God's Sovereign Timetable

The subject of God's timetable and that God is always in control in  my life has always been a hard pill to swallow. It is hard to see that God has his hand in  one's life especially when times are the hardest. When we are sick, or in lots of pain, or lack of money seems to occur all too often, we wonder where is God in all of this? Then we are reminded through most of the stories in the Bible  that God is in control of all of our circumstances and nothing slips by him without his consent , even in the hardest of times. Although from our perspective it looks like God is far from us, or at times it may seem that God doesn't even love us,but that is only because we are too short sighted to see the bigger picture, and so it all comes down to trusting that God knows what he is doing. God knows the best time to allow whatever we need into our lives and we can trust that this is so, which is one of the messages of the timing of the birth of Christ and all the circumstances that surrounded that  great event.
On the Eve of Christmas here is a devotional that reminds us that God is always in control .
May you all have a blessed Christmas.

GOD'S  SOVEREIGN TIMETABLE



"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And everyone went to his own town to register."
--Luke 2:1,3
Unpleasant circumstances often have a way of being the best part of God's most magnificent design. Performing their civic duty under the census posed a great inconvenience to Mary and Joseph.

The distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem was no short hike over sixty miles of rugged terrain. Despite Joseph's attempts to make the trip comfortable, it must have been extremely difficult for Mary, into her ninth month of pregnancy, to make the three-day journey. But God decreed to have His Son born in the City of David, and He used an external circumstance-the census-to get the Holy Family from point A to point B. Despite the headache and hardship, God's sovereign timetable was ticking off right on schedule.

Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that only the right things, the comfortable things, are a part of God's design. A good job, an adequate home, and money in the bank give us the impression that we must be doing something right. Then when inconvenience or hardship hits, we wonder what went wrong.

Maybe nothing has gone wrong. Maybe we just need to realize that our most unpleasant circumstances, much like Mary and Joseph's, often have a way of being the best part of God's most magnificent design. God's sovereign timetable is working in the life of your family, too.
O, help me to see, Lord, that every unpleasant circumstance in my life is, indeed, part of Your wonderful design for my life. I thank You for the example of Joseph and Mary, who did not complain over the inconvenience of a census, a rough road, a cold night, or a crowded inn.

Blessings,
Joni and Friends

http://www.joniandfriends.org/

In all my studies about myths and legends I have found to my amazement and dismay how similar they all are to each other, and this brought to me much confusion for a long time. Many use this fact as a reason NOT to believe the story of Jesus Christ to be true because many cultures have similar stories of a dying god. But what if the reason for the similarities is because our Creator was preparing our minds and hearts to a true realization of these myths? The Old Testament and the religion of the Jews was to prepare the Jews for the fulfillment of their religion , rituals and traditions that pictured the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What I find fascinating is that our Creator has left all cultures clues to the Truth, and although there is many differences among these cultures, many of these 'myths' are too similar to disregard. I believe they all tell the same story but throughout the centuries and because of the differences in these cultures many of the truths got confused and distorted.

Our seasons and the cycle they make tell the same lessons to all of us, the phases of the Moon and her changes tells the same lessons but in a different way. I believe we need to take the similarities of these myths and legends and see what is the common grain of truth they speak to us of and utilize and incorporate this knowledge in our lives. It does not make one more right than the other, but some 'myths' are closer to the truth than others and by our reliance on Spirit, we need to trust Spirit's guidance into what it is Spirit is saying to us. It may be that some of these Myths prepared us for the real thing. There are just too many instances in the New World of the people being prepared for the coming of the White man and the religion they would bring, and the destruction they would bring to their own lives and cultures as well, you just can't disregard this, and say this is false.

So here is a fascinating essay on this topic and read it with an open heart, and may you be blessed by it as I was.

Bright blessings,

Jesus: True Myth and True History

* This essay is adapted from G. Boyd & P. Eddy, Lord or Legend? (Baker, 2007).

Though the Jesus story gives us every reason to believe it is substantially rooted in history, it has a curious, and fascinating, relationship with myth and legend.

The story of God coming to earth, being born of a virgin, manifesting a heroic, counter-cultural love toward outcasts, dying for the people who crucified him and then rising from the dead has a familiar “echo” to it. If we haven’t completely deafened our ears to it, hearing this story has an affect on us that is a bit like recalling a long forgotten dream. On some level, there’s a part of us that seems to intuitively “remember” something when we come in contact with the loving savior portrayed in the Gospels. Though it may be suppressed under layers of cynicism and apathy produced by the harshness or sheer monotony of life, and though we may not be able to express it in words, something within us senses that this story puts us in touch with a dream about the way things are supposed to be. It reconnects us with something we’ve lost along the way, something we’ve perhaps given up on, something we’ve forgotten.

Throughout history, and in every culture, people have, in a wide variety of ways, recalled this dream, even without having had any contact with the Jesus story. They’ve expressed this dream through myths and legends. We in modern western culture sometimes respond to unbelievable stories by saying, “Oh, that is just a myth.” “Myth” and “legend” are for most people equivalent to “untrue.” (Hence the visceral fear some modern Christians have about conceding anything in the Bible may be myth). But, as the great mythologist Joseph Campbell has noted, there is a much more profound sense in which myths and legends can be very true. At their best, myths and legends express our innermost sense of reality, our deepest longings, the obstacles we face in pursuing these longings, and our hope that somehow, someday, these longings will be satisfied. (1) In other words, myths and legends express a dream.

Campbell’s observation goes a long way in explaining the curious relationship the Jesus story has with myth and legend. While the Jesus story is unquestionably grounded in history (See P. Eddy & G. Boyd, The Jesus Legend) it nevertheless bears a certain resemblance to certain myths and legends. The resemblance is due to the fact that this story incarnates in actual history the sense of reality, the longing, the obstacles and the hopes that all great myths and legends express. In Jesus, God shows his love for the world by becoming a human, serving sinners, dying on a cross, rising from the dead, defeating the devil, rescuing humanity and giving them eternal life in fellowship with himself. This is the heart of the Jesus story, and it expresses and addresses a dream that is buried in the depths of the human heart.

While some have tried to use mythic and legendary parallels to argue against the historicity of the Jesus story, these vague mythic and legendary parallels are actually what we should expect if indeed the Jesus story is “true”—in the fullest sense of the term. After all, one aspect of the Jesus story, extending back into the Old Testament, is the teaching that humans are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28). We’re thus “wired” for God, if you will. Not only this, but the New Testament itself declares that Jesus is the light “of all people” (John 1:4, 9) who is always working in the hearts of all people to lead them back to himself (Acts 17:26-28, cf. Rom 1:19-20). (2) We should thus expect to find “echoes” of the Jesus story expressed in the myths and legends of all people.

C. S. Lewis expresses this insight when he writes:

Theology, while saying that a special illumination has been vouchsafed to Christians and (earlier) to Jews, also says that there is some divine illumination vouchsafed to all men… We should, therefore, expect to find in the imagination of the great Pagan teachers and myth makers some glimpse of that theme which we believe to be the very plot of the whole cosmic story—the theme of incarnation, death, and rebirth. (3)

The difference between these myths and legends, on the one hand, and the Jesus story, on the other, is not a “difference between falsehood and truth.” They are both true, but in different senses. As Lewis continues, the difference between them is,

…the difference between a real event on the one hand and dim dreams or premonitions of that same event on the other. It is like watching something come gradually into focus; first it hangs in the clouds of myth and ritual, vast and vague, then it condenses, grows hard and in a sense small, as a historical event in first century Palestine. (4)

This is why Lewis contended that Jesus was “Myth became Fact.” In Jesus, “the essential meaning of all things came down from the ‘heaven’ of myth to the ‘earth’ of history.”(5) The dream expressed in myth and legend, including the premonition of a dying and rising God, is perfectly expressed and becomes historically true in the story of Jesus of Nazareth.

