Spirit of Antichrist…..

Behind the Word – counsel of the ungodly –Counsel means exactly what you think, a source of informed advice.  Ungodly (Hebrew) –  rasha pr. Raw-shaw’ – hostile to God, guilty of sin against man or God.

 Blessed is the man  who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly…..

⁴The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment……

 Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous…..  But the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalm 1:1a, 4,5 NKJV)

   I begin every day in the Word. I have submitted my life to the authority of the Word.

   I seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

    I pray, and listen for the Lord’s response. I try to respond as He leads.

   Blessed is the man  Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly….. The Word is my counselor. The Holy Spirit is the Counselor and is my counselor. The Lord is my counselor.  Everything I have written so far is true, yet I know I receive, both actively and passively, counsel of the ungodly…. In its harshest definition, this phrase means the counsel of those who are hostile to God. What sources might be giving me daily counsel that is hostile to God?

   Each day I spend some time in mind numbed TV watching. It now takes extremely careful channel selection to avoid shows that either subtly are hostile and in opposition to God, or are blatantly anti God. John wrote – and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (1 John 4:3 NKJV)   It would appear that the spirit of the Antichrist John speaks of is widely at work in our media – TV, talk radio, Internet, and even infomercial preachers who offer to sell God’s blessings.

How can I possibly filter all this Antichrist input?  Paul had a suggestion — …casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…. (2 Cor 10:5 NKJV) Many of my media sources exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. The same sources may also have Godly content available if I choose very wisely.

   Jesus tore the veil to the Holy of Holies to give me unfettered access to God, but sometimes I pull the veil back in place as I seek separation from God and engage and allow input in my life which opposes Him. I pull the veil when I call it harmless. I pull the veil when I forego the prodding of the Holy Spirit. I pull the veil when my eyes simply linger too long where they should not be looking.

    Where and how will the input of the spirit of Antichrist entering your life today?

The Promise and the Premise

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Behind the Word – inquire (Hebrew) darash pr. Daw-rash’ –  When referring to God means the Lord  allowing Himself to be enquired of or sought out. Stem and mood, niphal, the passive of Qal, often expressing a reflexive action.

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I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus says the Lord GOD: “I will also let the house of Israel inquire of Me to do this for them: I will increase their men like a flock. Like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days, so shall the ruined cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they shall know that I am the LORD. (Ezekiel 36:36-38 NKJV)

   First century Israelite historian, Josephus, wrote that on the Passover as many as 120,000 lambs were brought to the temple mount to be sacrificed to Yahweh as a remembrance for His deliverance of Israel from slavery. Imagine that gruesome scene! Thousands of Levites would be gathered to the Temple Mount for a day of continuous ritual slaughter. Here, through Ezekiel the Lord is promising to restore Israel’s soon to be depleted ranks to numbers like those sacrificial sheep — I will increase their men like a flock. Like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days….   

   This is a promise from God and He doesn’t break His promises — I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it…. God is faithful, but this promise comes with a premise — I will also let the house of Israel inquire of Me to do this for them. God is saying He will allow Himself to be sought out for increase. We seek out God, we inquire of God, in prayer. We should always pray with a confident expectation that God will respond. God promised increase but allowed that the promise would only be fulfilled in response to the prayers of the faithful. He has chosen that He will do it when we have plead for the fulfillment of His promise which is stacked up in heaven waiting to be released at the sound of my voice. God doesn’t need a reminder. He remembers, when I remind Him it indicates that I too remember.  

   I look at the spiritual condition my nation and I whine and complain about it. I shake my head and say it is a sad state of affairs. I wonder what God might do if instead I simply prayed for revival. Our cities are in distress. Detroit has plans to level 25% of its area and plant grass. I wonder if I prayed for them if God instead would send revival — so shall the ruined cities be filled with flocks of men… of God.

   The world’s great revivals have been initiated with prayer. Azuza Street began with prayer. The Argentine revival began with prayer. It seems insignificant when I pray for such a great movement, but I wonder if the American revival is left dangling for lack of prayer. My prayer. The Lord’s promise is clear. Pray, and I will do it. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

    Do your prayers seem too small for the world’s large problems?

    What promise might God be waiting for you to inquire of so He can fulfill it?

An “I Will” God….

