Whose report will I believe?

 I woke up this morning with a deep burden in my heart.

You see, in the course of business, I've become heavily indebted to several investors. 

The business climate hasn't been too good lately, and I made plenty of errors of judgement largely due to inexperience

Harsh economic conditions have made my investors impatient since the timing I gave them has elapsed. 

These burdens I place in the hands of God daily. It's the only way I've been able to remain sane and peaceful.

Today though, I found myself asking myself whether I preferred to succumb to the depression my mind was pushing me to, or if I would choose to hold on to what God has said about Himself 

I understand that we may all think the Almighty's relations with humans transcend ephemeral issues such as business. 

However, God works in mysterious ways and His purpose will ultimately be fulfilled in spite of the vagaries of human choice

And so I choose to believe the Word of God. What does He say? 

His thoughts are of good and not evil, and will bring us to an expected end.

He says those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength 

He says we should have no fear of being disgraced or ashamed! 

Death of the soul

Matthew 12:43-45  (NIV)

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

The eventual aim of God for His children is to be transformed into the image of His Son. How? This takes place gradually through a subjection of each individual to a lifetime of joy and pain. This process is known as "breaking" (a term familiar with horse breeders).

The problem is that many of us believe just being "broken" is sufficient. Brokenness allows the Spirit of God (activated when we submit ourselves to Christ) to shine through us to the world at large.

But the truth is that God wants none of the remnants of our personality to remain after He is done with transforming us! This is where many will disagree. We still strongly believe our personality is desirable to God. We still speak of  our soul's salvation in terms that reveal we abhor its complete death.

Jesus clearly spoke of the inevitability of loss before gain (and vice versa). He said, whoever sought to lose their life would save it, and whoever tried to save their life would lose it!

He even demonstrated it with His own life! He died. And He was raised up on the third day.

If Jesus did not die, we could not have been set free from bondage to death. If our souls do not die, we cannot fully express the Son of God resident as the Life within us!

Exodus 23:30 NLT

Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.

Moses

Moses has been on my mind of recent.

Moses was born literally into Egyptian royalty, and raised in its finest traditions and learning.

And,  regaled by his mother on what Joseph had prophesied concerning Israel's exodus (Genesis 50:24), Moses figured out that he probably was the one that would lead the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt.

He knew the Israelites far outnumbered the Egyptians, and so after a while he tried to "speed up" Joseph's prophecy by fomenting a rebellion.

The plot backfired spectacularly and Moses was forced to flee Egypt.

All his privileges and the strategic advantage of being a royal insider was lost. Moses' family must have blamed him. Moses would probably have blamed himself. Probably he would have felt his strategy was wrong. And so his people would be confined to several more generations of slavery, he must have thought.

Another 40 years of drudgery passed by in which time Moses had gotten married and had children.

But that scientific mind, honed by Egyptian schooling was not quenched. He saw a strange unscientific occurrence from afar. Having observed for a while, he decided to move closer.

And so, in this most unlikely of situations (at the age of 80), he was officially commissioned to go and lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

This was a different Moses though. He was no longer young and headstrong. An abundance of caution and experience had been added to his privileged upbringing.

This almighty God was not even suggesting a strategic military plan. As far as Moses could tell, he was being asked to go and talk the Egyptians into letting the Israelites go! Talk!!!

Well, talk and a bit of persuasion (such as the 10 plagues) did the trick, and the Israelites were out of Egypt in a jiffy.

Now this was the beginning of Moses the scientist's problems. He never really shed that analytical mind of his.

The years of exodus, in which God performed so many miracles through Moses, he still thought and acted like a scientist. Through it all he grew to know God so well.

Perhaps too well.

Numbers 13:17-20 (NIV) When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.
What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified?
How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)

This was Moses' scientific mind at work again. God had only asked him to send men to explore the land, but here was Moses defining parameters that would make them look away from God's awesomeness, and at the impossible task ahead of them.

Moses was asking the men to analyze the possibility of their possessing the land that God had promised Israel!

Again, God asked Moses to speak to the rock at Meribah, so that water could gush out to quench the Israelites thirst. Ever scientific, Moses decided to strike it (in repetition of how he had struck it earlier and water had gushed out). This time he struck it twice.

Moses had started to believe he was actually the one responsible for the welfare of the people!

He was punished for this. He and Aaron never had the opportunity to lead the Israelites into Canaan.

They both died in the wilderness.

The Word of God (part 2)

Why did Jesus speak in parables?

Mark 4 :12 NLT

"so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: 'When they see what I do, they will learn nothing. When they hear what I say, they will not understand. Otherwise, they will turn to me and be forgiven.'"

Dear brethren, God has a plan for the entire existence, which has been put into motion from the very beginning. A  big part of that plan is the reconciliation of mankind to Himself through His "Son". I say "Son" because this very term has confused many.

The entire mystery boils down to the identity of the person being referred to as the "Son" of God.

From the earliest recorded portions of scripture, there have always been attempts by men to rewrite history.

Adam denied responsibility for the disobedience in Eden. Cain denied knowledge of his brother's whereabouts. Without an alternative witness, they could have distorted the facts of what happened in more favorable light to themselves.

