I Will Be Away From Home For the Next Week

"Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.'  Jesus replied, 'You are blessed...because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you.  You did not learn this from any human being.'" (Matthew 16:16, 17--NLT)

If our ongoing life style is not in, "....My Father in heaven has revealed this to you", we are living on very, very "thin ice."  Whatever I base my life upon must be, "My Father in Heaven has revealed this to you."  Whatever "revelation" comes to me through someone and I depend upon, "....learn this from any human being", our Lord Jesus Christ will never say to us, "You are blessed...."  I only have a "sure foundation" in and for life, and favor in the Living Triune God when impartation takes place.  And this only comes to you and me, "....because... Father in heaven has revealed this to you."

Over this past weekend there was a plethora of movies, documentaries, etc., about the "life of Jesus," e.g., "The Robe," "King of Kings," "Killing Jesus," and then the epic, "The Ten Commandments."  So we have a novel, attempts to relate "historical material" (one would hope it would be the Bible) and dramatize it, and the story of the "Exodus" of the Jews from Egypt.  Every writer attempted to tell their story, because that is exactly what they did/do-- story telling.  It is classic, "....learn this from any human being."

Someone asked me recently, "Do you think a Catholic can be saved."  What they were asking is, Can they be saved while still a Catholic?  I pulled something which a theologian/pastor/missionary should never say:  "I don't know."  What I do know, however, is that if it were not for my embracing of the Words of Jesus, "I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in (adheres to, trust in, relies on) Me...will live even if he dies...," I would be miserably lost.  These "wonderful Words of life" have been saving me for the past 47 years, and I can tell you with the utmost certainty that I am alive today, "....because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you." 

That which Jesus has given to us through whatever process, however many ts were crossed and Is dotted, is not my issue at nearly 74 years of age.  Jesus saved me from sin and the power of Satan.  Jesus, moment by moment, keeps saving me by His Indwelling Presence and the daily impartation of His Words right now, right here, regardless of the next "praise gathering," the next "mission," the next "good works."  It is not tradition, encyclicals, or any "why-did-God-allow-this" to which I cling.  It is, "....because my Father in Heaven has revealed this to you."

I will be leaving early tomorrow morning for "Indian Country."  The plight of the First Nations People Group has been with me for decades.  At every opportunity I pray in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee Hearings.  The First Nations carry, more and more, a similar "weight" as does Jerusalem, Berlin and Washington, DC.  I do pray and ask that you say a prayer for this upcoming mission.  Above all, I pray that you will see more and more the word of Oswald Chambers: "Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work."  This is not a "word" for intercessors or monastic orders.  This is truth for all humanity.  Prayer is primarily communion, fellowship, identity with and in the Godhead, His Purposes/Will in the Earth.  It was the intent in the Garden-------- nothing has changed. 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You that "saved" is not so much my testimony, as "saves."  Amen.

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

Believe This: Fear NOTHING

"'Do not be afraid.  Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today'....And the Angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them.  The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.  Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side....God loved the world this way: He gave His Only Son....God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that....Christ died for us."  (From the, "The Word of God," Himself, Jesus, and His, "God-Breathed," Words)

These Words were all fulfilled on this Day, a Day of days, six hours, bleeding, scorned, dying. 

Today a care giver is out front in her car preparing notes for her visit.  I'm sitting in a comfortable chair writing to you---- sunny here today, and quite pleasant. 

On That Day, however, so very long ago, "From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land."  Indeed, "Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut its glories in, when God, the mighty maker, died for man the creature's sin.  Thus might I hide my blushing face while his dear cross appears; dissolve my heart in thankfulness, and melt mine eyes to tears." 

This demonstration of The Blessed Trinity's love for mankind, viz., "Christ died for us", is all accomplished, "while we were still sinners...."  He did not wait until we were "good enough."  What farcical nonsense; to think there is anything I could say, do, worry over, cry about, regret, pay some indulgence for, that could ever bring about the Salvation which I could never earn.

The love of the Living Triune God has no measure.  I know I have shared with you before of that great revelation on John 3:16 which I discovered while studying in the Interlinear Bible so many years ago, "For God loved the world thus," or, "this way."  No one can speak of the "amount" or "degree" of God's love.  We can only speak of, "God...demonstrates His...love...."  You cannot "rate" God's love on a scale of 1-10.  If I can even begin to comprehend the love of the Godhead, it must begin here, "looking" at the Cross today, hear and accept, "....God loves the world thus...."

