Choice not attraction

Love...

is...a...choice.

Love goes far beyond feelings, yet people have made it all about feelings.  We went from learning to choose to love, to finding attraction to someone - love.  When we are attracted to someone for many various reasons we call that love versus being matched to someone and choosing to love them.  People who call attraction love miss the meaning of love because attraction can fade away, sometimes quickly other times slowly.  When we base our love on attraction we run into the dilemma of finding a lot of others attractive because we find the same traits in various people.  If you're prone to finding a blonde person attractive you may see several blonde people attractive to you. If you find blue eyes attractive the same thing and so on.  It's NOT that we can stop from finding various attributes and traits attractive, but we can stop calling that love.  We can choose to recognize that love is something MUCH more than the attractions we feel towards others.

Love is a choice, truly it is. We make the choice believe in God. We make a choice to care for one another. We make a choice to forgive others. We make these choices, so many choices and they are made daily, hourly, minutely and often without our truly paying attention to the majority of them. Our choices can become habits and sometimes the choices we make which are bad ones, become bad habits. 

Some call being in love illogical and something of pure fiction.  And you know what, the thing people call love can be that way, it really can.

Choosing to care for someone, to join your life to theirs and share in their life's journey is love. Choosing to do that for someone you're not attracted to in superficial ways is love as well. That *being* in love aspect does NOT mean you truly love. 

Some people are great at *being* in love, but not great at loving.

God is love. God chose to create us, chose to love us in caring for us in a way far beyond our full comprehension.

The way God cares for us is so much more than the superficial caring we tend to call caring. God's caring goes to the eternal level and if YOU believe in ETERNITY, then you understand the reality of the true depths of God's love.

When we live a single lifetime of say 70 years, that is NOTHING compared to eternity, absolutely a true drop in the largest of oceans.  Yet we tend to measure our life in the here and now and what we can get out of this life whether it be of love or not of love. We stop caring about God and others and turn to caring about ourselves first. We choose to love some but not all, we pick and choose those we are attracted to and give them the thing we call love while shutting out others that we aren't attracted to.

Love is so much more than the twisted warped thing we call love today, so much more.

Gal_5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith

1Jn_4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1Jn_4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1Jn_4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Truth, this is truth.

Please, Father, please teach us to love as You love, live in us through the Spirit enabling us to love.  To know You and be KNOWN by You.

Your Will Be DONE.

In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ our Lord, now and forever!

Amen.

We are to love outside of ourselves- love God, love Others

Eph 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 

Eph 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 

Eph 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 

Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 

Eph 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord

Walk circumspectly.

Definition: cir·cum·spect - thinking carefully about possible risks before doing or saying something

To walk circumspectly means we are living our lives aware of our actions, aware that there are consequences to our actions.  We are to be wise, not fools. A wise person is aware of the eternal view, not the temporal view. While we are not to WORRY about tomorrow, we are to be AWARE.  Worry and aware are two different things. You can know something as a fact without worrying about it. We can know that things look hopeless and choose not to worry about it by comprehending that the worst possible outcome of tomorrow does NOT take from us the promise of eternal life.

To walk circumspectly, wisely, we choose to use our time in such a way that promotes the eternal life to come. We live KNOWING that eternal life is a REALITY for us. We don't live our lives as if here and now is all there is to it and nothing matters but our seeking to get as much pleasure out of this life as possible. We comprehend that the days we live in are evil, THEY ARE.

Satan will stop at NOTHING to promote his agenda, and that agenda includes capturing as many people in his snares as he can and keeping them from eternal life. THIS IS SATAN'S AGENDA! Our days are FILLED with things that are meant to take eternal life from us. You don't get any more evil than preventing someone from attaining eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We need to truly understand what the will of the Lord is- do you know what it is?

Joh_6:40  And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day

1Jn 3:23  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

1Jn 3:24  And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

The will of God - to BELIEVE and out of that belief we obtain the SPIRIT and through the SPIRIT we keep His commandments to love.

We are to be FILLED with the Spirit- not with artificially contrived things that make us feel differently than we do without them, making us feel less pain from the evil around us.  We need to be FILLED with the Spirit. We keep the commandments to LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS and this is what we are to be filled with- NOT any commandment that tells us to love ourselves first. I can't find that one anywhere. We are to LOVE outside of ourselves in order to be filled with the Spirit of love.  This is the will of God.

Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs- in our hearts!

This is how we are to live! The inward man inside each and every one of us needs to glorify God in song! It's amazing what music, what singing, what songs can do for us.

Just recently they're proving the power of song with Alzheimer's patients.  Truly there is power in singing, in music, in psalms, in hymns and we don't have to do it publically to reap the benefits, we can do it in our hearts!

