Jesus' "Breathing Machine"

"For I have become like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget Your statutes."  (Psalm 119:83)

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The Hebrew Word translated here, "statues," means, "something prescribed or owed."  I have been living on this prescription for almost 49 years.

There are some people for whom the Word of God, the Bible, is a religious idea.  They read it because it is the "spiritual" thing to do.  They talk much about it because it gets a lot of people's attention as to their spirituality.  I confess that before 49 years ago the Bible was somewhat peripheral in my life.  Enter, June 12, 1970.  It was then that, "....I...bec[a]me like a wineskin in smoke...."

You know my testimony.  I could not pray, worship, give thanks, intercede, nothing.  Stephen was gone; I was heartbroken, powerless to go on.  Then one day I picked up, "The Words of God."  I just read and read and read.  I was not aware of any mental comprehension of the "Words."  I don't remember any feelings of anything which so many describe in glowing "spiritual" cliches.  I have never described it like this, but it was sort of like being hooked up to a breathing machine.  Such machines are for people who can't breath on their own; that was I then; it is I now.  I'm still "hooked up."

I read the Bible not because at some point in my "follow up" to conversion someone said I needed to be faithful in prayer and Bible reading.  I do so because I cannot breathe on my own.  Yes, there is much "revelation," much blessing from time to time.  But there is also something comparable to someone who says to a patient, "Take your medicine.  You won't get any better without it."  Jesus, "The Word of God," and the, "God-Breathed," Words are the same.  They are Jesus' Breath, and I say with the hymn writer, "I need Thee, O, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee."  One of our neighbors is on oxygen.  He comes out on the porch attached to it.  He drives with it.  I imagine he even sleeps with it.  I'm no different.

Here are some more Prescriptions from Psalm 119: "My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your Word....My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your Word....Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord-- Your salvation according to Your Word."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I so pray.  Amen.

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Sarah is doing much better, thanks to your prayers.

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

"Stand Fast In It"

"With the help of Silas, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.  Stand fast in it."  (1 Peter 5:12, NIV)

As I read our text this morning, it was as though I could see down through the corridors of time, from the First Century, through the Middle Ages, the "Renaissance," the discovery of the Americas, right to this very hour.  The old Apostle's Words have been ringing in the Church throughout the centuries, "Stand fast in it."

Are you today?  Notice the humility of the "keys-bearer."  He writes, "With the help of Silas...," then, "....testifying that this is the true grace of God."  We all know Peter's stature throughout Church History, but here he is writing as one of us, not as some leader full of himself, superior, knows more than anyone, expects others to serve him, but rather as, "a fellow elder..., as a faithful brother, "and, "testifying."  The modern Church has so much to learn from Peter.  Instead of seeing him as a bungling, impulsive fisherman, we should see what Jesus saw in him.

The conclusion of Peter's Epistle to the Church?--- "....the true grace of God.  Stand fast in it."  What the Bible calls, "....the grace of God," was and is continually, as 2 Corinthians says, "....displayed in the face of Christ."  Some of Peter's final words to you and me are a glorious encouragement, and, can I say it?-- a command, "Stand fast in it", even our Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You for Peter.  Amen.

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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

"....The Utter Darkness--Broke[n] In Pieces"

"He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away (literally, 'broke in pieces') their chains."  (Psalm 107:14, NIV)

This is the "finished work of the Cross."  This is what it "cost" our Lord Jesus Christ in His Precious Blood.

You and I were in, "....the utter darkness...."  We could not see God.  We could not see life.  We could not even see ourselves.  All was, "....darkness, the utter darkness...."  And, we can say that there is a sense about ongoing life that is, "....utter darkness...."  There are things for which we have absolutely no answers, "For now we see through a glass darkly."

But you know what's next, don't you?-- Jesus, our Light.  The Light which Jesus Is, however, does not give more understanding about the darkness.  Of Jesus' Light the Bible tells us, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it" (NIV), or, "....the darkness has never put it out" (CEV), or, "....the darkness did not over power it" (NASB), Interlinear, "perceive it."

It is enough for you and me today that our Lord Jesus Christ destroyed, "....the utter darkness...."  Jesus, "broke [it] in pieces."  And now, as the old chorus says, "all sorrow has gone, the glory has shone, and now I am free."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I confess and receive that, "the utter darkness..," can only be, "broken in pieces," by You.  Thank You, my Light.  Amen.

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* Sarah is making some improvement.  Thanks to all who are praying.  Please continue. 

* See just what Russia is up to at:    jhs58.blogspot.com

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

"....Keeping The Commandments...Is What Matters"

"Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters."  (1 Corinthians 7:19)

Wait!  This can't be!  This is the New Testament.  The "commandments" went out with the Old Testament, right?  We are now free to do anything we so desire, then do a follow-up with asking forgiveness in Jesus' Name, and all is good.  I call the aforementioned Pop (popular) Religion.

The above is the, if not stated, surely the life style of very many in Christendom.  I have said before that many live and believe as though God had a change of heart in the Intertestamental Period.  Judgment, vengeance, anger was converted to love, compassion, everything's-okay, saith the Lord.  Now of course we would all say, in our right mind, "That's ridiculous."  Perhaps, but much of the life style in Christendom is evidence to the contrary.

The Evangelical/Charismatic community needs to embrace the reality that God is God, as James says, "....Who does not change like shifting shadows."  The Bible teaches in both Old and New Testaments that the Law is, "for our good always, that He might preserve us alive...."  Modern Evangelicals are so afraid of a "works religion" that they rarely, if ever, speak and teach the, "....for our good always,.." of the Commandments, the Law of God.

Jesus made it quite clear that He did not appear to start a new religion, a religion of love and flowers as opposed to vengeance and fire.  I wonder if some who live that way read the same Gospels that I read, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."  We can say that the New Testament is not a rejection of the Old Testament, but a fulfillment of the Old Testament.  Hebrews says that the New Covenant is, "better."  Of course it is.  The New is the "accumulation" of all that went before.  Maybe we can say, in the vernacular, The New Testament is the Old Testament on steroids.

"Keeping the Commandments of God is what matters."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I fall so short, but I so desire to, "....press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me."  Amen.

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Sarah sees our GP tomorrow.  Please pray that our Health, Who is Jesus Christ, will manifest in her and me, us all!

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2

The "Reason" For Hope

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...."  (1 Peter 1:3, NASB)

Here it is.  What one translation says, "....He has given us new birth into a living hope..," is only possible, "....through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."  No, "resurrection," no, "New Birth"; no, "resurrection," no, "....living hope."  All humanity would be, "dead," in our sins.

The resurrection of Jesus, indeed, the resurrection of anyone makes no sense to the self-centered.  His self is what explains life to him/her.  The self-centered may claim some sort of "scientific approach" to life, or "reasoning."  No matter.  It all leads to the same death.  My acceptance of the historic fact of Jesus' Resurrection is my very life. 

What is so pathetic in the self-centered (my new definition for those who reject Jesus Christ) is that more people attested to seeing Jesus after His Resurrection than the number of witnesses to those "great events" in history which humanity accepts without question.  No one alive ever saw George Washington.  We only have writings, "eye witness" accounts, and paintings which testify that there ever was a George Washington.  Get it?

I have, "New Birth," today, and a glorious, "Living Hope," today because I accept and believe in the eye witnesses' account of, "the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."  And, because I do, I live in the joy, victory and peace of, "Because I live, you shall live also."
 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I only live, "because...you...live..."  Amen.

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Please pray for Sarah.  I took her to the ER around 03:30 this morning. There is something wrong with her right knee, and she can't put any weight on it.  I guess some would say we are "under attack."

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2