The famous author of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, J.R. Tolkien, makes the same point when he says,

The Gospels contain a fairy-story…which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: ‘mythical’ in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe [viz. a climatic eruption of joy].

Yet, the story of Jesus in the New Testament isn’t only a fairy-story, according to Tolkien, but a fairy-story incarnated in real time and space. In the person of Jesus, an all-embracing fairy-story

…has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. The story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the ‘inner consistency of reality.’ There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many skeptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. . .

And from this Tolkien concludes:

[The Christian] story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused. (6)

What Lewis and Tolkien are saying is that the Jesus story fulfills the intuitions and longings expressed in many myths and legends. The God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the reality to which certain aspects of various myths and legends point. Jesus is the reality all authors of myths and legends, together with the rest of us, dream of.

If we are honest with ourselves, and if we grasp the depth of the “good news” this story embodies, something quite like the Jesus story is what we hope to be true. Yet, most amazingly, this story gives us reason to believe it is historically true.

We have reason, therefore, to conclude that this story is, at the same time, both true myth and true history.

Endnotes

(1) J. Campbell, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and Religion (New York: van der Marck, 1986) 55.

(2) for example D. Richardson, Eternity in Their Hearts, rev. ed. (Ventura, CA: Regal, 1984 [1981]); idem, Peace Child, 3rd ed. (Glendale, CA: Regal, 1976 [1974]).

(3) C. S. Lewis, “Is Theology Poetry?,” in his The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses, rev. ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1980 [1949]) 128.

(4) Ibid., 128-29.

THE POWER OF GOD IN OUR LIFE,IS IN OUR IDENTITY

blue butterfly by P.A.T.C
Many believers are a bit confused as to who they really are in the eyes of God. They base their identity either on what they do for a living or what sin they happen to be trying to over come, like I am a doctor, I am a teacher, I am a wife, or I am a husband. Or they identify with the sin that so easy besets us like , I am a sinner, I am an alcoholic , I am a homosexual, I am an adulterer , I am a thief, I am a prostitute and so forth, you get the picture. So we need to come to terms with who we really are , as a believer what is our identity ? Is who we are , dependent on our behavior or by what we do, or by who we are in Gods eyes?

The whole world has ALREADY BEEN RECONCILED to God through the cross, but does that mean that the whole world is saved right now? If salvation is just a person being reconciled to God then the answer would be YES, but that is not what the Bible/God says salvation is ,does it? No salvation is when a person hears the gospel of Jesus Christ, receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior , and believes he died for his sin and has forgiven him of all of his sins, AT THAT MOMENT THAT PERSON'S DEAD SPIRIT HAS BEEN BORN AGAIN! S/He has been reconciled to God the barrier which was sin between God and humanity has been taken away by Jesus Christ who is the bridge between God and humankind.Reconciliation has been accomplished for the whole world through Christ but that alone is not salvation, it is just one half of the equation.The reason God has removed the sin barrier is so that WHOSOEVER will come to Christ by faith can become alive in HIM. The ONLY SIN that will keep a person from eternity with God is UNBELIEF ! John 3:18 states: " Whoever believes in Him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son." To be condemned already means you are ALREADY DEAD! Not because of your sins but because of your UNBELIEF! The Gospel is the announcement of and ACCOMPLISHED FACT!!! GOD'S WORK OF RECONCILIATION HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE! It is something God took the initiative to do , nothing we can do or ever do will make it happen.

So if you are a believer and have faith in the accomplished work done on the cross by Jesus Christ you are saved in your spirit. Your spirit which was dead because you were a child of Adam has now been born brand new and you are now a child of God in Christ. Take for instance the caterpillar, it is an earthbound crawling critter, it weaves a cocoon and it becomes totally immersed within it. A wonderful transformation takes place and when it comes out of that cocoon it is now a new creature that is no longer earth bound and flies in the sky. It now views life from a whole new perspective, and in the same way , you as a new creation in Christ must see yourself as God now sees you. It would never occur to you as a butterfly to introduce yourself as a converted caterpillar, no you are a new creature you are a butterfly that is who you are now. So stop seeing your self as a converted sinner, of what ever sin that once held you in it's grips. Although you might not always act as a good butterfly should, you are still a butterfly you will never ever be a caterpillar again, although you can choose to act like one. Even though you still may commit sins, it does not make you a sinner only if you identify yourself by your behavior ,by what you do, but if you identify yourself as God sees you , then you have a whole lot more chances to overcome these sins in your life by the power of your new identity in Christ. The highest motivation to living like the saint you are is found in Eph.5:8: "For you were ONCE DARKNESS, but NOW YOU ARE LIGHT in the Lord. LIVE as children OF THE LIGHT." .....you were once a caterpillar but now a butterfly so live as a butterfly and fly like one! Why should you live as a child of the light? BECAUSE YOU ARE A CHILD OF THE LIGHT! The power you need in your life is in how you see yourself, if you see yourself as a sinner then sinner you be, if you see yourself as a child of God in Christ then that is how you will live your life. The power is in who or what you identify yourself with. If you identify as an alcoholic then that is what you are, but if you identify yourself as a new born child of the living God then that is how you will live your life.

The world says we need a better or more positive self image of ourselves and they say that is what will bring you success, and it is true to some extent. We need to stop defining who we are by our failures, the TRUTH is what Gods says about you and I as believers in Christ, that is the only TRUTH there is. According to God there are only 2 identities mentioned in the Scriptures, IN ADAM and IN CHRIST. All of humanity are naturally born IN ADAM and the consequences of that identity is by nature DEATH! we are already dead as far as God is concerned! So what does it take for any person to go to JUDGEMENT AND CONDEMNATION? NOTHING! We are already condemned when we are born, we have no hope.That is the inheritance given to us by our earthly first parents who passed on the sin nature/diseased gene to all their off spring we are all born dying until we finally die. So when you believe in Jesus you changed who you now identify with, you no longer are in ADAM but now in CHRIST, AND WHO AND WHAT HE IS NOW YOU ARE in your spirits. So your identity is not based on your behavior, but your identity in Christ. So you don't need a good or positive self image you need a Proper Self image and one that comes from God's word. The believers true identity in Christ is the Central issue to experiencing the real Christian life! The truth of the matter is that now as a believer in Christ that God sees us as totally acceptable and righteous in His sight right NOW! Not because of what we do, but because of what Christ has done for us. We don't need many lives to become perfect, there are not enough lives to ever be perfect in Gods eyes, just one will make us perfect and that is Christ's Resurrected life in us.