The life of a Christ believing person, is the life of one who believes in loving others not self, it is a life of singing inwardly.

Will the Christ believer have a perfect life? NO, a thousand times NO! Will the Christ believer be promised life free from heartache, pain, agony, torture and so on? NO, a thousand times NO! Believing in God and His begotten son Jesus Christ is not a hope to live a good life here on earth now, it's just not. If anything it almost guarantees you are HARDER life now- more pain, more agony, more torture, more heartache because Satan stops at NOTHING to inflict all the pain he can upon Christ believers. Our HOPE is an ETERNAL HOPE, and ETERNAL LOVE.

Please, Father, bless us with Your Son, help us, keep us from evil and increase our faith in the sacrifice made for us.  Help us to love outside of ourselves- selflessly.

Please give us the Spirit, Father. We need the Spirit!

All in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior now and always!

Amen.

Through the veil, through the flesh

Through the veil.

Through the flesh.

We don't ordinarily think of the flesh as a veil do we? Why would we. We envision veils as see thru contraptions pulled over our faces mostly during wedding ceremonies and such. Or perhaps we think of the veils that other faiths and cultures wear to cover their women folk and so on. When we are discussing the Temple Veil we are discussing something definitely not see thru. 

In fact no one was allowed in there other than the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.

Lev 16:2  And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come NOT AT ALL TIMES into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

Lev 16:12  And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:

Lev 16:13  And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not

Heb 9:6  Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

Heb 9:7  But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people

Through the veil.

Through the flesh.

The veil signified separation more than concealment for the sake of hiding something. Everyone knew what lie behind the veil, it wasn't a secret. 

Reread Lev 16:2- Aaron is told not to come at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat which is upon the ark… why? Because he'd DIE if he did. God would appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat, God would appear there within the veil!  Again in Leviticus we read that a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord (((the altar of incense)))) were to be brought into the most holy place so that a cloud of incense would cover the mercy seat- why? So he didn't die!

The veil separated GOD from the people, yet signified His presence among them. He could be there, but not it such a way that there was NOTHING separating Him from the people.

What separated God from His people?

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

SINS separate us from GOD!

You have to remember when Adam and Eve were put out of the Garden of Eden and the presence of God, right? You remember how they hid themselves from Him after they sinned? Sin caused the separation!

The veil in the temple signified that separation, there was a wall put up between man and God, and that wall, that veil became a veil of flesh that made the way to God possible! No longer a separating veil, this veil was the device by which entering into the presence of God was possible!

Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh

Jesus is the WAY.  Jesus is the bridge that unites us one side to the other. Jesus is that ladder which does away with the space between us and God.

We have to USE the Veil, we have to get on that Bridge, we have to climb upon the Ladder, we cannot reach God on our OWN it's IMPOSSIBLE!

We must accept the Way offered to us in order to reach God. We must accept the sacrifice our Savior made on our behalf and believe in Him and His ability to save us, to keep us in Him, to bring us to God through HIS righteousness. Please, Lord, please know us! Save us through You! Thank you! All praise, all glory, all honor unto YOU! Always!

Amen!

The Veil

Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh

Through the veil.

The veil.

Mat_27:51  And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent

Heb_9:3  And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all

Exo_26:33  And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

Exo_30:6  And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.

Lev_4:17  And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, even before the vail.

Lev_16:15  Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat

*******

A veil separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place in the temple upon the earth, a temple built after the pattern shown, the pattern taken from the heavenly temple.

A heavenly temple.

That veil which separated the two compartments, the veil in figure Christ's flesh.  We enter into the Most Holy Place through Christ our Savior and no other way.

Before Christ, entering in through the veil was only done by the High Priest. 

Through the sacrifice of Christ that separation was done away with.

THROUGH CHRIST we lose that separation between us and God.

ONLY through Christ is it possible.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of God!

Through the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ, always!

Amen

One to bring salvation

Rom 5:17  For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

One to bring destruction.

One to bring salvation.

Individually we live our lives yet we are surrounded by others. All of us from the closest of our friends to the farthest stranger are offspring of God.  From those we call great among us, to those we call the worst among us, are offspring of God. From the brightest to the least bright, from the richest to the poorest we are all offspring of God. We were created by God and given the opportunity to belong to God- heart and spirit. 

Any parent knows that you can give birth or father a child but that doesn't mean you control that child's life from start to finish. What become clear truly is how unique an individual that child is from the get go. The personality starts shining through right away. From two incredibly shy parents a very outgoing and rambunctious child can be born and vice versa. As children of God we are also born with our own spiritual personalities. We can choose to remain a part of God's family or we can leave that family. We can destroy our spiritual connection to God. Just as human children can disown their parents, we can disown our God. We choose.