Behind the Word – and cause – (Hebrew) – ‘asha  pr. aw-saw’ – to produce, to make, to accomplish with effect, to ordain, to bring about. Mood and stem, Qal, the perfect tense, what we might call the present tense.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:26-28 ( NKJV)

    I went back and read what God told Moses in Exodus as He dictated the ten commandments. God prefaced His commands with – if you…

   Man saw that if you and said sure I will. The statement was not a lie repeated with no intention of following through, but rather a hope with no ability to be carried out. God sent these commands knowing the predicament I would find myself in – willing to obey, wanting to obey yet unable to fully obey. Was this a flawed strategy on the part of a flawless God? Hardly! It was a strategy designed to get the precise effect God intended. Paul wrote to the Galatians — Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (3:24) God knew He had to first prove beyond all doubt to me that I was incapable of willing myself sinless.

   So Christ came and died and I found relief from the weight of my sin. Then God sent His Holy Ghost to my heart that had received Him by faith through Jesus, and His language changed. The Old Covenant, The Law, The Ten Commandments (really all 613 Old Testament Commandments) came with the – if you language, but through Ezekiel and Jeremiah, my loving Father has changed His mood and tense saying,

I will give you a new heart…

I will put a new Spirit within you…

I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh…

I will give you a heart of flesh…

I will put My Spirit within you…

I will cause you to walk in my statutes…

With God all things are possible. When I became a Christian, I had a well tuned swearing tongue. I tried everything I could to quit swearing and failed. Abruptly one day the Holy Spirit confronted me. I confessed immediately that I had proven myself incapable to stop swearing. The Lord said to me, You are right. Now release all that effort and receive the power of My Spirit. Immediately and effortlessly, my thirty year career as a high level curser was over.

   The fullness of the New Covenant arrived with sufficient power to accomplish what God intended. The Holy Spirit resides in my inner being. He is continuously coaching, counseling, witnessing, and generously empowering.

I will put My Spirit within you…

I will cause you to walk in my statutes…

Ezekiel’s Deadly Playtime….

You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. (Ezekiel 4:1-3 NKJV)  

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Behind the Word – a city, even Jerusalem (Hebrew) – Iym pr eem’ – a place of waking, guarded   and Jerusalem, teaching of peace. Together, a city, Jerusalem can be taken as – a guarded habitation where one can wake up in the flow of peaceful teaching.

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   When I was a kid, I had lots of little plastic men. Some were WW II soldiers, some were cowboys, and others Indians. I think I had a few super heroes mixed in too. I’d often leave my house in the morning with a pocketful of plastic men. Anywhere I went, I could create a scenario. Often I’d designate heroes and villains, and the villains would lay siege to the heroes. It was a wild game, where no one was ever really harmed, and my heroes always won. Young Ezekiel was instructed by God to portray a similar childlike game which foretold a coming deadly reality… take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around.

   Jerusalem was a walled city. At night it’s gates (really huge wooden doors) were closed, locked, and guarded. It was a very safe place as described by the Hebrew word we translate as city – a place of waking guarded. The name Jerusalem contains the Hebrew word for peace, Shalom, (salem). When we feel secure and guarded, our hearts are free to be at peace.   

   The Israelites knew that kind of peace. God provided the means to peace, but soon they forgot His participation, they profaned the worship of God, and in response, He was about to withdraw His hand of protection and allow the city to be besieged. Separated by the commas in verse two are each of the five major battle tactics that would eventually all Jerusalem to be conquered, the temple be destroyed, and the Israelite elite to be brought into Babylonian captivity. Lay siege against it- build a siege wall against it- and heap up a mound against it-set camps against it also- and place battering rams against it all around.

    The Hebrews had security behind Jerusalem’s walls, Superman had the Fortress of Solitude, and each of us constructs walls and gates in our lives that we find peace and security producing. But there is no wall we can build that will protect us like the wall of God’s peace producing Gospel. Every protection we build can fail when proper siege is laid against it, but no enemy can lay siege successfully against our Lord’s peace and security through eternal salvation.

    The fatal mistake of the Jerusalemites was that they became self reliant rather than being God reliant. All human based peace and security is fragile and can be besieged by the unforeseen at any time.     

    What and Who produces the peace and security in your life? Are you resting in Divine Peace?

The Word, Animated in God’s Family (part 1)…..

Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them–those who are mistreated–since you yourselves are in the body also.
Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”So we may boldly say: 

        “The LORD is my helper;
        I will not fear.
        What can man do to me?”

   My Greek mindset often reverts to secular standards, seeking to measure my walk with God by obtaining an A+ in bible knowledge. Scripture known but at rest and unapplied is just information. If that information never produces transformation evidenced by a Spirit led life, as James put it, is dead. I’m convinced that someday there will be a tragic biblical debate just inside the gates of Hell between agonized screams and gnashing of teeth, where scripture, retained in a mind that proudly held it captive for years for the honor some would give it for simply being there, is shouted to a laughing Satan as an appeal for release. (an illustration, not my eschatology).    

