Heb 12:12-17  "Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears."


There are some clear distinctions between drooping and lifting up, weakness and strength, bitterness and peacefulness, unholiness and holiness, being put out of joint and being healed, being rejected and obtaining the grace of God.
This is a ominous and earnest warning to us. We often hunger to hear of the love of God in terms of acceptance, yet in the Absolute nature of our awesome God we must know that love includes justice and judgment. There is a window now for all of our weaknesses to be strengthened, all of our drooping be lifted, that grace be obtained and the path to holiness be revealed. 
This warning must not go unheeded, don't go past the place of being able to turn to Him. He is Absolute Love.   You come to the same place, the same God that met Moses on the mountain.

Heb 12:18-21  "For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned." Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear." 


If you really understood the one who you have come to for grace, mercy and forgiveness you would come in trembling and humility. Jesus blood cries out to God as He sits at His Father's right hand, much more than Abel's blood crying out from the ground. Don't think you will escape God's judgment if you reject Jesus!


Heb 12:22-24  "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering," and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven." 


This is the time of the ultimate shake up. It is underway. We will either remain or be removed! It is inaugurated by His death and will be consummated by His return!


Hag 2:6,7  "For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.  And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts." 

Mat 27:45-54  "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah."  And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.  But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him."  And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.  And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.  The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,  and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.  When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" 

There is no level of gratitude, service or worship that can reach or go beyond the level of His power and sacrifice. He is Absolute Love. Let His love consume all that is rebellious and unloving in me. 

Heb 12:26-29  "At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."  This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of things that are shaken--that is, things that have been made--in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." 

Heb 12:3  "Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." 

Isa 53:2-11  "For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities." 

The call of God is a call to likeness of Jesus Christ, Isa Al Masih, Yeshua Messiah, in His struggle against sin, mine not His, He shed His blood on my behalf. He is Absolute Love.

Heb 12:4  "In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." 

It is always a struggle to go the distance. If you are going to win the prize and share in the glory you have to endure the discipline of training. If the coach was ignoring you you wouldn't be one of the players, you wouldn't be in the race or part of the game. 

Heb 12:5, 6  "And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." 

As it is this struggle, this discipline, this suffering legitimizes that you are God's child. All is working together for good, in order that we might share in the holiness. So don't act as though you are being punished, or waste time complaining about how difficult the training is, this is for your spiritual health. It is so you won't fall down or suffer a debilitating injury. You gain the prize of God's loving presence without becoming like His Son, Jesus. 
Don't despair He is accomplishing all of this in you by His mercy, grace and Absolute Love.

Heb 12:7-14  "It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." "Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed."  "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." 

Rom 8:26-32  "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? "
While training learn how to work hard and rest in the strength of God all at the same time!

Php 2:12, 13  "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." 

 

Heb 11:37, 38  "They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated--of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." 

There is a choice here and it is either difficult or easy depending on your reference point. Is the reference point temporal or eternal? 
If temporal then the intention of the heart will be on instant or near term gratification. If eternal then ultimate absolute everlasting satisfaction. The choice is a stark contrast between insatiability and never really finding what you are looking for, then to everlasting burning inside that is never quenched; on the flip side an eternal sense of fulfillment through the fruit of faith. 
That is being on the one hand unworthy of acceptance by God and the fruits of the His Spirit being poured out and on the other hand unworthy of this world which is passing away. All is hinged on faith. God is worthy of praise and glory, we share in that worthiness by faith, not from ourselves it is a gift of grace.
Gal 5:19-23  "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." 


Heb 11:39, 40  "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." 

If your going to run in the race of faith, you have to lay aside temporal gratification of the flesh, if you want to run a marathon you can't stop long for the refreshments handed out along the way, and you sure can't haul a bucket of refreshments along. You can't win the race taking extra provisions even if they are normally acceptable items. 
Jesus is the supreme example of self denial. 
We can't insist on claiming rights, willing faithful servants don't claim rights they serve the master from whom they receive all things.
Php 2:5-8 "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." 

 

Heb 12:1,2  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Php 2:9-11  "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

 

There is a great reward on the other side so let go of all that rusts and withers and grasp on to what will not be taken away and cannot be destroyed. 


Mat 6:19 - 21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." 

