The Passover Lamb

The Holy one calls me this morning.  In what seems like a random focus on Scripture, I realize He has been leading me back to the history of Israel and Egyptian bondage.  I understand why He is taking me back to the chapters in Exodus and their journey out of the land of the Pharaoh.

The Jewish celebration of Passover is just ahead on the calendar of the year, as well as the day we celebrate as the Resurrection of the Savior, Jesus the Christ.

From start to finish the Word of God is a revelation of Himself.  Each word is power packed with significance to us in getting to know Him personally.  God is Sovereign; all powerful, all knowing, all present, all of the time.

He is outside of any box the human might try to place Him in.  Our Sovereign God is above all thinking and vastly beyond our understanding.  There is nothing the human can do to add one thing to His Glorious Being.  He is complete in and of Himself and needs nothing from us to exist.

While that is quite disturbing to our pride and need to be needed, or our depraved sense of control where we are driven to self-protect.  the truth is that we are as vulnerable and ignorant as a herd of sheep to which we are likened in scripture.

Acceptance of that reality has enabled me to begin to look accurately to His Sovereignty and find my place in His scheme of things AKA His Divine purpose.

I am filled with the awe and wonder of a Sovereign Creator, Who, while He doesn't need me, has chosen me for His own delight.  He has set His love upon man, whom He created for the purpose of relationship, that He doesn't need but yet desires.

This love He chooses to convey to us is eternal and while we cannot begin to understand the essence of it,  love is who He is, not just what He extends.  God IS love.

Human love is a degraded emotion and not sustainable by us.  Human love is wrongly defined as lust or affection and has everything to do with reciprocal action.  Few realize that true love involves, and is, in fact, a decision, not an emotion. Love is a chosen covenant to be honored and it started with God and His great love for His beloved.

Scripture from start to finish and from Genesis to Revelation is the story of God's eternal love for man.  Over thousands of years in Earth's time, God's love never changed.

Before Adam and Eve were created and placed in the Garden of Eden, God loved.

God foreknew Adam and Eve, the serpent AKA the devil.  God foreknew Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul and John.  God foreknew you and God foreknew me.

The Passover is a wonderful time to remember and celebrate His eternal if not historic love for us.

God's story is one of rescue:

God rescues His Beloved
God rescues His Creation
God rescues you......and God rescues me.

Centuries ago, the Children of Israel were rescued from cruel bondage and slavery in Egypt.  God used Egypt for generations to protect them while He built up the 12 tribes of Israel into the numbers and nation they became.

Then, at the exact moment in history according to God's Sovereign decision, Moses entered the scene and facilitated the miraculous rescue of His people out of Egypt and on through the Red Sea.  The night of their departure made history and the celebration of Passover has been re-enacted and remembered ever since.

As exciting and exhilarating as that day of God's rescue was, historically, for the Children of Israel, it was a symbol and precedent set by Holiness for all people ever born.  That event was a pre-cursor of the coming of the Anointed One we call Jesus, who would be the "Passover Lamb" for the entire world of humanity.

The dreaded day for the "Egyptians" was the ultimate rescue for the Jew at that time.  God's servant. Moses, was given the warning ahead of time from the Lord as to what was about to happen.  God's people followed the Divine and Holy instructions that would represent their protection from the judgement that was to come over the land and the people in Egypt.

They were told to choose a lamb for their household and on a certain day of the month, they were to "slaughter" their lamb.  Ex 12:7, says to, "take some of the blood and put it on the tops and sides of their door frames, of the houses where they eat the lambs".

Ex 12:12, "On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down the first born, both men and animals, and I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt.  I am the Lord.  The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are.  And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.  No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.  This is a day you are  to commemorate.....for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord....a lasting ordinance".

Fast forward down the timeline and history of our days, to the year of our Lord.  The night before He was crucified, He and the disciples met together to commemorate the ordinance of the Passover Feast.  This was the last passover of the old Covenant.  What was to follow, would be and is the New Testament and the ultimate rescue by the Sovereign God of all Creation.

The Passover Lamb was a symbol of Christ  under the Old Covenant and His Crucifixion was the manner of death set by Holiness for the remission (wiping out, forgiveness) of sin, that, since the fall of man, had separated us from our Holy, Creator God.

God is ultimately Holy and therefore hates what is unholy and is otherwise defined as "sin".