What many failed to understand about Christianity is that Christianity is NOT A SELF IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM! It is not A REFORMATION PROJECT, it is A RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD! IT IS A NEW LIFE , we exchanged our old worn out life for Jesus Christ's life and His life now becomes our own. We give Christ all that we were , sinners , guilty and dead, and Christ gives us all that HE IS , a resurrected life, of forgiveness, righteousness and acceptance! We have been made perfect, in our own eyes, no ,never! According to our right behavior? Never! We have been made perfect in God's eyes by Christ! and that is an awesome and wonderful gift. So are we now perfectly mature, NOPE That will not happen until the resurrection when we receive our new glorified bodies to go along with our already resurrected perfect spirits that we already now possess. When we are saved our spirits have been born again, they are brand new but our souls and bodies have not been. We have to constantly renew our minds/souls to Gods perspective from this point on and it is a lifelong process. As long as your spirits live in your body you will wrestle with the desires of the flesh and you have to with time learn to make the right choices to avoid unnecessary temptations. But over time the Lord will renew your mind with His truth, that will bring your emotions and desires in line with who we really are, a new creation in Christ, Your daily decisions then are to apply Galatians 5:16" But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh."

The goal of a Christian's life is NOT TO QUIT SINNING! no matter who tells you this, it is not what the goal of a Christian is.Christ did not come to improve the flesh, he came to execute it and to give us a new life! Trying to clean up your life is merely returning back to the law which is an exercise of futility! God's love working within our hearts deals with us on a level that neither the law or self discipline can ever reach.

Faith , there is no power in faith itself! The real value of faith is found only in it's object and God is it. You can't have great faith, but you do have a great God! You only need to have enough faith to take God at His word! The size of one's faith is not important, what is important is the will of God. You and I are not responsible for producing the Christian life. We are not even able to produce the Christian life , ONLY CHRIST CAN DO THAT! Our responsiblity is to maintain a dependent, receiving attitude, the same attitude that was available in Jesus' life when he walked the earth. It is Christ that will produce the life and the fruit in our lives. The truth of the matter is that God has ALREADY DONE IT ALL! in Christ!There is NOTHING left to do. God does not need our abilities, He is the only able one! He needs for you and I to be AVAILABLE to what God wants to do IN US. The power for us is to know that the word of God is our authority and the only standard for truth. The renewing our our minds is looking at ourselves and our circumstances from God's perspective, by doing so , it brings light into all our circumstances. The true power in our Christian life is not how much we study, or what we do, it is who we are now from God's point of view, let us begin to see ourselves in the light of Gods word which is that we are now IN Christ and as He is so are we , GOD will always see Christ life in us forevermore, and therein is the power we need to live our lives today.

Gods blessings on you!

A SPECIAL WORD TO THE CHRISTIAN BELIEVER

Here is a quickened word for you a believer in Jesus/Yeshua the Messiah, the Anointed of God.

Now what is   Holy Spirit? Is it a third 'personality' ? Or something altogether different than what is taught in most Christendom? Spirit is the mind of God , and now since Jesus  is with HIM at the Right Hand of God, it is also the Mind of Jesus as well. Spirit is the mind and thoughts and energy of God HIMSELF. It is the essence of THEIR mind. Is that not simple? It is the essence of their mind. Jesus said, "The Father and I are one," because their minds are so much alike. The Holy Spirit is the power that issues forth from them, and when we accept it, what does it issue forth from us in? What is the  fruit or by-product of God's mind and power in us? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.Nothing we can boast about in doing or having,   because with out the Power of God in us we would not have the ability to produce such wonderful fruit.

It emanates directly from THEM for the express purpose of influencing us directly and personally, and that is why you can be called "the called," "the chosen," "the elect," because now child of the living God, if you are a Christian then listen closely here to a special word from God directly to You and to me, personally of all the people in this world, God chose directly to influence YOU and I. If you have been drawn to God, if You can not get God out of your thinking, If you have been changed and no longer want to do what you once did as a non believer, this is for YOU  . Remember Ephesians 2:2? Satan indirectly affects everyone on earth with his spirit. He broadcasts it forth, and it goes out in a general manner. But the relationship You now have with God is direct and personal. It does not go to everybody. It came directly to you. He sent forth His Spirit(power ,mind and thoughts). He was thinking about you, and He was creating thoughts in His mind (also spirit) about you, and what you could become, where you could fit in His Kingdom, and what He needed to do to prepare you for it. Now you need to soak that in for a while, if you do not think you are special in any way by the worlds standards, Friend and fellow sibling of God , you are indeed special to GOD!
He was thinking about you before He ever let you know, and when the time came that it was right, He sent forth His Spirit(his mind,thoughts,power and essence) and began to create you spiritually. He sent forth His mind, and began to interface with you personally. That is the difference between God's approach, and Satan's approach. Once you understand this, you will be able to thank God from your innermost being! God chose YOU to be in fellowship with Him in thought and deed,in this darkened world we live in He has made you to be Light . You have been given access to God HIMSELF, that all unbelievers do not have. And it was nothing we could have done to receive such a gift, but it was ALL GOD. We can not even have a proud thought on this because it was not that we are better than anyone else, but that when He called YOU and I  we listened and obeyed His word, when others would not. WOW what a blessing, what a gift, what love. Praise God for his love for us.
So just what is this Holy Spirit  that we have? It is the essence—it is an emanation from God's mind and thoughts to yours, how marvelous is that?!!
I don't believe the Holy Spirit is a different or separate person from God, Nor is Jesus/Yeshua a different person from God, They ARE GOD. God is the Holy Spirit and God is Jesus /Yeshua in the flesh, and God is the Parent in the Heavenly realms. They are ALL GOD.They represent different functions and workings of God.So then GOD is ONE.
I am a mother and so my children treat me as a mother and my function and workings with them would be that of a mother. I am a wife, and so my function and action and workings and relationship with my husband would be that of a wife, I am not a wife to my kids nor am I a mother to my husband. I am a daughter to my parents, so therefore my relationship with my parents would be that of a daughter , not as a mother or a wife. But in all these instances I am still ME. I am Me the Mother , Me the Wife and Me the daughter, but in all ways I am still ONE>ME. This is how I view the so called Trinity, God is All 3! But functions differently in what ever capacity God is working in but God always remains God no matter who or what God is doing.
Shalom and in HIS service.
ENDURA

I HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT

While laying awake in bed last night listening to my hubby snore, he has been sick a few days and so we have been home for a few days, I was tortured in my thoughts as I lay there. Being in Chronic pain and my ability to be mobile becoming less and less a fact of life, I laid in bed with worry and fret over what lays ahead in the future for me, it wasn't comforting to say the least. I feared how I was going to make it, what if my hubby died before me? what was I to do then, how was I going to be able to live in my home when I am not able to do the things as I use to, in fact my hubby has been taking up the slack,because I am almost unable to do alot of what I use to do, so what then? I laid there thinking I had no hope for a good outcome. I even thought of taking my life if that fear came to pass. Then I thought about God and how within Christianity, only a few will make it into God's paradise the rest would either live on in eternal torment or God will cast them in to the fire after Judgement never to be remembered again. I thought about how it would be at that time with this theology. God raises from the dead all the mass of humanity who were either non believers or never have heard of Christ, so God will wake them up only to judge them and then either kill them or torture them. How in God's name can anyone justify that ? I am thinking to self, why even wake them up if God is only to kill them again? How stupid and cruel is that ? Listen for a moment, why bother to even wake the unbelievers up in the first place, if they all don't make it then let them be dead and gone and over with it, what is the cruel purpose to raise the condemned in the first place if there is no hope for them in doing so? Is this a cruel joke being played out, if so I don't want this cruel beast of a god. If they are condemned and with no hope then for God's sakes leave them be!!!But they are raised and for what other purpose? But yet the Christians who believe in annihilation believe that is exactly what God will do. Or God awakens them only to judge them  guilty and then throw them into the fire and the Second Death only so they will be consciously alive and be tortured through out all time for what they did or did not do in their extremely short life time compared with the final verdict of torture for all time.  Can any one see the mercy, justice and love of God in that picture? Not me.