Keep your eye on the goal so weariness and fatigue don't overwhelm. The sinful desires are a lifelong battle.  Jesus is the goal, He is the Absolute Love. 

Heb 12:3, 4  "Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." 

Heb 11:32-38  "And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets--who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,  quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.  Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.  Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated--  of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." 

Faith is not simple belief, it is a reaching for a great reward, that is beyond earning, yet has a great cost! It is not easily gained, because it was not cheaply attained on our behalf!


"Cheap grace is that grace which we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord’s Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ. Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field, for the sake of which people go and sell with joy everything they have.[5] [31]It is the costly pearl, for whose price the merchant sells all that he has;[6] it is Christ’s sovereignty, for the sake of which you tear out an eye if it causes you to stumble.[7] It is the call of Jesus Christ which causes a disciple to leave his nets and follow him.[8] Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which has to be asked for, the door at which one has to knock. 9] It is costly, because it calls todiscipleship; it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace, because it thereby makes them live. It is costly, because it condemns sin; it is grace, because it justifies the sinner. Above all, grace is costly, because it was costly to God, because it costs God the life of God’s Son—“you were bought with a price”[10]—and because nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God. Above all, it is grace because the life of God’s Son was not too costly for God to give in order to make us live. God did, indeed, give him up for us. Costly grace is the incarnation of God. Costly grace is grace as God’s holy treasure which must be protected from the world and which must not be thrown to the dogs.[11] Thus, it is grace as living word, word of God, which God speaks as God pleases. It comes to us as a gracious call to follow Jesus; it comes as a forgiving word to the fearful spirit and the broken heart.[12] Grace is costly, because it forces people under the yoke of following Jesus Christ; it is grace when Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”[13] 

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich (2003-04-15). Discipleship: DBW 4 (pp. 44-46). Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition.

Don't spurn the hard road of "the faith that leads to obedience".  Don't mock those who have been so faithful in their suffering. Their faithfulness proves that the promise s definite and awaiting final perfection by grace through faith. He is Absolute Love. 

Heb 11:39  "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." 

Heb 11:31  "By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies."

Does God really have grace on sinful people? 

Rom 3:23  "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

I am talking about really bad people adulterers?

 Mat 5:27  "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." 

Murderers? 


Mat 5:21,22  "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.'  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.
Yes, no matter what God's grace reaches down to redeem and cleanse. He is Absolute Love.


Rom 3:20  "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law."

Faith in God, that He is Absolute Love. That His arms are open wide and that He is able to save. Cry out to God in faith and He will eagerly and gladly receive you by grace through faith.

 Jos 2:1-21  "And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. And it was told to the king of Jericho, "Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land."  Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land."  But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, "True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.   And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them." But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof.  So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out. Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof  and said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death." And the men said to her, "Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the LORD gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you." Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall.  And she said to them, "Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way."  The men said to her, "We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear.  Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father's household.  Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.  But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear." And she said, "According to your words, so be it." Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window."


Jos 6:22-25  "But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her." So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho."

Unrighteousness comes from lacking faith, by faith we are washed, justified, sanctified and by the Holy Spirit led to the likeness of Jesus Christ. He is Absolute Love. 

 1Co 6:9-11  "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 

 

