I am victorious! Revelation 21:7 He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. These things mentioned in this verse are: And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” 5And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new ” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6Then He said to me, “It is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. …” Because I am victorious in Christ Yeshua, I am given water from the spring of life and God will dwell with me among His people. And when I am too weak to fight, the Holy Spirit himself intercedes for me (Rom. 8:26). God is good, but I struggle to truly KNOW it. I know it in my head, but it seems to hover over my heart instead of sinking in. I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall. I keep expecting God to be watching and waiting for me to mess up so He can crush me like a bug or punish me with something painful. Intellectually, I realize that goes against everything I know… and yet, that’s how I’ve always experienced authority – as Big Brother waiting for me to make a mistake so I can be punished or smushed. I yearn to know God differently, but as difficult as life has been, it’s difficult to see how He’s different (even though I know it could have been so much more difficult and painful). I’m praying that head knowledge becomes heart knowledge. Feel free to pray with me.
I am holy and without blame before Him in love. Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love I don’t usually feel holy or blameless, yet I know that through the forgiveness of God and the blood of His son, Yeshua, I am blameless. It’s hard to wrap my mind around. Before YHWH created the earth or brought any order to the chaos of the void, He already knew who I was and who I would be, and He knew that His Son would make me holy. And, technically, since all time is present tense to God, I already was and already was holy. Try wrapping your brain around that! I also think it’s important that I’m before Him. I’m not relegated to some obscure corner. He not only loves me, He wants me before Him. That is awesome and incredible!
I am forgiven of all my sins and washed in the blood of Yeshua. Ephesian 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. It seems too easy to simply ask, honestly, for forgiveness and to be forgiven. Yet, that is what God does through the sacrifice of His Son. The blood of Yeshua, shed for me, restores my ability to have a close relationship with YHWH. My sin results in death, spiritually and even physically, but because Yeshua put Himself in my place He removes that penalty. His blood is permanent cleaning. Yes, I make mistakes, and I still need to be forgiven to restore close relationship with God, but I am no longer an orphan. It’s like if I say something mean to my sister. I’m still a part of her family, but our relationship suffers until I apologize and she forgives me.
Wow! It’s been a while since I posted here! My computer crashed and I still haven’t recovered all the files. But there have been lots of other things going on to add to the hecticness. So many excuses, primarily about time (or lack of time). Some days I feel like I’ve been thrown onto the battlefield with no clothes, no weapons, and no training. On the positive side, I finally have the opportunity to deal with some of the craziness in my past that affects aspects of life now. Not everyone understands that, which makes things a little tricky, but that’s okay. Mostly, I’ve been reading the Psalms. I also read about Samuel and Hannah. For Hannah, I wonder if it was hard to leave her son at the Temple? Did he understand why he was staying when she was leaving? When Samuel heard God’s voice, I wonder if it overwhelmed Him (once he realized who was actually talking to Him)? I think it’s interesting that Eli recognized God’s hand, even though God hadn’t spoken to the priests in a long time. I wonder if he was jealous of Samuel’s favor with God. Did you notice that God’s voice was human-like? When He called to Samuel, Samuel thought it was another man calling him. I wonder if God was grinning as Samuel ran back and forth trying to answer what he thought to be the call of Eli. He certainly was patient, realizing that the boy had never heard his voice and didn’t know who it was. I think it’s easy to forget that God is like that. He doesn’t expect us to know everything right off the bat or to get it the first time. Sometimes He calls and waits, and then calls again until we recognize His voice. I wonder how many times He calls me and I miss it?
Simplicity. I love that word. I don’t get enough of it. Life overwhelms me often enough, and most days my plate is so full, it’s overflowing. But, ah, simplicity. A simple list, a simple prayer. I think we make life too complicated. I think we make God both too complicated and too simple. We make His love too complicated, but His power too simple. At least, I do. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool; For holy is the Lord our God. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations. (Ps. 99:9, 100:5) Amen
Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. That’s pretty spectacular. He was so close to God that God wanted him home. Most of the other people in his time lived eight and nine-hundred years….but Enoch only lived around three hundred-ish. The word for with in the statement is one that denotes closeness. Enoch didn’t just believe, he walked closely with God. I wonder if it was like the garden again, someone to talk to in the cool of the evening. And then God took him and became nothingness. No body to bury or remains to find. He was just gone. That had to be amazing (for him) and shocking (for everyone else). God has to be personal, if He wants someone home that badly. Kinda cool!
We so often talk about God knowing everything in advance, exactly what will happen and when, but we often don’t follow that to its logical (or rather not-so-logical) conclusion: if God is never wrong and He knows everything I will do in advance, then I have no choice because if I were to choose then I might choose differently and then He’d be wrong. Also, if He knows it already, it must be true, it must happen, or He is wrong. We had this discussion a while ago. I think of God’s knowledge of me as me walking on a branch of a tree. Every choice takes me to a new branch in an ever-expanding tree. God sees the entire tree, all the branches, even the ones I don’t walk down. It’s much easier to see than to explain. Anyhow, this post (read it here) is really interesting and it also sparked a rather interesting (and sometimes, heated) debate! Check it out!