Some different thoughts came to my mind as I was fretting over this theology  of eternal death or eternal torture ,that the many in Christianity believe and teach. Who was right? who are wrong? Can I ever know?What is the truth here?
Consider this story/parable: You have a wealthy man that has all the money and power in the world and then you have all the rest of us who do not . All of us in time ,owe this man many thousands of dollars , we are indebted to this wealthy man to the extreme. Then one day this wealthy man's son comes along and pays off all of our debts. No one now owes this man's wealthy father anything whatsoever. But only a few find out that this was done, they find out they no longer are indebted to the wealthy man and are now able to live life without fear of slavery or prison or death because they can not pay  or can ever get out of this indebtedness to the Wealthy man. So now after being told the good news that their debt has been paid in full by the Wealthy man's son, they are now able to live  the rest of their lives  full of gratitude , thanksgiving and love towards this wealthy man's son for all he did for them, he literally saved their lives. Now the rest of the people which are many never hear the good news of their debt being paid in full, their lives continue as it has been,  full of fear, and worry, and hatred towards the wealthy man's power over them and their indebtedness to him. They live their lives and die without ever hearing the good news  that their indebtedness has been paid in full. My question to you is this, even though they have no clue that their debt is paid in full, do they still owe the wealthy man ?Are they still in debt to this Wealthy man even though the Wealthy man's son paid it off? So in like thought, Christ paid the debt and died for our sins and the death that it produced in us , for ALL of humankind from Adam to whomever at the very last day He died for All, God is no longer attributing sin to us, we do not owe the sin debt any longer, that debt has been paid in full, the good news  is that the Son has cleared us from all sin and the eternal death it produced!
The truth is this that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."(2 Corinthians 5:18-19) We Christians have been given the ministry of reconciliation. The whole world is God's. And it is entrusted to us to tell others this Good News so that they can in this life live it with out fear or shame or guilt! So that they can be truly thankful and full of gratitude and joy towards God.

The modern Christian concept of hell is not only unbiblical, but the fact of the matter is that it is straight from the devil himself and blasphemes the marvelous sacrifice Christ made on the cross of cavalry. The bible defines hell as separation from God. If you don't know God, or have a personal walk with Him, my brother and sister, you are in hell,  and can ir not get any darker in darkness than that. You walk in darkness no matter how you may look by the world's standards.  This is truth,if you don't have a personal relationship/communion with your creator, you are in hell, and are the  walking dead. The bible describes the situation of people that don't know God this way.

" ... ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:"(Eph 2:12) You have no hope and are without God in the world. That's hell, and your end is death.
But that is not the end of the story!

So as I laid there in bed last night God revealed to me in my spirit that He is in charge, and has been from the beginning, I need not fear, and that I have been given the GOOD NEWS in that God is NO LONGER IMPUTING SIN TO ME it has be taken care of by the work of Jesus Christ in his life and death and resurrection, it is a DONE DEAL, and I have been given this news so that I no longer must fear life here in hell,the darkness within me has been overcome by His true LIGHT !!!!!
"The truth hurts.", the truth kills. It kills the lies, it kills death. Understanding and truth will be used by God to destroy utterly darkness and lies. Love will be used to destroy hatred.

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."(1 John 1:5) If you are darkness, and have lies, deception, murder, greed, jealousy, envy and hatred in you, you will be consumed by the light of God and have all truth revealed to you. The way to preserve your soul is to ask God to show you His truth in this life, because only then do you get rid of the garbage in you and get it replaced with truth. Then, with the truth, you have eternal life because only pure truth can stand before God and not be destroyed. Only when you have truth do you begin to be alive. People with no knowledge of God don't have eternal life because life itself begins with the knowledge of God. If you don't have God, you don't have any life at all according to the bible. When the man asked Jesus if he could first go back and bury his father before following Him, Jesus replied,
" Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. "(Matt 8:22), meaning that those who are Spiritually dead are the same to God as those physically dead. The definition of eternal life is preserving your soul from this existence into the existence to come. If you have no life in this existence, you have no life to carry over into the next. The soul full of darkness will be destroyed, or the soul that sins shall surely die, by being filled with  God's light.

The bible declares in Isaiah 45:22 - 24

" Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall [one] say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: [even] to him shall [men] come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed." The end of all the earth is to see Jesus and bow their knees and confess that He is Lord, to the Glory of God. There will not be a  forced show of worship here by some big angel pushing them down to their knees . They will bow and worship God because they will have the truth revealed to them.
Listen the only reason Christians are in the earth today is to show the world what their future is. We are the first-fruits. Not just the early church but all of us as Christians are just one church, always has been and always will be. The church of Jesus Christ. We Christians today are just as much part of the church as the apostles were at the beginning of all this. The church is the first fruits along with Jesus for the church is His body. First is never used unless there is a second. We are in the earth to be an example. James 1:18 says,
" Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures."

All the earth belongs to God and everything in it. The Good News we are to bring to this world is that God has sent His Son to be the sacrifice for the world. God has reconciled the world to Himself and your end is determined. You will go stand before God. Wait, you say. What about the verses which say those that have done evil will be cast into the lake of fire? Well I will leave that for next time. I just want to make it clear that most of us are all ready in Hell, here on the 3rd rock from the sun, many of us are tortured by our thoughts and our fears and our worries, already. The fear of a future Hell is nothing compared to the Hell most of us face or see each day, most of us with out Christ are already dead,dead, dead, and there is no life in us. Don't threaten me with a future hell, I have experienced that already, but praise God I have seen a great light in Jesus Christ and now I am saved from this life of death in this hell here in this life. I was dead and now I am alive for it was not Christ alone who died on that Cross, but I and every person did too, but the joy is that I know I was buried with him already and I am raised with him already and the life I now live I live by the power of His life in me , amen and halleluyah!

shalom in Christ.

What would Jesus really be doing in this world today?

The weapons with which we fight are not human weapons, but are mighty for God in overthrowing strong fortresses.(2Cor.10:4,Weymouth N.T.)

The Christian and the topics of war and fighting, has been the topic of discussion for a while. Should a Christian be fighting with human guns and weapons and should they be going to war with any one? What does Jesus say about it?
Christ himself said,Joh 18:36" My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence."


Is He   saying that if His kingdom where like the kingdoms in this world--His servants would fight? That they would operate the way that rulership in this world systems would operate in the world--the servants or citizens of the leaders would fight for their leaders, their countries?
Are we called to be not of this world? Are we called to deal with others not as the world would deal with others?
I think these are questions each of us who Identify with Christ and His Kingdom should ask ourselves when we are asked to do as the world does.We should take note, Jesus specifically says to Peter not to fight--not to operate as the worldly kingdom--not to use authority or power over others--even unto death. Jesus operated 100% of His time in the earth in the right kingdom, do we as followers of Christ? He never used authority over another person, and He specifically told the apostles to operate in the same way (Jesus said it about Himself--!!--this is not an opinion!!!)--especially "amongst yourselves". The kingdom way of operating, according to Jesus" example and doctrine--is to lay down your life--to serve others--to minister to others--not to rule with authority over others.
Drinking the Cup Of Jesus ,as we have seen, the concept of drinking the cup, that Jesus drinks, is one of servanthood. But servanthood in the way of not using authority over others--not ruling but serving God and people.

