Daily Bible Study Book of 1-2Thessalonians

It seems evident to me that we are right at the end here.  I know the scriptures say that the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church but it seems like they already have.  Often times I feel such a lack of love.  It’s quite natural to blame society, those around me, and especially the Church.  I find myself dumbfounded by the state of the Church today.  

I feel like God is showing me that it’s not over until it’s over and the Church will be resurrected with a defibrillator.  Right before a black holes goes out it first creates what is called a “burst” which is an insurmountable amount of light being radiated outward.  But it only lasts for a moment and then it’s gone.  I feel like we will have one last worldwide great revival where God’s Spirit will be poured out in such grace that people will not be able to question anymore, “Who is God?”  Holiness will once more reign in the Church.  There will be real salvation, and healing.  Then out of nowhere it will all be taken up into the sky as though it was all carried on a vast blanket.  

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”(1Corinthians 15:52)

The people left will be left in utter chaos and darkness “as it was in the days of Noah.”(Matthew 24:37) Before Noah shut the door to the ark he waited 100 years while building it and then God made a miracle showing all the animals filing in and still nobody took heed until God finally sealed the door shut with everyone screaming and scratching at the door to get in.  This time it won’t be animals filing in this Second Ark but it will be souls filing in by the droves!

I have realized that rather than complain I can be the change I want to see. All is going according to God’s plan.  I must use my anguish for striving for what’s right, and for forgiveness, and for a deeper relationship with God rather than for complaining.  It’s easy to get stuck in my own head and become immobile.  I finally found the true meaning to the glass being half full.  Often times I feel empty in life.  It’s all about perspective.  I’m calling the glass half empty rather than half full.  This life can never always offer an entirely full glass.  It wasn’t designed that way.  If it was always full then I wouldn’t have to do my part and participate.  And in that I can find joy in all things through the Holy Spirit.

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”(Matthew 24:7-14)

“Lord God I pray that the Church would stop playing footsie with the world and wake up like a sleeping giant.  I pray that elders would rise up again and encourage and admonish rather than selling books, and music, and proclaiming, “peace, peace!”  I pray that the church would be a home again and a safe haven from the world for people to pour in.  I pray that real affectionate love would come back rather than these fake hallmarks.  I pray that the Church would be a community again where people live together and study Your Word together, and go out and reach others rather than just meeting for an hour a week and calling it a life group.  And I pray that real life, and healing, and salvation would return, and that people would dare to take hold of Your Holy Spirit and truly soar again! I also pray that workers be sent into the field and I also proclaim choose me! I pray that we would remain positive and forgiving of the Church and thankful for her. I pray that we would ask what can I do for the Church rather than what can it do for me and that we all would be the change we seek to see. I especially pray that we would all come together again and that people would know You by our unity. Thank You Lord Jesus for Your vision for our lives, the Church, and the whole universe!! Amen!!!”  

Daily Bible Study Book of Colossians

I was walking around the mall and I saw this kid walking with his mom who was crippled.  He was holding his mom’s hand for support.  I realized every time someone like that was mentioned in the scripture Jesus healed them.  I began praying for them in my head.  I wished I had the courage to go up there and ask if I could pray for him and not just for the nice gesture but with the real faith to back it up for a real physical healing.  Then I realized how faithlessness was alien to Jesus and that’s why He even marveled at His disciples unbelief.  Jesus was truly not from this earth. I began praying for the Air that He breathed.  

As I continued walking around the mall I was being tempted toward lust like I usually am.  I always can’t help but to take a second look which usually leads to more.  Then I realized that this was also alien to Jesus.  He didn’t know what it was to sin. It was wholly and entirely foreign to Him.  Although He was in flesh like mine so sin could knock on His door He was always too repulsed to ever think about opening the door.  So I realized that I must never take the second look.  This can only be done by breathing the same Air that Jesus breathed.  

Then I walked outside it was freezing and I realized that this is what sin felt like to Jesus.  That’s what kept Him from sinning.  This world around us is a kaleidoscope of the thoughts of God if only we would recognize and take heed we would be able to stay away from sin and also have the faith we need.

“How precious also are Your thoughts for me, God!  How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.”(psalm 139:17-18)

“Lord Jesus I pray that we all would so drink of Your Spirit to the full that we would walk in it every moment of every day through prayer, Bible study, fellowship, always being cognizant of Your Voice, and by always loving. And I pray for healing, an increase in faith, and living life free from sin. Thank You Lord God! Amen!!”