#Love #Agape

"How difficult it is to receive, and to go on receiving, from others a love that does not depend on our own attraction can be seen from an extreme case. Suppose yourself a man struck down shortly after marriage by an incurable disease which may not kill you for many years; useless, impotent, hideous, disgusting; dependent on your wife's earnings; impoverishing where you hoped to enrich; impaired even in intellect and shaken by gusts of uncontrollable temper, full of unavoidable demands. And suppose your wife's care and pity to be inexhaustible. The man who can take this sweetly, who can receive all and give nothing without resentment, who can abstain even from those tiresome self-depreciations which are really only a demand for petting and reassurance, is doing something which Need-love in its merely natural condition could not attain. (No doubt such a wife will also be doing something beyond the reach of a natural Gift-love, but that is not the point at present.) In such a case to receive is harder and perhaps more blessed than to give. But what the extreme example illustrates is universal. We are all receiving Charity. There is something in each of us that cannot be naturally loved. It is no one's fault if they do not so love it. Only the lovable can be naturally loved. You might as well ask people to like the taste of rotten bread or the sound of a mechanical drill. We can be forgiven, and pitied, and loved in spite of it, with Charity; no other way. All who have good parents, wives, husbands, or children, may be sure that at some times—and perhaps at all times in respect of some one particular trait or habit—they are receiving Charity, are loved not because they are lovable but because Love Himself is in those who love them. Thus God, admitted to the human heart, transforms not only Gift-love but Need-love; not only our Need-love of Him, but our Need-love of one another. This is of course not the only thing that can happen. He may come on what seems to us a more dreadful mission and demand that a natural love be totally renounced. A high and terrible vocation, like Abraham's, may constrain a man to turn his back on his own people and his father's house. Eros, directed to a forbidden object, may have to be sacrificed. In such instances, the process, though hard to endure, is easy to understand. What we are more likely to overlook is the necessity for a transformation even when the natural love is allowed to continue. In such a case the Divine Love does not substitute itself for the natural—as if we had to throw away our silver to make room for the gold. The natural loves are summoned to become modes of Charity while also remaining the natural loves they were. One sees here at once a sort of echo or rhyme or corollary to the Incarnation itself. And this need not surprise us, for the Author of both is the same. As Christ is perfect God and perfect Man, the natural loves are called to become perfect Charity and also perfect natural loves. As God becomes Man "Not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God," so here; Charity does not dwindle into merely natural love but natural love is taken up into, made the tuned and obedient instrument of, Love Himself."

Lewis, C.S. (1971-09-29). The Four Loves (Harvest Book) (pp. 132-134). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

Blogs to resume Monday 

#Agape #Love

"The humblest of us, in a state of Grace, can have some "knowledge-by-acquaintance" (connaître), some "tasting," of Love Himself; but man even at his highest sanctity and intelligence has no direct "knowledge about" (savoir) the ultimate Being—only analogies. We cannot see light, though by light we can see things. Statements about God are extrapolations from the knowledge of other things which the divine illumination enables us to know. I labour these deprecations because, in what follows, my efforts to be clear (and not intolerably lengthy) may suggest a confidence which I by no means feel. I should be mad if I did. Take it as one man's reverie, almost one man's myth.If anything in it is useful to you, use it; if anything is not, never give it a second thought. God is love. Again, "Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us" (i John IV, 10). We must not begin with mysticism, with the creature's love for God, or with the wonderful foretastes of the fruition of God vouchsafed to some in their earthly life. We begin at the real beginning, with love as the Divine energy. This primal love is Gift-love. In God there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give. The doctrine that God was under no necessity to create is not a piece of dry scholastic speculation. It is essential. Without it we can hardly avoid the conception of what I can only call a "managerial" God; a Being whose function or nature is to "run" the universe, who stands to it as a head-master to a school or a hotelier to a hotel. But to be sovereign of the universe is no great matter to God. In Himself, at home in "the land of the Trinity," he is Sovereign of a far greater realm. We must keep always before our eyes that vision of Lady Julian's in which God carried in His hand a little object like a nut, and that nut was "all that is made." God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing—or should we say "seeing"? there are no tenses in God—the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath's sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a "host" who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and "take advantage of" Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves."

Lewis, C.S. (1971-09-29). The Four Loves (Harvest Book) (pp. 126-127). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

Blogs to return Monday

Heb 11:30  "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days."

Faith that has come from the hand and command of God is a terrifying thing for those who don't believe and obey!


Jos 5:1  "As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel."

Faith must always remember that the battles of life belong to the Lord. That He is all and in all. He is Absolute Love. Worship and bow down in reverence and respect. 

 Jos 5:10-15  "While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.  And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our adversaries?"  And he said, "No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, "What does my lord say to his servant?"  And the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so."

Faith is often given tasks that don't really make sense according to physical laws and human reason. God will get the glory don't claim the victory for yourself, glorify Him in the deliverance and triumph.
Jos 6:1-17  "Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days.  Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.  And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him." So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD."  And he said to the people, "Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the LORD." And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them.  The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the people, "You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout." So he caused the ark of the LORD to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days. On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout, for the LORD has given you the city. And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction." 

Yet grace still shines through in the wrath of God against sin and those who do evil. Those who act in obedience and faith receive the mercy and grace of God. He is Absolute Love. More of this story in Monday's Blog!

Jos 6:17 "Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent." 

#marriage #obama #samesex Love is not sex, and having sex is not marriage!