(Matthew 20: 21-26)

21* And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. 22* But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23* And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. 24* And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. 25* But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26* But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

I think that for the most part Christians are truly clueless as to who they really are, and why they are here as the body of Christ in the World. Many believe that they are to reign in this life and rule over everyone, but is that how Jesus used his authority in this world, really? What authority indeed do we really have In Christ in this world? What really was Jesus' purpose in this life?What was He 'sent' and 'anointed' to do in this world? "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19, KJV).
Jesus gave authority (the power to rule over) 3 things.....Really if Christ is our Head and authority, and we are His body, what in this world would Jesus really be doing? It is truly a thought to meditate on this day.

1. Sin. We have the blood of Jesus Christ, which forgives all our sin--(and the sin of all the world!) so that we may have the "free gift" of eternal life. We are saved by grace--not by works--and all that one needs to attain this great salvation is......
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9, KJV).
In fact, to believe in Jesus, is to accept His apostleship
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:16-17, KJV).


Note the word "sent" (Greek: apostello).
"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3, KJV).
Jesus was "sent" of the Father--to save us all.
"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; (Hebrews 3:1, KJV).
Doesn't this simple Bible verse tell us that we ALL--"brethren (and sisters)"--have an apostolic calling to share the Gospel with others?
2. Sickness and disease.
"And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." (Matthew 10:1, KJV).
Believers have authority over all manner of sickness and disease. Yes, Jesus heals. He healed all who believed 2,000 years ago, and He heals today--if we will believe in Him--in His authority---by faith. Every believer has the the right--the authority--the power to rule over sickness--in the name of Jesus Christ.
Christ within any believer can and should heal.
That is ministry.
3. Satan.
"And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16:17-18, KJV).
The Bible says that all believers have the authority to cast out the devil and his demonic forces in the earth. All believers have the victory over every worldly spirit and every deception of the enemy.
God inside gives discernment, but we as believers must speak out our authority--and our authority is meant to be used to help (minister to) others.
We ALL as believers have the right to witness the Gospel, to pray for the sick and to pray for those in need of deliverance.
Remember it this way--you as a believer have....
Authority (the God-given power to rule)--Over--"sin--sickness--and satan"
Notice: the "authority" we all have as believers lines up exactly with the purposes of Christ (luke 4:18--again!)
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19, KJV).
Jesus as a man in the earth, demonstrated His power to rule over these things--and He clearly imparted this authority to all who followed Him by faith. It is His Holy Name that saves--heals and delivers us---and saves--heals and delivers others--through us., the church--His body in the earth, not just you church pastor or minister, but the whole body of Christ in this world, if you are a Christian, a follower of Jesus then that means you and me.
"For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants,(us) and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch." (Mark 13:34)
This is Jesus' description of Himself. He has taken a journey (gone to His place of authority at the right hand of God in heaven). He says very succintly that He has given His authority--to His servants--to "every man (and woman)" his work. Christ's authority is in every one of us--we are ALL called to serve (minister) this authority, and follow His example.
Is that so hard to understand?


Shalom in Christ

My Idea of where the Bible should be in our lives

I do not believe that any human understanding of the Bible can be so exhaustive and authoritative as to merit use as an “instrument of doctrinal accountability.”I believe that it is in the best interests of all to leave every believer free to interpret the Bible according the dictates of a conscience that is guided by the Holy Spirit. For it is the Holy Spirit of God that should hold preeminence in our lives as Believers.
I believe that each believer should be free to think for themselves, I believe there is a broad consensus among believers concerning the scriptures, as it should be.
I believe that true Christians love and respect the Bible.
We should believe as Christians that the Bible is a holy book in that it holds a separate and unique place in each of our lives. It is the story of God's love. We as believers are part of that story. We as Christians identify with this story and it gives meaning and direction to each of our lives in many different ways.
While I love and respect the Bible, I do not worship it. The Bible is the written word of God. In and of itself it is paper and ink, words and sentences, and has no life. The Bible is not the supreme revelation of God,Jesus the Messiah is. The Bible, points to and must be fulfilled and completed by God's Living Word. Jesus Christ, the Living Word, is the one mediator between God and man. He gives scriptures life by creating from them a spark of understanding in all believers hearts. From that understanding He calls us to a personal relationship with Him. Those who respond in faith to God's call, identify with His story and commit themselves to a life of discipleship. For them, the Bible becomes more than a reliable record of God's revelation in the past. It is the authoritative tradition from which we can view the horizons of life in both time and eternity.
I believe in its divine inspiration and its human authorship.
The story of God's love recorded in the Bible was written by men, but it is God's story. It is the story of the God who created us, gave us life and loved us enough to reveal himself and die for us. Some of the encounters between God and mankind have been documented in written records. I believe that the Spirit of God filled and inspired the writers of the documents that are collected in the Bible. The language, words, and style in which each human author wrote reflects his own individual and unique pattern of thought and understanding at that present time. The meaning and significance of what they wrote, however, transcends their own personal purposes and individual intentions and serves the purposes and intentions of God. I believe that revelations of and from God is progressive and living and did not end 2000 years ago, but is on going within the lives of each and every believer.
“Salvation is not conditioned upon our belief in, or acceptance of, a book.The Bible is NOT what saves us nor is the Bible what we must believe in order to be saved.It is God’s revelation of himself which comes through his direct action upon each of our own individual spirits. . . . God thus becomes our supreme authority and the Bible should be recognized as the authoritative record of his supreme revelation. . . . It is our supreme source of the knowledge of God and his dealings with a people. . .But the true nature of the Bible is that it is the revelation of God in and through Jesus Christ, who is the Living Word and Living Metaphor for our salvation.”
In the words of Glady S. Lewis about the bible and what it means to her as a woman, I find this to be my beliefs as well but her words do it more justice than mine. She says:
"The Bible is a collection of narratives of violence: murder, betrayal, brokenness; in our connections with it through the collegiality of our own brokenness, we find meaning for our narratives-inspiration from the violence done to us AND those which we perpetrate on others. To make it a totem, an object of worship, or a lucky charm violates its spirit and diminishes its force for healing. It is a road map for our journey, a diary for our reflection, and a compass for our direction: a text with many voices, many narrators, many themes, many interpretations...
We learn a great deal by reading the Bible about Jesus which affirms us spiritually and culturally. Especially as women. Especially Jesus and non-Jewish women. He first announced his ministry to one: the woman at the well. Jesus never got entangled with doctrine; he lived it, and while living it, told stories and took care of people. I think this is the edge women have with Jesus. He announced He was the Messiah to a non-Jewish woman-that event came out in a practical ministry setting and conversation — he wanted a drink of water. Of course, the emphasis we get is on his knowing she was a woman with a bad reputation and being kind to her anyway -- chalk one up for male rhetoric.
The Syro-Phoenician woman helped Jesus clarify his ministry by using his language against him. Does the jingo-ism and ethnic chauvinism of Jesus in that passage bother you? After he had fed the multitudes, she came asking him to heal her daughter. He said, “I can’t take the children’s bread and throw it before dogs.” He called her a dog, and I don’t think it was because she was not cute. She said, “Dogs eat crumbs under the children’s table. I would take those.” Jesus checks himself. I am helped enormously by thinking of Jesus as a teacher. I think Jesus had just re-stated the syllabus to 15 freshmen and this Syro-Phoenician woman graduate student walked up with a real question, and Jesus responded in a tone he wanted to use for the freshmen. But she, knowing how to use language and metaphor, turned it on him. Submissiveness? Bah! Balderdash! My exodus experience helps me recognize the divine and it shapes me."

