Keep The Faith

Dear Lucifer, May I be so bold as to ask you why you persist in your ways? Have you looked at your kingdom lately? Is this what you hoped for when you decided you wanted to be god? Have you thought about the way you rule your kingdom and the way Father God rules? You rule by instilling fear into those you rule over. Father God rules with loving-kindness. Have you ever done an act of kindness to/for someone and seen their eyes light up because of it? Do those you rule over love you; give you great honor, respect, and praise as we who have seen and experienced Father God’s loving-kindness do? Surely at some time in your existence you too have experienced Father God’s love. I’m guessing that it has been so long ago that you have forgotten it. I want to share a dream with you that I had some time ago. In the dream, I was looking at Father God’s new kingdom. Everywhere I looked, there were pods of people standing in circles and engaged in conversation. As I listened, I...

God’s Day of Judgment and Mercy I feel that God’s Day of Judgment is close, and in a strange way, I consider that day to be a good thing. Not because judgment is pleasant, but because on that day every one of us will finally see the truth about ourselves—our real condition, our real need, and our real worth. Without God, we are worthy to be thrown away like refuse, as if heaven had a great garbage dump. But that is only half the picture. The other half is God’s great compassion and His tender mercies. This is how I see it. When that day comes, you and I will see the kind of punishment we believe we deserve—annihilation, being beaten, or even being hung on a cross. But Jesus has already taken that punishment. He took it for me, for you, for all. He stepped into our place and bore the weight of our sin. This is why the Bible says that every knee will bow: because when we see what He has done, our hearts will overflow with adoration for Father God a...

I just had a lesson taught me in why it is important for me to give Father God honor and respect. This is something I haven’t thought much about but something happened on Easter Sunday that really opened my eyes to this. Our daughter had their fourth precious little baby on Easter Sunday. For this baby, they decided to find out the gender of the baby before he was born. On all the three previous children, they didn’t want to know. There is always a baby naming ceremony very soon after the birth when all the grandparents, great grandparents, and other family members can gather together at their home. The name for each child has been carefully chosen as The Lord has laid the name upon the hearts of our son-in-law and daughter; always names from the Bible having special significance to them at the time. Their first child, our first grand child, was given the name David Joshua. The name David was special to them for many reasons. It means “Beloved” and Joshua, means “God ...

Unity Series — Faith, Obedience, and Entering God’s Rest Foundations of Unity I’ve been spending time in the New Testament book of Hebrews lately. I usually begin in my old New American Standard Bible—the one my wife gave me before we were married, almost forty-one years ago. Maybe that’s why I love this version so much. It carries history. It carries love. But every now and then, I come across a verse that makes me pause and ask, “Why did they translate it that way?” When that happens, I turn to the Ultimate Bible Study Suite on my Kindle for deeper study. Recently, the end of Hebrews 3 stopped me in my tracks. A Translation Difference That Matters Here is how the NASB reads: Hebrews 3:18–19 (NASB) 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. But the King James Version reads: Hebrews 3:18–19 (KJV) 18 And to whom sware he that th...

John 17:1-8 New American Standard Bible (NASB) The High Priestly Prayer 17  Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2  even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to [ a ] all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3  This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4  I glorified You on the earth, [ b ] having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5  Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. 6  “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7  Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; 8  for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and the...

We are part of God’s body, and Yeshua (Jesus) is the Head. When His body is healthy, every part listens to Him and works in harmony. But when we stop listening, the body becomes sick. This is how I’ve come to understand sin. Picture a human body. Each one of us is a part of that body, receiving our directives from the Head — Yeshua. In a healthy body, every part responds to the signals it receives. But when a cell stops listening and begins doing its own thing, the body becomes sick. That sickness is cancer. And spiritually, that sickness is sin. Romans 12:4–5 “For just as each of us has one body with many members… so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Sin behaves the same way: self‑directed, self‑sufficient, ignoring the signals of the Head. We go off on our own, following our own impulses instead of Yeshua’s instructions. But I believe with all my heart t...

Just yesterday as I was e-mailing my cousins, I came to realize that June 6, 2014 will be exactly three years that I have written to this blog. So many things with this blog have been associated with the number three. I sense my work here may be drawing to an end and certainly the last post "God is Love!!!!!" would be very appropriate. I always remember some words of my dad from oh so long ago just before he punished me; "This is going to hurt me more than it does you." Isn't this Father God?