Finding the Riches of God.

The word "Hebrew" means to pass over.  The Hebrew children had to pass over  the Red Sea and the river Jordan to get to the promised land, but before they did that they had to exit Egypt. The act of entering the promised land was very important, but equally important was the act of exiting the land of their slavery.  You can not enter into something without first exiting something else.

In Genesis 12:1 "The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you."  God's first command was to "Go from your country."  Before Abram could ever go anywhere he first had to leave where he was at.

When Jesus called his disciples to come with him, they first had to leave their fishing boats and nets.  They had to leave their old lives behind so that they could follow Christ.

God calls us to come and follow Him.  He asks us to be willing to leave our old lives and enter into a new life.  Just as you can not go into one room without leaving the room you are in, you can not enter into a life with Christ, without leaving your old life behind.

There are many people who long for changes in their lives.  They want something better, more satisfying and new.  What they don't want is to leave what they have now behind.  Few people are willing to leave what they know they have, even if it is not good for them, for something they have not even seen.

When we look upon what we have in our hands now, we are scared to lose what little we have for the promise of something greater that we do no see.  We need to look up from our hands and into the face of God.  What God promises, God does.  When God promises rich robes for rags, He fulfills that promise.  God never fails. Trust God.  Leave the slavery of your land and go into the promised land of God's riches.  

Is Jesus God?

Most people in the world say that Jesus is not God.  Does the Old Testament show Jesus to be God?  Not only does it show him to be God it out right says it.

In the Hebrew the word for salvation is Yeshuah.  The Greek translation of Yeshuah is Jesus. So Jesus' name means salvation or Yahweh saves.  With this knowledge we can find some very interesting verses in the old testament. 

"Surely God is (my) Yeshuah; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become (my) Yeshuah" Isaiah 12:2

"The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become (my) Yeshuah." Psalm 118:14

"The LORD is my strength and my defense; he has become (my) Yeshuah. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him." Exodus 15:2

The words in parenthesis were added by translators to make it easier to understand.  

You might say this is only a coincidence but when it comes to God, there are no coincidences. Yes these verses are talking about salvation, but many times God talks about two different things in a verse. I believe these verses have a double meaning as well as do many more Bible passages. These verses show that God came to earth and became Yeshuah, our salvation. 

Photo Credit: Face of Jesus 130 by Waiting for the word

Launch Out into the Deep

Where are you living your life?  Are you living in the calm, quiet of the shallow waters, or in the unpredictable, dangerous waters of the deep?

It's nice living in the shallow waters where life is easy and stress free.  You never enter the deeps. You are near the safety of the familiar shore.  It is comfortable here.  Very little can ever disturb you when you live in the shallows.

The deep waters are unknown and unpredictable.  There is no land in sight and safety is beyond the horizon.  The waves of the deep can be huge and completely engulf you.  Storms are more vicious and deadly here. It is not easy, stress free or comfortable.

In Luke 5:4-11 Jesus tells his disciples to "Launch out  into the deep, and let your nets out for a catch."  When they did as Jesus said, they caught so many fish that they filled two boats to almost sinking.  Because they followed what Jesus said, they were blessed beyond what they thought possible.  If the disciples had stayed in the shallows, they would have been more comfortable, but not blessed.

Following God means to leave what is comfortable and  putting out into the deep.  To trust Him with our lives even when storms come to overwhelm us.  It means to not look for familiar shores for safety but to God instead.  This is where we will find true blessings.  This is where God can use us and bring about an abundant harvest.

I was in the US Navy and I have seen waves which completely cover a ship.  I sailed through hurricanes and saw the destruction they possess. It was out in the deep waters where I found myself the most alive and where I saw the might and the glory of God.  I never felt fear our in the deep waters no matter how rough it was, but I found the presence of God much closer out there.

How to Change Your Past

We all have times in our past which we regret.  Can those times be altered so that they never happened?  If you took a white shirt and dyed it so that every fiber of that shirt was totally red, could you undye it, so that it was as white as before?

If it is impossible then how can God say "Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow." Isaiah 1:18   How can sins, which have already been committed, suddenly be gone, wiped clean from our past?  How can any past action disappear so that we become sinless?

The first miracle of Jesus was performed at the wedding at Cana.  Because the wine had all been drunk, but they were still celebrating, they needed more wine.  Jesus took containers of water and changed it into wine.