HYPOCRISY, AND THE BELIEVER

READ: Matthew 15:1-9
These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. —Matthew 15:8
The caller to the radio program mentioned religion, so the radio talk show host began to rant about hypocrites. “I can’t stand religious hypocrites,” he said. “They talk about religion, but they’re no better than I am. That’s why I don’t like all this religious stuff.”
This man didn’t realize it, but he was agreeing with God. God has made it clear that He can’t stand hypocrisy either. It’s ironic, though, that something God opposes is used by some people as an excuse not to seek Him.
Jesus said this about hypocrisy: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:8-9).
Notice what Jesus said to perhaps the biggest hypocrites of His day, the Pharisees. In Matthew 23, He called them hypocrites—not once, not twice, but seven times! They were religious people who were putting on a big show, but God knew their hearts. He knew they were far from Him.
Non-Christians who point out hypocrisy in us when they see it are right in doing so. They are agreeing with God, who also despises it. Our task is to make sure our lives honor the One who deserves our total dedication. — Dave Branon
Hypocrisy is a common sin That grieves the Lord above;He longs for those who’ll worship Him In faith and truth and love. —Bosch
The devil is content to let us profess Christianity as long as we do not practice it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What an interesting and insightful devotion today!

When reading different blogs on various beliefs I am amazed with how true the above devotion subject is. Many atheist and non believers sight HYPOCRISY as being the number one reason not to believe in the Christian or Biblical God, and in so doing are in totally agreement with the Christian and Biblical God!

While reading the Scriptures I am struck with the fact that the many of the reasons for God's displeasure with His people in all of the Bible is HYPOCRISY!

Why is that so? It would seem that we would rather be 'religious' in our dealings with God and Humanity than allow the changes of our behaviors to come from within and do what our LORD would have us do. But instead we would rather do religious looking things, that doesn't do any good ,for us or for God.

The main point of focus of all Jesus Christ ,The Messiah's words ,are that of righteous action and service to God and our fellow humans,through and by the correct intention and motivation, which is LOVE.

You would think, by reading so many times about the religious ceremonies and sacrifices done within the pages of Scripture , that for the people of Israel that their God was only interested in this function of their service to Him. But time and time again in the Tanach/Old Covenant and within the New Covenant Scriptures that , they were very much mistaken on what God truly wanted from them and from us.

God wants a people to be and live 'righteous' and to do 'justice',with their fellow wo/man. Jesus the Messiah wants all that we do in His name , which is EVERYTHING we do, be done with the right motivation and intention and in the right spirit ,which is to love and be of service for the good of everyone. God does not want us to have a 'fast' and go without food, unless we give the food we would of eaten to someone who has none, otherwise fasting is only a religious waste of time. God wants to re-create our minds ,our hearts,our emotions, which are our Soul. God is looking to change our 'intentions' and the reasons we do the things we do. It is not our actions that God wants to change in our lives, but the motives and the whys that come from within ,which are the reasons we do what we do. When Christ the Messiah was broadening and enlightening us on the true meaning of keeping and doing God's Laws, He was showing us that it is not the murdering and the thieving and the coveting that we do that is problem, they are just the symptoms of sin, but what is behind all the symptoms of sin, it is the intention and motivation of our hearts, when we hate, murder is sometimes the result, when we lust, adultery is sometimes the result. Sin is not just the outward actions of murder, rape ,lust, envy, they are only the Symptoms of the deadly disease that we have inherited, Sin is the nature within us that needs to be healed, and taken out of us, and that is only done by Christ moving in within us, religion only places band-aids to the problem or religion causes or hides the problems. The Spirit of God within is the cure for the problem, and only through Christ the Messiah can the remedy for religion, hypocrisy and sin be found.

Jesus says that we are defiled not by what we eat, or drink, or touch, we are defiled from within our being, where all the evil motivations and intentions spring from. Sin is not playing cards, or gambling, or drinking alcohol, or how we dress, Sin is our Nature, it is who we 'are' with out Christ the Messiah renewing a right spirit within us. We are only able to do what is right, when our intentions are right, we are only able to not kill, steal, or harm, when our hearts and soul, our very nature has been changed to real love, and that can only happen when our nature is destroyed and buried and a new one takes it's place, and that can ONLY be done by the New Birth, which is the resurrection of our dead spirits when we call upon the Name of Yahshua the Messiah, Jesus Christ to move in within us and resurrect our dead spirit and remove our sin nature , and replace it with His.

There is only one cure for humanity and that is Jesus Christ, the true and only Messiah. Without Him renewing a right mind and thinking within us , hypocrisy, sin and hate will only continue and grow, for humanity is unable to cure a sin nature that all of us have inherited ,this deadly disease 'sin' is in our DNA. The cure for this deadly disease that we all have is available , if only you call on the true Physician who is able to remove the sin diseased nature which causes death and replace it with true health and vitality with His very LIFE by the entrance of His Spirit within us......

The part that hangs up many unbelievers and believers as well is that we are not changed over night in our Mind/Soul, just our Spirits have been reborn and have been brought into right standing with God. But once we have begun the 'process' of salvation after our New spiritual birth, we now have to undergo the process of salvation and sanctification which deals with our Souls, which involves the constant renewing of our minds, thoughts,intention,will, and emotions, this process is ongoing and continues until our bodies dies. The believer is under the process of 'judgement' now, that is when they do that which is not in line with their new natures, acts that are not loving and in fact looks like hypocrisy to unbelievers, the Holy Spirit will 'convicts' them of their behavior until the believer realizes where they have missed it, then ,when they have understood the message from the Holy Spirit,that they have behaved ,not in line with their new natures, then they need to repent ,which means to change their thinking on this situation, until it is in agreement with God, ask forgiveness, and then they can continue on with their life. The Judgement for the Body of Christ ,is already in progress, it is happening NOW, and it is the very same Judgement all unbelievers will go through when they stand before God on Judgement Day, they receive all their correction all at one time, we the Christian have it in small segments when we step out of alignment with God's true character now in this life. God's Judgement is always for correction! Now or later and the end results in both cases is death to our sin nature.

Personally I would rather have God's Judgement in small increments and knowing that my spirit is made right and just in God's sight because of what Jesus has done for me in that He has removed all the bad Karma and Sin in me and replaced my spirit nature with His, than to face God's Judgement without knowing this and have God's Judgement all at once.......with out Jesus who has removed all of one's blemishes and sin...but now they must face God with all their karma and sin still on and in them . For we will reap what we sow, unless Jesus steps in and removes the outcome of our sowing behavior,but the fact of the matter is ,that it is not IF we will be Judged but only When we will be judged, it's either ,now or later, and that choice is truly our own.