Get the Book! From the Introduction to my book ABSOLUTE LOVE  Published by Westbow Press.

"Love is not sentimentality, not weak capitulation to others, not passive acceptance of all things, and certainly not sexual intercourse. Love is humility, belief, trust, acceptance, confidence, gratitude, compassion, freedom, stewardship, servanthood, loyalty, purity, justice, rest, and determination. Love is the overflowing character of the only absolute in the universe. It flows throughout the One who is love and establishes everything.

Humility is the characteristic of believing that gives us the ability to admit our needs, weaknesses, and limitations so that we can submit to the power of God in our life and receive our strength from Him and through others. It is not powerlessness; it knows where the power comes from. Humility is the beginning of faith that love works in us as we look outside of ourselves to I AM. Humility involves being able to give to others but also to receive from others as we keep our eyes fixed on I AM and thereby become more like Him in love. The key characteristic of humility is mercifulness. The loss of humility brings about rebelliousness.

Belief is an overwhelming sense of hope based on understanding of past actions and in the fulfillment of future promises that gives encouragement so that we can be enthusiastic and self-stretching, in order that we might grow through developing (God-given) potential. The key characteristic of belief is hopefulness. The loss of belief brings about despair.

Trust is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us the ability to be open and share who we are and what we have been given so that we can be catalysts in the development of openness and candor in others. The key characteristic of trust is openness. The loss of trust brings about suspiciousness.

Acceptance is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us the ability to forgive ourselves and others so that healing and understanding can take place. The key characteristic of acceptance is forgiveness. The loss of acceptance brings about a judgmental nature.

 Confidence is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us assurance of our being accepted and gives us the ability to look past self-promotion to the promotion of others so that their confidence is built up. The key characteristic of confidence is assuredness or certainty. The loss of confidence brings about inconsistency.

Gratitude is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us the ability to look at all good things as gifts from God and causes us to give in return so the gifts can be shared by all. The key characteristic of gratitude is thankfulness. The loss of gratitude brings about an expecting nature: ungratefulness.

Compassion is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us the ability to be gracious (giving undeserved favor) and merciful (not demanding retribution) so that we might live in a way that will be most beneficial to ourselves and others and glorify God. The key characteristic of compassion is graciousness. The loss of compassion brings about degradation, the using of others.

Freedom is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us the ability to set aside personal desires and postpone pleasure (i.e., physical and emotional gratification), in order that we are liberated to find complete satisfaction in God and be separated from enslaving entanglements. The key characteristic of freedom is purposefulness. The loss of freedom brings about insatiability, the inability to be satisfied.

Stewardship is the characteristic of believing that gives us the ability to be inter-connected with each other in a truly loving manner. We do not lose any integral parts of ourselves or disintegrate into another person, yet we value and need each other’s gifts and uniqueness for the full use and completion of our own giftedness. The key characteristic of stewardship is carefulness. The loss of stewardship brings about codependence, an inability to be helpful.

Servanthood is the characteristic of believing that gives us the ability to worship in everything that we do by looking to God to fill us and overflow through us into the lives of others for thoughtful attentiveness to God’s desires for them. The key characteristic of servanthood is submissiveness or interdependence. The loss of servanthood brings about an uncaring attitude, inattentiveness.

Loyalty is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us the ability to remain true or faithful to I AM, ourselves, and others so that we are not pushed or led along by demands other than God’s. The key characteristic of loyalty is faithfulness. The loss of loyalty brings about inconsistency.

Purity is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us the ability to be unmixed in our allegiance toward God so that we won’t be driven by any other purpose than to love, glorify, and enjoy God to the ultimate benefit, enjoyment, and fulfillment of ourselves and others. The key characteristic of purity is objectiveness (integrity, congruence). The loss of purity brings about confusion.

Justice is the characteristic outgrowth of believing that gives us the ability to act rightly on behalf of God so that despots (those who want to control, oppress, and use others for personal gain) are not allowed to triumph and the defenseless are defended. The key characteristic of justice is righteousness. The loss of justice brings about either apathy or being overbearing (despotism).

Rest is the characteristic of believing that gives us the ability to see past obstacles to our own well-being and the well-being of others so that we can peacefully work to overcome those obstacles and overthrow those who are setting them up. The key characteristic of rest is peacefulness. The loss of rest brings about anxiety, panic.