Just as for the Jewish people on the night of "Passover", the Blood of the Lamb must be on the doorposts of our house (I.E our hearts) for us to be spared the plague of destruction that is coming against the world.

Just as the Jewish people had to make a decision to trust God and His Divine way of seeing to their rescue, we have been given a choice and decision as well.   Any house in all of Egypt not under the symbolic protection of the blood of the Passover lamb sustained death.   In the same way every heart not under the protective Blood of Jesus the Christ will sustain death....eternal death. 

Thousands of years separated the two, but the night of "Passover" echoed the same  message of love from the Eternal place of the Divine Creator, as the day of the Crucifixion of our Lord.  The Cross of Calvary, the Lamb slaughtered, the innocent Blood shed....all for us.

But the story doesn't end there, and we are not left with a horrifying memory of a mutilated Savior.  For God's way is not death but rather life.  And His rescue requires resurrection.   So in the majesty of an act that only the Creator and Source of all life could execute, the Crucified Savior walked out of the tomb alive.

Three days after the last Passover celebration of the Old Covenant, a new and lasting Testament of God's love and rescue was set.   We now celebrate the Resurrected Life of our Savior.  Because of His incredible sacrifice, we can share in a relationship with  the Sovereign God of the Universe and live with the promise of eternal life once this one folds.

Heb 9:27, "Just as man is destined to die once and then face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and He will appear a second time not to bear sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him."

The Ark of Noah, the Passover Lamb, the Cross of Christ all important for us to realize that a Holy God will judge the earth and all who have lived upon it.   The unique thing about the Cross of Christ is that The Savior, Jesus, who hung upon it, sustained the judgement and death required by Holiness.  God's judgement of a fallen world was vented on His Son 2000 years ago.  The Holy Blood shed that day protects all who claim it as their shield,  just as the blood of the Passover Lamb shielded the Children of Israel when they obediently put it on their door frames.

The Blood of the Passover lamb saved many people on the night the death angel passed through Egypt.  But it was a just symbol of the coming Messiah's rescue.  The Blood of Christ was shed once for all.  His life was given as a randsom for yours and for mine.   Let us remember it well this year as this may be the last Resurrection day we celebrate this side of Heaven.  I, for one, am eternally thankful knowing I am safe.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 







  

Take Up Your Cross

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  So much to ponder as my education in Holiness has gone to a higher level.  I've been in "elementary school" for so long and the arrogance of one in the highest grade begins to manifest, and is being called out as I face graduation and the beginning of a new and deeper course of study.

Pride gives way to the excitement of finding out more about the Lover of my soul.  This is what the school of Holiness is really all about.  Discovering more about the One Who calls me into a Sacred Romance with Himself.

The Holy One opens up the conversation this morning with what seems to be a random statement.  "Humans want heroes.  When humans see what they perceive as a a loss, they come to despise the "loser".

I wonder where He is going with this and then I get a picture of Jesus standing before Pilate.  His body beaten and His head pierced by a crown of thorns.  The Glory of God hidden within the mutilated flesh of a tortured "man". 

Then came the moment for the crowd to vote.  John 18:36-John 19:16 tells the story. 

In John 18:36, Jesus lays it out, "My kingdom is not of this world".  He continues, "In fact for this very reason I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the Truth.  Everyone on the side of Truth listens to Me."

Now there was another prisoner by the name of Barabbas, who had taken part in a rebellion.  Two "men" were in line for execution that day, but due to the benevolence of Pilate, one would be  released. 

Who would it be?  It was left to the crowd to decide,  and the rebel was set free. 

Most of us know the rest of the story. Jesus, the Christ, went to the Cross, died as One innocent, to pay the price that Holiness demands for the sin of all men.  It had to happen.  Jesus came to die and nothing the crowd did that day would have changed the Sovereign's plan for our rescue.

However, the fate of those in the crowd was decided by their vote. And that scene has been repeated every day over all the generations of men ever since.  Every day that the story is re-told, the ones who hear it are being required to choose. 

Jesus was never silent about what it would cost to follow Him.  He promised persecution. He said that the Son of Man had no place to lay His head.   He told all who would follow Him to count the cost before they commit.  But the promise that He gave on the flip side was the rescue from the wages of sin which is death and the eternal separation from the light of all life. He promised peace that passes all understanding not to mention an eternity in Paradise with the Creator of the Universe with no more sorrow and no more tears and no more pain. 

