mercy". Mercy is the glory of God, and with holding mercy is lying about the character of God. ONE LAST thought, the Bible was written to me, I cannot (except under the specific authority and leading of God) place upon you a burden of obedience of any kind. So I cannot say to you, "You have to forgive." because I have no power to give you that would enable you to forgive. I can desire that you would forgive, I can pray to God that you would forgive, but I cannot demand that you forgive. Jesus' words to Peter in John 21 are very telling, "What is that to you?" WE have to be very careful, when we are "deciding" how another person "should" act. "Should" in that context is a satanic word, placing a burden or an expectation or a yoke of bondage on a person that we cannot do one single solitary thing to help them fulfill. As an example, Jesus can say to the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more." because resident within Him is the LIFE that she needs to accomplish this, and His very words contain the life and power to fulfill this sentence. If I would say to someone, "Go and sin no more." I have weighted them down with a crushing burden and there is nothing within me that can help them accomplish it..(again keeping in mind my caveat, "unless God has given specific authority to me for that situation") God sees the entire person, back the 4 generations that may have bent them in such a way that His Mercy is going to have to walk them through a very gentle and long and winding road to bring them to a point of receiving and giving His true mercy and forgiveness, and if we "crash" in with our very right and very true scriptures at the WRONG time, we are eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we are doing Satans work of accusing the brethren.


Hosea 1 and 2

What are the types and shadows that speak to us of entering the presence of God.  We are stripped, washed, clothed with what God specifies anointed with oil and dipped in the sacrificial blood.

Psalm 51:8  "Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice."  If this verse does not line up with your theology, change your theology.

We have to get beyond the point of praying "about" people, to the point where we are praying in union with the heart of God "for" the person.

Verses like Hosea 1:6 are there to test our hearts, like Jesus when He basically called the Syro-Phonecian woman a dog,
"What are you going to do with this statement, run with the opportunity to pridefully REPLACE Israel in the plan of God, or press in and cry out for mercy for them too?


The lesson of Hosea is, "Watch the heart of God."  Watch what He chooses to do about their redemption.  Watch the price, the sacrificial cost of the work that He is doing.

If we are willing to become a dry empty place, THEN, HE will spring forth rivers in the desert.  (and all the glory will go to Him)

The revelation of Jesus Christ will not come through a single person, but through a body of believers. 

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Paris and the Bride of Christ

Paging through people's thoughts on Paris to see what is out there because the "truth" is always deeper than the surface. This was posted by a woman named Victoria Boyd and it is a true word on many levels.." I see that the consequences of today's brutal actions are far reaching and ongoing. Remember that our battle is not against flesh and blood. Innocent blood shed will empower the principalities over this region. As always, political spirits will rise in response to political spirits. Leaders of nations will band together in some sort of 'solidarity' and pass laws that will restrict freedom for the average citizen, but make no difference to those that want to see Jews and Christians annihilated ...
Believers who move in the opposite spirit will see heaven move in response to our prayers. It's the goodness and kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance, and it's a move of goodness that we need to sweep Europe, both in words and in deed. I pray that this tragedy will stir the hearts of believers across the globe to put action to their 'outrage', and get our heads out of the sand, thinking that this will never come to our safe hometowns."
and this from Art Katz on the bride of Christ
"This is the thing to which you are called union with Christ, so that you might say with Paul, 'For me to live is Christ.'  This is the end of the whole colossal redemptive drama of God, a bride adorned for the bridegroom having the glory of God being like Him, as Him, with Him as one."
From this message    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrGGvYprWhI

Friday, November 13, 2015

The mercy seat is open

Prophetic!   Do you want to see it in action?   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tN29lfKMrk

These words are included, "The age we are in the mercy seat is open, God's sovereignty can make every bit of suffering redemptive as opposed to punitive."