Long Time No See

I was praying this morning for a friend who keeps falling away and I was wondering if I should fast for them.  Then I felt something strange that I haven’t felt in a long time.  I felt like God began speaking to me and showing me that He is coming for His people.  He’s coming to awaken a sleeping church from her dead works.  He’s going to lift us up by His strong arm.  We are going to mount up on wings of eagles and experience revival like times of old.  We are going to experience something like never seen before and where going to see the face of God.  He’s going to show us who He is.  

Daily Bible Study Philippines 1-2

Why is the reception of Christ so counterintuitive?  Even people raised in the faith come up lacking when it comes to really connecting with Christ although most will not admit it and just go through the motions all the while touting a personal relationship with God.  That is precisely what makes it a relationship is the process it takes to grow in the knowledge of someone.  

There are times when I feel so connected to God and other times I feel like I’m kicking against the pricks.  I used to think something was wrong with me and wonder why I wasn’t getting it while other Christians are going about there lives free of anxiety and depression experiencing that fulfillment in Christ.  I realize a lot of people kind of just fake it until they make it.  While this isn’t a bad attitude to have in life it can fall apart for you in your faith. 

Faith without works is like a rocket without fuel.  What would be the point?  That would be one heavy paper weight.  Faith is our pursuing on despite external or internal circumstances.  We mustn’t build our treasure here on earth.  It’s always going to feel empty here.  You pursue one goal and when it’s accomplished then you feel the same as when you begun.  So then you have to set another goal.  And on and on it goes until you find yourself just chasing after earthly desires, the pride of life.  The true fuel for lifting that heavy burden is to pursue Heaven above all else. 

 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.”(Matthew 6:33)

“Lord God Most High I pray that we would all pursue hard after You.  You can’t be out loved.  I pray that we would so let go of the things of the world that we would be able to see Your Face even here in this earth even if it takes letting go of family, home, or career.  Thank You Lord for such a radiant freedom.  Cause us to see when we are really working for You or just doing it for ourselves even if it’s in ministry.  Let us be so sensitive that we would share in Your vision for spreading Your Kingdom in this earth and not merely relying on our own beggarly near sightedness. And I pray for healing for everyone physical or spiritual even here and now because You never turned anyone away in the scripture.  Pray for us St. Paul and all of the saints interceding for us and all of our angles and family in Heaven sunbeams of Christ. Thank You Lord Jesus Almighty God!  Amen!!”

Daily Bible Study Book of Ephesians

Some would say that to tremble is a sign of weakness and not something that is good at all but God Almighty says that it’s one of the highest virtues and even shows us in Christ in Whom walked in the fear of the Lord as His greatest joy!  Everything is patterned after Heaven. There is even vulnerability within God.  God is infinitely vulnerable.  He is all in all.  He’s above as well as below.  Part and parcel. Did you know that the God of the whole universe feels joy like a child? Can you imagine an innocents that surpasses a babe?

“Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to our God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is clear that this excludes the Father who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.”(1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

There is a metamorphosis taking place here.  And in a metamorphosis there is a destroying of things and a mixing of things to make one new thing.  From our vantage point it would appear as mixed fibers and that God is transgressing(Leviticus 19:19) but for us it’s actually the coming together of all things but from Heaven’s vantage point it’s something that always was and always will be.  And what it is I dare say is the marriage ceremony.  But to go beyond the mystery before the awakening would be to transgress like the newagers who mix colors with paint in the lower regions and produce darkness.  We are to be like Christ who mixed colors in holiness and righteousness using light to produce pure white lite.  This is indeed the dawning of the new age, the rising of the Bright and Morning Star, and the descending of the New Jerusalem! Are you aware of it?

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.”(Philippines 2:5-8)

Perhaps the fellow that reached out and actually touched the arch found a secret.  Could he have found Christ and got zapped straight into Heaven while the rest couldn’t understand the mercy of God and continued moping about on the earth?(2 Samuel 6:3-8)

“Most Awesome and Heavenly Father I pray that we would stop judging one another, ourselves, and even You.  I pray that we would all repent and let You be You entirely at every and any given moment.  I pray that we would truly know what it is to be Your friend and be vulnerable before Your Vulnerability and exposed before Your Exposure in this idle play. I pray that we would be able to so let go that we would be willing to fall.  And I pray that we would fall so that we would fall upward and truly fly in Your Tender Care and Sweet Embrace.  Thank You that Your Heart beats for us and even pants for us.  I pray that we would also pant unto the full and truly know what it is to love You and everyone and everything around us.  I pray that we would all truly cross this threshold and even drink from these Drippings from the Comb.  Thank you Holy and Only True God in Your Most Holy and Precious Son’s Name Jesus Forever and Ever. Thank You Lord Most Transparent before the throne, Perfect Intercession, Most Vulnerable, Sole Companion Amen!!”