Determination is the characteristic of believing that gives us the ability to persist until that which has been started is completed. The key characteristic of determination is steadfastness, completion. The loss of determination brings about an inability to follow through, indecision." 

http://www.amazon.com/Absolute-Love-R-I-Willroth/dp/1449718396

Heb 11:23  "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict."

 What you do if someone was seeking to kill your newborn baby? Would you value life more than obedience? Would faith or fear win out? 
Even when it is dangerous or seems inescapable, faith looks towards God and is rewarded. He is Absolute Love.

Exo 1:22 - 2:10 "Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live." Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.  When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."  Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, "Because," she said, "I drew him out of the water." 

Faith makes difficult choices, to stand with others in oppression, to defend the weak, lonely, unwanted, and the outcast! Faith looks to mercy, justice and the power of God. The purpose is to glorify the character of God. He is Absolute Love. 

Heb 11:24-26  "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,  choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 


Exo 2:23 - 3:10  "During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel--and God knew. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned." When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."  And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.  Then the LORD said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,  and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." 

 

Faith will allow you to seek something greater that yourself though you do not know entirely what that something is, and you cannot see the path you take in getting there. Though unseen you believe and obey! 

Heb 11:27  "By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible."
Exo 12:21-36  "Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.  For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.  And when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?'  you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.  Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, "Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as you have said.  Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!"  The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, "We shall all be dead." So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.  The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians." 

 

Heb 11:28,29  "By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them." "By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned." 

Faith keeps moving forward, with dangers all around and fear behind, faith is persistent and perseveres. Faith is determined to hold on to the Absolute Love of God, for God's Absolute Love holds on to the person who has received the gift of faith. 

Heb 11:20  "By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau." 


Faith sees and believes in the promised future. Yet God holds that future in His hands and often times through His perfect timing and intention things don't turn out according to the plans of man. 



Gen 25:21-26  "And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.  The children struggled together within her, and she said, "If it is thus, why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger." When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them." 

Heb 11:21  "By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff."


Even in death faith looks forward to bless and to become blessed.  



Gen 48:21-49:2  "Then Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers." Then Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. "Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to your father Israel"


  Gen 49:28-33 "All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.  Then he commanded them and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah--  the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites." When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people." 



Heb 11:22  By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. 


And at the end of life faith looks to be carried into the promise of God. Wrongs done against us forgiven in faith, and we are fully forgiven, at peace in the grace of God. He is Absolute Love. 

Gen 50:19-26  "But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years.  And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here."  So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt."

Heb 11:8  "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going." 


Gen 12:1-3  "Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 

Those of faith realize they are not at home without God, they will go wherever He reveals His presence will remain with them. This is true even at age 75, Abram living all this time set forth on the journey of seeking God's presence. Chosen, called and given the faith to bless all the earth through the gift of God's grace. God is Absolute Love.

Heb 11:9,10  By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 

One knows from faith that you will not find the home you seek without God designing and building your life's purpose. We continue to seek until we find our place in the purpose of God. Even when it seems outside of the realm of nature. Is it impossible in our frailty and weakness, then God will be fully glorified in bringing it about. 

Heb 11:11,12  "By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.  Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore." 

All of us finally realize sooner or later that what we seek is not here on earth. God has made a place in His presence where we can realize all of who we are in reality. Who we were created to be. The image bearers, imitators of God's Son in perfect love. 


Joh 14:2,3  "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."

 Joh 18:36, 37  "Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." 

 

Heb 11:13-16  "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city." 

Faith leads you to do things in obedience that are completely contrary to human wisdom, that are impossibly difficult, knowing that it is the one giving the command you trust. By Faith you act believe in His loving character, in His gracious provision, in His life giving power. He is the source, the sustain-er, the very life in you. All is His and you must give all. He is Absolute Love. 


Heb 11:17-19  "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back" 

2Co 4:7 -16 "But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;  always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." 

By God's Word alone, by faith alone, through grace alone, in Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solo Christos, Soli Deo Gloria

Heb 11:7  "By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith."

Noah is an example of faith that leads to obedience. Noah is an example of the faithfulness of God. The promise of the curse is to be lifted coming not through the will of man, it is from the promise and faithfulness of God. He is Absolute Love.