Any attempt at mental comprehension today as, "....I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died,.." leaves me absolutely baffled.  I can only accept Jesus' Words of the Event of all events, embrace Jesus, follow Jesus, obey Jesus.  "What wondrous love is this, O, my soul?"

Father, in Jesus' Name, "When I survey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died"............................

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

"Now You Shall See What I Will Do"

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Now you shall see what I will do....'"  (Exodus 6:1)

Before the "now" in our lives, "Jesus Christ is Lord."  And after the "now" in our lives, "Jesus Christ is Lord."  When you seem stuck in the middle, remember: He is the God of the before and after.  "It shall come to pass."

Moses, quite frankly, was having a difficult time believing that God could "pull off" all that He was declaring to Moses.  In the previous chapter Moses had said to the Lord God that, "ever since," and I paraphrase here, Moses did what God told him to do, nothing had worked out the way God said it would, or perhaps more accurately, the way Moses expected it would."

It seems as though in chapter 6, Jesus had to now state His Ways clearly.  In essence, Jesus told Moses that He gave Abraham promises and the "agenda" of the Godhead for generations to come.  He then told Moses that He was up on everything and heard everything which was then going on in Egypt with the Government and His People.  He further declared that in spite of the way things seemed to be, "I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians....And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham....I am the Lord."  For the Living Triune God, all His Words, His promises are already fulfilled, accomplished, done.   

Before you and me were, there was Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.  Now, there is Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.  Tomorrow and after you and me, there is Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.  How many provisions Jesus had in store for me even before I knew of them and experienced them.  And here you and I are right now, some in very trying situations, others full of uncertainty, maybe some filled with great apprehension, even fear.  But now the test of faith/obedience comes.  Every Word of God which we have was spoken millennia ago, and, because, "The Word of God is alive and active," His Words are still speaking to us, very up-to-date.  Everything may now be saying to you, "Ever since...," nothing has worked out.  But His Word is sure.  The words of "the prophets" or the "word" you believe He spoke "to your heart" may have merit.  But I would suggest that we give far less credence to those words than to the Bible, "God-Breathed," Words.  "Now you will see what I will do...."  How many times when the future was uncertain, Jesus spoke and did these words.

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You that You have me surrounded with Your finished work.  Amen.
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Please pray with me about attending the Indian Affairs Committee Hearing at the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation, April 21, 2017.

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

Passed "Through" For Some-Passed Over For Others

"For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt...; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment:  I am the Lord....And you shall take...the blood.., and strike the lintel and the two doorposts...."  (Exodus 12: 12 & 22)

Jesus, "pass[ed] through the land of Egypt on that night, that He might, "strike all the firstborn in the land...."  Yet, He passed over every house upon which He saw the blood of the lamb.  "And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood...."

Last night was the beginning of Passover, which commemorates that night in Egypt several millennia ago when Jesus fulfilled His Word, "For I will pass through the land...."  It was a, "pass through," of judgment.  Apparently, whether those who pass some moral judgment on the Living Triune God approve or not, something drastic needed to be done about sin, "I...will strike...."  The word for, "strike," is from a root word meaning, "attack, destroy."  And that He did.

Yet in the midst of that judgement on, "the land of Egypt on that night," the Lord God passed over every house upon which was the blood of the lamb.  In the midst of judgment and death was the offer of protection, deliverance, preservation; they just needed to be under the blood.  When Jesus shed His Most Precious Blood on that Roman Cross, He "attacked, destroyed" sin, "....once for all."  Indeed, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." 

It is a very sobering reality: The same night there was a, "pass over," there was a, "pass through."  Nothing has changed.  Jesus, "the Prince of life," is still passing through our lands.  Indeed, the Bible tells us that a time is coming, "....when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."  The only way of "escape" is in the Passover Lamb, Jesus.  In His Blood Jesus, "....destroyed the works of the devil."  There is just no other way to overcome sin and the devil than, "by the Blood of the Lamb," Jesus.  Let us keep the Blood of Jesus applied to the doorway, lintels and posts or our hearts.

Father, in Jesus' Name, I am so thankful that when you, "pass through," You also, "pass over."  Amen.
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October, 2017 Mission:  October 28- November 15

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