    Let brotherly love continue.  If I heard that a famous Christian leader was in my town, on the streets, hungry and without money, food or a place to stay, I would hurry to take them in. I might even find a traffic jam of similarly motivated Christians when I got there. But this morning I am not motivated to go search for some unknown someone in that same circumstance, although I am certain a brief search would reveal them nearby. Authentic love needs no reward. Oh, I’ve been sent by the Lord to the least of the earth many times to minister to them, but I don’t think that reveals my heart as purely as what I do on the ordinary days of my life toward the ordinary people in my life. 

   In this verse the Greek word translated as love is philadelphia.  It means the kind of love that exists between brothers and sisters or long time friends. Though it seems beyond me, this verse is challenging me to treat all my brothers and sisters in Christ with the same sustained and forgiving and knowing it will never end affection as I do my own siblings. To be certain I get it, God has given me extreme examples saying — Do not forget …… strangers…..Remember…. prisoners ….those who are mistreated…   Wow! On my ordinary days when no one is looking I do not treat strangers as I would my family. I heard the other day that one of my sisters had a truckload of items to carry into her home, so I called and offered to help. That’s philadelphia love. Just show up and help. Seek the opportunity to help. It’s not enough for me to say I’d help if asked. How will a stranger find me to ask?

   I knew to help my sister because I keep myself aware of my family’s lives. …..since you yourselves are in the body also. In Christ, I have a new and larger family into which God Himself has adopted me. I need to open my eyes to the needs of His other children. I’m sure there are a truckload of them.

A Snapshot With His god…

                          Hebrews 1:1-4 (Part 5)…    

 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. (Hebrews 1:1-4)

 

A Snapshot With His god….     

    Were angels competing with Jesus to be worshipped? The answer is yes in several ways. First, Satan is an angel. He not only decided to compete with the Godhead as Lord, he convinced many other angels to join him. God has condemned them forever for their rebellion.  Also, many first century believers had begun worshipping angels. The bible points us clearly to set aside everything but God and to worship Him alone.

   In Revelation Chapter 5 we the distinction of the Deity of Jesus vividly portrayed. (5:2,3) — Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. John saw one of the most powerful angels searching heaven for someone worthy. Eventually he found what he was looking for and it was definitely not an angel (5:11,12a) — Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,  saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb….

   Who is worthy of my worship?

   I met a man in Calcutta, India once who showed me a prized possession. He had a photograph of himself taken with his god. His god was a man from Bangladesh. He had a long beard and was elaborately robed and adorned. I asked him if he often spent time with his god. He responded, “No, he’s dead now. He died of lung cancer. He smoked too much.” (?????????????!!) I shared the Gospel of Jesus with him and told him that I have prayed for people with cancer who Jesus has healed. He shrugged and said, “No thanks, I like my god better.”

   Many who worship various gods or inanimate things have never heard that — He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Others have heard but like the man from Calcutta simply dismiss the deity of Jesus. A still larger group is so focused on what they worship that they never even look for a who.

   Jesus is worthy of my worship. He is God, Redeemer, Healer, Provider, Counselor, Creator, Deliverer, Word, Way, Root, Rock, High Priest, Truth, Lamb of God, Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Advocate, Prophet, Rabbi, Mediator, Alpha, Firstborn, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Holy and True, Good Shepherd, Apostle, Righteous Branch, Hope of Glory and my Savior. I don’t get a photo to remember Him by. Instead, He has carried me into His holy Presence for eternity. That’s definitely – so much better…..

   Worthy is the Lamb who was slain…

A Simplified God

 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. (Hebrews 1:1-4)

Hebrews 1: 1-4 (Part 3)

    I am not actually capable of understanding eternity even though God has by His design placed a notion of it in my heart. — Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. (Ec 3:11 NKJV) God has created me with a hunger to understand His mysteries.

    I like physics and discussions of the incomprehensible like the time space continuum. I am a son of a father and a father of a son, but we are each very distinct individuals. I know that the imagery God chooses is intended for my understanding rather than to validate His explanation. God is the Father. Jesus is the Son. They (and the Holy Spirit) are One in perfect unity. Neither can do or think anything without the full and immediate participation of the other. It’s mind blowing, really. The Father never says, “I wonder what Jesus is doing?” He already knows. He is doing it too.