In His Light

ENDURA

WE HAVE THE FREEDOM NOT TO CONDEMN

"God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." (NKJV ).
What I find to be the most wonderful element that is happening in Christendom these days,is that many Churches and believers are beginning to understand that it is not in the 'correct' liturgy of how a church should conduct services but how much love ,mercy and compassion can we show to ourselves , our loved ones, our communities, and our world. What is more important, from Jesus' perspective? The exact and most correct way to have corporate worship or how many ways can we love and care for each other?As believers we are all free in Christ to worship during whatever seasons and on whatever days we find fitting and appropriate. It is not the manner of how we celebrate Godde, but that we do. The correctness of the ways we do our worship is truly a matter between ourselves and Godde. The first thing that might help us get some perspective is to understand that worshipping is a human response to Godde—who S/he is, what S/he has done and what S/he is doing. It is an active, often spontaneous, celebration of Godde's work through Christ. It is in our worship as Believers and the fact, that we are participating with Christ in His work of human redemption. We must remember that to love one another does not require that we must abandon our own unique cultural values. It means we must learn to respect the cultural values of others, without feeling threatened ourselves. I believe that the main reason is their fear and the feeling threatened by different ideas which are truly hard for them to move through, and we must understand their fear and aid them in maturing in the faith and help them realize that Godde is more than capable of directing and guiding us in the way we should go. Of course, if a particular cultural value is sinful, we must abandon it. But most of our cultural values are not sinful; many are neutral and many are quite compatible with godliness in Christ.As Paul wrote to the church in Rome: "He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God" (Romans 14:6).
The question that we might ask ourselves is:Can we let this principle rule our attitudes toward one another? If our fellow believers in other congregations are gathering to worship the Lord, then surely we should not get upset about the particular choice of days they worship or the manner in which they worship, but the fact they they are worshiping and praising Godde as they know how to do at the time . What is truly the most important aspect of our faith? That a particular group worship as you believe they should? In all seriousness, how do you know that you are correct? From my personal experience especially in the area of religion ,is that many believe 'they' are the one's who are correct and 'they' are the only one who hear from Godde, but what is amazing is that all who say such nonsense are hearing supposedly from the same Spirit, and all are saying something different,how confusing is that ? So what are we to say or do in that regard? What we need to do is to make sure that what we believe and do is true to our own experience,conscience , and relationship with Godde,and let Godde deal with others in the matter of what is right or not,that is all we can hope do.How do we treat one another? Are we angry and judgmental? Are we considerate and patient? Do we try to understand and appreciate the feelings of those who differ from us? What is the real value of worshiping in a different fashion at all, if the fruit of our worship is judgmentalism and condemnation?Within the essential and central framework of Christian doctrines there is much room for diversity. Our Universal Godde is a lover of diversity which we all can see within the vastness of creation! For me , it shows a Godde that loves a variety of colors, smells, shapes, sizes, etc.. so therefore we can safely assume that our diverse ways of celebrating our faith in Godde ,leaves room for our differences in the ways we worship and in the applications of our services to Godde.We must have the unity in our worship of Godde, the faithful observance of the sacraments (the Lord's Supper and baptism,etc. )of our faith and the faithful proclamation of the Word.We have diversity in the styles and forms we use in administering the sacraments, proclaiming the Word and worshiping the Lord. The Holy Spirit makes us one in Christ, and our diversity in how we express that unity ,which is truly a gift of Godde.
I am encouraged that many Christians, Churches, and denominations have seen the error of their ways and are coming together in the spirit of love ,compassion, and mercy that has been and is continually shown to us by our Savior. We must endeavor to live by the words of Paul when he said:"One person considers one day more sacred than another; another person considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind" (Romans 14:5).
We must not go the route of the God Police and enforce what we think are the true rules of the faith, for the only true rule of Jesus was to Love Godde and ourselves and others, if we can endeavor to carry that out we will not be to far from the Kingdom.
Blessed be, be a blessing

WHEN WAS JESUS REALLY BORN?