Life is Unexpected and Absurd

In order for a diamond to shimmer it must contain light and shadow.  Is this world evil because it merely pales in comparison to the actual reality, Heaven?  By no means!  For God has said that it is good!  In here is where we develop patience more valuable than gold.  The most supreme of values: hope, faith, and love are all cultivated in the soil of patience and the soul is shepherded in the container of this globe on God’s bedside and His eye never leaves its sight as He waits in hopeful expectation for our enlightenment!  We don’t have to wait to die to live.  We can live yet while we are alive.  

“I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”(John 11: 25-26)

If we only pay attention to the signs and wonders God is sending us throughout the day.  Many people are afraid to wonder.  Many are afraid to look.  The key is to be perplexed but not dismayed(2Corinthians 4:8).  The other key is holiness.  This is the very title God goes by: “The Holy Spirit”.  The Holy Spirit is our only and direct line to the Almighty.  Christ is the refulgence of the Glory and the Holy Spirit is the touch there of and the guts spilled out.  Christ warned of those who thought they knew Him but didn’t and He turned them away because they where workers of iniquity.  “But I thought it wasn’t about works?”  You ask?  “I thought it was about relationship?”  “But they even ate at His very table!”  They had a relationship with an ideal of Christ and not with the very Christ.  They neglected His Holy Spirit named after Holiness it’s self.  They ignored the signs to do things their own way.  They ignored the wonders  because of fear to find their own comfort.  Don’t be fooled.  If a church seems unspiritual it is in no wise harmless.  There is no lack of spiritual activity at any given moment or place.  

“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.”(John 15:3)

“Thank you Father that life is unexpected and even absurd. Thank you Lord that our works are the very fruit we seek.  Thank you that we get to do these works but that we also got to like how eating real fruit is a pleasure yet also vital nourishment four our bodies. And I especially pray that we would all stay vigilant in Your Word. Amen.”

Love

All it takes is acceptance and recognition.  It often feels like you can’t get past that point but each day is a new day for the joy of getting past it and for receiving more and more revelation and for going from glory to glory.  It feels horrible to surrender but it only lasts a moment and then one is locked into the glory.  One must fall several times in order to get back up.  Even Jesus fell under the weight of the cross and needed assistance.  The cross has been made a thing of glory.  Once used as a fearful fiery sword to banish us from Eden it is now our revolving door back in to come and go and take pasture.  We assist Christ in this earth by recognizing others and make up for what’s lacking in His afflictions.  We can be a friend to God and nurse His wounds by being of assistance to others.  One should not so much seek to be loved as to love.  

Daily Bible Study(2Corinthians 10):

We often create scenarios in our minds to bring around a certain thought and finish off an ideal.  We want things to be smooth so we tie together loose ends.  This isn’t always a bad thing because if we didn’t do this we wouldn’t be able to form an understanding on anything.  No matter how crude it may be it is only one building block and several must be created with some of them being nocked out of the building to make room for others that fit the whole better.  Like an egg that’s fully formed and completely sealed eventually it must give way to life and be utterly obliterated for the actual living reality it contains.  

All signs point to Christ, from the light of ancient Israel to the darkness of ancient Egypt.  “Out of Egypt I called My Son”.  The ancient Israelites where held in a land called Goshen meaning comfort and plenty where they fell asleep.  Within that land was a city called Ramses meaning, “Son of God.”  In the seed of ancient Israel was carried out of Egypt the very Son of God.  He was with them the whole time and never departed them until they finally crucified Him.  

We should never go beyond our sphere of influence and step on someone else’s toes.  We are all incapsulated within our own spheres of influence from our country, culture, family, and immediate influences.  It’s impossible to see past and even when we think we’re seeing past it we’re still only drawing from the very own sphere itself.  Only the light of Christ can pierce through it and it doesn’t come without a considerable amount of pain.  He’s the complete Light inside of us, the complete darkens.  We must let Him take us by the hand and lead us.  