Unfortunately, the fluffy gospel has been given.  We hear the promises and are not advised of the cost.   Most are quite shocked to realize that to choose the One crucified means that we must follow Him into death.  It is a far more pleasant thought to follow a rebel who lives to fight another day for the temporal freedom and pleasures.

The point the Holy One makes is very clear to me now and He asks each one in the crowd, "Who is willing to be identified with the One crucified?  The "loser" in the day of the Romans"?  "Who is willing to stand with Jesus and His Kingdom even to the point of death?" The Gospel means death to the ones who embrace it. 

This message and therefore the truth  has been taken out of most of our presentations of the Gospel.  "Join Jesus and God will be pleased.  Your life will be brimming over with blessings in this temporal world" is the message most take away from the Church.  History tells us that to follow Jesus Christ brings persecution and possible death.  The "feel-good" Gospel is exposed as a fraud every day as we try to live with a foot in both worlds.

The way of life as a Christian is to pick up our cross DAILY and follow Him.  This life is a daily sacrifice of the self life, chosen and then tested .  The Cross is simply a place of execution, nothing darker nor deeper than surrendering our right to self unto Jesus so that we can become more like Him every day. 

Today, in our land, our sacrifice is not unto physical death but rather death to our flesh desires in order to follow our Hero.

Someday it might require more.  But the question must be asked, if we are unwilling to live for Him today, how we ever be able to die for Him tomorrow?  If you had been in the crowd that day, what would have been your vote?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

The Mystery of God's Sovereignty*

The Holy One calls me today.  It's an exhilarating new day.  Even before first light, the Spirit is making His Presence known.  Truth floods my mind.  The Truth that has been there but today even before my first cup of coffee, my mind is standing at attention.

What, you might ask, caused such a powerful wake-up call?

I have been slogging through the mud-pit of legalism most all of my life.  Having been raised up under the "law" and "wrath" of a Holy God.   I was delivered the distorted message that a person has to come to Holiness with something to offer.

As life progressed, there was always this self-search of my worth and value that somehow had an impact over my peace with God.  Religion has a way of doing that and it is disturbing to faith.

Early on, I learned from a season of  personal "back sliding", how wretched I am in the flesh and how capable I am of the most complete depravity the human can conjure up.  While that season held important lessons in my refinement on the issue of judgemental-ism, it did not cure the disease called legalism.

Recognizing that I had a "disease" of the heart and brain has been important to the cure.   My desire for a closer walk with Holiness has brought out the necessity of a deep healing of the mis-understanding of my standing.

This morning's call from my Heavenly Counselor has me flying out of my sleep zone with great anticipation of what He is about to say:

"You have asked for healing and it is yours.  You must understand that legalism flourishes where you look for reasons for My actions as some sort of reward.  Conversely, you brace for and expect a punishment (discipline) when you make mistakes or fail in the 'law"  You must leave all that behind and trust Me because I am God Eternal before you ever did one thing good or bad.  My Sovereignty is not debatable, and no one will be able to come before Me with justified petitions apart from the Righteous Blood of My Son".

When Holiness speaks, I realize my real size in the universe.  Somewhat like an ant to a gi-ant and then  some. As I ponder this great truth about God and about me, I can "see" that a lot of my trust  was based on a sense of my own rightness, or the rightness of a cause(s).  That I did something to earn my salvation is a trap  holding many victims. 

The truth is that God's rescue is never based on any glorious rightness that we might claim.  There are too many right causes that never find victory and too many evil ones that seem to prevail.  If we keep the standard and expectation of victory on the basis of our goodness and not God's Holiness, we will be forever stuck in a dark place of not really knowing the Lord.  Our goodness and His Holiness are light years apart.

God's Truth falls hard on human arrogance and pride.  Even as a believer in the Savior Son of God, Jesus the Christ, I know I am out of control.  The fact resounds throughout Eternity that Christ died for me before I did anything right or wrong, to prove that I was born in sin.  Romans 5:8 (NIV) tells us that "God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were yet sinners Christ died for us."

I must accept that God chose me to come to the place of salvation and even then drew me to Himself.  Why do we take pride on our own salvation apart from the humble thanksgiving that we have been chosen.  After that, why do we move into the "spoiled child"category instead of the place of wonder, of just being the Lord's Beloved?  John 15:16, "you did not chose Me but I chose you".