What we didn't choose was to bring sin into humanity. Yet we were BLESSED with life. BLESSED with the chance to belong to God spiritually. BLESSED to be pilgrims and strangers upon earth to have to opportunity to be reunited with our Creator through the power of our Redeemer.

Our God has redeemed us through the sacrifice of God the begotten Son, God in the flesh, God who suffered sin's worst assault. Before you start naming all the terrible atrocities that our Savior did not suffer, the ultimate assault He alone did suffer.  That assault was the complete and utter separation from His Father in a way we cannot and have not ever experienced- HE alone could take that experience as a complete innocent and suffer the eternal death.

Yes, He suffered the eternal death, the second death, the complete nothingness without any hope from the Father but still Jesus' faith did NOT falter to an end.  The words- "Why hast thou forsaken me.", were spoken in agony, but He did not give in to the temptation to sin. He held fast to the truth which is we must believe WHOLLY in God to be SAVED by HIM because we cannot save ourselves, we just can't. Jesus could NOT save Himself, if He had saved Himself He would have sinned, and He did NOT sin.

One man SAVED us, He is our example. We must depend wholly upon God through the gift of His Son's sacrifice, making salvation available to us.

Please, Father, help us be YOURS. Help us CHOOSE to be YOURS. We would be YOURS!  Please, Father, through the Son's sacrifice may we be YOURS. Forgive us! Save us! Love us always and forever!

Amen.

We are the offspring of God

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

The beginning and the end.

Which is.

Which was.

Which is to come.

The Almighty.

Remember this--

Act 17:22  Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

Act 17:23  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Act 17:24  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

Act 17:25  Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

Act 17:26  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Act 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

Act 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Act 17:29  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.

Act 17:30  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Act 17:31  Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

The UNKNOWN GOD.

There was more than the gods manufactured by man and they knew it, deep down people knew this to be true.  Covering all bases they couldn't leave the UNKNOWN God out.  They didn't dare because they KNEW there was more. 

Our God, our Father, our Creator -  the ALPHA and the OMEGA, the Beginning and the End. He is our All in All, we need NO OTHER.

We know that we need no other. 

We are the OFFSPRING of God.

More tomorrow by the grace of our God!

In His love!

We choose whether or not we remain God's.

"I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing."-- Joh_15:5.

So many would instantly argue that we can do everything apart from Jesus, that they don't even believe in Him and yet they do whatever they please.  It's true, I couldn't dispute their being alive and functioning, how could I?

The truth is, except a man abide in Christ every single thing they do means nothing. You can do all you like but apart from the Savior it's meaningless.

Again the outcry comes- how dare I call someone's life meaningless just because they don't believe in the Savior and abide in Him.

It's true though.

Let's look at this for a moment. What gives our lives meaning?  As a whole of humanity what gives our lives meaning? How can the baby born into extreme poverty, living on the street as a toddler, barely surviving, growing up into a horrendous life of pain and tragedy find meaning in their life outside of the agony on so many levels? A person who has a nice life who isn't born into tragedy can find meaning in doing good and such, but the person who has very little good in their life, and I mean that sincerely, can find very little meaning to their life outside of pain.  So understanding the two extremes of life just by being born, what gives meaning, real meaning to both? It isn't things, it isn't material possessions, it isn't anything money can buy. It could be the tiny things, it could be other people who make life bearable. Ultimately in a life where you cannot get out from under the tortured life, where can you find hope? Not in the world you are living in, not in the life you've been forced to survive in. Can you still choose not to believe in God if you are born to such tragedy? Yes. Some would say it's easier not to believe when you are born into such horrific straits. Yet others would say you have more reason to believe because you need to hope in something better than this awful world.

Without our Savior it truly is all meaningless.

It is our Savior who gives us meaning. Living in our Savior gives us the hope of ETERNAL LIFE, hope of the life with NO PAIN!  This is the life we are meant to have, the life offered to us THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, and no other.

If we do not abide in Christ we are the living dead. You can call me crazy that is your right. You don't have to believe, that is also your right.

"I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing."-- Joh_15:5.

Without our Savior all the things we do truly are meaningless.

The breath of life given to us all by God makes us God's. We choose whether or not we remain God's. If we remain God's we will have life eternal. We are the branch abiding in the Vine.  We are living branches in the living vine. If we decide that we don't want any part of the Vine, eventually we will die off.

Please, Father, please let us LIVE in You and bear the fruit that YOU will have us bear, all through YOU because You are the VINE, You give us life and You give it abundantly. No matter what our existence is here and now, please BLESS us to be YOURS in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, please, Father, please, keep us in YOU no matter what! Please!

All in the name of our Savior, Your Son, Jesus Christ our LORD!

Amen!