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Posts Tagged ‘Freedom’

Praise and Worship

Posted in Christian, Christianity, Faith, God, God's love, Jesus, Life in the Spirit, Praise, Prayer, Uncategorized, Worship, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

I hope you are well and that you will be encouraged and blessed this morning!

I had quite a vivid dream last night…

silhouette image of person praying

Photo by Rodolfo Clix on Pexels.com

At one point in my dream, I found myself in a large room with many other believers. I had the distinct impression that we were gathered together due to the prevailing challenging circumstances. We were all praying in the Spirit. There was some passion and urgency in our prayers, I guess it was proportional to the amount of pressure we were all under (oh, the wisdom of pressure that can, if we choose, push us into the Father’s heart).

I remember I had this song bubble up in my heart and out of my mouth…

Praise Him, He is here!
Praise Him, He is here!
Praise Him, He is here!
Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him!

It was at this point that I woke up.

Then I started bumbling around with my smartphone, pressing wrong buttons and waking up my wife (always not a good thing). I was trying to write down the above  simple song that not only praises Jesus but acknowledges His presence. I knew I wouldn’t remember it in the morning. I finally succeeded.

It took me a while to go back to sleep but as I pondered and sang this song (in my head) I remembered the scripture where Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well.[Luke 4:1-26] In particular, Jesus, at one point says to the woman (verse 22)

…”You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know”…

As this woman found out, an encounter with Jesus radically transforms our praise and worship. We begin to praise and worship what we know, or rather, who we know, instead of who or what we don’t know. We go from worshiping in ignorance to worshiping in truth. What a great revelation and freedom this is!

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (not where but who) (not ignorance but truth):
…21 “Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.…

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And God put ENMITY between them…

Posted in Christian, Christianity, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

This clip comes from ‘The Passion’ movie.  It’s poetic license at it’s best as Jesus has ‘crushed the head of the serpent’ at and through the cross, not here at Gethsemene (and not a real snake).  However, for me at least, it is a powerful visual of what Jesus’ death and resurrection has achieved in the spiritual (which is perhaps the original intent).

Note: A snake’s poison is lodged in its head so crushing a snake’s head leads to the snake fatally ‘drowning’ in its own poison.

The reference is:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
[Gen 3:15]

So what is ENMITY? – actively oppossed, active hatred, active hostility

Kind of like a modern day terrorist? – Yes, that right – actively destructive

Who’s involved? – Well, God is speaking to the serpent and the other party is Eve.

Anybody else? – Yes, the serpent’s offspring and Eve’s offspring

I don’t get it? – The serpent’s offspring are the evil spirits and the wickedness of man and Eve’s offspring is all of humanity including Christ and His Church.

It says God put this enmity there, so it’s all His fault? No, no!  Everyone is responsible for their own heart and ‘yes’ the devil has a heart.  It’s just that his heart is divorced from anything good.  There is nothing good in him.  Therefore his heart is filled with hatred, lies, deception and destruction.  He is totally against God, and more specifically those made in God’s own image.  God has allowed this to happen.  And God is still completely in control.

So why does it say ‘HE will crush your head’, isn’t Eve a she? Ah yes, very observant! God is not talking about Eve but one of her offspring.

Who is this? Well, it’s the only one who is worthy and has the authority to crush the serpent’s head and that is Jesus.

What about ‘and you will strike his heel’ bit? The serpent was allowed by God to strike the humanity of Jesus. Also, God allows the serpent (the devil, Satan) to attack the humanity of man as well but Jesus’ death and resurrection gives us victory over anything the evil one can try to do to us.

So this verse is quite prophetic? Absolutely! God not only pronounces a curse over the serpent but also prophesies about His Son!

So this verse is quite important? Yes! It not only explains our past, it also explains our present and our future.

How do you mean? Well, 1) it explains what happened in the past 2) it explains our present and why the world is the way it is 3) it hints or prophesies to God’s solution for mankind (Jesus) and 4) it explains or lays out the future.  You see the future isn’t uncertain; it is set and complete.  The devil has been defeated.  Jesus is the victor!  We no longer have to perish in our sins but we can have a sure hope of our future through Jesus Christ!

But wait a minute, why didn’t God finish everything up at the cross? Good question! Why don’t you ask God this? But do you realise that you wouldn’t be here if God did that!  These days that we live in are days of God’s grace where every person has the tremendous opportunity to receive or reject God’s graceous gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.

John 3:16 says this:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,  that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

You will never have this day again. 

Believe Jesus and receive Him into your heart today!

In Jesus name

Amen!

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It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us Free!

Posted in Christian, Christianity, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Galation 5:1 says this;

It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. [Gal 5:1]

What an amazing truth!  Why has Christ set us free?  The answer is right here in this verse; “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free”.  Jesus has set us free for our…

FREEEEEEEEDOM!!!!

Jesus proclaimed and fullfilled the prophecy of Isaiah when He read:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim FREEDOM for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  [Luke 4:18-19]

Now the average person may say; “I (that’s a gi-normous ‘I’) am not a slave to anyone or anything”.  What freedom are you talking about?”  We read a similar response in v33 on John chapter 8 from the Jews;

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants  and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”  34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. [John 8:31-36]

Do these Jews know there history?  Of course they do.  This statement isn’t about the facts, it’s about their pride.  Here’s my interpretation of their response to Jesus;

“We are “GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE”, nobody, I mean nobody is master over us, BUDDY!”

Their response is a statement of their prideful hearts.  Can YOU see what Jesus is saying?  Sin and the Devil no longer have mastery over us.  Everything that sets itself up as master over our lives is torn down.  We are truly and ‘indeed’ set free by (the blood of) Jesus. I’m not talking just about our life in Heaven, I am talking about our life now!  Jesus sets us free NOW.  Those things that bind us and trap us and oppress us NO LONGER HAVE MASTERY OVER OUR LIVES.  Their power is broken by the blood of Jesus.

The Devil hates these verses…

13 When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive — right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, 14 the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s Cross. 15 He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets. [Col 2:13-15 – THE MESSAGE]

The Devil and his cohorts are stripped of all their power.

THEY HAVE NO POWER IN A BORN AGAIN BELIEVERS LIFE.

The only power that they have is the power that we give them; either deliberately by our rebelliousness, or by their deception, or by our accepting and believing lies instead of the Truth.

Do you believe that?  If you do believe that, I have a question; should your life look a whole lot different to what it does now?

Is your light shining?

Here is a prophecy about the ‘Future Glory for Jerusalem’
“Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light shine for all to see.  For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you.  Darkness as black as night covers all the nations of the earth, but the glory of the Lord rises and appears over you.  All nations will come to your light; mighty kings will come to see your radiance. [Isa 60:1-3 – NLT]

Do people really not notice any difference?

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. [Matt 5:14-16 – NLT]

Is the light of the glory of the cross shining through your life?

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.  We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. [2 Cor 4:6-7 – NLT]

REPENT!

Turn around and go the other way!  Repentance is not just about stopping what you are doing and asking for God’s forgiveness and mercy (as big as that is).  It’s also about  going the opposite way to the way you were going.  Repentance now has you walking towards the Light, not away from Him.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I believe in you.  I believe you died and you rose again and you defeated sin and death and the Devil.  The Devil doesn’t have a hold on me.  I am redeemed by your blood.  I repent of my wicked and rebellious ways. Forgive me Lord Jesus.  Open my eyes to the lies and the deception of the Devil.  Search my heart, and reveal any deceptive ways.  Renew my heart.  Transform my mind.  Set my feet upon the Rock, in Jesus name, AMEN

Message inspired by Gary Althorp – Freedom

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