Altar = Temple

If we replace "altar" with "temple" we will have most of our songs ready for the millennial reign.

The temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem and the gentiles are invited to come to it and rejoice in the choosing of the Lord God of Israel.  

The temple is the center of worship, the altar is a part of the temple worship.

Since we gentiles don't have a temple in Jerusalem and don't acknowledge the need for one we also fall far short in crying, Maranatha and putting our hope in the return of the Lord and putting the proper weight on the Day of the Lord.

Moving the center of God's work from Jerusalem to Rome was a fatal gentile mistake and led to a 1,000 more mistakes.

Let Me Be Very Clear

 The God of Israel and the Messiah of Israel and the Ruach HaKodesh are never ever telling a woman to stay in an abusive relationship. Anyone who says different is reading the scriptures WRONG! 

Anyone who teaches different will pay a horrible price on the great and terrible DAY OF THE LORD!

Barabbas and the Larger Picture that Explains What Looks Like a Contradiction

 I imagine you can count on one hand the number of events mentions in all 4 gospels.  The synoptic gospels have a lot of overlap, but when you throw John in there and demand that all three of the synoptics record an event, you are eliminating most of the gospels content.

Pilate presenting Barabbas as the alternative "criminal" to save, to the Jewish crowd, Yeshua being the other "criminal", is one such section.  All 4 gospels mention it and here is where the trouble begins.

Every Police Officer knows that if you interview 4 different people about events that happened during an intense time there will be variations in the story, throw in a couple or 60 years in between those events and Wow, the rate goes up and up, but if every minor detail agrees, the officer knows, these people got together beforehand, to cover up what really happened, they agreed on a "story".

The gospels do not agree on every detail, not because they are not true, but because they are true.  Do you get it?

Now we come to Barabbas. Luke 23:19 says he was thrown into prison for rebellion and murder.

Matthew just calls him "notorious".  (Matt. 27:16)

Mark says he took part in an insurrection and committed murder. (Mark 15:7) 

John, written much later, says, "Now Barabbas was a robber." (John 18:40) Some translations replace robber with insurrectionist, but this is not right, the word appears 15 times in the Greek New Testament and is  always translated "robber" or "thief". 

To me this is not a contradiction but an expansion. 

Satan came to steal, kill and destroy. 

Satan is the ultimate rebel. 

Barabbas is a notorious rebel who is willing to murder and steal to get what he wants.

Get the picture? 

If You Are Only a Spectator...

 Just shut up.

You don't know what it is like to be hit in the face.

YOU DON'T KNOW NOTHIN'

A GREAT TRUTH

 Nothing is impossible when your wife loves and supports you.

Nothing.

That is all.

Nothing Without YOU

 26 years I've been married to the perfect one God picked out for me.

She is much younger than me so she has been with me more years than she was without me.

I suck at accepting help. I was single for 38 years and content to be single 4 ever.

I suck at loving people who need compassion and the unconditional love of God, the lovingkindness of God, the chesed (Hebrew word for lovingkindness) of the God of Israel.

Had I gone that route, staying single, I would have been a self-centered, self righteous, know it all.  All the work that needed done on my stony heart outside of the temple, all the work that needed done to shave it and trim it and make it humbly fit into the place selected by the sovereign God would not have been done. 

My old saying is, "The best way to stay married is to stay married."  This does not apply to abusive situations, or even addictions situations and the Bible says it does not apply to adultery, although, if you extend mercy in that situation GREAT HEALING can and does occur.

But if you run from a marriage that is stretching you, you will not be stretched, growth will be stunted and bitterness could take root. BEWARE.

But if you stay and pray, and humbly take your place in the union God ordained and gives grace and mercy to continue. You will grow and grow and grow, so much so that the Master Gardener will need to prune you to keep the growth healthy and productive. If I did not trim the bushes in front of our house we literally could not get out of our house!

Marriage is a picture of the Messiah and Messiah's community, "church" is a bit of a sucky word. (Mark Klafter taught me that and I am forever grateful.)

Marriage is a mystery.

Mystery as used in the Bible just isn't what we think it is.

Sadly, I don't fully know or understand what the word meaning is in its entirety.

Doesn't it seem like it is something we are being asked by God to seek Him about, to spend time with Him not seeking answers or a teaching, or a system (especially a system, right T. Justin Comer?). We are just seeking Him, walking with HIM in the garden in the cool of the day, and one day our hearts desire to understand what "mystery" means becomes clear.

My friend Dane who helped me a lot today. made it clear that when we pray it flows from a place of acknowledging who HE is, sovereign King of the universe, the God who delights in mercy, because Mercy is how He gets us back on track. Praise Him, worship Him and then let prayer flow from that place of rest and trust.

At Rest, In Him. 

Song recommendation  "What If"  Jess Ray

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZnqMS7kVgg&list=RD0ZnqMS7kVgg&start_radio=1

Saved - From What?

 Thanks to John Patrick Harrigan and others, I am able to show you the words that every first century Jew would have put right after, “and you/we will be saved” from the wrath to come at the day of the Lord!

Bonus; Years ago my friend shared with me her understanding of “the fullness of the gentiles” spoken of in Romans 11:25. Just like the fullness of the Amorites in the book of Genesis chapter 15, what is being waited for is the fullness of sin. When the gentiles sins pile so high that God identifies it as the fullness of the gentiles, then He pulls the plug on this evil age and all Israel is saved!

Maranatha!