   Einstein’s life’s work all began with a daydream about what it would be like to ride on a beam of light. The most complex things are often best expressed in the simplest terms, and the simplest things often require enormous explanation. My brain cells shrivel when I try to imagine an endless eternal universe. An endless God came to us in the simplest terms. I am God, the Father, Jesus is my only Son….whom He has appointed heir of all things…  Everything I did, He did with me…. through whom also He made the worlds… Everything I have is His…. and upholding all things…  It is that simple if I allow myself to simply see it.

  In the parable of the wicked vinedressers I read –

⁶Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, “They will respect my son.’ ⁷But those vinedressers said among themselves, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.
⁹“Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. (Mark 12:6-9 NKJV)

   Spurgeon said that Jesus was God’s final ultimatum. When I have refused Him, nothing remains to save me. Fully God, He didn’t come as something, He came as everything. He didn’t come as another revelation, He came as the complete revelation of God. Nothing is missing, nothing is unknown and nothing is unrevealed in Christ… by the word of His power… 

   Millions of pages have been written about individual characteristics of God’s nature like His Grace. I can read all of the complex theology and still be a hell bound goat. Or I can simply accept and simply receive His Grace by tiny seeded faith and be simply saved. Thank you Lord, I understand that.

The Amalekite Spirit…

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt.  When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! (Deuteronomy 25:17-19 NKJV)

   I live in a culturally diverse area. Still it would be easy for me to read these verses and dismiss them as not being relevant to my life because I am certain that no Amalekites live in my neighborhood. But maybe I can find some if I abandon my literalist tendencies and view these verses through spiritual eyes. First, let’s review Amalekites.

   The Amalekites were the descendants of Amalek. He was the grandson of Esau, Jacob’s (renamed by God, Israel) brother. The Amalekites became a semi nomadic people who had two opposing primary characteristics. First they were cruel. Warfare in the Old Testament was a very cruel thing in our modern eyes, even when Israel fought. But the Amalekites were cruel cowards. When Israel was on the Exodus from Egypt, they just trudged along in one huge group. The old, the sick and children lagged behind. In Exodus 17, the Amalekites revealed their cruel and cowardly nature when they attacked the stragglers, slaughtering the weak when no one was near to help them. God condemned them and pledged to wipe them from existence. Everywhere they appear in the biblical narrative, these same two characteristics appear. It seems they never repented.

  The Amalekites first appear in one of the earliest books written, Exodus, a few times throughout the Old Testament, and they appear again in one of the last, Esther. Mordecai, a Jew who understood God’s contempt for the Amalekites, refused to bow to Haman, and Amalekite. Haman was faithful to the Amalekite tradition of being a cruel coward, and God was faithful to his pledge to His promise to give the children of Israel victory of the Amalekites. Mordecai trusted God’s power over Haman’s apparent favor with the Persian King.

   In a spiritual sense, I see my flesh as a cruel and cowardly Amalekite, always seeking a weak place to sneak attack my faith walk. God’s Spirit is at war with the rebellious spirit of my flesh. God’s Spirit will never relent and encourages me to battle my flesh wherever it sneaks in and tries to attack the straggling ungodly desires of my heart that have not yet been firmly re-rooted in the Spirit of the Living Lord, Jesus. God has pledged to never abandon this battle as I am sanctified by the Spirit. From the day I was saved until the day I go to be with the Lord, the battle continues.  

God could have simply destroyed the Amalekites with fire from heaven, but chose instead to challenge the Israelites to learn to recognize and destroy them wherever they appeared.  God’s Spirit identifies for me the rebellions of my flesh through the witness of the Holy Spirit, and He challenges me to recognize and destroy fleshly desires….. I guess the Amalekite spirit lives closer to my home than I first thought.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. (Romans 6:19).

Pillars of shame….

“You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God.  You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates. (Deuteronomy 16:21,22 NKJV)

   Sacred “totems” were common among the pagan Canaanites. Some were carved similarly to those we are more familiar with from Northwestern indigenous tribes with images of actual living things, others with created images, and some left uncarved. Both Alaskan and Canaanite ancients had another similar totem called a “pillar of shame”.  In modern Alaska, a few remain. One has the image of Exxon’s CEO. It is a “pillar of shame” for the perceived unpaid debt to Alaska for damage done when the Valdez spilled oil and polluted the local environment. The concept is that the pillar will stand until the debt is paid. Images carved on totems tell a story, and pillar of shame totems repeat at every glance the story of unpaid debt.