 Gen 5:28,29  "When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, "Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands." 
Joh 1:12,13  "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." 

The favor of God was granted to Noah, the favor of God was a gift. All were guilty, evil and evil intentions and thoughts were continuous. Yet Noah was given grace. 
Gen 6:5-8  "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them."  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD." 

Grace was received through faith. Noah believed God would destroy mankind. Noah saw the evil and wickedness of man. Noah by faith spent years and years building a large boat and gathering the animals. Believing God, Noah was humbly obedient. Have you endured for a long time, waiting on God?  No one now knows what it is to wait on the Lord for six hundred years. . 

Gen Gen 7:5,6  "And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth." 

We are the instant gratification generation. 


Isa 30:18  "Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him." 

Isa 40:28-31  "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;  but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." 

Isa 64:4  "From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him." 

 

"So why, when we constantly offend Him and are so unlovable and unloving, does God persist in loving us? In my childhood, doing something offensive resulted in punishment, not love. Whether we admit it or not, every one of us has offended God at some point. Jesus affirmed this when He said, "No one is good-except God alone" (Luke 18:19). So why does God still love us, despite us? I do not have an answer to this question. But Ido know that if God's mercy didn't exist, there would be no hope. No matter how good we tried to be, we would be punished because of our sins. Many people look at their lives and weigh their sins against their good deeds. But Isaiah 64:6 says, "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags." Our good deeds can never outweigh our sins."The literal interpretation of "filthy rags" in this verse is "menstrual garments" (think used tampons ... and if you're disgusted by that idea, you get Isaiah's point). It's hard toimagine something more disgusting that we could brag about or put on display. But compared to God's perfect holiness, that's how our good deeds appear. God's mercy is a free, yet costly, gift. It cannot be earned. Our righteous acts, just like menstrual garments, certainly don't help us deserve it. The wages of sin will always be death. But because of God's mercy, sin is paid for through the death of Jesus Christ, instead of the death of you and me."
Francis Chan. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (Kindle Locations 386-394). Kindle Edition.

Blogs to return Monday

"Over time I realized that when we love God, we naturally run to Him-frequently and zealously. Jesus didn't command that we have a regular time with Him each day. Rather, He tells us to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." He called this the "first and greatest commandment" (Matt. 22:37-38). The results are intimate prayer and study of His Word. Our motivation changes from guilt to love. This is how God longs for us to respond to His extravagant, unending love: not with a cursory "quiet time" plagued by guilt, but with true love expressed through our lives."
Francis Chan. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (Kindle Locations 358-359). Kindle Edition.

Blogs to Return Monday

Heb 10:39  "But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." 

If you didn't have faith in the chair you were about to sit down in, you would stay standing. If you don't have faith in the Love of God you would shrink back when He calls your name. If you didn't have faith in the sacrificial substitution for your sins, by Jesus Christ. You would continually be trying to pay a debt you cannot repay. If you didn't believe in the righteous purity of the justness of God, you would continue to defy His law and flaunt your rebellion in the face of grace. 
Heb 11:1  "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." 

Faith changes your perspective but not only that your mind, your heart, your actions are all changed by faith. Faith is sure and steady, faith looks to what it hopes for and begins to grasp it. Faith is an unshakable conviction of having what has not yet appeared. 
This is the way that people before the coming of Christ, now share in His finished work of redemption. They are saved because they believed and it changed their walk in life. 

Heb 11:2  "For by it the people of old received their commendation." 

There is no way to even understand the how, what and why of creation without faith that God spoke and it came into being. God's power is the creating and sustaining force of all that is seen and all that is yet unseen.

Heb 11:3  By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 

Faith caused Abel's sacrifice to be acceptable to God and give him peace. Abel's faith was a faith that resulted in obedience. Unbelief manifested in envy made Cain act unfaithfully toward God and do evil in murdering his brother. 

Heb 11:4  "By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks." 

Faith is so powerful it allowed Enoch to go to the presence of God without suffering the punishment, the sentence garnered by unfaithful rebellion in the form of physical death. 

Heb 11:5  "By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God." 

Faith please God, you can't come close or enter His presence without belief, trust and obedience faith. If you do have faith and you seek Him with all your heart you will find great and unimaginable reward. 

Heb 11:6  "And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." 

Heb 10:12-18  "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.  And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."  Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin."