I have nothing to bring as a reason for the Sovereign God of all Creation to choose me or act in my behalf.  There was no "nugget" of goodness in me that caused Holiness to choose me.  While that makes me nervous at first, the more I settle in, and grasp that truth, the more I realize the wisdom in His design.

His Glory does not rest on who I am or my actions or even my understanding of what really brings Him Glory.  One look at the Cross from the human perspective reveals that lack of understanding.

What moves the Sovereign to rescue is a mystery too great for us to fathom here.  It is somehow embedded in the Being of a merciful and loving God, who is beyond our comprehension now.

Today, the Lord my God has taken me deeper into the dark and mysterious cloud of His Holiness.  Today I know I can and must trust God's Sovereignty without any other reason than because He is God.   He can and will rescue because it is His Glorious character to do so and not because of all the right reasons that might be given by a human.

Today, I caught a little glimpse of His Majesty,  and the Holy One draws me to my feet to stand in awe and wonder of our Sovereign and merciful God. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

Do You Know Him?

The Holy One calls me this morning.  Together we are working to rid my heart of any and all unbelief.  Actually the unbelief seems to start in my mind with lies by the enemy of my soul and without realizing the toxic nature of the lie, the "evidence" supporting it begins to surface, and it seems like truth..

As the "evidence" falls into place, there comes a heart shift, subtle at first, but left unchecked the heart becomes cold, indifferent and resigned to what the enemy wants me to believe. 

People around me are sick and some have died.  Compromise in the lives of those who claim to be "Christian" is obvious and yet we are told that grace covers all sin.  Doom and gloom prevail with famine and drought, physically and spiritually being experienced by most of us who live on the earth.  Yet when Jesus came, He brought such relief to those suffering the same things we experience today. 

The Holy One has taken me to the gospels to recall the account of the Centurion who brought the plight of his paralyzed servant to Jesus for a healing "Word".  Matt 8:5 begins the account and Matt 8:10 reveals how Jesus felt about this Gentile and his faith in a "Jewish Carpenter".  "When Jesus heard this (the Roman's statement of faith) He was astonished and said to those following Him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith".  The Centurion's servant was healed at that very moment.

Reading past this account are many other accounts of Jesus confronting a variety of infirmities and physical suffering.  All were "healed".  All were "cured".  Then the Holy One brings me to the encounter between Jesus and a ruler named Jairus, whose daughter had just died.  In Matt 9:18 the short version of the story captures my attention. 

What is interesting to me is that, as this Synagogue ruler told Jesus about his daughter he said, "but, come, put Your Hand on her and she will live."  This seems to speak of an even greater faith in what Jesus could do.  The confidence of the ruler demonstrated by his words was faith in Jesus to resurrect his daughter from the dead.

As I ponder the two accounts, I wonder why this man's faith for a resurrection was not the subject of similar astonishment to Jesus?   Knowing my thoughts the Holy One gives understanding.  "Jairus knew Jesus.  By all the Holy writings the Jews had in their hands, they knew and recognized Jesus was the Messiah and knew what Messiah would do when He came.  Jairus' faith was expected from one who knew who Jesus was, AKA the promised Messiah."

Then it hits my mind, the Centurion came out of spiritual ignorance and decided that Jesus was One in whom great authority rested.  His faith was based on what he heard or saw Jesus do.  "Even if you do not believe in My words at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."  John 14:11

Faith from the Jewish ruler was expected for all he knew about the coming Messiah.  The Centurion on the other hand took the initial but huge leap of faith to believe in the One standing before Him.

Holiness takes me back to the issue of unbelief.   Then comes the hard truth, "unbelief prevails because you don't really know Me.  Doubts arise because you are too busy to come to Me.  Fears rule your circumstances because you refuse to trust that I can or will take care of you". 

As soon as I start to object, I realize the truth He has just spoken.  Until I acknowledge the problem I cannot begin to be healed.  Unbelief is like a disease.  Unbelief kills hope.  Unbelief kills dreams.  And unbelief, ultimately, kills the soul.  The only cure for unbelief is to really get to know the One I have trusted my eternity to.  For those of us who have the Holy writing available, there is no excuse to remain in ignorance and unbelief.

The Bible embodies the Person of our God. It is a living testimony of our Creator for all who feed on it's Truth. The Gospels  tell of the day when God came down from Heaven in a form that humanity could relate to in every sense of the word.  Jesus came in flesh form as the exact (copy) representation of God's Being.  Heb 1:3. 