“If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now that you maintain, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”(John 9:41)  

“Heavenly Father I pray that we could all be enlightened by Your Spirit.  That we would let You be You completely.  That we would allow you to crack this egg of the flesh and allow Your Pure Yoke to pour forth.  That we would so rest in this Rising Bright and Morning Start that we would fall upwards and let go to be carried away in Your pinions and complete and total salvation.  Thank you Jesus!  Amen!!”

Daily Bible Study(1 Corinthians 9):

I always set aside my hope until the thing takes place so that way I won’t be disappointed.  I found that this keeps me from giving into emotionalism going up and down in hope and then disappointment.  So I’m leaning on discipline in order to be careful and not give into fanaticism.  I have found my life to become very bland in my “stability” and reliance on wisdom, and discernment.  

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants.”(Matthew 11:25)

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”(Proverbs 13:12)  The plowman ought to plow in hope.  Love is made up of faith and hope.  Faith gets us through by knowing something is despite the way we feel and hope is the exhilarating joy of the reality of what’s coming and hope doesn’t disappoint.  Love believes all things and the Word of God never comes back void!  There is nothing more natural and exhilarating than for one to be able to trust their own heart. The heart of stone is untrustworthy above all else but the new heart of flesh in Christ Jesus is absolutely trustworthy and the seat of the Holy Spirit who is Love Himself!

This is how hope drives one: “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.”(1 Corinthians 9:16-18) 

This is the recipe for pure and unadulterated freedom!  Paul preached out of pure desire and not out of command.  With any dream one must plan and stay consistent.  The hard work can’t be negated but that’s what makes it all so worth it.  That’s why he says he’s under compulsion because if he doesn’t do it he will regret the great great reward.  Discipline could not motivate someone to this degree.  No, this was pure and unadulterated hope and then discipline was used accordingly.  Paul said he found joy in all things.  Here in lies the answer to finding joy in all things: “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all..”(1 Corinthians 9:19)  One soon finds that the whole universe is here to assist them as they  are completely yielded to Christ.  

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”(1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

“Lord Jesus I pray that we can truly walk in freedom and joy in this hope you have given us to partake of your kingdom in this earth.  Thank you that we get to do this but that we’ve also got to walk in true love in order to stay in this miraculous freedom and the spreading thereof.  And anyone who has lost hope I pray that they would dare to hope again and only believe.  Reawaken long forgotten dreams.  I also pray for healing of physical ailments even now for anyone who needs it in your holy Name and by Your precious Blood and Your Church would truly become one again.  Thank you Heavenly Father Amen!”  

Daily Bible Study

Romans: 8-10

If love is not a law then why are we worshiping God along with the very mechanism with which He used to save us?  That’s like Noah, after the flood,  getting out of the ark with his family, setting up an alter before it, lighting some incense, and then bowing down in worship before it.  We could say that Christ is the second ark made of flesh, but yet a much more secure one, an eternally secure one.   But, now we have God as a Man, and now there’s someone along next side to Him, and on top of all that He now has an image.  This has broken every criterion of the very first commandment, and second one.  But, how can I deny what I can now see since I’ve been following Christianity, how much God loves me.  Nothing accentuates that as much as God Himself coming down and dying for me.  This is what the majority has gotten when they asked for the truth.  This is what I’ve gotten when I asked.  It promotes peace more then any other religion through passivity, charity, and forgiveness.  When you think about it it actually is the most logical faith when it comes to love because where other religions call for justice, and rightfully so, this one calls for a radical forgiveness.  You could say God  broke all the rules to save us.  It’s not the glass that contains the water but it’s the water that contains the glass.  And that’s the exact opposite of idolatry.  God has utterly crushed the Law.  Do we still need a law though?  We still do have one but it’s bursting at the seems like a cracked vessel with its oil leaking out everywhere about ready to explode.  The present reality is disintegrating before our eyes.  When Christ told the leper not to tell anyone about his healing but to go tell the priests so that he could be cleansed under the law of Moses The leper actually went and published it everywhere.  I’m certain that it was the Holy Spirit that was bubbling up inside of him until he couldn’t contain himself and he couldn’t but holdback and proclaim the good news on the mountain tops.  He truly triumphed by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of his testimony and didn’t love his life so much as to shrink from death until the towns where filled with the knowledge and glory of God so much that it flooded even into the desert places where Jesus ministered unto them!