There is no longer any offering needed, enter empty handed. You are welcome just as you are. Be confident in the perfect, absolute love of God in Jesus Christ. 


1Jn 4:15-19  "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us."


There is no fear in loving obedience. In living in the Love of Christ. 

Heb 10:19-22  "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

Then, where does the fear of God come in, what would make standing before God fearful? If it all was a sham. Your life bears no likeness of the love of God. You openly deny the love of God in your life. 


1Jn 2:22-29  "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.  Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us--eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.  But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie--just as it has taught you, abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. "


Heb 10:23-31  "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.  How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 

If you love someone, are by grace through faith living in the Love of God, your life will look different than it did.


1Co 13:4-8  "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends." 
Heb 10:32-34  "But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one." 

So don't throw away you confidence by setting your affection on anyone else, anything else besides God. You cannot even love others, in any ultimate sense of the meaning of love, without letting the love of God inform your hearts and minds in love. He is Absolute Love.


Rom 12:1,2  "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." 

Heb 10:35-39  "Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."  But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls."

Your faithfulness and perseverance will reap great rewards. The reward of the presence of God forever and ever. 

Rev 3:5  "The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels." 

Rev 3:12  "The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name."


Rev 3:21  "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne."

Heb 9:27-10:1  "And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near."


All of us face it after death, judgment. The only way to pass, be given an acquittal is by drawing near now to Christ. In that drawing near, you will be given a desire, an eagerness for His coming. A welcoming peace about God's judgment. He is Absolute Love.
As Jesus found His life in doing the will of the Father, we become more like Jesus in drawing close to Him. This is the way to holiness, to sanctification. Our holiness before God is by faith in Jesus, just as our justification is by grace through faith. All of grace, all a gift. 


Heb 10:2-10  "Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.  For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.  Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.  Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'" When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.  And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."


So all is finished, Jesus has completed the task, the war is won but not all have surrendered. 


Heb 10:11-14  "And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."


There is nothing more to be done, our sin is remembered no longer! This is the testimony of hearts taken over by the Holy Spirit. Is the Spirit bearing witness to your heart and mind? 


Heb 10:15-18  "And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin."

Heb 9:11,12  "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." 

Christ is a high priest of things that have already come to us by His sacrificial love, but not things of this world, not of this creation, He is making all things new. He has brought unimaginable peace to us who believe, even in the midst of this sin sick world that is passing away. Perfect reconciliation with God and access into the presence through the inter-mediation of Christ Jesus. The power of the Spirit of God has come into our hearts and minds, guiding us to righteousness and leading us away from the sinfulness we once embraced. This all is secured eternally by the sacrifice of Jesus, Isa, Yeshua. He is Yahweh. He is the Absolute Love.

Heb 9:13,14  "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." 

You know that the former sacrificial system was only pointing to this eternal reality. The former sacrifices were for forgiveness and acceptance. The sacrifice of Christ is once for all for complete purification, being made dead to sin, and the never ending tread mill of trying to work to be accepted, that is futility. A living hell. Now we are alive the the life giving power and joy of God. 

Heb 9:15-22  "Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.  Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.  For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you." And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." 

In all this it is clear that something more than physical sacrifice is needed, the heavens require perfection of a spiritual nature. So Christ was not only the perfect man, sinless in everything, He was the perfection of God, the very nature of God, the perfect image of God. He by His sacrifice could bring forgiveness of sin into the very presence of God. Satisfying both justice and mercy, offering the means for forgiveness in the form of grace. He is Absolute Love. 

Heb 9:23,24  "Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." 

Jesus doesn't have to do this over and over again, but sins past, present and future are encompassed in His single act of coming, living a perfectly sinless life, being punished and killed for sins-(only the perfect eternal Jesus could effect an perfectly eternal punishment on our behalf)-then overcoming death through being raised to life-eternally making intercession now, fully glorified together with the Father. 
That is not the end though, He is returning to bring us into that new creation- not of this creation- perfect place where the presence of God will be forever with us. This is the essence of heaven. Joy unspeakable, in the presence of the Absolute Love. 
There is only one condition to be there!
Are you eagerly waiting for him? Do you desire His presence? Is He the Absolute Love of your life?

Heb 9:25-28  "Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.  And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." 

His arms are open wide!

Heb 7:25,26  "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.  For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens."