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?
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?
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