When was Yeshua (Jesus) born. Tradition says Dec 25th (Christmas),but as has been demonstrated in earlier articles (Roots of theChristian Faith), this date was done to convert a Pagan Festival intoa "Christian" Festival. The motive appears to have been to makealternatives to the Pagan Festivals. This has had unfortunateside-effects as outlined in the previous article.So when was Yeshua born? Below is the explanation of why many believeYeshua was born on Succot (Feast of Tabernacles). This Theory isconsistent with scripture, historical events and Jewish Culture. Moreimportantly, it is consistent with G-d's prophetic foreshadowing ofmajor events. As we have seen in the Feasts of the L-rd article, G-dgives extra purpose to His ordained Feasts, in that they are"foreshadows" of the coming of Messiah.This work includes major portions from Dr. David Hargis, President ofMessianic Bureau International (MBI, www.messianic.com).So with that brief introduction, consider this amazing work ofHa'Elyon (The Most High).Conception of JohnIn order to establish the date, we must first rely on clues found iinscripture, then add external historical and cultural elements. TheBirth of Yochanan (John) is key as he is a forerunner who announcesMessiah.First Chronicles tells us that the Levitical priesthood was dividedinto 12 divisions of priests. The ancient Jewish Historian Josephus(Antiquities 7) tells us that each division served for a period of oneweek. The first division began its period of service on the first dayof the year — 1 Nisan (also called Aviv or Abib) — as God hadestablished the calendar in Exodus 12:2. Three weeks out of each year— during the weeks of Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost), andSukkot (Tabernacles) — all 24,000 priests served together.As Zekharyah was in the division of Aviyah (Luke 1:5), his term ofservice began in early Spring on the first day of the eighth week(27th of Ayyar) and ran for one week through the 4th of Sivan. As thefollowing week (5-11 Sivan) was Shavuot, the Feast of Pentecost, hewould have stayed in the temple and served that week also with all thepriests. Luke 1:23-24 tells us that Zekharyah finished his duties atthe Temple , and that Elisheva conceived shortly after his returnhome. This sets the date for Yochanan's conception at approximatelythe third week of Sivan. [In Gregorian year 2001, that weekcorresponds to the first week of June. Adding nine months to that dateputs the birth of Yochanan sometime near the first week of theGregorian month of March.]Conception of YeshuaWe know from scripture that Yeshua (Jesus) was conceived afterYochanan (John), further more, with this information we can nowascertain When Yeshua was conceived. An interesting point, The earlyChurch may have agreed on December for the reason that was Hisconception date, not birth.Near the end of the sixth month of Elisheva's pregnancy the angelGavri'el appeared to Miryam and told her about Elisheva saying, "thisis the sixth month with her who was called barren." Miryam immediatelyleft Natzeret (verse 39, "with haste") and went to the "hill country"near Jerusalem to the home of Zekharyah and Elisheva. We know for surethat Miryam was already pregnant with Yeshua because Yochanan, stillin Elisheva's womb, recognized the unborn Yeshua. [What furtherevidence do the pro-abortionists need that life begins at conception?]This sets the conception of Yeshua about end of Kislev during Chanukah(mid-December), the Feast of Lights, thus demonstrating in a veryspecial way that Yeshua is the Light of the World."Yeshua is shown celebrating Chanukah in John 10:22,23. It is at thiscelebration that He declares `I and My Father are One' [John 10:30],which testifies to His Divine origin in His conception. It alsoreinforces Chanukah as the time of His conception."Birth of JohnGiven the above events, it is now straight forward to calculate whenYochanan was born.The prophet Mal'akhi (Malachi) tells us that Eliyah (Elijah) theprophet must come to prepare the hearts of the fathers and theirchildren before Mashiach comes.4 "Remember the law of Moshe [Moses] my servant, which I commanded tohim in Horev for all Yisra'el, even statutes and ordinances. 5 Behold,I will send you Eliyah the prophet before the great and terrible dayof the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to thechildren, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I comeand strike the eretz with a curse." (Malachi 4, HNV)Therefore, in anticipation of the coming of Mashiach, when Pesach(Passover) is celebrated, a place at the table is set and a cup ofwine is poured for Eliyah (Elijah), and the door of the house is leftopen so that he may come in to the celebration. It is clear that forcenturies before the birth of Messiah the Jews had been anticipatingthe return of Eliyah during Pesach.The way in which Gavri'el worded his announcement to Zekharyah makesit clear that Yochanan was to be the fulfillment of Mal'akhi'sprophecy: "He will turn many of the children of Yisra'el to the Lord,their God. He will go before his face in the spirit and power ofEliyah, `to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and thedisobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people preparedfor the Lord."Luke 1:56 tells us that Miryam stayed with Elisheva for three months,which would have been up until the time Yochanan was born. We can nowcalculate the date of Yochanan's birth with a great deal of accuracy.• A full term pregnancy term is 41 weeks.• There are 27 weeks in the first six months (two trimesters) ofpregnancy.• There are 27 weeks from the spring service of of Abiyah to Chanukah.• There are 14 weeks remaining to accomplish the last trimester and bringthe pregnancy to full term.• There are exactly 14 weeks from Chanukah to Passover (Nisan 14-22).Therefore, Yochanan was born at Passover, most certainly on the firstday of Unleavened Bread. He was circumcised on the eighth day, whichwould be the last day of Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread. His birththerefore exactly fulfills both Mal'akhi's prophecy and the Jewishexpectation of that fulfillment to occur at Passover.The Birth of YeshuaSo we have established that Yochanan was born at Passover. Giventhis, and knowing Yeshua was conceived in December (Kislev), we cometo the time of His birth. Chanakuh occurs on Kislev 25 (note asimilarity to December 25th, adding weight to the Theory the earlychurch picked Dec. 25 because it was His conception). Adding 9 monthsto Kislev, and you get Tishrei, Succot occurs in the Hebrew month ofTishrei.For the past several hundred years, Gentile Christians have taughtthat poor Mary and Joseph were forced to go to Bethlehem to registerfor their taxes, and that there were so many people trying to registerat the same time that all the motels and hotels were full. It's abeautiful story, but it's simply not true ... it's only a tradition.First of all, when the decree was issued, citizens were given a fullyear during which to register for the census. There was absolutely noreason for thousands of Bethlehemites to have to come to their hometown all at once to register. That being the case, we must ask whyJoseph would bring his wife Mary all the way from Nazareth toBethlehem to register when her pregnancy was so far along.There were three great feasts during the year when the people ofAdonai were expected to make every reasonable effort to attend inJerusalem : Pesach (the feast of unleavened bread and Passover),Shavuot (Pentecost, the feast of harvest), and Sukkot (the feast ofingathering, booths, or tabernacles). ["You shall observe a feast tome three times a year." Exodus 23:14]During these three feasts, the population of "the metropolitanJerusalem area" would swell from about a hundred twenty thousand tosomething over two million people (according to Josephus). Every homein the entire area was open to guests, and of course all the hotelsand motels would have been booked up for months.However, during the feast of Sukkot [Tabernacles or Booths, pronounced"sue-coat"], every family was expected to live at least part of eachday in their tabernacle or booth, called a sukkah, which is atemporary dwelling usually made out of palm and/or bamboo branches, toremind them that for 40 years their ancestors had lived in temporaryshelters in the wilderness on their trek to the Promised Land. Atnight, these sukkot [the plural form of sukkah] were available for theovernight lodging of out-of-towners, and the homeowners would stockthem with food for the travelers. The food was placed on a food-trayattached to the inside wall of the Sukkah to keep it up off the ground.Beit-Lechem ( Bethlehem ) was a small village in the suburbs justabout four miles south of Jerusalem . Miriam and Yoseph had apparentlydecided to register with the census-takers when they came up toJerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. Evidently they had intended tostop over night in Bethlehem , register in the morning, and thenproceed on into Jerusalem for the feast. When they checked the hotelfor available rooms, as there were no vacancies the innkeeper offeredthem shelter in his Sukkah, his Tabernacle, which had been erected andwell-stocked with food for the express purpose of shelteringfeast-keepers. It was not a shelter for animals at all. And when theirBaby was born, they laid Him on the food shelf to keep Him up off thedamp ground. When the (probably agnostic) Gentiles who translated the"King James" Bible got to this passage in Luke's gospel, they had noknowledge of Jewish tradition or of how Sukkot was observed. Thinkingonly in terms of life in Medieval England , they translated the wordfor "food tray" as "manger" and the whole Gentile myth of Yeshua'sbirth in a barn was created out of an ignorant error in translation.We can know for sure that December is wrong for the birth, theSheppard's provide the answer.As to establishing the date for His birth, one thing is very certain …He was certainly not born during the winter. Luke 2:8 tells us: "Therewere shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keepingwatch by night over their flock."The weather in Israel is very similar to that in central California .By December it is quite cold, and the sheep have all been brought intothe fold for the winter. "As is well known, the shepherds in Palestinedo not `abide in the fields' during the winter season. The shepherdsalways bring their flocks in from the mountain slopes and fields notlater than the fifteenth of October!" [Ralph Woodrow, Babylon MysteryReligion. Self-published, 1966, p.160]Since we have already demonstrated that Yeshua was exactly six monthsyounger that Yochanan, it is now easy to establish the time of Hisbirth as mid-Tishrei. The only reason that Beit-Lechem would possiblycrowded in mid-Tishrei would be for Sukkot. The first and last days ofSukkot were "high Shabbats" and travel on those days was forbidden.Therefore Yoseph would have planned their trip to arrive not laterthan a few hours before sunset preceding the first day of Sukkot.According to Luke's account, Yeshua was born that night, on 15 Tishrei.The circumcision of YeshuaTo someone growing up in church, and probably never being taught theculture & History of the "Roots of His Faith", the circumcision mayseem unimportant. But in the culture, and to fulfill the commands ofG-d, this event is critical.The "birth" of a Jewish baby boy was not considered complete until hehad been circumcised on the eighth day. On the eighth day, Yeshua's"presentation" in the Temple included His circumcision according toTorah. Thus we see that the birth of Yeshua HaMashiach spanned theentire eight days of Sukkot, including His birth on the holy Shabbatwhich was the first day of Sukkot and His circumcision on the holyShabbat which was the eighth and final day of Sukkot.The Bread of LifeIf indeed this theory is correct, then it adds even more meaning tothe "Bread of Life" analogy. Scripture says that Succot will becelebrated even by the gentiles, for all time, could the reason bethat it remembers the greatest miracle of all, G-d becoming a mna, anddying for our sins?At His birth he was placed on the food tray in the Sukkah, thusdemonstrating that He is indeed the true Bread of Life (John 6:33-51).God's preparation of the Feast of Sukkot centuries before His birthgives extra significance to Yochanan's comment "The Word became flesh,and lived [literally, "tabernacled"] among us. We saw his glory, suchglory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace andtruth" (John 1:14)."Note that God provided two holy feasts that lasted eight days,Passover/Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles. John theBaptist, the forerunner of Messiah, was born and circumcised in theeight days of the first, then six month later Yeshua, the Messiah, wasborn and circumcised the eight days of the second. John came in thefirst month of the year and Yeshua came in the seventh month. Inministry, John introduced the way through Messiah and then Yeshuaperfected it, even as the first and seventh months signify. …The Feast of Tabernacles is a most important commemoration. Zechariah14:16,17 tells us that one day all nations will be required by law tohonor this feast. For what greater reason, than it is the birthday ofthe King of Kings! Why should we delay?"Source:http://bethhamashiach.com/whenwasYeshuaborn.htm