How can that be?  Wine takes time to make.  Even if you had grape juice instead of wine it would still take weeks at least to make it into wine.  To change water to wine, you must give it a past where there once was none.

Whatever past sins we have, if we repent, God does not just forgive them.  If He did, we would still have them and be the same person as before, and just not be punished for them.  It is not just as if we did not sin, but we are completely purified and righteous.  No stains of sin exist any more.  Those sins have been taken away by Jesus as he hung on the cross.  They are now his sins and not ours.  Our past is free of all sin, great and small.  He has changed you from water to wine.

As a young Christian this song about Christ turning water into wine reminded me of this truth.  The Hawaians "He turned the water into wine"

The Exact Time of Jesus' Crucifixion Foretold

The law of the Tamid was started in Exodus 29: 38-39. It was the daily sacrifice of a lamb in the morning and another in the evening.  The morning sacrifice took place at the third hour of the day (9 am) and the evening sacrifice at the ninth hour of the day (3 pm.)

Tamid means daily, forever perpetual, always, and continual. As the morning sacrifice took place, the temple trumpets would sound and the temple gates would be opened. At the ninth hour the second lamb was slain as the evening sacrifice and all sacrifices at the temple would cease for the day.

Jesus was nailed to the cross on the third hour of the day.  As the temple trumpets sounded over Jerusalem, Jesus was raised up on the cross to suffer and die.  The sacrifices in the temple began just as Jesus' crucifixion began.

At the ninth hour Jesus cried out "It is finished" and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.  As he took that final breath, the second lamb was slain and all sacrifices in the temple ceased.

Jesus is our Tamid.  His sacrifice was for our daily sins from our furthest past, through today and forever.  His sacrifice was a perpetual sacrifice that will always and continually cover our sins.

The Tamid sacrifice of the lambs was a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do on the cross even down to the exact time of his crucifixion and death.

The Origin of Palestine.

The Jews revolted against Rome in 66 AD resulting in Rome destroying Jerusalem in 70 AD.  Until 134 AD the Jews fought the yoke of Rome within the Empire. This resulted in hundreds of thousand deaths and the depopulation of areas in the Roman Empire such as Libya and Cyrene.  The Jews ambushed and killed the XII Roman Legion and were a major problem to the Empire.  This period is known as the Jewish-Roman Wars.

While the Jewish-Roman wars took place mostly outside of Judea, a revolt began within Judea in 132 called the Bar Kokhba revolt.  This revolt, led by Simon Bar Kokhba, started when they cut off the Roman garrison in Jerusalem.  The Romans tried unsuccessfully to subdue the revolt and the Jews initially had victories over the Romans.  Many of the Jews regarded Bar Kokhba as The Messiah.

Roman Emperor Hadrian was tired of these troublesome Jews.  He assembled a large scale Roman force of six full legions and finally crushed the revolt in 134 AD.  This resulted in the depopulation of Judea.  Hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed and many more died of hunger or disease.  Many of those left were sold into slavery. Jews where forbidden to enter Jerusalem and were executed if found there.

The city of Jerusalem was renamed the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina.  To wipe out even the memory of Judea or Ancient Israel the Emperor renamed the region, Palaestina after the Philistines who had been wiped out and totally disappeared in the 5th century BC.

The name Palestine was used to deny the Jews the right to the land of Israel.  It is used to change the history of Israel and deny the prophetic words of God for His people and the land of Israel.  Palestine denies God, the Bible, and the promises of God including the second coming of Jesus Christ. 

The Milk of God

When we were born we came into a totally alien world of which we knew nothing about.  Innately we did know one thing about our new world, mother's milk. Without knowing what it taste like, looked like or if it was even real, we knew that it would satisfy our hunger.

When we were born milk satisfied our physical needs, but there were other needs that were also born within us.  Needs that we also knew nothing about and yet we knew that they must be satisfied from somewhere outside of ourselves.  The need for love was a driving force in our lives, which was first met by our mothers.  As we grew older we found we needed more than just her love.  We sought out the perfect love.

Perhaps we found a person to love and married them.  Marriage can bring much love into our lives, but it is not perfect and does not perfectly satisfy.  We try to fill that desire for love with many things such as jobs, money, sex, drugs, friendships, possessions but find them not perfectly satisfying either.

That desire was placed in us by God, just like the desire for mother's milk was, but it is a spiritual desire.  The desire for the perfect, eternal love of God.  He and He alone is the spiritual milk of life that can satisfy the longing of our lives.

"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."  Psalm 90:14