   The worship of God must be pure. Yahweh commands that we don’t worship anything but Him. You shall not plant for yourself any tree…I know I’ve erected several totems to myself over the years. Before I knew Christ, I kind of liked to be exalted. When I read this verse today it made me consider that I may have also erected some pillars of shame. You shall not set up a sacred pillar…. I didn’t cut down any trees to do it, but instead tried to carve someone’s sin into a permanent pillar by repeated mention, ….which the LORD your God hates. I often haven’t initiated a Christian sin totem carving class, but I have participated when I’ve repeated past sin of others. When I preserve someone’s pillar of shame by mindlessly gossiping about their sin, I am denying the existence of Christ’s work on the cross. The damage done to a fellow Christian by verbally re-carving their sin stories is small compared to the damage to our Lord. Gossip is not loved based.

   I know that nothing I have done or can do has remitted my sin. That fruit of Grace is God’s alone, but sometimes I seem to want God to require more than that of others. Grace seems like a sentence too light for them. I want freedom from my transgressions of the law but don’t want my cellmates paroled before their due time.

   The bible says of Jesus — He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. (Hebrews 9:26b) If I erect a sin pillar of shame, I deny my Lord’s plan and purpose. If I say more is required, I am saying that He is an insufficient payment. I know it’s not enough to stop repeating the sin totems into existence. I need to stop listening them into existence too.  

   The Lord is not absent minded. He chooses to forget my sin. He is a just God and his unwillingness to even hold the memory of my forgiven sin reveals his justice. It is gone to prove it is forgiven, to validate the righteousness and finality of the sacrifice and the One who was sacrificed to remove it. OK God. Help me stop carving pillars of shame. Hallelujah, amen. (Praise the Lord, let it be so)

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29 NKJV)

Sticky, sticky sin…

Then the LORD said to me, “Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’ (Deuteronomy 10:11)

   Sin is sticky. It can be hard for me to dust off. When I find myself confronted with my sin, I have various initial improper reactions. Sometimes I begin with denial. Like Aaron who fashioned the golden calf, then denied it to his brother Moses saying — And I said to them, “Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.”  (Exodus 32:24)  Sometimes my best denial just sounds ridiculous, too. Repentance can’t begin until I honestly recognize my responsibility for my sin. Sounds simple, and it should be, but I can be pretty good at self deception when I really don’t want to face the ugly facts.

  When I hear how stupid my sin denial sounds, you might think I would immediately surrender and repent, and I often do. But sometimes, I just switch tactics and blame somebody else for my own choices.  Eve blamed the snake, Adam blamed Eve, but both of them eventually saw the shame of their nakedness before God. I don’t always blame people, and too often I give Satan credit and reduce my resistance to zero by blaming my humanity. Career sin masters often simply decide to excuse it all in the name of human frailty and expand Grace beyond all reason and…. I’ve found myself operating in their model more than once.

  Even when I really struggle with taking responsibility for my sin, I eventually do, and I repent, and only then I find myself at today’s verse – Arise, and begin your journey.  This should be a no brainer, but I have spent some unnecessary time camped at the base of the mountain of God, mired in my sticky, sticky sin. God’s plan is so much simpler – Let’s deal with it then move on. Both the Devil and people (yeah, even people in the church) try to keep my sin stuck to me. Grace dissolves sins adhesive.  

      True repentance erases sin in God’s eyes. Once it is out of His way, He immediately directs me to the next thing – go in. Spiritual border crossings are plagued with naysayers. If the rebellion of disobedience got me caught in sin, it surely can’t make any sense to try to disobey my way past it to God’s next thing for me. One of the surest ways to diminish the horror of my sin memory is to obey God and go in to the next ministry opportunity He points me toward.

   God is good. His goodness is beyond my ability understand it. It is irrational in its provision. Once I am restored from my sin by His Grace because of His subsitutional sacrifice and I hear Him say go in, He always restores me to enter His Kingdom and possess the ministry He has assigned me. It isn’t a possession like material ownership, but a restoration to stand in His authority where He has placed me. God’s Grace to me has been most vividly revealed when I have failed Him in ministry, and He has blessed me and restored me to ministry. The Hebrew pictograph for “blessing” depicts a man with his head on fire. I get that. When God’s mercy and grace is poured out on me in spite of my failures, my mind flames right up, then smolders for days in holy amazement.

    Are you stuck in some sin at the base of God’s mountain? Retract your blame and denial. Repent and cry out to God for forgiveness. Then Arise, begin your journey….go in and possess…

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)