In the old testament, many details seem to be absent. Many other nuggets of information have been obfuscated.

By who?

When the prophets spoke, it was often in confusing prose. Why? Was it more diabolical obfuscation, or like Christ said above, an attempt to shield the truth from unwanted eyes?

We know the Scriptures have been severally manipulated, with books being added and omitted to serve unclear purposes, and which have purported to render its validity suspect.

However, for some reason, a key theme has not been removed. That there is a Creator of all things, and that He is Love. Also still present in the scriptures is the enduring desire to reconcile mankind to Himself.

Hebrews 1:1-2 New Living Translation (NLT)

"Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe."

The most confusing portions of the modern Bible are those books which the prophets wrote, or the Words of Christ Himself. This is deliberate. You cannot distort what you do not understand.

All sorts of messages abound in the Bible. Several paths to death are there, as well as the path to Life .

However the pathway to Life can only be illuminated by the Spirit of Life himself. Christ's representative who has been mandated to guide us into all truth. Merely reading the scripture without illumination by the Holy Spirit can never lead to Truth. Part of the reason is because so much revision has taken place!

However, because Christ who was crucified has risen, because He is alive, He is able to lead us away from lies to the truth.

Christ the Son of God, is also the Word of God. The Scriptures are nothing but a static text.  But the Word of God is alive. Only He can guide us to truth!

Overcoming the world

1 John 5:1, 4-5, 11-12 New International Version (NIV)

1."Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father LOVES his child as well.

4-5 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."

Dear brethren,  the reality of Christ is fixed. We can't change it. Our own position in  relation to that reality is what crucially relies on what we believe.

Belief in Christ (through God-given faith), must morph into the reality of overcoming the world, through physical manifestation in 3 crucial steps.

Christ Himself overcame the world. And His victory was made manifest through those same 3 crucial witnesses. (1 John 5:7)

1. Water (indicating Baptism)  - a public declaration for Christ

2. Blood (indicating sacrifice) - by dedicating our lives to God's will and purpose, often directly in conflict with our personal dreams, hopes and desires. Submitting to God. This is actual because it is this process that brings about the true change in us.   Therefore our belief and declaration are confirmed in our sacrifice of ourselves for Christ's purpose.

1 John 3:16 New International Version
"This is how we know what LOVE is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

3. The Spirit -  He is the one who brings everything to pass. He reveals Christ to us, He convinces us to declare openly for Christ, and He transforms our sacrifice into a fulfilment of God's purpose and plan.

John 15:13 New International Version

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Brethren, sacrifice is bloody. If it doesn't hurt, sometimes to death, its probably not a sacrifice.

Selah

The nature of God

Hebrews 1:3 Aramaic Bible in Plain English

"For he is The Brilliance of his glory, The Image of his Being, and upholds all things by the power of his word; and he in his Essential Being has accomplished the purification of our sins, and he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Brethren, the key to your victory is the understanding of who God is. When God reveals Himself to us in His complete form,  then our victory is complete.

*The puzzle of the ages, the Son. Also known as God's Word. There from the beginning. The vehicle through which God has taken all action. The manifest expression of God. God is a spirit. You cannot identify Him, . . . except He speaks. That Word that God speaks, is what purified us from sin. That Word is Christ. This isn't about physical procreation. You cannot separate God from His Word. They have always been.

*An even bigger puzzle, the Holy Spirit. The Power of God's Word. When God speaks, His Word comes with executive Power. This Power is the Holy Spirit.

So you see God, His Word, and the Power that accomplishes God's Word are inseparable. They are one.

Selah

True Worship

Romans 12:1 New American Standard Bible

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

John 4:23 King James Bible

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

Romans 8:19 New International Version

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

Dear brethren, what is worship? Is it the 30 minutes of singing and adulation we participate in once or twice weekly? Is it lifting up "holy hands" with eyes shut and singing along while the choir renders soul stirring music accompanied by virtuoso instruments? We may consider it worship, but is it acceptable to God?

Worship is a way of life. It is how we wake up and how we sleep. It is how we eat and how we work. How we react to situations and where our focus is directed during every action we take. Worship is inseparably associated with sacrifice. A conscious effort to deprive ourselves of gratification, in order to please our creator. Worship is costly.

Worship stems from revelation. An understanding of who God is (what He reveals about Himself), will enable us offer a more perfect worship acceptable to Him.

If we truly worshipped our God in spirit and truth, this country would not be in the state it is today.

Let us remember that true worship is an offering (in fact it is the only offering) that God desires. In other words He can choose to accept our worship or reject it. Remember God is the King above all kings. He cannot accept what is given from an imperfect heart.

If we consciously offer our best to human kings; the best of our products, the best of our service, the best of our time, the best of our behaviour; how much more the everlasting King of glory who never slumbers nor sleeps! He sees our motives, our desires, our hearts! At all times he is surrounded by multitudes of authorities offering the best of worship.

What kind of worship are we offering today? Remember God reserves the right to accept or reject our worship like He accepted Abel, but rejected Cain.