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Isaiah 58 the chosen fast is not about food

Highlights from our little Bible Study
Psalm 50 and Isaiah 58 were the scriptures.  I was convicted by Psalm 50:20 not to talk about
other Christians in a bad way.
50:14,23 spoke to us of having a thankful heart.
Is 58:4 We do not fast to make God hear us.  Help us God to gain understanding and trust You to know what is best for us and what we need in any given situation.  From that place of trust we can truly enter into the rest of God.  The Sabbath rest that gives everything over to God.
We follow the Lamb and in any given situation He may be calling us to be the Lamb in that situation, the one who is willing to be 'sacrificed' for the good of others.
Verse 6 came alive in a new way, WE have put on bonds of wickedness on others by our judgment and expectation and God is saying to repent and remove what we did to others.
The naked and homeless was speaking of a lot more than the physical and the salvation that we speak of is not "just a ticket out of here" but to BE HERE fully manifesting God.
God feels what we are feeling. He feels what the lost are feeling.  We can receive from Him the heart to truly know the lost and what they are burdened with. WE need to get God's view of the situation and see how He is bringing restoration and by the power of HIs life within join Him in what He is doing.  Not asking Him to bless what we are doing but taking the time to wait and hear what He is doing and join Him.
So the challenge was to look at Isaiah 58:6 and pray to God to show us where we have done this and then obey Him in whatever He tells us to do or not do about it.
We stop the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness.
Dane had an insight that when God is not leading us and we speak to someone in a way that their father (or someone who hurt them used to) then the past hurts block that person from hearing what we are saying.
Those were the highlights.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Where is the love?

True love has no expectations of the other.  Desires yes, desires for things that God would have for that individual, but absolutely no expectations, burdens that I put on another that I cannot help them to carry one bit.
Also true love has no "my"  I have been bought with a price and the next 2 seconds of my life are not "mine" may God free me from loving "my plan" more than the other.

The failure of the church

The "near miss" of institutional "churchianty" is partnering with the world to perpetuate the lie that we progress toward God through our efforts. No no a thousand times no. We are of a different seed and that seed produces life and revelation and power that can not be shaken, so the deep question is WHY are we falling so very short of being the kahal of God?

Monday, November 9, 2015

2 "Share's" worth sharing

Yeshua forewarned that just before the End of Days, “many shall be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (Matt. 24:10). What dreadful people, you might imagine... what terrible depravity will mark that time! And yet here we are today, with so many crusading for their own personal sense of victimhood, demanding special treatment, and threatening retaliation for being treated unfairly... It must be remembered, however, that whenever we find offen...ce in others, we are reflecting the evil within ourselves (Matt. 7:1-5). What is this evil within you ask? How about being intolerant toward those who differ from us? How about be impatient – refusing to allow others to share their perspectives? How about being quick to blame others and refusing to take responsibility for our lives? Indeed, how many of us make the demand that others be “perfect” but turn a blind eye to our own imperfections? And what about the sin of unforgiveness? What about our attitude of suspicion -- using the “evil eye” regarding others’ motives – looking for something impure – rather than extending to them the benefit of the doubt? Do you carry resentment with your heart? Do you hold on to a grudge over a real (or imagined) insult in the past? Do you harbor the desire to seek revenge? All of these evil attitudes are symptomatic of arrogant unforgiveness, and failing to remember that all that is good in your life you owe exclusively to the mercy of God alone... When you feel offended, look within and examine the assumptions at work in your thinking. Ask whether your indignation is based on the truth of God or something else. Are you demanding: "My will be done, in heaven as it is on earth?" Are you seeking your own vision, or surrendering to the truth of Reality? Are you (insanely) attempting to justify your hatred of others in the name of love?





 Very rich and full is the promise, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

It has been spoken of as an elastic promise. The word "sufficient" may not sound very great, but it stretches according to a man's necessity.
A Christian's need may be great today--and the word "sufficient" reaches it.
It may be ten times as great tomorrow--but the word "sufficient" reaches it still.
The grace is still sufficient for the greater need--as for the lesser.

The promise shows also that not until we are weak--does the Lord bestow His strength. We may be too strong for the Lord to help us. Gideon's army must be brought almost to nothing, before the Lord will use it to overthrow the Midianites. And until we are brought low in our own thoughts, until the discipline employed has thoroughly emptied us of all high imaginings as to what we can do, or we can effect, or we can bear--we cannot be strong in the Lord.

"When I am weak," and not before, "then am I strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10.
When I have learned experimentally . . .
  that I am a bruised reed,
  that I have in myself no power to endure affliction,
  that left to myself I shall assuredly rebel against the rod, and murmur against the gracious Hand that holds it
--then the Lord draws near by the Spirit, and gives a joy and a peace that nothing can destroy!