When He returned to His place of Glory, after demonstrating His power over death through resurrection, the God of all Glory sent my Counselor called the Holy Spirit to teach me personally about Himself.  He is the One who calls me every morning and moves with me throughout every day.  And He is the One who enables me to know God in ways that the infamous sheep know their Shepherd. 

Familiarity brings trust. Like dealing with a very vulnerable sheep, the Good Shepherd, guards, protects, provides for and loves...me.  Even as my penchant is to wander past my boundaries, He always brings me back to safety.  At the end of the day, even if I do not grasp all the whys and wherefore's of what life brings through what He allows or what He doesn't, I just must trust in His love.

I know that changes have to be made.  I purpose to spend more time with Him.  To know better and trust more completely the One who gave His life for me.  He bids me come. When I do, I know the doubts will fade, fears will vanish and unbelief will never find a habitat in my heart ever again. 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?







 

The Great Exchange

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Yesterday's conference set a new perspective over my heart and mind.  Today He calls me to action.  "You have given Me your mind, now I want you to give Me your emotions."

Life with the Creator is anything but dull.  Jesus said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing", and I know that to be true from the depths of my being.  Challenges to that fact come up each day and lately the learning curve has been extreme, almost  hairpin, u-turn, 180 degree turn.

So much is happening to so many people and it is hard to not grow emotionally indifferent to the pains of life and the cries of those suffering.  Emotions tend to rule as life delivers some hard blows to the heart.  The hero in us says, there has to be more to life and there has to be something I can do to rescue someone in some way.  But then all our best efforts come to naught and somewhere along the line we come to the stark realization that we are not God.

Even on a personal level as a "Christian" the pressure to do good and be righteous ratchets up, but the sin just keeps leeching out in ways that we are helpless to stop.

Romans 7 speaks of our internal dilemma, "I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do, I do not do and what I hate, I do".  Paul talks about the ongoing internal war waged in our physical bodies. Born into a form of slavery, he speaks to the dilemma of 2 laws;  the law of God in his inner being and the law of the flesh which wars against the spirit of righteousness.  I, too, feel the pain and I know that war all too well.

The wonder of God is Truth.  Proverb 25:2 says, "It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honour of kings is to search out  a matter."  God's Word is true and it is the honour of the "royal priesthood" (I Peter 2:9), a "chosen" nation, such as we are, to search out a matter.

The Holy One arranges the education of those who are in earnest search of truth.  His wisdom and counsel never fail to challenge me beyond what I know.  The pieces come together sequentially in fascinating ways.

Today He has asked me to surrender my emotions.  In the great exchange, with my Savior and Lord, He has said, "Give me your life in exchange for mine."  In the beginning of my journey with Jesus, I can honestly say I had no idea what that meant.  Over the course of time and life, I grew in my understanding, but my flesh and will had other ideas.

As the internal battle rages, the uncrucified parts of me put up a huge fight to rule and reign.  Guilt, condemnation, anger,  bitterness, self-loathing, lust, hatred are all emotions before they manifest in an action and when I look for truth, I see it.  I am such an emotional being, feelings rule my perspective and can even over-rule truth.

A single statement brought into my thoughts a few days ago sent a shock wave of understanding to my dull mind.  Satan operates in 100% rage (at God) and attacks His beloved (us humans) through our emotions.  That statement stunned me yet I know it to be true.  I just hadn't thought about the ramifications of it relative to my struggles.

Pride drove Lucifer to rebellion.  Pride drove Eve to eat the toxic fruit and pride has been identified as that which goes before the fall.  Challenge my pride and watch all the fireworks of emotion light up the sky.

Emotions make up an important part in our being.  Compassion, kindness, tenderness, love, joy, the fruit of the Spirit are all expressions of emotion yet we are told they must be controlled. and will in fact be controlled by one being or another.

No wonder Holiness wants the surrender of my emotions as well as my mind.  Victory will elude us if I continue to respond emotionally to the challenges and temptations of the enemy without the Lord's help. 

John 15:5, "Apart from Me you can do nothing", says the Savior of my soul.  "Give me your weakness and I will give you My strength", says my Lord and Master.  That is the great exchange He had in mind when He gave His life for me.

The warmth of the rising sun begins to fill the room with light and chases away the darkness.  It's a very fitting beginning to a new day in the great exchange.  My mind in exchange for the Mind of Christ and my emotions for His.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?